Widgetbucks Gets Realistic with non North American Clicks
In an interview with Widgetbucks, Matt Heulett revealed to Darren Rowse of problogger dot net, that widgetbucks will no longer be paying for clicks that originated from countries outside North America. This move will more or less kill off all the initial enthusiasm of finding another revenue stream for many bloggers, particularly from this region because realistically, blog readers are regional. Even Darren Rowse admits that more than 80% of his blog readers are from Australia.
Widgetbucks was very well received by blogger here because besides earning from cost per action, the ads also pays cost per clicks which bloggers with a considerable readership base, likes. It is an open secret that loyal readers rewards their favorite bloggers with a click or two to show their appreciation, so many popular bloggers does makes some decent money from those clicks. Unlike Adsense, where most of the Advertiser’s aim is to attract visitors to their sites, Advertisers in Widgetbucks are merchants hoping to sell something from the resulting clicks. So I guess it is only natural for them to be unhappy over the poor conversion rates received from clicks outside North America. After all, they are running a business.
Admittedly, people from this region buys a lot less online. Maybe we are less educated and sophisticated on this matter and coupled with the high exchange rate, the shipping cost and many other factors, buying something online especially from countries like the United States is indeed deterring.
It is a realistic and materialistic world out there. If there is no money to be made, no one will want to invest, even if it means a couple of cents for a click to their sites. It is only common business sense. Bloggers from this region can cry injustice until their throats turn sore, but that is the way business is done.
It is the same with every business. When before blogs with high PR were demoted, they were offered good money for their links and reviews. After the PR crackdown, everything just simply dried out and Advertisers avoids their blogs like plague. Those blogs might have sang high praises for the companies before when they were making good money, but those praises will never be taken into account now. Back then, what they wanted was their PR juice . Since they have lost that juice, they are no more of any use and they will be left to rot. Do you think those companies are going to say,
“hey, you served us well when you had a high PR, let me continue giving you the same high paying reviews even if you have no PR now.”?
