I received this email today:

Hello AdSense publisher,

We are writing to share some important information with you about
referrals to the AdSense product. As part of ongoing efforts to
optimize revenue opportunities for our publishers, we are
constantly experimenting with new revenue-enhancing features as
well as tweaking those products already available to our
publishers.
In this spirit, we will be making some significant changes to
referrals for the AdSense program in the coming weeks.

As some of you may remember, in February 2007, as an experiment,
we raised the bounty paid (from $100 to $250) when a publisher you
refer brings in $100.  We have decided to conclude this experiment
and return to the original paid bounty amount of $100. In
addition, we will no longer be offering the $5 bounty for the
first $5 that a referred publisher brings in or the $2,000 bonus
for referring 25 publishers earning $100 or more in any 180 day
period. $100 will be the only bounty paid for referrals to the
AdSense program.

If you’re currently displaying referral units on your site
directing users to sign up for AdSense, read on below for details
about what to expect in the coming weeks.

In early January, your AdSense account will be updated to only
note the $100 payment for referring users to AdSense. You will
continue to be paid under the current bounty structure ($5, $250,
$2,000) until late January, after which you will receive $100 once
a referred publisher brings in $100 within 180 days.

Thank you for referring users to AdSense in the past. We
apologize for any inconvenience this news may cause.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

 What this basically says is that Google is reducing the referral payments. Now, if you refer someone to Adsense, you only get paid if they earn $100 in the first 6 months they are on the program, and then, you only get $100 as a referral fee. Currently you receive $5 when they earn their first $5, and then, you received $250 when that publisher you referred earned $100. Plus, you receive $2000 if you bring in 25 of those $100 publishers in 6 months. All that is gone. Now, you will only receive $100 as a referral payment, and you only receive that if the publisher earns $100 within the first 6 months.

I guess Google doesnt really need referrals so much anymore.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 9:53 am and is filed under Basic Rants and Raves, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.