PinoyMoneyTalk.com

Apparently, everything is not over yet for publishers outside Japan, North America and Latin America with regard to Google Adsense’s Referrals program.

Last week, Google announced that referrals to the Adsense program will be terminated for members located outside those three regions. Google backtracked yesterday and reported in their Adsense blog that instead of fully scrapping the program for members outside the allowed regions, it will again be available but commissions will only be earned if the referred users are from those regions.

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A lot of people know it. Some blogged about it. Matt Cutts himself confirmed it.

Google hates paid links.

But our site is a testament to how Google particularly dislikes the paid text advertising program Text Link Ads or TLA.

PinoyMoneyTalk.com used to have a PR of 4 prior to the Google PageRank chaos that engulfed the blogosphere in late October last year. The commotion stems from Google ’s move to slap sites that supposedly sold links with a PageRank penalty. This site, along with several other sites, lost 2 PRs. That is, our PR4 became PR2.

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Bad news for Google Adsense publishers located outside North America, Latin America, or Japan: you cannot earn commissions anymore if you refer someone to the Google Adsense program.

Google announced that it is retiring its Referrals units that promote Adsense. The company cited that it did not perform as expected in regions outside the three mentioned.

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Surprise, surprise!

I logged in today to my Google Adsense account and saw that the Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) for my November Adsense payout via Western Union Quick Cash is already available.

Since the Western Union (WU) method was offered two months ago, the MTCN was always released to publishers a bit delayed. The Money Transfer Control Number for my October 2007 earnings, for example, appeared on my account only on November 1. For my November earnings, I was able to receive the payout only on December 2.

But with the MTCN for November now out, I can encash my Adsense income before the end of December 2007. Woot!

Happy New Year, indeed!

P.S. Before you encash your Adsense earnings, here’s a Western Union payout tip. Scout first for the WU branch that offer the highest exchange rate because not all Western Union pickup outlets have the same rates.

Again, happy new year!

If you clicked on a Google Adsense advertisement and strangely landed on a site that promotes Viagra, gambling, or pornography, chances are you have been infected by a trojan that targets Google Adsense ads.

Anti-virus software company Trend Micro reported that a Trojan called TROJ_QHOST.GC has managed to hijack Google’s text advertisements which prevents users from connecting to page2.googlesyndication.co which is the server that directs to Adsense advertisements.

When installed, the trojan points a user’s browser to another IP address that “functions as a rouge server to third party advertisements about gambling and pornography.”

To avoid having the trojan infect your computer, refrain from downloading or installing any file sent by an unknown sender.

Trojans, as well as viruses, are also easily transferred via peer-to-peer networks (such as BitTorrent, etc.) so make sure that you scan your PC every time you connect to those systems.

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It was just a few days ago when we spotted a new format for ad units that Google Adsense was testing. It included a new feature called the ad scroller or ad slider that lets site users navigate through the ads using the Up, Down, Left, or Right arrows (screenshot in the link above).

A few minutes ago, we spotted again here on our site a new ad format that Adsense might be testing. This latest format includes four (4) units of Button ads (125 x 125) — two (2) units placed side by side and two (2) more below it.

Pic of the new ad format below.

The new format is a welcome deviation from the traditional ad formats that Adsense has long been using. But the question is, can it increase the click-through-rate (CTR) of the ads?

Most Google Adsense publishers are not aware that Adsense has a Premium Publisher Program for the elite few — called such because not all websites can apply or be invited to the program.

The Premium Publisher Program is exclusive to websites that receive more than 5 million search queries or 20 million page views per month. When a site hits that mark, Google normally sends an invitation to the site to become a Premium Publisher.

What do Premium Publishers get? Apparently, a lot of the good stuff not available to “normal” Adsense publishers.

Take a look at how Google pampers their Premium Publishers.

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Just saw the following in my Adsense ad units a few minutes ago: the Google Adsense ad scroller!

The scroller is nothing more than tiny “Up”, “Down”, “Left” and “Right” arrows at the bottom of the ad units. Basically, the arrows let you “scroll” the ad unit to show new advertisements. There are several variations of the arrows, both for horizontal and vertical ad units. Cool, huh?

Here are screenshots of three Adsense scrolling ad units I’ve seen. YouTube video of the Ad Scroller at work after the jump.

The question now: when visitors scroll the ad units, is that considered a page impression? And if they are, do publishers earn from those page impressions as well? (more…)

A friendly reminder to everyone encashing their Google Adsense earnings via Western Union Quick Cash: scout first for the Western Union branch that offers the highest exchange rate because you will “lose” if you received a low rate.

This I realized when I encashed my Adsense income for November today. First I went to SM Megamall’s Bills Payment section where they process Western Union transactions. I asked what their dollar-to-peso exchange rate is and got told it’s $1 to P42.35.

I decided not to redeem my earnings yet and instead headed to an RCPI-Western Union branch inside St. Francis Square which is just across SM Megamall. The staff told me their current exchange rate is $1 to P42.67.

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Google Adsense publishers won’t be able to log in to their accounts this weekend as the Adsense guys perform routine site maintenance. Don’t worry, though, because ads will continue to be served to sites and earnings will still be tracked.

Those in the Philippines can expect the maintenance to start from 2 am on November 11, Sunday.

Schedules for other countries are as follows:

• US - November 10, Saturday, 10 am PST
• London - Saturday, 6 pm
• Kiev - Saturday, 8 pm
• Chennai - Saturday, 11:30 pm
• Melbourne - Sunday, 5 am