I am having mixed feelings about this whole Entrecard paid ads thing. As I type I have a mere eight EC credit purchased ads waiting to run and a whopping 56 paid ads. Bear in mind I have not accepted every ad that has come across my dashboard. I do not permit ads that may be offensive or link to a site that may be offensive, and I do not approve ads of a business type nature that could present an element of risk to my readers.
Over the past week or so I have watched the controversy unfold and read the frustrations and opinions of the writers of the blogs I frequent. Up until this point I have truly enjoyed being and Entrecard member. I do not blog for money. I do it for the fun of sharing information. I have not earned any money from my blogging minus the few posts I wrote for SocialSpark and PayPerPost. That got all crazy, and I quit doing it just about as quick as I started. Entrecard seemed like a wonderful way to connect and share with other bloggers. Now I am not so sure about things.
I like the connection part of Entrecard. One used to get out of it what one put into it. Now I almost feel like I am working for free. All of these ads coming across my dashboard are time consuming. Where were these people before? Why am I taking the time to evaluate these blogs for the owners of Entrecard? Since when did I start blogging to make someone else a buck? I don't mean to come off too negative here, but I have a bad feeling in my stomach. It just doesn't seem right to me.
Other Entrecard members have made the decision to not accept paid ads at all on their blog. Some have elected to require that the advertiser purchase an EC credit ad before allowing them to purchase a cash paid ad on their site. Some are selective as to what ads display on their blog, and still others let everything run. I have seen drop strikes, experiments, and bloggers leave Entrecard all together.
Personally, I am not sure what I am going to do with my Entrecard membership. I do not feel good about showing the paid ads on my site. Now that I have accepted them it seems dishonest to cancel my 50 plus ads waiting. However, it does not seem right to me that blogs that are showing their widgets on my site have to share 50% of their air time and still pay the full EC credit price. Half the air time for the same price just has a big bubble of wrong around it in my book.
I was uncertain as to whether I was going to chime in on this and write about it, but I am interested in the opinions of my readers. I would love to know what you have decided to do. How are you handling your relationship with Entrecard? For me, it feels very one sided right now. My FOUR inquiries on as many subjects remain unanswered to this day. One used to hear back in a very timely fashion; not anymore. While I wait and ponder I would love your input. What do you think? What are you doing? What are you not doing? Please, do tell!
8 comments:
My widget will continue to be reserved solely for advertisers who purchased ads with their hard-earned EC credits so that they will get 100% of the air time and nothing less. Being in EC for so long, I believe that you knew that when someone purchased an ad with EC credits, you get part of the credits and EC gets a big part of the credits too. Now when someone put up an ad in your widgets, that person spends the same amount of credits, EC still get a big part of the credits. But that person get 50% less. If I may say, the big part of credits that EC 'swallowed' should be spat out to the advertiser since they will only get 50% air time now.
I actually have only been with EC for less than a year, and I am relatively new to blogging as well. Honestly, I have never fully understood how EC worked. I just enjoyed the system and connecting with other bloggers. I do agree that there just isn't something right about paying the same amount of EC credits for half the air time. It's also frustrating to even have yet another thing to figure out. I didn't get involved with EC to have a controversy to play with. This element of it really ads something not so good feeling, and I can't say that I like it.
I'm with BK and "my widget will continue to be reserved soley for advertisers who purchase ads with their hard-earned EC credits so that they will get 100% of the air time".
I had no problem whatsoever canceling the paid ads I had originally accepted - my decision changed.
I like Entrecard and will continue to use them. I have my settings to accept blogs only. There doesn't seem to be as many for me to approve or reject now. Hopefully this mess will be worked out soon.
I like Entrecard for the easy interaction it provides with other bloggers and for finding new blogs. I'm not crazy about putting up a bunch of paid ads on my blogs but as long as I can decline the ones I don't want, I'm putting up with them. I am selective in the ads I approve. So far, I'm sticking with it because I think the good outweighs the bad.
I have only accepted paid ads from those who have advertised on my site using credits previously. Those ads seemed to linger for a very long time so I cancelled them yesterday. I'm with you on the fence about Entrecard. If you go to the forums, there is a thread (and perhaps more than one) about the paid ads hoopla. You might try to find that thread and read through what they're saying now. They (EC) seem to implement things without really thinking through all the ramifications and once they're called on it, they're willing to back down. We're going to have to wait to see how this all shakes out though, especially if they're making some serious money. Notice their most recent post says that ad rates have increased (surprise!).
Everyone - Thank you for sharing your opinions. I canceled all of my paid ads this morning and have no intention of accepting anymore. I am going to stick to EC credit purchased ads only for now and watch to see how thing play out. I didn't get into blogging to make money for myself or anyone else. I'm comfortable going back to the fundamentals.
I pretty much hate how EC is doing things now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I was out of town and wasn't paying attention and just approved ads...then I realized I had a rotating ad...and all the sudden the ads I purchased weren't yielding the results I expected. EC needs to go back to what they started out as...this whole thing now stinks!
Post a Comment