Ever inventive, Google has been sending out emails to select Adsense publishers regarding a new pay for action program. This is bad news for publishers promoting Adsense.
Pay For Action Adsense A Fundamental Problem
If you are reading this, you probably know what Adsense is and are using it. If not, it is a program whereby Google allows sites to place ads from the Adwords program on their site. When a visitor to your site clicks one of the ads, you get a cut of the bid price from Google. It is a simple program that surprisingly generates a significant amount of revenue.
Google is now beta testing a new version of Adsense it is calling pay for action. While Google is not providing much information, the program apparently is an attempt to convert Adsense into one giant affiliate program. Instead of paying publishers for clicks on ads, the program will only pay a commission if a person clicks on one of the ads on your site and takes the relevant action on the advertisers site. In this case, it appears the action is buying whatever is offered or becoming a lead. In exchange for killing the click revenue aspect of Adsense, you apparently get a cut off the...