Dear AdSense, You Broke My Heart – An Open Letter to AdSense

AdSense have sent publishers using the AdSense referral program who live outside of the US, Canada and Japan an email confirming that the program will be retired as of 31 January (published below). The email came from a ‘noreply’ email address – so publishers have no way of feeding back their response.

As a result I’ve decided to reply here with an Open Letter to AdSense regarding their ‘Dear John’ (breakup) letter to me. I hope you’ll indulge me while I seek a little public therapeutic release.

update – it seems AdSense read this post and had a change of heart. You can see my 2nd ‘love letter’ to AdSense here.

Dearest AdSense,

I was sorry to receive your letter today which confirmed what I’d been hearing about our relationship – ie that you don’t want to see me (or my traffic) any more.

I still remember the time you began to flirt with me. It was in February 2005 when you announced a new product – a ‘referral program’ that offered to publishers like me gifts when they sent a new customer to you. You took my breath away with the idea but as your eyes passed over me back then for not living in a place that you desired your lover to live I was saddened. I wondered why me not living across your back fence worried you so much when my traffic was mainly local to you – but I lived in hope that you’d look upon me some day.

It wasn’t like I’d have to do anything that I wasn’t already doing. I’d had a crush on your for years already and was already telling the world of how great I thought you were!

All my wishes came true on November 2005 – when your previous flirtations went a step further and we stepped out on our first date.

At first I was cautious – but when you held me in your arms and whispered sweet promises of what we could be I leapt in. I’m a little ashamed to say it – but we did more than kiss on our first date – I began to send you traffic on that first day – 17 visitors to your site and 1 ‘conversion’ – a small but significant (at least for me) token of my love for you.

It wasn’t until February 2006 that you reciprocated my love for you. I’d been sending ‘gifts’ in the shape of readers to you for months to no avail – but 2 days after Valentines day you uttered the words I’d been longing to hear…. ‘here’s 100 big ones baby’.

In May you said it again and then in June twice more. Your calls were coming with more and more frequency and I began to see more potential in our relationship.

In February 2006 you became more generous with your promises – extending the period of time that you’d accept referrals from 90 to 180 days. You added new features and designs – making it easier for me to tell everyone of you.

In October you did the unthinkable and called twice in the one day and I could hardly contain my excitement.

All the while I was telling the world of my admiration and love for you. I gave them tips on how they too could be your lover, sharing the secret insights on how you worked (things I could have kept to myself), I defended you when you seemed distant from them and I continued to send you more and more gifts.

I even set up a permanent place on my blog proclaiming my love for you as well as a whole category (with over 450 posts) on my blog dedicated to breaking your news, sharing tips on how to work with you better and encouraging people to check you out – it’s the most popular category on my blog. Sure I did this partly because I wanted to win your favor and get the gifts you promised – but it was also partly because I believed in you and appreciated what you’d done for me and others like me.

In February of last year you again whispered sweet nothings in my ear and generously updated your promises to me. You gave more incentive to send you smaller lovers to you but also dangled a large reward before me to send more and more lovers your way.

I increased my efforts to please you and the results were amazing.

You began to call and say the words that I loved to hear (‘here’s 5 big ones’ or ‘here’s 250 big ones baby’) more and more. There were weeks when you called almost everyday and I began to wonder where all of this was leading!

As someone so loyal to you I had half wondered if there might be special privileges one day set aside for me. I’d heard of others who’d been given more personal attention and who had been invited to get access to your palace…. perhaps one day you’d notice the efforts that I’d put in to win your affection and build something that you might find worthy of acknowledgement….

Sure I’ve taken other lovers at times. You might not want to hear it but seeing as we’re being hones, some of them even even were more generous than you in what they offered me – however you were my first love and I’ve always had a special place in my heart for you and so despite your gifts being a little small in the size department I continued to proclaim my love for you.

The big ‘reward‘ for sending many lovers in a 180 day period has been so tantalizingly close over the past few months. Surely you’ve noticed how hard I’ve been working to share with the world my love for you.

And then last week I began to hear rumors about you. People began to say that you’d changed – that something was wrong. The news began to filter out and then you broke the news on your blog. Oh I wish I’d heard it directly from you so that we could talk about it – but I guess you wanted everyone to know at once.

It seems that the gifts that I send you are not of the type that I want – for some reason because of where I live. Once again the fact that I’m not living over your back fence seems to be something you can’t get over.

The gifts I send you are largely local to you, I’ve sent thousands of them over the last two and a half years. While I’m sure others have sent more – I know that many hundreds of them have converted for you. You’ve taken thousands of lovers upon my recommendation.

When I heard the news late last week I was shocked. Then I was hurt. Then I felt taken for granted. Then I felt insulted. Then I was angry.

I got lots of sympathy from others about it – but it seems my that nothing has changed in your mind because today I received your letter.

• You are still hung up on my location – despite my relevant traffic and audience who lives in your backyard.
• You say that the gifts I sent you that still convert in the next 180 will no longer count after 31 January. You will profit from our relationship for many years – yet you cut me off with 3 weeks notice.
• You apologize for my inconvenience again but your apology feels empty after years of me declaring my love for you.

You seem to want to remain friends – your letter suggests that other programs might convert better for someone in my ‘region’ – but you don’t seem to understand that I don’t want to dance with others.

Those other programs have no relevance to my audience – and to be honest I’ve never had gifts from any of them. You’re the only one for me – or so I thought.

I’m sorry to see our relationship end. I’ve danced publicly with and for you for years and now this – a slap in the face.

The time has come for the dancing to stop. I don’t want it to – you see I think you’re really great. But unrequited love has a habit of turning ugly in time – so it’s probably best I step away from the dance floor like you’ve asked me to.

I’ll still talk about you – after all I want to help my readers and continue to provide relevant information for them – but I can’t guarantee quite the same warmth in my voice when I do while I’m feeling like I do. That’s not a threat – it’s just the way life is when you break up I guess.

I’m not sure what else to say. I know there’s little that I can do to change your mind – but I guess I wanted you to know how I feel. I do look back on some of the times we’ve had with fondness – but I guess it’s time to say goodbye.

Darren Rowse
ProBlogger.net

Thanks to directeur from xhtml-css.com for the help with the image.

Following is the email sent by AdSense to ‘international’ publishers earlier today:

Hello,

We are writing to share some important information with you about
referrals to the AdSense product. As part of ongoing efforts to
optimize revenue opportunities for our publishers, we’re
constantly experimenting with new revenue-enhancing features as
well as tweaking those products already available to our
publishers. This is the case for referral units directing visitors
to sign up for AdSense. After experimenting with this program
over the past year, we’ve concluded that there are other products
that are of higher value than this program to publishers in your
region. As a result, referral units for the AdSense program will
be retired in the coming weeks. Referrals to other products and
services remain unaffected.

If you’re currently displaying referral units on your site
directing users to sign up for AdSense, read on below for details
about what to expect in the coming weeks.

In early January, the option to add referral units directing users
to the AdSense product will no longer appear in your account. You
will continue to accrue earnings for all existing referrals yet to
generate $100 until late January, at which point the program will
be fully retired. Existing referral units will continue to appear
on your pages.

By the end of January, you should remove all referral units
directing users to AdSense from your pages. Referral units
that you do not remove will continue to be displayed on your pages
as normal, but conversions will no longer be recorded. We
suggest you replace the AdSense referrals with referrals to
another product or service or an additional ad unit.