So Long Entrecard

Out with the old, in with the new, seems to always be the theme around New Year's Eve. Although I'm not too sure what "new" is being brought in here. But the "old" is Entrecard and it's out.

I've been weighing the pros and cons to Entrecard for a few months now. While there are positives to Entrecard, the negatives have finally won out. (And honestly one of the negatives is more of my doing than Entrecard's doing.)

I feel Entrecard can be a positive for a new blog and can help a person get some exposure and establish getting traffic to their blog. While some of the traffic is worthwhile, most isn't. Sadly, I myself, fall into this category for the most part. I've become what 95% of the traffic is from Entrecard. That is a person who drops and runs to earn a credit, mostly for advertising purposes. The vast majority of traffic isn't reading my blog, nor have I taken the time to read many blogs myself. I've simply become robotic to earn credits. That's not what blogging is all about to me. I can't expect to get "quality" traffic if I'm not "quality" traffic myself.

In stating the above I have found a few blogs I like through Entrecard that I do read and comment on. I've added a few blogs to my blog roll and have followed some others. But it's a small minority compared to the number I simply drop and run on.

Honestly it comes down to a quality versus a quantity scenario. The time invested in Entrecard has become a liability and not worth the time to me any more.

Entrecard itself has many problems it needs to address as follows:

1) Communication -- pretty much nonexistent.

2) TOS -- a total waste of time. A significant number of blogs are in violation of their terms of service for a multitude of reasons. Reporting them is a waste of time as no action is taken. No action and no communication. I used to faithfully report dead blogs and nada, zip, no soup for you when it came to getting them taken care of. Pop-ups, redirects, auto-play audio, spam sites are all listed as a violation of their TOS.

3) A lot of new blogs being approved are immediately in violation of the TOS in various ways as well. That's kind of a head scratcher to me. I'm guessing they feel the more blogs they add to their network the possibility of more revenue is enhanced should these new blogs elect to pay to advertise or become sponsors for a fee. I'm not faulting them for wanting to make money by any means and I'm just taking a shot in the dark on their reasoning for not enforcing their well-worded TOS. Without communication a person can only surmise what their reasoning is for not enforcing it.

I've spent more time simply dropping cards than actual blogging here myself. Being short-handed at work along with crazy holiday hours haven't helped either. But I always found time to drop cards rather than blogging or visiting the blogs in my blog roll or follower list. I've come to the realization that my blogging priorities are not what I want or desire by being a member of Entrecard.

So it's time for a change and this time of year seems to bring that feeling out in many people. So here's to more quality time for blogging and making meaningful visits to other blogs to start out the new year for me. I wish you all a very Happy New Year. May the new year bring you all the happiness you can handle.