Google Adsense changes
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I use Google adsense on these pages. Now obviously I can’t give statistics on how it does, but frankly what I’ve seen in the short time I’ve used it beats any other affiliate-type program I’ve used before. Yes, I’ve received checks from Amazon’s associates program before, but initially there you had to have a different account for each site, so I’ve got several dollars there in each of 8-10 different profiles left over from the “dark ages”…
The nice thing about the Google Adsense program is you earn money even when your site visitors don’t SPEND money. (Amazon of course is commision based on a sale.) One thing I’ve noticed today is that they’ve restructured and added a new way for “content providers” to earn a commision. That is through referrals. Referrals for what? Currently, for adsense signups and for firefox with google toolbar downloads. From the terms you can have at MOST one referral link per product per page. So, I can show you one style of the available links here.
Of course, with the recent Google/Sun talks over OpenOffice – will that wind up as a referral option? what other downloads might google offer install bounties for? it’s an interesting concept. As for the benefit’s of plugging the above – when an adsense signup from the above link earns their initial $100, (and is eligible to be paid), you receive $100 to your account, and for each new windows firefox download and install you can receive up to $1. This sounds on the same scale and scope as the adwords referral program which pays $20/new advertisor.
Can you expect to make a ton of money? Depending on your website, probably not. Can you recoup your hosting fees? Depending on your website that’s an attainable goal. Your experience with adsense does depend on the content of your website and I think I may save that discussion for another time.