hi I was just checking at my adsense reports few minutes ago and saw following message from in Tips. (I really could not understood what this means. Please guide me a little about this.) I decided to check the details and found this in Google referrals help Direct link This is clear discrimination, and this will effect earning of many publishers (including me) who are using referrals. I really could not understand the point of limiting the countries. Are the listed countries more noble then others? More over I was really surprised to see that India is also not in list where as India is one of major areas of webmasters (please correct me if I am wrong) If Google is limiting referrals to certain counties then may be in coming future it can limit the Adsense too. Thanks Ali
Nope, I am sure that will never happen. I have seen the same message an hour ago,but in my case it was Lithuanian instead of Pakistan. The tips are clear, in end of January our referrals will be disabled and that sux, I was just getting used to them =/
Ever think maybe some countries are harder to do business in, some countries have a great proliferation of MFA and other such contributions...there is probably a perfectly valid reason for them doing that, it's not like the wouldn't like to have the money, it's likely just a bigger hassle for some reason. Discrimination...jeezuz I sick sick of hearing that word...I wish people would suck it up and not cry "discrimination" everytime something does go their way...maybe they don't want to do business there, that is totally their right. It is unfortunate it affects honest publishers, that sucks, but it's not like they are not within their rights. I have turned down clients based solely on location a couple of times...sometimes ya just gotta do what you gotta do.
No, it's their business so they are just trying to maximize their profits. "It's nothing personal, just business" as they say
When companies do stuff like this, it's because they've already taken numerous losses by serving the area. In other words, they're getting [alot of] worthless refferals from the area.
I do not agree with you. I have an English website that has Adsense , I play by the rules and since the time google gave green light to referrals I got into them. So how can my referrals be worthless ?
he never said they ALL are, he some are (or that's how I read it), more than other places perhaps...do you know who all your referrals were? I doubt it. Bottom line is Google, or anybody else for that matter, has the right to choose where to do their business. it sucks if it affect honest ones, but I'd lay odds based on that decision, there are more dishonest ones being affected, and that helps the whole system.
Well I agree to that companies have rights and can do what ever like and obviously Google must had some strong reason behind this. But look my issue is I have a Free Flash Games which is hosted in UK and top listed in UK (first one infect) and USA on many keywords. My all traffic is coming from Search Engines (75% Google, and 20% MSN + Yahoo) and 90% of overall traffic is from US + UK. I hardly get visitors from Pakistan and India or even from complete Asia. Many of entertainment sites are not local visitors but are for general visitors. Say I have a referral of ringtone from USA on my games site and most traffic is from USA and UK. Isn’t this fare enough to have referral? And because I am living in Pakistan so I cannot place referrals on my website which is hosted in UK and 1st in Google. Google should not display referrals ads to those visitors who are from such countries which are worthless (according to them). Instead to tell a publisher to remove the referrals from site BECAUSE HE IS LIVING IN PAKISTAN My point is “It is not necessary that a publisher living in Pakistan (Can be any other country) has website for Pakistan and visitors are also from same country. Traffic can be from such countries where referrals conversion is good and those countries are not worthless. So telling a publisher to remove the referrals is not a good idea†Thanks
Hey man, I am not saying it's fair or a good thing...don't misunderstand my statement, all I am saying is it's their right, they made their decision, they don't make publically seen changes like that lightly, so I doubt a few publishers crying "discrimination" will change anything, so my advice (not that you asked) is to just suck it up and move on. Your biggest vote is cast by your business. If you have a problem with it your biggest vote is cast by leaving for another program.
I too don't understand, me also saw the statement in my account, now I am getting traffic from various countries and they said in their statement that 'At the end of January, we will no longer support referrals to the AdSense product in India. If you are displaying referral units directing visitors to use AdSense, you will need to update your pages.' Now, why should I update my page? While they're not allowing Indians to participate adsense in future anymore, then the ads should automatically disabled in those countries, how can I do that? I am getting traffic from US also, if I remove the adsense referral then the US persons also can't be recruited by us.. So, in my opinion the statement should be in this way..
Argh, this is not discrimination. Google is under no obligation to serve countries equally as a business. What's next, call them racist because it doesn't have offices in Sudan? Man, we live in a pussified world.
Google is so big that they can do whatever they want. They can you, they can ignore you and so on. That's why I love smaller companies, they just love their customers...
it is not freaking discrimination, it is pure business decision. They stop the program because they don't earn money from it also, blame your own people for creating this situation. Google didn't start it, they just simply deal with it
Not only did they are removing the adsense referral for some countries but also reverted to the previous commission structure for the allowed countries.
Now Google responses on this issue.. "The changes to referrals promoting AdSense will now depend on where your users are located, regardless of your location as a publisher. You'll earn $100 for every user you refer to AdSense who is located in North America, Latin America or Japan when they generate $100 in AdSense revenue within 180 days and they remove all payment holds. You'll no longer be paid for users you refer who are located elsewhere. These changes will go into effect the last week of January."