Hi, First off, I have _very_ low traffic at my web sites. So I think I did well to get any clicks on my google product referrals, much less 6. However for these 6 clicks what did I earn ? A big fat nothing. I am aware that money is only made when certain conditions are met but it's disappointing when you're getting good clicks and no payment what so ever. At first I thought google product referrals were a good idea, surely people will want free photo software, a better web browser and all that jazz. And it's true, they do. But if you can't do the song and dance just right google gets a new user, or some face time thanks to you and what do you get ? Nothing. Long story short : If those would have been regular AdSense ads I would have got paid. And who knows, that one click I didn't get paid for may be the only click that user will make on my site. Ah - good times. Anyone out there making decent money with the referral program ? Here are the details of the referral program for your viewing pleasure : AdSense: When a user you've referred to AdSense first earns US$100 within 180 days, we'll credit your AdSense account with US$100. Firefox plus Google Toolbar: When a user you've referred to Firefox plus Google Toolbar runs Firefox for the first time, you'll receive up to US$1 in your account, depending on the user's location. Your referral must be a Windows user, who has not previously installed Firefox, in order for you to receive credit. AdWords: When a user you've referred to AdWords signs up and spends US$100 within 90 days, we'll credit your AdSense account with US$20. Pack: When a Windows user you've referred to Pack downloads and installs the product, you'll receive up to US$2 in your account. Picasa: When a user you've referred to Picasa downloads and runs the product for the first time, we'll credit your account with up to US$1. The user you refer must be using Windows and not have previously installed Picasa in order for you to receive credit. source
these refferal programs are not worth paying; Adsense: Its very difficult for a biggener to make 100$ in 180 days; mostly it takes more time for a begginer; there has been only 1 signup from my account and i think its more than 180 days now! Adwords Again the same situation that very few people invest a lot money in beggening and those who are going to invest money they know the actual link and dont need a middle man Fire Fox & Picasa depends on the region; only gives me 10 to 50 cent per download and i was able to earn $1.10 last month but $0.10 in this month; Pack i have not checked but i think its still not for international webmasters!
Geeze, i'm so tired of seeing people proclaim that referrals can't make any money! as with all that is Adsense, you need the traffic.. and you need to "sell" the referrals, being careful not to violate the TOS or policies.. On a tech type site like mine, this is easy. If your site is about DVD players or flower-arranging, it might be more difficult. Double click to see what i made on referrals in the last 2 months:
I think Google product referrals will work well on webmastering sites. Tearabite, those are fantastic earnings.
For those of you who get almost 300,000 impressions and sell it to your users it may work out great. But : 1. I don't get 100,000 impressions a month. 2. My sites aren't in a position to 'sell' any google referrals. The point in my thread is still valid : 6 clicks , no payment = wasted space, wasted clicks. I can't afford to have ad clicks that don't pay !
why have the referrals on your site then, maybe something more relevant and profitable would be in order?
On the site in question I removed them about 4 days ago or so. However for now one of my other site uses them and I'll give it some time to see how that plays out.
whether or not it's easy or difficult to made mony with referals, i agree with the op that some of the requirements to get paid seem to be uneccessary obsticles. your referal has to make $100 within 180 days? that's google basically saying if you're not one of the big sites with thousands of hits, you need not apply.
Do what I do - use the Referrals image ads to position next to regular ad units. Draws the attention to the ads as we all now know that golden rule about placing images next to the ads, and if you are lucky enough to get a conversion or two, even better.
Couldn't agree more. For the right kind of sites and traffic referrals will perform excellently. Complaining about a few clicks that didn't earn you anything won't help matters. If you see that the referrals aren't working for you, simply remove them.
You are allowed to write about the product, how good it is, how all of your wildest dreams may come true if you use the product, you can use creative ways of arranging your page so that the referral button is in an area of the page with a different background color than the rest, with a quote from the rest of the page reminding the reader how wonderful it is - this is what I do on several pages, AFTER I sent Adsense Support an email asking them to check the page for TOS compliance. As you can see from my stats, this works great for Firefox - it's a product that EVERY web user can/should use so it's an easy sell. The other referrals are a bit more difficult to 'sell' .. Also, the restrictions on the GooglePack are so ridgid that a VERYY low percentage convert.. but, low percentage is better than the no-percentage that you'll get if you dont try..
For those of you not willing to do the math, that's an eCPM of $11.59. So "Google product referrals are not worth it."? That's a mighty bold statement.
This assumes that someone interested in a Google referral would also have been interested in whatever contextual Adsense ads are showing up. Not likely. Also, think about it: 6 clicks are nothing. They're something to you because you have low traffic - that something they are, is stress. Work on traffic, forget about short-term gains.
First off, your initial statement is an assumption. There's no way to know if they also would have been interested in the adsense or not. It's all up in the air. What we do know is that user made one click on my site and that one click was on a referral and that one click paid me nothing. Secondly, I do work on my traffic - constantly - but in the mean time I watch closely what my visitors do, in this case it includes clicking on google ads that aren't paying me a dime for promoting googles services, produts and the company at large. Lastly, if referrals are working for you - that's great, I'm not telling YOU to stop using them. But I'm not the first person to have the opinion that referrals aren't worth it - I've seen more than one thread or post here saying the same thing. As I said above, if you get 100,000 impressions a month and are able to sell google products to people more power to you. My sites aren't in that position. Even if I got 100,000 visitors a month 99% of my sites are not in a position to sell google products to people. My main point still stands : 6 clicks - no payments. What matters is how do referrals work for the community AT LARGE, not how was one persons experience. I've seen a lot more people complain about google product referrals than praise them , this leads me to believe more people are unhappy with google product referrals than are happy with them. Single examples do not make a case. I could make an example that some bum makes $150,000 a year begging for money but that doesn't make it a sound idea for the community at large. As of now as a test I setup 4 google product referrals on a new blog of mine which IS in a position to sell google products. I'm going to leave this up until the site reaches over 5 000 visitors then I shall report back with my findings.
*sigh* So, it's safe to conclude then, that referrals work on some sites, and not others.. The moral: if they aint workin on your site, use the space for something more productive.. Do we all agree? Are we all good ?
As any successful salesperson will say, volume is the only way to be successful in selling. The rule of thumb is 100 "sales calls" for every 1 sale. You don't get commission for a sales call - only for the sale. You have 94 more "sales calls" to go. But if this makes you unhappy, use your webspace for advertising where you will get paid for clicks. The normal click-thru rate for ads is 1.5% instead of 1% for sales. Again, volume is the only way to make it work - you just can't get around that fact.