No More Adsense Referrals
I have just recieved the following email from Google regarding referrals to Adsense:
After experimenting with this program
over the past year, we've concluded that there are other products
that are of higher value than this program to publishers in your
region. As a result, referral units for the AdSense program will
be retired in the coming weeks. Referrals to other products and
services remain unaffected.
You
will continue to accrue earnings for all existing referrals yet to
generate $100 until late January, at which point the program will
be fully retired.
I guess Adsense is getting enough signups now without the need to reward their loyal publishers who recommend them 
Comment by SarahG — January 15, 2008 @ 12:11 am
Nope, they've just decided that unless you're based in North America, South America or Japan, you're of no concern to them, regardless of where your main traffic comes from, and if you've just referred people or could potentially expect your referral to reach their threshold in say February or March then tough, you won't get a penny. Nice way to treat your users.
Darren at ProBlogger is a little miffed as Australia got dropped too - Link
Thankfully I don't rely on much income from this although it has been a nice little payment here and there in the past. Considering there was a potential $250 per referral still within their 180 days (now back to $100 per referral), it's a fair amount to lose out on with even one referral coming through after the end of January.
Comment by burt — January 15, 2008 @ 3:08 pm
Yeah, it's just another bunch of BS from Google. 80% of my sites visitors are from the US - yet, because I'm in the UK I can't now recommend Adsense. So, in effect, Google are not telling me that my geo-location is crap, they are telling me that my sites visitors are crap. Oh well