Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging - ProBlogger
Lots of bloggers are jumping around with excitement today at the rise of the Feedburner counters. ProBlogger leapt from around 39,000 subscribers a few days back to 41,000 yesterday and 100,000 today.
Alas – it’s a bug and it seems that a lot of bloggers are seeing their stats are up. There is some discussion on the Feedburner forums here about it. Some are linking it to similar problems at Feedblitz.
All I can recommend is take a screenshot!
Openads yesterday made a fairly significant announcement that I’m sure will interest many bloggers who are looking for a tool to manage the ads on their blog
Actually they announced two things – the first is that they got some serious funding and the second that they’re launching a new free hosted ad server.
So instead of having to dowload and install Openads on your own server to be able to manage your ads you can do it from their servers. Of course this means you’re putting your trust in another company to serve your ads (and you’re at their mercy in terms of performance) but this will be a very attractive thing to many bloggers who don’t have the expertise or resources to run it themselves.
The new hosted option is currently in beta and you can register your interest in participating here.
In this post I give a first impression review of Aweber.
Building a newsletter list has been a central part of my blogging business over the last few years. While my blogs are the primary tool that I use to communicate with readers – I find that having a newsletter list helps me to reach new audiences and drive people to my blogs (I’ve written about some of the other reasons that I use email newsletters here).
Until recently I used Zookoda to do this. Of course they’ve had some serious problems over the last few months which led me to ‘un-recommend’ them. Their problems led them to suspend services completely.
This presented me with a big problem – I had built up lists of over 60,000 people to my blogs – yet had no way to communicate with them.
Luckily through posting about my Zookoda woes I was contacted by a number of other email services with offers of help. I looked into each one but ended up choosing to move my lists to Aweber.
While some of the other services were free I’ve become a little wary of the free service after Zookoda and coupled with the many recommendations by readers who have had good experiences with Aweber I decided to go in that direction.
I began the process of transferring the lists over from my Zookoda list to my Aweber list a number of weeks ago. This process has not been a quick one (Aweber have some procedures in place to safeguard themselves from spammers importing massive lists of email that were not obtained ethically) but my overall experience has been positive.
This culminated in me sending out an email last night to my DPS list (just under 30,000 subscribers). You can see the newsletter in it’s HTML version here (they also let you send a plain text email for those who prefer them).
The results of sending this first email were fantastic.
More important than either of those factors to me was the flood of emails that I had this morning from DPS readers saying that they’d not been getting emails for months and were so glad that they were back. I never realized the extent of the problems with deliverability that Zookoda had been having.
In terms of features – Aweber has some great ones.
You can use it in a variety of ways – either as an autoresponder, in ‘broadcast’ mode (which is what I’m doing to send out weekly newsletters) or in ‘blog broadcast mode’.
This ‘blog broadcast’ tool is similar to what Zookoda offered in that it allows you to send out posts appearing in your RSS feed via email automatically (Feedburner and Feedblitz also do this). They just updated it today so that you can send these posts out in a variety of ways (for example you can have it send it out on certain days of the week or month and specify times that you want them to go out).
Other tools that Aweber offers which attracted me to it include
There are so many features in Aweber that it’s a little overwhelming at first. I’ve still got a lot to learn about what it’s capable and am discovering new things that I can use daily. Luckily they have some good training materials which have been a big help.
Aweber is a paid service. They charge a flat monthly fee ($19.95 or less if you pay quarterly, annually) which includes your first 10,000 subscribers and then they charge an additional $9.95 per month per 10,000 subscribers. This includes as many email messages and lists as you want to create.
This isn’t cheap (when you compare it with a free service at least) and at first I balked at it – however as I researched the options it actually was significantly less than what a lot of other services were charging for similar features. After my experience with a free service that didn’t perform brilliantly I realized that if I wanted to take my email newsletters to the next level then I’d have to be willing to pay for it.
I’m glad I did this – the extra traffic that I’ve driven to the site in the last 12 hours (combined with the sales from the affiliate program ad that I included in it) will pay for my use of Aweber fairly quickly.
I’m just a few weeks into using this tool – but so far I am incredibly happy with my choice to switch to Aweber.
Paying for this type of service will not be for everyone. As I’ve mentioned – there are free tools that send newsletters, convert RSS to email etc. If all you want to do is convert RSS to email then I’d probably stick with Feedburner or Feedblitz (in fact to this point I am still using Feedburner for this) however if you’re looking for a dedicated newsletter service and your long term goal is to grow your list into something that is central to your business then I’d encourage you to consider researching the options and going with a professional grade service. I wish I’d done this earlier as switching from one service to another does require some effort and coordination.
Do you use email newsletters as part of your blogging? What services have you tried?
In my time as a blogger I’ve been lucky enough to have two posts I’ve written hit the front page of Digg. The first one was a resource list of 110+ resources for creative minds. The most amazing thing about the experience was that the post itself required only one ingredient to create: time.
Any one of us can create a fantastic resource list — it’s just a matter of taking the time required to do so. And it’s worth it. While a Digg or del.icio.us-worthy resource list might take several hours to create, it has the potential to grow your blog more quickly and powerfully than a dozen of your ordinary blog posts.
If you’re a regular user of social media, you’ll notice that big lists of resources, tools and articles are consistently popular. In fact, they seem to be social media’s favorite type of blog post.
In this Keeping You Posted column, I want to share the most important lessons I’ve learned on creating a list of resources social media will love.
A fantastic list of 50 home-improvement ideas won’t benefit you much if your readership is interested in vegetable gardening. For your post to gain the momentum required to become popular on social media, it needs an initial ground-swell of support. You can create that groundswell by providing your readers with a resource list they can actually see themselves using.
There are two potential stumbling blocks that will cripple the potential of your resource list: 1) low-quality resources and 2) uninteresting resources. It can be easy to make the first mistake, particularly when you don’t have time to thoroughly check every item on the list. The problem becomes even easier to encounter if you’ve committed yourself to a very long list and you’re having trouble filling it out.
Here are some important tips to remember:
Your resource list must also be interesting. If it contains links and resources your readers are already very familiar with, it won’t have any value to them. The best resource lists highlight fresh and interesting information and tools your readers may never have heard of.
Photo by foxypar4
A great place to find resources is by searching del.icio.us. Results will be returned based on the most popular bookmarks for that keyword. If you’re looking for articles about web design, for example, searching ‘web design’ will return hundreds of popular web design bookmarks. I’ve found dozens of wonderful resources using this method.
The headline is probably the most important part of your resource list. Headlines for these types of posts tend to be most effective when they include a number. When it comes to numbers, bigger numbers are not always better. Certain formulas (like 100, 101, and so on) can seem gimmicky to web users who see them often. If your target audience is tech-savvy they are likely to be quite jaded by over-used headline formulas.
Another useful tip is to do one of two things with your headline: either make a direct call to your target audience or focus on ends.
Call upon your target audience
If you address your list as ‘for’ a certain type of person it makes the list a lot harder for your target audience to ignore. I could have called my list post ’110+ Creative Resources’ but that simply describes the contents of the list — it doesn’t draw people in. By describing the list as ’110+ Resources for Creative Minds’, it forces the reader to think: “Am I a creative mind? I like to think so… so I guess I should read the post!”
Focus on ends
Readers are not interested in the list itself, but in what it has the potential to do for them. A list of “20 Firefox Extensions” is not as interesting as a list of “20 Firefox Extensions that *Will* Make You More Productive”. That’s not a great example, but I hope you can see what I mean. Use your headline to explain what your list has the potential to do.
Points to review
Have you had any social media success with a list of resources?
Read more posts like this one at Skellie’s blog, Skelliewag.org and track her posts here at ProBlogger by subscribing to our RSS Feed.
Have you heard that Apple released a new laptop called the MacBook Air yesterday?
If you haven’t – you are not reading the same blogs that I am. The news is everywhere at the moment with thousands of bloggers ‘breaking’ the news.
Here’s how Technorati has tracked the mentions of ‘MacBook’ on blogs in the last month. They tracked around 7000 blogs using the word yesterday (I think it’s much more than that – but you get the point of the chart).
Here’s how blogpulse charts it with just under 1% of all blog posts in the blogosphere containing the word ‘MacBook’ in the last day.
So with 1 out of every 100 posts being written about MacBooks – a blogger is faced with a real challenge.
How do you stand out of the crowd?
I want to suggest 5 ways that you can take a story that everyone else is writing about and do something that gives you a chance to differentiate yourself:
1. Compare – some of the posts that I’ve seen about the MacBook Air that have gotten more attention than others skipped over ‘reporting’ the features of the new laptop and got straight into comparing it with the features of other laptops in its class. Gizmodo currently has a good post doing this with a helpful chart that compares the MacBook Air and four of its competitors. This type of post usually starts appearing a couple of days after a story breaks – but there’s nothing to stop you doing it earlier.
2. Translate for Your Audience – most people hear the facts of the news fairly quickly (I mean even my Mum saw the new MacBook Air on the TV news last night) – but what is harder to find is people who will tell you what it means for them. OK – so Apple released a new laptop last night – it looks thin….. “but is it something that could enhance my life? Does it suit my needs? How would it fit with my life?” These are the types of questions your readers will be asking when they hear news. These are the types of questions they’ll be searching for opinion on from others who they see to be ‘like them’. So in the case of the MacBook Air – a post like ’10 reasons why the MacBook Air will help You be a better Accountant’ or ‘Why Farmers are Better off Not Buying a MacBook Air’ might be an angle to take. This type of post might not get linked to by everyone in the blogosphere – but it’ll be appreciate by your regular readership and by other blogs in your niche. In a sense Treehugger did this with their post on the ‘greenness’ of the MacBook Air.
3. Give an Opinion – reporting the news is going to satisfy some readers and their thirst to be in the know – but most readers want more. They want to know what YOU think about that news – they want your opinion. In the case of the MacBook Air there has been plenty of opinion stated so this technique might not have as much impact now 36 hours after the announcement – but what I noticed in the hour or so after it was announced was it was largely opinionated posts that rose to the top of the social bookmarking sites – particularly posts that had strong negative reactions to the laptop. This is what Paul Boutin did with Why I’m Disappointed in Apple’s Ultraslim New Laptop.
4. Use Humor – often when the blogosphere is all going on about the one thing it is the blogger who dares to do something satirical or humorous that stands out from the bunch. Once again – I didn’t see a lot of this but Gizmodo did very well on Digg with their post Apple Introduces Manila Case – The World’s Thinnest Notebook Case. While Gizmodo has the advantage of a huge audience to start with – it was humor that stood out from the thousands of other posts going around the web reporting on how many ports the MacBook Air had and how it didn’t have a replaceable battery.
5. Extend and Predict – when a story breaks most bloggers get caught up in reporting the fact. Of course we all know that the facts get in the way of a good story – so why not tell a story of where you see things rolling out from here? I’ve not seen anyone do this yet with the MacBook Air (of course I’ve only read a small portion of the 0.9% of all posts written in the blogosphere yesterday so I’m sure someone has) but I think an interesting angle to take would be to analyze the direction that Apple has taken with their new line of laptops and extend it. Obviously this is just the first of a new line – what will the next MacBook Air have in terms of features? What will it look like? What will this mean for computing in the years ahead? update – Mac Rumors did this with Multitouch on the MacBook Air and Beyond
If you’d like to read more on a similar topic check out How to Add to Blogging Conversations… And Eliminate the Echo Chamber
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had 109 emails through the contact form on my two main blogs that all start with exactly the same words:
“I represent a company that specializes in a new form of Internet advertising that guarantees that you will get a 100% conversion rate on 100% of your website traffic….”
The email then goes on to tell me that this new type of advertising ensures I will get paid for everyone who visits my site…. it’s better than ‘Google ads’….. that they’d like to fill me in on more details and that I should email the person for more information.
I’m so annoyed by these emails that I’m not even going to mention the product on ProBlogger at this point (and I’ve complained to the person behind the company – although with no response).
The fact is that the 109 people who emailed me are not ‘representatives’ of the company in that they are employed by it – they are affiliates hoping to make a commission by getting me to sign up.
Now I don’t have anything against signing up for quality products with affiliate programs to reward the person who puts me onto them – however the last few weeks have illustrated to me just many people are lazy in their internet marketing.
I can just imagine how it happened – the company with the affiliate program probably has a page with some suggested emails that people could send out prospects – those signing up for the affiliate program simply copy and paste the email into my contact form expecting to get rich.
Couple that with the fact that I’ve had 109 of them and I’ve become deaf to their message, annoyed by the company (and by the people sending them) and I’m further away from being involved in the service than the day it launched. For all I know the service could be good – but I’m completely put off by the marketing of it.
Interestingly a post over at Lost Ball in High Weeds illustrates that it’s not just the small time internet marketer who engages in this type of practice. They received duplicate emails from two well known internet marketers today promoting an affiliate product.
1. If you have a product or service that you’re involving affiliates in the promotion of encourage them to do so in their own voice, with their own personality and giving their own testimonial. I know that internet marketers do a lot of testing around what copy works and doesn’t work – but I think people are increasingly becoming suspicious of spin and if your product gets associated with it you can end up doing your brand more harm than good.
You need to understand that while you might product suggested copy that works in your testing – that when put in the hands of people who are just out for a quick buck that it’ll be spammed, reposted and used in ways that don’t do anything to help your brand.
2. If you are promoting an affiliate program, whether it be via an email to your list or on your blog – inject some individuality, creativity and uniqueness into it. Nothing makes me delete and email or skip over a blog post more than reading something that I’ve seen before or reading copy that is obviously spin. Sure – sell me something, but tell me why YOU think it’s relevant to me. Tell me a story of how YOU used the product. Explain to me how I might benefit from it (and not as though you’re speaking to a room of android robots).
Don’t ignore the suggested copy that they give you with the sales pitch (it will have some useful information) – but make it your own, make it personal, make it stand out from the crowd.
You need to understand that you can actually hurt your brand by engaging in ‘copy and paste marketing’. When you post or email something that every other internet marketer and their dog are spamming the web with then your personal brand becomes aligned with the product that you’re promoting. This makes you a less credible, trustworthy and authoritative voice in future.
A number of blogging friends have recently made the switch from using PCs to using Macs as their primary blogging machines.
Each time that one of them makes the move I tend to get an email or call a day or two later asking for advice on different applications to help with their blogging. Lately I’ve been saving my recommendations and have compiled them into a single email. I thought that I’d share it here on the blog also as I know many of you are Mac users.
Of course some of these 14 applications (not listed in any particular order) are not exclusive to Mac users – but hopefully it’ll give a little insight into the type of tools that I’m using.
ecto is one of those tools that just clicked for me when I started using it. It is a desktop blogging tool that allows you to get posts up on multiple blogs without having to log in to the back end of your blog. It works with most blog platforms and allows you to blog offline, drag and drop images into posts plus lots more. ecto is currently at version 2.4.2 with a beta test of ecto 3 currently in progress (I’ve only just downloaded it but it looks great). MarsEdit – is another Mac based desktop blogging tool that you might want to consider. It has a very similar feature list to ecto and I’d probably use it if I wasn’t already hooked on the workflow that I’ve established.
My blogging changed the day I installed ImageWell. I use it to create most of the images that you see here on ProBlogger. It’s fantastic taking an image, doing quick crops, adding words, putting shadows around images, taking them and making them have curved corners etc. Sure you can do this in Photoshop – but ImageWell is much lighter weight, quick to use and is easy to use.
Still in an invite only beta (although I only had to wait one day to get the invite) Skitch is a tool that I see having the potential to replace ImageWell. It allows you to edit and even create images that can be used for illustrative or attention grabbing purposes on your blog. Start with an image and draw on it, at words, arrows etc – or use it for screen capturing or even snapping a quick shot of your self with iSight. It also allows you to host your images on Skitch.com and share them with your friends.
I’ve been getting more and more into Twitter of late. I use it to connect with readers, promote my latest posts (some of my readers use it now instead of RSS to follow my blogs), share links to posts that I’ve been reading that I like (I’m doing most of my ‘speedlinking’ in Twitter now etc. Twhirl is a client that allows you to Twitter from your desktop which means you never have to actually visit Twitter itself to use it. I find that this makes me much more active as a Twitterer. Another similar tool is Twitterrific. Alternatively you might like to use a tool like Tweetbar (a Firefox sidebar Add-on).
Flickr is not something that I use a lot these days for hosting images – but when I used to do more of it this was a tool that I used every day. It syncs well with iPhoto and gets your shots up loaded in a flash.
The first FTP browser that I ever downloaded and the only one that I’ve ever needed to use. It’s so simple to use even a complete tech dunce like me can use it. The other FTP client that I’ve tried a few times is Transmit it’s great too and I’d probably be using it if I were not already used to CyberDuck.
InstantShot is a screenshot application. While OSX’s screen capture shortcuts are useful – an application like InstantShot has a few more useful features. It sits nicely up in your top menu bar – ready for instantaneous use. Other screen shot applications that I’ve played with include QuickSnap, Paparazzi and SnapNDrag.
If you want to capture videos of what you’re doing on your screen then CaptureMe is a tool worth considering. I’ve been using it a bit more lately – particularly in a few of my recent video posts. It’s no Camtasia (not that they have a Mac version) but It’s a good quick option if you want to grab snippets of video. Two other screencasting tools that I’ve got on my list to check out are iShowU and SnapzProX. I’ve heard good things about each but still hear regular calls from bloggers to Camtasia to get a product released for Mac users.
Adium is a great little instant messaging client that allows you to use a variety of instant messaging networks all in the one place. I have it set up for MSN, AOL, Yahoo and Jabber. It’s said to have video coming soon which will make it even more useful. I just wish it’d do skype too and I’d never need another IM client.
Skype has become an essential part of my life. I am on it more than almost any other application in this list. I use it primarily as an IM network but also for voice and video chat (both for work and personal use with family overseas). Skype’s one of the most essential tools that we use at b5media and it must have saved us many thousands of dollars in bills over the last couple of years. We do all of our team meetings on it and hold weekly blogger chats with many bloggers at a time.
Firefox has become such a central part of my workflow that I barely remembered to include it in this list. Tabbed browsing changed my blogging workflow completely and Firefox does it better than Safari in my mind. Add to that the multitude of Add-ons available for it and I can’t see any other browser capturing my loyalty for some time yet.
Sometimes it is the most simple things that get used the most. I’m actually writing the first draft of this very post in TextEdit – the text editor that comes with Mac OSX. While I know there are plenty of other sexier text editing tools out there – I can’t find one that is more useable than TextEdit – so I stick with it. I use it to write posts, brainstorm, list my ‘to do’ items and much more. WriteRoom is another writing tool that I know many use – it makes your full screen a writing screen removing all distractions. It’s good – but I still prefer TextEdit. Another alternative that I’ve had recommended to me by a couple of people is xPad which looks like it has some cool features. Another two to try are TextWrangler and TextMate. Like I say – I find the simplicity of TextEdit works for me.
It might seem strange to include a presentation tool like Keynote in a list of blogging tools, but it has actually become a really important part of my blogging tool belt. I use it largely as a way to design diagrams and charts for my posts. You can see some of this in action in the ‘results posts’ of my polls where I usually present the findings in a graph made in Keynote. Almost without fail I’m asked in these posts how I made the graphs – they are truly beautiful. It also leaves Powerpoint (for Mac) for dead when it comes to making a presentation.
I’m not a very organized person and have tried a multitude of organizational tools to help me ‘get things done’. Most have ended up sitting unused on my Mac. I do like iCal’s new ‘to do’ lists – but another useful tool is TaskPaper which is a simple tool for project organization. Another one that I’ve tried but that I’ve never really got into is Things. It’s more complicated (and comprehensive) than TaskPaper. I’ve also tried OmniFocus and found it to be useful.
I’ve not included many Apple made products in this list – but I also use Mail for my email, iCal for my Calander, iPhoto and Aperture for image editing and management and iMovie for video editing. Most of the rest of the tools that i used are web based (Google Reader for RSS (although I do like Newsfire) and Google Docs for a lot of my document creation).
When I asked my Mac using Twitter followers what applications they used in their blogging I was flooded with recommendations (thanks to everyone who responded). It made me realize that I’m just scratching the surface with what I use. I’d love to hear from other Mac using Bloggers – what applications have become a part of your blogging tool belt and daily workflow?
Enjoy this post? Digg it Here
Regular ProBlogger readers might be familiar with the comments of RT Cunningham. Richar is a regular around many blogs in this niche and blogs at Untiwisted Vortex. Unfortunately his wife has been quite unwell and he’s facing something of an uphill battle at the moment to get through the next few months.
Richard’s readers got on his back about adding a paypal donation button to his blog in the comments on this thread – if you’re in a position to help him out he’s got a donation button up on his blog (top of the left hand sidebar).
Thanks to Vic for the heads up on this one.
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.
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 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.
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My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like Digital Photography School and TwiTip - Twitter Tips.
In 2002 I stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’. I didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed my life. Read more about Darren or contact him. Connect with me on Twitter at , Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.
