And the WINNER is...

This morning I made a list of the commenters on yesterday's post about my Entrecard credits who expressed a desire to have all or some of the credits before I close my Entrecard account. There were ten people who commented prior to the 10 PM MDT deadline so I entered 1 through 10 using the Random Generator on Random.org and as you can see from the screen shot I took, number 5 was the lucky winner!

Here is a list of the commenters/bloggers who expressed an interest in the credits:

1. Ann's Snap Edit & Scrap
2. Beaded Tail
3. Creating a Better World
4. Sewing Mom
5. Pricilla
6. TLK Handknits
7. Oils for Wellness
8. My Opinion Counts
9. A Kitty Named Reese
10. Grampy from Grampy & You

So, I decided to award 10,000 of my hard earned Entrecard credits to Pricilla - congratulations Patty from The Maaaaa of Pricilla! I transferred those credits today, and have already received a heartwarming message from Patty thanking me for those credits.

I decided I would award the remaining credits (there were over 18,000 credits before I made the transfer to Pricilla) to the rest of the commenters in equal portion. I even did extra drops to make it an even 900 credits each. However, when I went to transfer the credits, I discovered that (surprise) Entrecard charges a 12.5% credit fee to transfer credits! So, I am going to make additional drops tonight and tomorrow morning in hopes of getting the credits to approximately 670 per commenter after paying the 12.5% credit fee. With the number of credits that I started with, it will cost me over a week's worth of dropping 300 credits a day in transfer credit fees! Just another way that Entrecard slaps us in the face, in my opinion, for what it is worth.

I must say I am thankful that banks don't charge such an outrageous fee to make transfers! I would be broke in no time.

And when did Entrecard decide not to pay for blog posts? How did I miss that?!

This is really difficult for me. I have mixed emotions about leaving Entrecard - but I feel like I need to cut the ties clean and when/if things change at Entrecard and I am comfortable with their rules and their rules don't change on a weekly basis, I may go back to Entrecard and start all over. In the meantime, I'm investigating Project Wonderful, CMF Ads, Adgitize along with SlogBite, Blog Catalog and any other blog communities I can find.

I am extremely grateful for all the wonderful blogs I have discovered in the past eight months. I now have over 100 followers on my blog and over 47,000 visits since I installed the visitor counter in mid January of this year. I cherish all the new friends I have made through blogging over the past eight months. Prior to joining Entrecard I felt like I was just keeping a personal journal - now I feel like I'm sharing important parts of my life with friends and people who enjoy reading what I write and seeing the photos that I post.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has taken the time to stop in, visit, leave a comment now and then. I look forward to continuing to visit my favorite blogs on a regular basis. And I look forward to using the hours a day I spent on dropping cards for spinning, carding fiber blend batts, dyeing fibers or playing with the dogs, cats, horses and llamas.

Happy blogging - thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the weekend my friends.

PS - Until I transfer all the credits to the other bloggers on the list, I will still have the Entrecard widget on my blog but it has been moved down the page - scroll down on the right hand side if you'd like to drop for a credit while you're here.

Its time to say goodbye to Entrecard

In early January of this year I stumbled across Entrecard, a site where you can network and advertise your blog for free. You could earn credits by visiting other blogs also displaying the Entrecard widget - one credit for each widget that you clicked on (one per day per blog) up to 300 drops in a day. You also received one credit for each click on the widget displayed on your blog with no limit to the number of credits you could earn daily this way. You use these credits to advertise your blog on other EC blogs and advertising pricing is determined by the number of ads in that blog's EC queue. I worked very hard to drop as many cards as I could daily so I could earn enough credits to start advertising on more popular blogs. I was dropping 300 cards daily without fail for many weeks. I started adding my favorite blogs to my blog roll, whether those blogs reciprocated my drop or not - because I enjoyed visiting their blog. I tried to reciprocate dropping on those who dropped on my blog but some sites I just didn't care to visit or they had numerous blogs and I would then just drop on one of their blogs daily, not all their blogs. Lately I have found that dropping cards has become less and less enjoyable and my daily drop numbers dwindled until it was to the point that I was only dropping several cards a day - those blogs I was advertising on that day and the blog that was advertising on my blog.

On September 1, 2009, Entrecard decided that there were too many credits in EC world and they changed the rules so that now you do not receive any credits for anyone who visits your blog and clicks on the EC widget. You still get credit for up to 300 drops daily for every blog you visit and click. I was okay with this - I was willing to see how this adjusted the pricing on the cost to advertise on blogs.

Awhile back, Entrecard introduced paid advertising - these ads would usurp whatever credit paid ad was currently running on your blog. This I disagreed with because I felt that those people who had faithfully visited my blog, left comments and spent their hard earned credits on advertising space should NOT be bumped by someone who decided to use cash paid ads. So, I declined all paid ads. After a lot of complaints by the Entrecard users, Entrecard decided to phase out paid ads. Now they are going to re-introduce paid ads and I'm told that you won't have any control over which ads run on your blog.

Therefore, I have regretfully made the decision to cancel all the ads in my queue (you should all receive your credits back into your Entrecard account) and I cancelled all the ads I had placed over the next week or so. There are three of my ads running at this time that will end by late today so I won't cancel those ads.

I have almost 18,000 credits in my account on Entrecard that I will gladly give away to anyone who wants them. I would prefer that the blog I give these credits away to is a follower of my blog who makes regular visits and comments at least occasionally. If several people want these credits I will either 1) use Radom Generator to select a "winner" or 2) split the credits up equally amongst the people who leave a comment on this post by 10 PM MDT tonight.

Please leave a comment and let me know whether or not you'd like option 1 or 2 - majority rules. I will try to transfer the credits on Saturday 9/26/09 and will then cancel my Entrecard account.

I am going to investigate Adgitize and Project Wonderful for advertising opportunities on this blog. Anyone with any experience, comments, hints, etc. please leave a comment with your suggestions.

Thank you to all of you who visit frequently and leave comments at least occasionally. I treasure each and every one of my blog buddies and will still visit your blog when I get the chance. If you'd like to be placed on my blog roll, leave a comment to that effect, too.

Parting is such sweet sorrow...but this will give me more time to work with my fibers, take photos, work with the llamas and horses, play with my dogs and cats, etc. I'm looking forward to all of it!

We're at a Llama Show this weekend

Just wanted to let all our visitors know that we are at a llama show this weekend. We are coming back home every evening to do chores but I won't have much time for blogging, emails or entrecard drops. I will try to drop on a few cards in the evening but cannot promise much.

Hope everyone has a relaxing, safe and fun holiday weekend! See you again on Monday.

Top Droppers for July - Thank you

Thank you to the top droppers on my blog for the month of July. Each one of these bloggers dropped every single day! Please take the time to visit these great blogs.

MamaFlo's Place
Family Health Avenue
Let's Jump Together
Photography by KML
Take a coffee break...
A Simple Life
Mommy's Little Corner
Grampy and You!
Margie and Edna's Basement
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles

Contest - Win 10.000 EC Credits

A fellow blogger, Vanilla Seven, is giving away 10,000 Entrecard credits to the winner of his contest. Here's what is posted on the blog:

Prize: 10.000EC credits!

Rules:
Blog about the contest and link back to this site also put a comment of what are they doing!

Winner: the most creative and funny comment will win the contest
Dateline: May 29, 2009

My Comment on what these birds are doing is: Are you SURE this is where you lost your colorful tail feathers?!

UPDATE: I WON!!! Thank you so much to Vanilla Seven for having this contest and for selecting my entry. I really appreciate the 10,000 Entrecard credits!

Happy Friday!

I'm leaving this morning to go with a friend to check out Pagosa Springs, Colorado. She will be attending the Parelli training this summer and she invited me to come along with her to scope the area out this weekend. We'll be staying at a hot springs resort and have no agenda other than to get a feel for the lay of the land and to relax and catch up on what is going on in each other's lives.

Yesterday morning I spent a couple of hours doing my 300 drops on blogs to get my credits for Entrecard. Last evening I went in to check Entrecard to see if they had fixed the little glitch they were experiencing since Wednesday morning. I realized that I had 0 drops and they had taken at least 600 credits from me! I was serious ticked off. I did my 300 drops again last night and this morning I was up before sunrise to do a few drops before doing my chores and heading out the door for the weekend.

I think I'm addicted to dropping on blogs... we'll see how it goes being away from computers for several days - I may have some serious withdrawl symptoms. Breathe deep, close your eyes, sink down in that hot springs and RELAX!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Entrecard issues

Yesterday morning about half way through my 300 drops on Entrecard blogs the system crashed. At first I thought it was my computer (yet again - time for a new one) but I could go into other internet sites without any problems. So, I went away from the computer and took care of other things and came back later to check on it. I was able to get into Entrecard but there was an error message. I went and did more things away from the computer and came back later to check on the status. I was able to get back into Entrecard and start doing drops again but I noticed that the stats remained exactly as they were when the system crashed hours earlier, including the number of drops I had made but I knew I had made more drops than what was shown. The number of drops and credits were going up in the upper right hand bar of the dashboard so I know I got credit for those drops but the stats are still messed up and say I haven't done any drops today (I just finished 300) and it says that there were no drops on my blog today. So, I assume our ranking will remain the same regardless of how many dropped on us yesterday and today until they get things straightened out.

I will be going on a little road trip with a friend tomorrow and Saturday so I won't be able to do any posting or dropping while I'm gone. I'll probably suffer from withdrawal symptoms. I hope there's lots of chocolate available... ;o)

See you all again on Sunday!

I've Reached The Number One Spot in my Category on Entrecard!

I don't know how they determine the rankings on Entrecard but tonight when I checked my category - Fashion (fibers become Fashion!) - I saw that I have reached the number one spot in my category! I took a screen shot so I can savor the moment - not knowing how long it will last or for sure how I got there! Sorry it is such a crummy photo but that's what came up when I did a screen shot and imported it to my Adobe Photoshop program.

Entrecard - Recent Changes

I found Entrecard a couple of months ago - around the first week of January, and signed up. I have religiously dropped as many cards as I could over the past few months. Recently, after switching to Firefox as my browser, I have dropped my maximum 300 cards daily. I spend several hours every day dropping cards, working on my blog and visiting other bloggers. I have met some awesome people through blogging and have thoroughly enjoyed visiting everyone's blogs and have seen some fabulous creativity and artistic ability, too. Now, Entrecard has decided it needs a way to generate some money to continue. So, they are accepting paid ads. I don't have a problem with that, I understand their need to generate money to cover their expenses. However I DO have a problem with them allowing the paid ads to usurp and replace the ads already in my queue which were paid for with hard earned credits by dropping on Entrecard blogs! So, I accepted a couple of paid ads at first - the one from Entrecard (I do want to be a team player) and one from another group I belong to - Creative Cafe. They were sending me ads that had absolutely nothing to do with my interests at first - until I set some parameters - and even then there would be 20 or more paid ads in the queue awaiting approval and no ads paid for with credits. So, I have rejected all the other paid ads - and haven't had any appear in my box for almost 24 hours now - the calm before the storm perhaps? At any rate, I did send a message to Entrecard powers that be and told them my views on the subject and was just referred to the forum where the subject was being hotly debated - almost 3,000 posts already at the time I first went there. Most people felt the same way I do. So, I am waiting until they sort all this out before making my decision on what to do next as far as Entrecard is concerned. I want to be a team player and I want them to somehow be able to generate money to pay expenses. But I believe somewhere in the middle is a solution that will please the majority of the people. Many people I know have decided not to play and have removed the Entrecard widget from their blog and cancelled their Entrecard account. I'm on the fence...waiting...and watching.

Thank You - Spreading the Linky Love

A big Thank You goes out to Audrey of Audrey's Country Crafts for featuring my products on her blog in yesterday's post! Check out Audrey's blog for some great links to crafty websites and stores.



And another big Thank You to Sweetwater Designs for bestowing me with 1,000 credits on Entrecard in her giveaway on April Fool's Day! What a nice surprise to go to her blog that day and see that I had won. Of course, I turned right around and spent half those credits to advertise on her blog page. ;o) Check out her blog - she makes some beautiful lampwork beads, etc. Her newest listing is a great pair of handmade lampwork earrings - check them out! Click on the photo to go to her etsy store.

Entrecard Top Droppers for March

A big thank you to the top Entrecard droppers for March! And here's some link love to show my appreciation. Check these blogs out.

Dropper/Blog Number of Drops

Youniquely Chic	31
A Rose By Name	31
Zero	30
BeadedTail	30
Gems by Jerri	30
My gypsygoods	30
Silver Sachet	29
Theresa's Treasures	29
West of Mars - the Meet and Greet	29
DJ Tammy Squels	29

Top EntreCard Droppers for February

A big Thank You to the top EntreCard droppers for February!

Youniquely Chic
Limitless Adventure
Robin's Nest: Scrap out loud
A Rose By Name
BeadedTail
Stroll Through Storyland
Unique You
InspirationbyKaren
time2cre8
Melissas Jewelry and Gem Blog

Please take the time to check out these blogs and you'll find some very talented crafters and artists! Enjoy!

Entrecard - Top Droppers for January

The top ten EntreCard droppers for January are:

Limitless Adventure 26
Cat Lovers Site 25
Three Fates Design - Beaded Jewelry 25
Silver Sachet 24
BeadedTail 23
time2cre8 23
Simply Shiny Blog 21
Lenox Knits 21
Youniquely Chic 21
The Copper Cauldron 20

Be sure to check these blog sites out. You'll find pets, jewelry, knit/crochet, soaps, fashion, etc. Thank you to all these bloggers!

I haven't been dropping cards for the past three days. I spent Saturday and Sunday shopping for a horse (which I found by the way! She comes home this Saturday - but that's another blog post) I tried to get on EntreCard last night and it was very slow. So I tried again this morning, it was slow and then I got an error message that said there was an issue with EC and to try again in 10 minutes. Now it is incredibly slow again. So, instead of dropping well over 100 cards in a day, I have only managed to drop just under 20 cards so far today. I don't know if it is an Entrecard issue or my computer. I have high speed internet service so I cannot even begin to imagine the frustration level of anyone unfortunate enough to still have dial-up! Anyone else care to let me know if EC has been slow for them lately? If not, I'll have to delete cookies, etc. off my computer again. With all the blogs I visit on a daily basis my computer is probably loaded down with saved "stuff".