I used to make $5 now again by referring others to AdSense. I didn't make a massive amount, which is just as well, as this option has now been removed by Google.Okay, commission structures are often altered but Google have gone one stop further and have said that:
If you're outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan, AdSense referrals will be retired.Note that the only change is with referrals to AdSense - all other products and ads etc remain the same.
So this referral option has been taken away from us in the UK, Europe and Australasia and so on.
For those in the favoured USA etc. the commission has reverted to how things used to be:
The payout for referring a user who generates $100 with AdSense in the first 180 days will return to $100.Now as far as this is concerned it will become more profitable for Google. Let's be truthful and say that the majority of small bloggers never reach $100 commission in 180 days - therefore less bonuses will be paid out.
And, of course, many never receive any AdSense payments, because they never reach the $100 payout figure - very profitable for Google.
But why rule out us other international bloggers completely? Like a lot of bloggers the main bulk of my traffic arrives from the USA - probably nearly 70% overall on all my blogs.
It's difficult to speculate why this has been done by Google. Perhaps it's the advertisers profiles, the volume of ads or a shift in the main targeting areas for adverts - who knows. I guess we are unlikely to get a defined reason.
All of this probably won't make a very big difference to the majority of bloggers. There is, however, still a lesson to be learned: we shouldn't put all of our money making eggs in one basket.
Instead we need to plan things so that if one source of income disappears we have other revenue to take it's place. Nothing is certain with money making on the Internet.
Never become reliant on one particular way of making money.
Good luck,
Mike.
