Guest Post by Matthew Tutt
Although this was announced on the 8th of January 2008, some people may not have been aware of the changes that will soon be implemented by Google regarding the Adsense referral system (I had only noticed an e-mail from Google the other day mentioning their changes), and some of you may not have realised how/why Google is changing the system.
Basically, Google have decided that the Adsense referral system isn’t working well enough for them (not making them enough money, no doubt). Therefore, they have decided to scrap the referral system for those of you who are based outside of Latin America, North America, and Japan. This hardly seems fair that someone should be favoured based on their geographical position, but that’s the stance that Google has taken.
If you do live in Latin America, North America or Japan, then congratulations. However, there is still some bad news for you. Google will be reducing the payment structure to that of previous years. You will now only be earning $100 when your referrals earn $100. Obviously this is quite a drop from the previous system, but at least you can still earn from the referral system. A lot of people will be forced to remove their Adsense referral units from their websites and will probably end up resorting to promoting other advertising programs, too.
Obviously, this won’t affect everyone. Not all people will have Adsense referral units on their websites, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who do will be pretty annoyed with Google. As of yet there seems to be no real alternative, so it seems that some webmasters will simply have to suffer a drop in revenue from their website. However, it appears likely that the main blogs and sites that will be affected are those who discuss ways to make money online, just like the Can I Make Big Money Online blog does.
