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!