Google Referrals

Discussion in 'AdSense' started by New2Adsense, Jun 19, 2006.

  1. #1
    How many of you actually have success with these? I have had absolutely zero success with my firefox referrals, and they really seem pointless to me considering you need to get somebody to click on your ad, and still install the program to get the $1 credit. It just seems like getting a few clicks here and there on the regular text/image adsense ads is head and shoulders easier to do.

    Thoughts?
     
    New2Adsense, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  2. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #2
    I treat it like an Amazon search box -- put it on the site and leave it alone. If it converts, it converts. If it doesn't, I don't lose anything but a small space on my site. I guess the question of "worth" depends on how much you "push" it. Of course if you decide to push it too hard, you risk crossing the line and getting banned. Google doesn't depend on a single site converting a lot of these products; they depend on millions of sites converting 1 or two a month, etc.
     
    jackburton2006, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  3. Tyler Banfield

    Tyler Banfield Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Along with being ugly, the referral buttons are pretty unsuccessful on most web sites
     
    Tyler Banfield, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  4. New2Adsense

    New2Adsense Guest

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    #4
    Well that makes a lot of sense Jack. I just don't see the benefit of having space on your site taken up with a referral banner or button when you could use that space to put a text/image ad and most likely make 10X more money. It's just something different I guess...
     
    New2Adsense, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  5. jeff forest

    jeff forest Peon

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    #5
    there is also some kind of a tradeoff, between "usability" in the eyes of the user, and "commercial" in the eyes of the same... At least, that's my take. You'll really have to judge what kind of a crowd gets to your website, and how they'd take to a referral banner/button, vs a google referral (yeah, it sounds similar, but!) banner/button.... For my own site, I think my users (well, whoever stumbles in every so occasionally) would take more kindly to the google referral than the plain "commercial" referral banner/button. It's just the crowd, I guess.
     
    jeff forest, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  6. Travis

    Travis Peon

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    #6
    Something else to consider is the niche you're in (weather or not you even bother placing it on your site)...Firefox is the most general, but those got SPAMMED a while ago, and now almost every site has them, so you definatly won't be the first.

    If you're using an adwords promo image...would people with advertising budgets or decision making power be browsing your site.

    If you're promoting adsense, does your niche attract a lot of web publishers or people with successful blogs?

    Picasa: Do you have a lot of "image gurus" on your site?. I've never been able to answer yes to any of these questions, so I've stayed away from these offers :). But if you do place them...place them where they look good. I've seen some of the most horrible and intrusive placements, eww.
     
    Travis, Jun 19, 2006 IP
  7. ghacks

    ghacks Active Member

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    #7
    I agree that it depends largely on the type of site if a firefox referral button would make sense or not. The referral buttons do not necessarily look like advertisement at all on first glance.

    I recommend firefox instead of advertising it, that´s what I´am trying to express on my site and it´s working great. (on a tech blog with many articles about firefox extensions)
     
    ghacks, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  8. jeff forest

    jeff forest Peon

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    #8
    hey, cool site!! I visited your site a few days (weeks?) ago, and got to know of some cool stuff...
     
    jeff forest, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  9. yugu

    yugu Peon

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    #9
    I've had both AdSearch and Firefox referral on my site.
    While there where some searches bringing money, Firefox button got 0 clicks.
    I think, if your site attracts webdevelopers you'd better place Monetize button, cause everyone interested has already got to mozilla.com and installed their browser.
     
    yugu, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  10. jeff forest

    jeff forest Peon

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    #10
    I would think so too, unfortunately... It's just that we gotta push the 'Google Toolbar'.... (that's the only thing that's different, missing from the regular firefox)
     
    jeff forest, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  11. windy

    windy Active Member

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    #11
    I got few clicks on Google Referrals but $0 credit.
     
    windy, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  12. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #12
    Clicks don't count. Google's Referrals are CPA -- cost per action.
     
    jackburton2006, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  13. Cheap SEO Services

    Cheap SEO Services <------DoFollow Backlinks

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    #13
    Yep. I have a few referrals on my sites and plenty of clicks but no action. However, Google search button is doing very well for me. I just installed the Google search on my blog. We'll see how that goes!!
     
    Cheap SEO Services, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  14. Tearabite

    Tearabite Prominent Member

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    #14
    i've posted a few times that about 75% of my earnings come from FF referrals (my peak $147/day a few weeks ago, average now about $70/day). My site is in a tech-niche and the users coming to my big money making pages "need" Firefox to do what they are looking to do (well, they 'need' it after i sell them on it) .
    So, if it fits your site, and if you sell it, you can make a lot with FF referrals.
     
    Tearabite, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  15. RuDeDoGg

    RuDeDoGg Well-Known Member

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    #15
    it's much easier to make money from ringtone ads, etc. I've heard of sites about firefox making $100 a day from firefox referrals though, so I guess it just depends on your web site visitors.
     
    RuDeDoGg, Jun 20, 2006 IP
  16. john269

    john269 Notable Member

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    #16
    I use to use their referral buttons for the Adsense program, but they didn't last that long on my site. They just made my site look more ugly and the ads were not all that good plus didn't convert so it was just wasting my valuable web space.
     
    john269, Jun 24, 2006 IP
  17. yugu

    yugu Peon

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    #17
    There are guys and they always be, saying: "I run site about slimming diets, have 10 million page impressions per hour but no clicks on Firefox button. Why? ...".
    If your site is not related with web technologies in any way, (I don't mean site itself:) ), use PPC and leave this nice idea to earn on FF button or just doing nothing but receiving a part of earnings others do through AdSense referral.:)
    Good luck all.
     
    yugu, Jun 24, 2006 IP
  18. Mido

    Mido Well-Known Member

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    #18
    this pic not mine
    [​IMG]
     
    Mido, Jun 30, 2006 IP
  19. jeff forest

    jeff forest Peon

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    #19
    that's strange - $100.80 for the referrals?
     
    jeff forest, Jun 30, 2006 IP
  20. john269

    john269 Notable Member

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    #20
    Wow!

    That many clicks. I had Adsense referral buttons on all my sites on every page at one point and I was only getting something like 0 - 2 clicks a day.

    I then took them down straight away mainly due to this plus they looked ugly on my site as they were just in the middle of nowhere.

    I am going to look into adding them back on one page of one site though as it is affiliate program related and should do well there, I hope.

    It would be nice if they paid 2% - 10% commissions though. Imagin how much we would earn then if they paid 10% commissions. 2% is quite low but it will most probably still be much better than just receiving $100 per referral because some referrals say with Adsense for ever.
     
    john269, Jul 1, 2006 IP