Blog Award from Mommy's Little Corner

First I want to thank Liz at Mommy's Little Corner for the above award. We are to list 10 things that make us happy and then extend the award to our favorite blogs. I have so many favorite blogs that to list them here would take up my whole page :D. So I want to extend the award to all of you who visit my blog, leave comments and drop on my EC and Adgitize widgets. You are all very much appreciated and all my favorites.

Now for 10 of my favorite things:

My family
My friends
Poetry
Photography
Music
Art
Botanical Gardens
Hong Kong
Waffles, wine and chocolate
Blogging and creating

Thank you to Juliana's Lair

I want to thank Juliana's Lair for awarding me a token prize in her latest contest. Please visit her blog which is a cornucopia of wonderful posts about life, travel and beyond. Click here to visit her website.

Entrecard

This is just a short tidbit. Since I removed Entrecard and stopped dropping, I noticed a huge decrease in traffic. Granted my bounce rate decreased but I did not like the decrease in traffic. So, I again went back to EC. I will be dropping on blogs that I know to be safe, without virus warnings etc... It also looks as if we have choices as to what paid ads will be shown on our blogs so I am feeling a bit better about the entire situation. I just have this love/hate relationship with EC that I cannot shake :D

I also wanted to let all of you know that since adding meta tags to my blogger template that my Google traffic and other search engine traffic has slightly increased. So, you will all see me back on EC albeit with a different color widget as seen above this post.

The Entrecard $50 fee implementation

While dropping EC's, though for the life of me I don't know why, I checked out EC's latest blog post and here is what I found posted below. A $50 fee for not accepting paid ads? Are you kidding me? As a result, I will not be accepting any more ads beginning today. Those of you who have already bought ads on my blog, your ads will be honored. I am going to take a wait and see on this and figure out what is best for Poetic Shutterbug. In the meantime, I will be going through as many blogs as I can on EC to follow the ones in which I am interested. Below is the latest on the EC blog.

Implementation of sponsor ads program postponed until Oct. 5

Written on September 27th, 2009 by Cindy

Hello Entrecarders,

We just wanted to update everyone that the sponsor ads will be postponed for another week, until Oct. 5, 2009. When it is implemented, users will have the option to opt out of the sponsor ads program completely for a small fee. For just $50 a year, you can have your widget free of sponsor ads. We have provided this option for those of you who are concerned about the sponsor ads. Thank you for your support.

Cindy

Entrecard /Adgitize /Project Wonderful /Google Adsense

When I began blogging over a year ago now Entrecard was the first advertising method I used. I loved the idea of having my own business card widget and being able to advertise on other blogs just by using the credits I earned from dropping on different blogs. I have never paid for credits with EC. I always just earned by dropping and I think I only once dropped the maximum 300 which at that time I said to myself I would never do again. It literally took hours. I normally drop around 100 and receive about half back.

As with Adgitize there is the constant problem with receiving virus warnings, browser takeovers and all the other annoyances that go hand in hand with dropping EC. Now with their latest news that alerts all of us they will no longer be providing credits for drop backs I'm asking myself why should I stay with them? EC has said that the credits to advertise on other blogs will decrease as a result of this change and therefore we will all be able to take advantage of advertising on some of the premier blogs. However, let's think about this for a minute. Even if you drop 300 per day it seems to me that you will still in the long run need to actually buy more credits in order to keep advertising. It is not a winning situation for us bloggers but rather a winning situation for EC. They will be making more money and we for the first time will have to pay for our advertising.

I remember when I first began blogging I read an article by a woman, sorry I don't remember her name or blog name, who wrote a post for newbies. In that post she created a time line of what a blogger should be doing at different stages of their journey. One key phrase stuck in my mind and that was a successful blogger is one who has built his or her blog to a point where these extra advertising gimmicks are not needed because you have built a loyal following through networking and building friendships with other bloggers. I am now at that point where I believe she is right.

My thinking is, I normally visit, follow and drop on blogs that I enjoy and which I have some interest so instead of spending all this time dropping for the sake of dropping why not spend my time interacting with the blogs I follow? I can keep EC for dropping and advertising with my favorites and therefore my time much more productively spent.

I have decided not to do any advertising and limit my dropping with EC until after Sept. 1st so that I can evaluate the new decreased credits for each blog. I will however spend the next few days checking out all the blog categories which interest me and make sure I'm following the blogs I like.

Another positive on this is that it will also decrease the bounce rate and allow me to spend more time on writing and taking photos, which is why I blog. It may result in less page views but it is a weight off my shoulders.




I've been with Adgitize now for a few months. I signed up as a publisher which basically means that you provide them with your blog information, you then place a code on your blog which displays advertisers blogs and then each day visit 100 blogs in order to receive points which are transformed into cash. You also receive points for posting on your blog each day. I have been doing this religiously now since I signed up and I will be receiving my first payout next month.

I have however been wondering if having to visit 100 blogs each day is really worth my time. I've noticed as with Entrecard, there are many blogs which have pop up windows, scripts on their pages, viruses and on some occasions blogs which basically take over your browser when you visit them. Not to mention the ones that take too long to load. All of this, including the time factor for visiting tells me it's really not worth my time. They, being Adgitize will tell you that if you also advertise with them at $14.00 per month that you do not have to visit that many blogs. However, though the advertiser's payout is monthly, they are only receiving a few dollars above what they paid to advertise. So, again, what is the point? Granted this is a better system than Entrecard because you are getting paid to drop/visit but it is mind numbing and so monotonous that I really wonder is it all worth the trouble?




Now this is my kind of place. I signed up as a publisher with Project Wonderful, got my widget on my blog and earn cash each day. People bid to advertise on my blog and all I have to do is approve or reject the bids. The threshold for payout is $10.00 and I am very close to that amount. They are also great to deal with in that they are professional, organized, helpful and friendly. PW is a keeper.



Google AdSense is the staple when it comes to earning money on your blog. Granted the average blogger or website owner makes pennies per day however it does not require you to do anything other than add some code to your blog. The ads shown have relevancy to your blog content and if someone decides to click, you've earned $$$ that day rather than pennies. I just recently had to update all my information and provide google with taxpayer info in order to receive my payments when I reach that threshold. It certainly takes some time but is well worth the payout when the time comes. Also a keeper.

Blog Awards

First I want to thank Icy over at Reach Beyond Limits for the following awards. I am ecstatic! I visit Icy daily and find so much inspiration from her writings and photos that I should be granting her awards. She is such a thoughtful and caring friend which make these awards so very special to me and I appreciate them so much. Thanks Icy. Make sure to visit her blog at http://reachbeyondlimits.blogspot.com

For the honest scrap award I have listed 10 honest things about myself.

10 honest things about myself

1. I love all music. When I'm down all I have to do is listen to some music and it completely changes my mood.
   
2. I love mustard, yellow mustard. I can put mustard on anything, including eggs and love it.
3. I am the most impatient person in the world. Waiting in lines, waiting for buses, waiting for anything drives me nuts.
4. I despise self righteous people. I don't care who you are if you have that attitude, I don't want to be around you.
5. I am addicted to the soap opera All My Children. I have been watching it since it's inception over thirty years ago and normally plan my days around the episode.
6. I am severely claustrophobic. Airplanes, elevators etc... make me anxious.
7. As many of you know, I love being out in nature. I could live in nature, being self sufficient and be perfectly happy.
8. I'm addicted to my blogging. It's almost like a job for me. If I miss one day I feel guilty.
9. Though I do not like housework, everything has to be in it's place - it's just a little dusty :)
10. I sometimes speak without thinking - I can't be perfect all the time, can I? :-)
    

My Story With Today.com

I've been contemplating for weeks whether or not I should tell my story about Today.com and finally realized after reading some of the posts on their forums by newbies that I should get all the facts out there so that new bloggers are able to make informed decisions about whether or not they should be blogging with today.com

I joined up with them in September of 08 after seeing an ad on Craigslist. At that time I knew absolutely nothing about blogging. When I saw that they paid $1.00 per post for two blogs plus $0.02 per impression I thought well, why not give it a try. So, I signed up, got my two blogs A Poets View and My City By The Bay. I took my blogging very seriously and posted daily. It was like a job for me. I must say that I learned alot from all of my fellow today.com bloggers in the forums. I was always able to get a quick response by other bloggers to my questions. Admin, half the time ignored what they did not want to answer.

In the beginning it was great. My traffic was steadily growing and I was gaining readers each day. I loved writing on the San Francisco blog because it allowed me to be a tourist in my own hometown. It was fun. Then, Today.com decided to change the blog templates to a universal one. I didn't like the idea but went along with it. Then they decide to implement their advertising program. The rates in the beginning were very low at only $4.99 to advertise on any blog for the entire month. This was before they made it public. I admit I thought it was a great idea so I went ahead and bought advertising on some of my favorite blogs including my own. What they did not tell us was that after a months time the rates could skyrocket. When I found out I immediately wrote to them and told them I could not afford those ridiculous rates. I got an email from them telling me that the way it works is that once we buy the ads they will stay in effect until either I or they decide to cancel them. Which basically told me that they stay at the original price until someone else buys them at a higher rate. I knew then, that they could not be trusted.

The new advertising guru HP had told me before this happened that he would be talking to me about being partners with him in the revshare program. When I let all the ads cancel after the month's end, I never heard from HP again.

Then they come up with the affiliate program. Again I thought well why not? It's a way of making some extra money. So, I implemented affiliate ads into each post, which by the way I did not enjoy doing because I didn't want my posts to look like I was selling something. Not to mention, on my San Francisco blog all the affiliate ads for tours, attractions etc... were way overpriced in comparison to actually being in San Francisco and buying tickets and I felt bad about that but again, I did what they asked. I also realized that there was really no way for me to see any stats on these affiliate ads. We had to just go by what Today.com told us. I made one sale for eight cents.

Then comes the Entrecard debacle. I had a problem with a virus from an EC ad at that same time Today.com banned them. Then, they decide not to ban them but threaten if we allow any paid ads our accounts would be closed. The whole thing was ridiculous.

We've always been told that traffic from Google pays the $0.02 CPM well I can tell you for a fact that they are lying about that statement. For almost a month I didn't post on either blog or advertise them. My stats showed traffic only from Google and the amount did not add up to the $0.02 they claimed. Not only that for some reason they disabled Google Analytics so we could no longer track the stats - a second red flag for me.

In March, Today.com gives me the Editor's Choice award for my A Poet's View blog. Of course I'm thrilled to get that and I'm thinking how wonderful they are and even write a post about how they are the most wonderful blogging community around. The day after, that same blog is taken off PPP. I'm obviously baffled as to why so I write asking what's going on and of course, no response. I write again and I'm told that quote "It's just A Poets View and not on My City By The Bay." That didn't really answer my question but I left it at that.

During this same time I do a copyscape search on both blogs as I did on a monthly basis. To my horror I find that since middle March each and every post on my A Poets View blog had been scraped to include not only the text but the photos and affiliate links as well. The text was somehow altered so that it was not verbatim and the posts were on at that time five different blogs. They are now on eight different blogs all located in Russia. I totally panicked, did not know what to do so I wrote to admin. I heard nothing, I wrote on the forums pleading for help and of course I heard nothing from admin but did receive some good suggestions from fellow bloggers. I wrote again to admin and they told me quote "thank you for bringing this to our attention." I would think that since Today.com owned the content they would help in resolving the issue but did nothing. I issued a cease and desist order which I found online but of course they plagiarists ignored the order and there was really nothing more I could do. I blogged about the plagiarism and received many comments including one from another Today.com blogger who mentioned that there was another blogger on Today.com who was posting scraped content from the Washington Post website on pasting it on her own blog at Today.com. A day later I get an email from Admin telling me to delete that comment because it "looked bad" for Today.com I hated censoring a comment but I deleted it.

As a result of the plagiarism I no longer could stomach writing on A Poets View blog any longer so I stopped. At the same time I noticed and began reading about all the bloggers who were locked out with their accounts and being closed for speaking out in the forums. When I heard that I decided that I no longer wanted any part of Today.com.

I checked my stats and realized that I would just make the $50.00 payout for the month so I would wait to do or say anything. Then, as we all know payday is the 10th of the month. So, on May 8th, we all receive an alert while looking at our VIP stats that if we made $600.00 for the year we would have to send them a w9 before we were paid. Well, because of that award I received and the fact that I was still on the PPP for My City By The Bay, I reached that amount. So, on Friday the 8th, I download the w9 in it's entirety, fill it out, sign it and mail it. It was being mailed to PA from California so it would not take more than three days to arrive. I contact them on the13th and they tell me they don't have it. We go back and forth with emails and by this time you have to realize I do not trust anything they say or do so I finally tell them if I don't receive my pay NOW I'm contacting my attorney. They write back and tell me they are sorry I feel this way but they cannot pay until they receive the w9 because they are now based in the USA as opposed to being in Canada. Long story short and I know, I'm sorry this is so long, I tell them that I will send it again and if I don't receive my pay by the 22nd - can you say lawsuit? I then decided since I don't have a scanner I'll take a photo of the w9 and email it. Seconds later, I receive an email from accounting telling me the funds have been deposited.

I then write a post on My City By The Bay blog redirecting everyone to my new blog. I get an email from Today.com a few hours later saying my account was closed. I checked My City By The Bay blog and they deleted my post redirecting everyone to my new blog. I knew they were going to do that.

I'm sure there are some points I'm forgetting here because there were so many things that happened. However what I know now is that having your own blog with the freedom to do and say whatever you want far outweighs any pennies you will receive from Today.com. I do however have to thank all the help I received from my fellow bloggers there.

Also another point I want to make. The latest in their advertising "schemes" If you look at any of their blogs you will see green highlighted words which are basically links to websites that are selling you something. The bloggers obviously had nothing to do with these ads. They were implemented by HP in advertising.

That's my story and I just wanted everyone to have the facts. It is so nice to have my own blog, with my own ads even if all I get is pennies a day with AdSense. I know it will grow and I feel so much better about not having to "pimp" my blog for Today.com's greed.