Google’s Referral Programs

So we’ve talked about text ads, image ads, link units and search boxes.
There is one more way of making money with AdSense: referral programs.

1 Referring For AdSense

When Google first rolled out its AdSense referral program, it looked good.
The program paid $100 each time a sign-up earned $100 in revenue. If ten
of your users clicked, signed up for AdSense and earned $100, you would
have made an easy thousand dollars.

And it sounded possible. The product is good, the company is reputable and
the referral buttons are very attractive. In fact, they look like they were
inspired by the iPod and that’s been eye-catching enough!

2 Firing Up Firefox And Unpacking Google Pack

The same is true of your Firefox and Google Pack referral ads. The Firefox
ads pay up to $1 for every user who downloads the Firefox Web browser with
an attached Google toolbar, and the Pack ads pay all of $2.

These ads can’t be formatted or changed, so you can only play with
placement. But at least you know exactly how much money you’re going to
receive when someone downloads...

3 Referring AdWords

The AdWords referral program is better, and closer to the AdSense program.
You’ll earn $5 if an advertiser spends $5 (in addition to the sign-up fee)
within 90 days.

If the advertiser spends $100 within 90 days, you’ll receive another $40. And
if 20 advertisers do that, you’ll receive a $600 bonus.

4 Referral Strategies

The first thing that you can do to maximize earnings is to recommend the
programs you’re offering. You can’t say anything about the contents of
your AdSense units. But you can encourage people to sign up to AdSense or
start using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

Even a simple line like: “Viewing this site in Explorer? The Web looks better
in Firefox” or “We recommend AdSense — It pays publishers” could do the
trick. (Of course, Google won’t like you telling people to click so that you’ll
get paid—or telling them that if they click, they’ll get paid—but they don’t
mind you talking up the services the buttons offer.)

source : www.joelcomm.com