Google Affiliate Network’s AdSense Payment Integration Complete

Having posted an article about some important changes on Google’s Affiliate Program a while ago, this is just a friendly reminder for publishers marketing this program. Effective September 21, all publishers should have already linked their accounts into an AdSense account, in order to get paid in October. If you have not yet linked your account, you will not get paid until November (provided of course that you have something to receive).

OK then. So what’s new, you may ask? Well according to Google, after October 31st, publishers must have an approved AdSense account ID linked to their Google Affiliate Network account in order to continue participation in their network. After that deadline, it is “adios” (bye, bye) Google Affiliate Program.

Obviously, this does not apply for publishers who are creating their AdSense account for the first time.

The Advantage of AdSense payment integration

As I have mentioned in my other article, Google’s affiliate network payment structure differs from that of AdSense. Affiliate checks can be paid bi-weekly and with a minimum of 50$, whereas AdSense pays only once a month with a minimum of 100$. Now that the affiliate earnings is consolidated with AdSense, it will be easier (not easy), to reach the $100 threshold. The catch is, if you have affiliate earnings of say $55 and only $15 of Adsense earnings, then you won’t get paid, whereas in the old payment system, you would have received an affiliate check of $55.

The Disadvantage of the integration

In a way, Google’s move here forces all Google affiliates to open an AdSense account thereby encouraging (or discouraging) further the use of Google’s contextual advertising. In my previous article, it was not yet clear as to what will happen if you do not have an AdSense account to associate it with? The answer to that question is now clear and I will give the honors to Google:

We understand some publishers are concerned about the integration of Google Affiliate Network and AdSense, particularly those who are unable to successfully link/create an AdSense account. But the fact is that fewer than 1% of all accounts that have attempted to link have been unable to do so. We are working to address publishers who have invalid account information or duplicate accounts, but we may not be able to continue working with those who have a disabled AdSense account due to policy violations.

There you go. If for some unexplained reason, you have been banned to display AdSense ads, then it is most likely that you will no longer be able to make money online with Google’s Affiliate Program. Sad, but true.

Have you heard about this move before? What do you think about it?