I Want to Quit the Gym!!

I don’t actually belong to a gym, but if you’re a Friends fan, you’ll get the reference.

My Entrecard post and tweet stirred up some people yesterday namely, the founder of Entrecard, Graham Langdon, who left a comment and @ replied me on Twitter yesterday. He wasn’t the only one either. What’s more is that I can’t even seem to give my stinking credits away. Which, by the way, the offer is now off the table. I have to wonder, is this because so many other people are cancelling their EC account or if it’s because people don’t believe that they’d really get something for nothing. Heck. It could just be that nobody cares one way or the other but I do have a plan of action to give way the danged credits. Sheesh.

Never in a million years did I think that my wanting to cancel my Entrecard account would stir up so much drama. It reminded me of the days, way back when, when I had AOL for my dial up Internet service provider. It was near to impossible to cancel my account with them. Their service reps badger and browbeat you until you’re on the verge of tear and just want to say, “Fine!! I’ll keep AOL. Just don’t harass me anymore. PLEASE!!”  XM Radio was the same way too. And you know what?? The more you try and convince me that your product is the end all, be all of the greatest thing in the world, the more I push back and just want to get away from you. I’m to the point now that I wouldn’t keep Entrecard if my life depended on it.

And for the record, and what was failed to be mentioned by Graham Langdon in all his persuading yesterday, is that yes, bloggers do have the right to refuse paid ads on their EC widget. BUT, you, the blogger and EC account user, have to pay out of your earned credits, a fee to refuse these paid ads. This is straight from Entrecard’s blog which can be found here:  Entrecard Blog

It’s just not worth it to me anymore and you know what?? I have a right to my opinion.

And I just realized the time so that’s the end of this subject. Move on!

Attention Entrecard Users!!!

I am cancelling my Entrecard account. Why? For a few reasons but mostly because they are starting a new thing where businesses can put paid advertisements on your EC widget. I really don’t like that. Nothing on this blog has ever been paid advertising, paid blogging, paid anything (except for a very brief stint with Google Adsense that didn’t get me one red cent.) and I’m not starting now.  Not that there’s anything wrong with earning money with your blog, it’s just not my cup of tea. At least not on this blog but that’s a whole other topic.

ANYWHO!!!! I have 2,460 EC credits that I am giving away to the first blogger that asks me for them. I also tweeted this on Twitter so if a comment here beats a Twitterer’s @ reply to me there, you’ll get the credits and vice versa.

So LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you want my credits and if you’re first, you get them!!

Hurry up! If I don’t get any replies, I’m deleting my account and they’ll just be gone.

First Post of the Year

We have had a very quiet holiday season. Quiet but good. As I’ve said in the past, we don’t go out of our way to celebrate New Years Eve. We’re up just because we’re up at midnight when we don’t have to work the next day anyway. We do let the girls stay up until midnight which is something they don’t get to do on a normal night. I turned off my phone though because I didn’t want any drunken midnight calls from family and friends. I actually haven’t talked to anyone outside of my house since 12/29, lmao. That’s so funny.

We got all of our holiday decorations down and packed up. For the first time since we have lived in this house, I finally have my living room the way that I want it. All my stuff is hanging on the walls and the furniture is placed where I want it too. I love it. It’s cozy and homey while still be spacious and uncluttered.

Anyway, we’ve been busy. We’ve made some soap and have come up with an awesome new recipe. We love it and I think our potential customers will too. In other soap news, I spent two whole days trying to develop our website. It’s a lot of freaking work especially when web development is not your specialty and you don’t know what you want. I mean, I have spent HOURS working on this and haven’t come up with anything spectacular yet. Our February 1st deadline is fast approaching and I’m starting to sweat. Eventually, this sort of thing will go on Coastal Natural Soap’s blog. It’s one more thing on my soap “to do” list.

I’d like to take this time to acknowledge my top Entrecard droppers for December. They are as follows:

Please click on any of their cards to check out their blogs should you be interested. I would like to make this a monthly feature but I have a feeling I’ll forget from time to time. ;)

Opinions

I have been an Entrecard dropper, off and on, for some time now. It generates a lot of traffic (yeah, I realize these are meaningless stats), but more importantly, I have found a lot of awesome blogs to read. Probably 50% or more of my RSS subscriptions have come from Entrecard discoveries.

I also realize that the general opinion of this medium is mixed. I figure it’s about 50/50 from what I’ve read around the Net. Some people think that the traffic generated by dropping is empty, pointless clicking. People don’t actually visit your blog to read it, they simple do so to drop their card. Others think that it generates legitimate traffic and is worth the effort. My opinion? I think Entrecard has it’s place, but don’t put too much stock in your inflated statistics. I also think that if the only reason you blog is so that you can be giddy about the number of hits you get a day, you’re blogging for the wrong reason and will eventually get burned out and quit at some point.

I make it a point to read something off of every blog on which I drop a card. Okay. Maybe I skim a little faster on the blogs that are political, but I at least glance around. Like I said, I have found many great new blogs to read through dropping. I also think that actually reading the blogs is a way to make Entrecard work for you. If you read someone’s blog and leave comments, they are more likely to reciprocate. Blogging friendships are formed in this way.

Card dropping is also an excellent time waster. I spend many a morning zoning out while dropping cards. It’s therapeutic. It’s something to think about rather than contemplating how much weight the ceiling fan will hold. Ha. Just joking. It really is a good way to while away the time though.

Anyway, I hope people aren’t too judgmental about Entrecard. It’s fun, it’s harmless, and you get to meet fabulous bloggers along the way. And no. This isn’t a paid advertisement. It’s merely my opinion such as it is.