New Referral Rules (90 Day Window)

[kiko]

hi all,
i saw yesterday in my adsense referrals this :

" * An AdSense referral is counted when a publisher, who has never previously enrolled in AdSense, creates an account and earns at least $100.00 within 90 days of sign-up. The referred publisher must be eligible for payment to qualify as a successful referral. "

this is new or I'm blind.

I remember last time when i took referrals code this rules was not there.
I have 60 referrals till now.
this rule is from begriming or from the day it written there.

and in what day adsense write it?

thanks.

[davert]

I remember the $100 rule being in place from the start, though not the time limit - on the other hand, that could have been there, but I didn't pay attention.

I didn't get any money from referrals, but I did get $3 from Firefox...overall not a good use of space.

[kiko]

yes, i'm talking about 90 days time limitation to earn 100$.

[fmgomes]

I’m almost sure the time limit wasn’t there three months ago.

[Jean-Luc]

That's new: 100 $ in 90 days ... A big change in potential $$$ for us.:eek:

Do you think it only applies from now on or will they apply it to referrers who signed earlier and did not yet reached the 100 $ ?

Jean-Luc

[devin]

it's new. i didn't see that 90 days before this too. i think it applies backwards too.

[BuildHome]

Damn rule :(

[Andy-V]

Bit annoying that hey have added a 90 day limit. We have still refered them so...

[digitalpoint]

Yeah... annoying.

[Jude Vihervaara]

It must be during this week when the limitation appeared. I was looking the referral page during last weekend and I didn't see any limitation.

IMO Google does evil, or atleast they are not fair.

[rustybrick]

JenSense just recently posted on this at http://www.jensense.com/archives/2006/01/adsense_silentl.html

[utahtechjobs.com]

I really don't remember the 90-day limit... that makes it less interesting to refer people to them...

[Dio]

That's very sly. Unless you refer someone like the BBC I think you're stuffed. So much for my last but one site... :rolleyes:

[fmgomes]

I agree that 90 days is too short but the thing that I don’t like the most about this change is the “silent” way referred by Jennifer Slegg (jenSense).

On one hand, Google is supposed to look at AdSense publishers as partners, and you don’t treat a partner changing the rules just like that without saying anything. And this leads to something else very intriguing: does Google really thought nobody would notice the 90 days *? I must me missing something here…

[Epson]

90 days is short for new webmasters who are only just starting.

[Tim_Myth]

No doubt. If you haven't signed up for adsense, you're obviously a noob. How many child prodigy's are out there able to create a site that earns over a buck a day in adsense? I had one site that was aggressively pushing this, but this looks like the impetus I needed to find a better use for that space.

[clancey]

I will be unaffected. I tried to put the referrel links in a page, but they would not display for some reason. So I took them out. I will not not try to put them back in. My partner thought they looked stupid and cluttered the pages.

This change is not surprising. Google has become a big, publicly traded company. Publicly traded companies are always looking at ways to boost their bottom line and make Wall Street analysts and CNBC analysts happy. In this context, some type of time limit makes sense. Whether it should be 90 days or 180 or 360 days is a matter of argument.

The question now becomes, what other rule changes are pending?

[devin]

the only eception is perhaps a seasoned webmaster with an established site who has never heard of adsense before, which is pretty rare.

[Jude Vihervaara]

some type of time limit makes sense. Whether it should be 90 days or 180 or 360 days is a matter of argument.

I agree that some sort of time limit makes sense, but 90 days is way too short time for new webmaster. I wouldn't mind if the time limit is 180 or 360 days, but not 90 days. And adding it silently, that wasn't fair.

[oziii]

devious stuff. 90 days is too short. I've referred quite a few to them and in 2.5 months don't have any reach the $100 mark yet - this will cost me thousands potentially and has cost me more by giving up space on the page to their ads that I could have sold to someone else. Dodgy stuff and I'm shocked they made the change without a public statement which seems very underhanded.

[Dio]

I guess they did the math and didn't like the results. My first real boo for Google. :mad:

[kokkiok]

I remember the $100 rule being in place from the start, though not the time limit - on the other hand, that could have been there, but I didn't pay attention.

I didn't get any money from referrals, but I did get $3 from Firefox...overall not a good use of space.
I have few clicks on my firefox but no conversion .. how does firefox referral works?

[Hon Daddy Dad]

Google have silently added a clause stating that your referrals must make $100 in their first 90 days or you get nothing.

The amount of people who have beginning websites who make $100 in the first 90 days must be real low.

The people who have sites that will make more than $100 in the first 90 days probably already have adsense.

Surely google must know this?

People will just stop promoting their program.

[Bean]

That rule is annoying! :mad:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=53647

[Jat]

I have removed the referral units from my websites and will remove the rest soon. It is like changing rules once the game has started.

[ChrisB]

Thank you for letting us know! Will take action and remove referral link asap.

[Crusader]

I have removed the referral units from my websites and will remove the rest soon. It is like changing rules once the game has started.

I'm going to do the same except for my Webmaster related blog. I don't need to use the space for anything else yet. This is definitely a bad move on Google's part, especially since they didn't even bother to let the publishers know about it.

Almost as bad as Fastclicks changes to their referral program, a few months back.

[Wally]

90 days are really *without words*
I remove them on all sites.

[BuildHome]

Like I said, its sucks :(
Maybe they will see if the signups from referrals are getting lower and they can remove this crap low...

[Dekker]

this is bullshit.

they should just remove the damn referral program, or change the name, because it's not a referral you're being rewarded with.

[KingSEO]

Common people. 90 days for 100 bucks. I can see why google does this. They dont need bazillions of affiliates making less than 100 bucks per THREE MONTHS!.

Changing policy without notice is a bit sneaky though. However, remember that many people have more than one website. Again, 100 bucks / 90 days is really nothing ..

[mdvaldosta]

Sure they don't want that KingSEO - I'm sure they'd rather have 1 guy making 1,000 bucks a day than 1,000 people making a dollar a day.

BUT - those making a dollar a day today might be making 1,000 next year. You just never know. You know, those adsense referrals really only work for new webmasters or people with small websites anyways - the one's that aren't really "webmasters" in a sense are are more of hobbyists or people with personal pages wanting to make a few bucks to cover hosting.

[KingSEO]

I agre mdvaldosta, which is why I never even bothered with those elements.

The firefox one I would consider showing to users browsing with IE, but never the adsense-element. Every webmaster worth his title knows about adsense already anyway.

[fmgomes]

Perhaps Google knows that webmasters/bloggers don’t need the referral button to hear about AdSense, so why pay for that? They probably made the math (were they paying too many $100 referral checks?) and decided to implement this rule silently. They have the numbers, they know exactly how long does it take to a new site make $100. Bottom line, they don’t want to pay for referrals anymore. That’s for sure.

[Tim_Myth]

I agre mdvaldosta, which is why I never even bothered with those elements.
Last I checked, Google only sent out a check when I earned $100 or more. What do you suppose Google does with that money until they pay me? If I were Google, I'd love to have every hobbyist in the world. I'd love it even more if they earn $99.99 and hung there for months. I've made money from the advertiser because someone has already clicked on the ad, but I haven't paid the publisher yet because he hasn't met my minimum. Imagine just 50,000 websites that have only averaged $50 in earnings each during a month. That's 2.5 million sitting in a money market fund earning 4% annually or a little over $8000 a month. Sure, the money won't be in there all year, but next month you might have another set of 50,000 websites. I also think $50,000 is a conservative number.

So you can keep the big earning high traffic sites, but I'd be happy if you sent the long tail my way.

[Jean-Luc]

An AdSense referral is counted when a publisher (...) earns at least 100,00 USD within 90 days of sign-up. The referred publisher must be eligible for payment to qualify as a successful referral.Let say :
- contract signed on December 22, 2005
- 100 $ reached on February 2, 2006
- payment approved on March 23, 2006

And Google now says : "Bad luck! There are 91 days between 12/22 and 3/23.":confused:

Or does "eligible for payment" mean something else than "payment approved" ? And between 12/22 and 2/2, I only count 42 days...:mad:

Maybe they had a second thought about it and it was not a good deal for them... But why don't they just stop the program in a clear way ?

Jean-Luc

[KingSEO]

Last I checked, Google only sent out a check when I earned $100 or more. What do you suppose Google does with that money until they pay me? If I were Google, I'd love to have every hobbyist in the world. I'd love it even more if they earn $99.99 and hung there for months. I've made money from the advertiser because someone has already clicked on the ad, but I haven't paid the publisher yet because he hasn't met my minimum. Imagine just 50,000 websites that have only averaged $50 in earnings each during a month. That's 2.5 million sitting in a money market fund earning 4% annually or a little over $8000 a month. Sure, the money won't be in there all year, but next month you might have another set of 50,000 websites. I also think $50,000 is a conservative number.

So you can keep the big earning high traffic sites, but I'd be happy if you sent the long tail my way.

That might be the case. But googles recent change in policy kinda proves they're not interested in smalltime players.

I think they find people that doesn't make 100 bucks / 90 days a hassle, click fraud, sending out those cheques on minimium balance, extra administration etc etc. Not to mention affiliate fraud... They want affiliates that create decent sums of money immediatly.

[webgator]

Wow, never saw this before.

Looks like link will be coming down...

[ajsaw]

Hi Guys,

You all make very valid points however instead of venting your anger here why not let Google know you are not happy.

If enough of us politely let Google know that we are not happy with the change then they may do something about it.

The contact form for Google Adsense can be found by logging into your account and clicking the "Help" link in the top right corner of the page.

[fmgomes]

You all make very valid points however instead of venting your anger here why not let Google know you are not happy.


I did it, but I’m pretty sure Google knows what we’re all discussing here. DP is very easy to find using Google search engine... :)

[Dekker]

hehe i read your name as ass jaw. as in speaks crap.

[saurabhk]

Annoying Rule

[Jude Vihervaara]

No more AdSense referral banners on my sites. Only the Firefox banners.

[shivam]

so it is not good idea to add referral codes..because what if some did not earn $100 in 90 days...

[natsirtm]

It must be during this week when the limitation appeared. I was looking the referral page during last weekend and I didn't see any limitation.

i think it's more like yesterday.. they've had the same rule w/ 180 days since i started trying to make use of adsense again.. and i remember seeing it on the adsense site 2 days ago..
it's pretty much a joke. i highly doubt that anyone who has a site that could earn $100 through adsense in the first 90 days hasn't already signed up..

[tweety]

i agree 90 is too short.but i remember it was 180 days...