Sticking With Entrecard…For Now

The uproar over accepting/rejecting paid ads on Entrecard (EC) seems to have passed. At least for now.

Graham Langdon Feels The Heat!

When EC first announced that a paid ad program was going to be put into place, they made a poor decision by not allowing people to reject ads. Fortunately, as is often the case with EC, if you squawk loud enough than Graham Langdon changes his mind. Now, EC allows bloggers to reject any and all ads if they so choose.

Still, the paid ad initiative has been a bit of a fiasco as it seems that some ads are still appearing while even approved paid ads tend to push ahead of the traditional EC ads. This isn’t good. Personally, inasmuch as EC has an “approve all” function for paid ads,  there are times I would like to “reject all” in order to allow Entrecard ads to pass through first.

One gripe I have with EC is that if you “favorite” a site, then it stays in your favorites even after that blogger has removed their widget. Right now I have three blogs linked to my account (WordJourney.com and AutoTrends.org are the others besides this one) and have favored quite a few sites with each blog. This means I often hit up the same blogs over and over again, but there are many times when using the EC toolbar I discover as many as five of the ten favorites are no longer “droppable.”

Life After Entrecard

I’m sure that there will be a day when I will no longer use Entrecard, but I thought that day would have occurred much sooner. Granted, I don’t drop on sites every day and I rarely get to the 300 drop level with any one blog…I simply do not have the time.

When I first began to use EC I simply dropped my cards and moved on, choosing not to advertise on any sites while generally not approving ads either. After taking a lengthy break for about half the year, I returned this past fall — immediately I began to drop regularly, accepted Entrecard ads and placed my ads on other sites. These days I’ve taken a break from advertising elsewhere, but I still accept both kinds of ads.

If anything, EC is a decent way to keep up with what other bloggers are saying. I could bookmark like crazy to follow people, but with the EC toolbar I can surf in, drop a card, read your article and perhaps leave a comment.

Maybe I’ll end up dropping by on a sporadic basis instead of completely shutting down, but for now EC is stuck with me and I’m still stuck on you!

Related — I’m Giving Entrecard A Whirl!

Housekeeping & Rewarding Top Commentators

It is a good thing to do some housekeeping from time to time, particularly when that work involves a blog. I must admit that I’m constantly being peppered by spam, so my daily work never seems quite done even on days when I choose not to write and post an article.

Are You Part Of My Top Ten?

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to include a “Top Commentators” widget for this site, which takes a look at everyone who has posted here since December 2005 when the original blog was launched by rewarding them with their name in “lights” so to speak.

Because I’m a firm believer in sharing linky love, each name is hyperlinked to the site you’ve been listing in your URL comments and that link is “nofollow” as well. That way, you get rewarded for leaving your wonderful comment and with more than 750 posts and pages associated with this site, that reward should certainly come in handy.

Right now I am featuring the “Top 10″ commentators, but I may expand that list eventually. I removed references to my name and dropped two individuals whose blogs were either dormant or their links dead.

Musing About A Variety Of Topics

This blog has a different theme than the original The Article Writer blog although that defunct blog’s posts are now part of Matt’s Musings.  Lately, I’ve been covering more SEO and technology topics, fewer political (civic) stories, but I plan on sharing additional writing tips and ideas going forward.

Thanks to everyone who stops by and leaves a comment except for you spammers who oddly believe that my readers are interested in your druggie site (your stuff gets promptly vaporized).  Special thanks to Lillie Ammann whose example gave me the idea to reward my commentators. Though I probably won’t do a monthly round up, my next best thing is to have your name prominently featured in this blog’s sidebar.

Related Reading: Commenting? You Can Do Better Than That!