Showing posts with label entrecard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entrecard. Show all posts

Computer Virus....

Just when I start getting back in the swing of things, too.  Last week, I was beginning to resume my dropping on Entrecard, but then again, I was also playing videos of Billie Holiday on youtube.  I am not sure which one is the culprit, but my AOL account was hijacked.  Every 5 hours or so, my AOL account sends spam to people in my address book, little chunks at a time.  In fact, if we have shared emails before in the past, you can bet that you have received this email, too. The email contains a link for "working at home".  When you click on the link...BAM!  You are sick, too.  It has so far gotten up to the M's.  The funny thing is that I deleted the full content of my address book, and it is still sending these emails.  I have changed my password and security questions and as far as I can tell, the emails have stopped, which tells me that it was pirated and someone was actually signing on to my email account to do this.  Talk about cyber-raped....multiple times!!!

Ooooo, this gets me so mad!  You tube is now forbidden on my computer.  I told my son he has to use is iPod Touch for you tube now.  Also, I will only be visiting blogs through Entrecard that is on my favorites list.  No more returning drops on blogs in my inbox.  Please forgive me for being afraid to return your drops.  If you want to be on my favorite list, be sure to update your content more than once every 6 months (but yet, you still drop every day ?!?!), post articles that people actually want to read and stop loading scripts into your blog that bang people every time they go there.  Sheesh.

So sad....wish I had a Mac....

Top Droppers for May!


Haven't honored my top droppers in a while *my bad*

So, here are some top droppers for May 2010! Please be sure to take a moment to pay them a visit!

Dave Lucas
News and comments from a New York-based broadcast journalist.

My Gypsy Goods
Life, creative moments, saving money, nature, eco-friendly tips. Supporting & promoting the handmade community.

The Sewing Mom
Personal blog showcasing my fabric creations. I also talk about family, friends, hobbies, cooking and daily life.

Shifting Your Point of View
Find out how to get what you want in life! Shifting your point of view about some ideas you may never know before.

Computer Aid
Repairing computers and resolving PC problems in Australia.

As The Crackerhead Crumbles
The purpose of this blog is to help clear-up much of the confusion that now exists concerning our Heavenly Father and the righteousness of all of His most awesome ways.

The Third Uncle
Fun, fashion, adventure .. and a little magic in 19th century Europe, as a young girl learns the truth about herself in Napoleon's Empire.

Ruth's Creations
This is my blog where I write, among other things, about my online business selling crocheted items I make. Part of my sales are donated to Demelza House Children's Hospice, the favored charity of British actor Daniel Radcliffe.

Sparkle
Sparkle is the author of two cat-to-cat advice books (no humans!), has her own Muse Medallion-winning calendar and is one of the original cat bloggers - she has been blogging since January, 2003!

Man Over Board
Where Men are Men


Monday MoodBoard and EC Advertisers

It's all grey and rainy today...

1) Greek Dress by Flower Sun - $109

2) Ash and Smoke Vintage Filigree Ring from laralewis - $16

3) Botanical Evening Keep Bag by KeepBags - $45

4) Black Gladiator Leather Sandals by Sandali - $55


A Shout Out and Thank You to last week's advertisers :)

Sunday - Fashion
Lenox Knits

Monday - Fashion
Anna's Adornments

Tuesday - Art
Still On The Verge

Wednesday - Fashion
Syd's Collection

Thursday - Mixed Bag
Ruth's Creations

Friday - Women's Interests
Scarborough Seashells

Saturday - Pets
Fresh 'n' Marine Aquarium

"Thank You Advertisers" Sunday!

Thank you, last week's advertisers!!!

Be sure to visit these blogs...you won't be disappointed!







Borrowing the idea from my friend over at Anna's Adornments, I would love to thank those of you who purchased an ad from me last week! Be sure to drop by them and say Hello! (click the pic to visit!)










Also, please visit this sweet little treasury in which one of my button bracelets is featured! You can also comment if you feel so inclined :)



Have a Beautiful Sunday!!!

Tribal Blogs or EntreCard? That Is The Question...


So, I'm sure you have all heard about Tribal Blogs. Hmmm....what a neat concept. People visiting your blog who are actually reading it! Don't get me wrong...I have many faithful readers through EC and appreciate them dearly. I'm talking about those blogs in the EC community that open your page for no longer than to click on your widget, then move on. Now, I understand that not everyone is interested in the things I talk about and I don't expect them to be. But to hit my page just to rape me for an EC credit?

Not only that, but there is a small population of blogs on EC that I actually have in my Favorites that I visit and comment on faithfully (you know who you are if you get lots of drops and even comments from me). The rest of the blogs are just lacking....seriously lacking! And I'm talking that there are a lot of blogs there! And the worst part, is that some of the most popular blogs are seriously crappy! No offense, but they are. Again, this opinion does not pertain to you if I comment on you at least once a month! Tribal blogs gives us an opportunity to visit a group of serious blogs. What's better is that they are all closely monitored to be able to stay in the community. There's no dropping, no bull crap.

I actually just signed up and want to test the waters (supposing I'm approved). If I like it, I will probably leave EC and remain on Tribal! What a great opportunity! You really should jet over there and check it out...Click the picture at the top!

With all that being said, have a fabulous Easter Weekend!!!

Decision Making Time and other ranting...


I think I have finally made a decision. This is actually thanks to the opinions of all of you. If you have left a comment to help me decide, I thank you very much for that. It is not easy taking a step back and really looking at what you are currently doing, deciding what you can do better. While change is good, it's not easy to adopt new routines. I'm one of those people that if my schedule gets thrown off early in my day, the rest of my day is shot. I just can't seem to get back on track.

So here is what I have decided. I will taper off the EC for a while. I apologize to all my droppers as I have not dropped one card since last week. I tried this as an experiment. I wanted to see who is dropping because they actually visit me on a regular basis or if it was click-oriented only. I'm going to try to take some time today to check this out, and of course, will be dropping on my favorite blogs. I will resume dropping tomorrow, but will be following the lead of many of you: dropping in only on my favorite blogs. No more 300 clicks per day for me. Over the last several days, no dropping has confirmed the fact that the less time I spend in front of the computer dropping cards to get more traffic gives me that much more time in the studio working! Unless, of course, you caught that Webinar from Tim Adams last night (getting more traffic to your Etsy shop). Did any of you partake in it? I didn't. I was afraid it was another "throw you a few teasers then make you pay for.....", so I didn't bother. He has probably already indulged us in that information, anyway. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash him. He is a very smart marketer. I just question the scruples.

So, Cornyman, yea - I have been with Adgitize for a long time. I never really looked in to how to use it. I will have to set aside some time in the near future to really figure out how to do it....and I will be visiting all your posts within the next couple of days. I have been really swamped with custom orders (please, I'm not complaining), but have been having a hard time schedule-wise as my step-children seem to think my business is a hobby and I sit home alone wearing the fuzzies and watching Oprah and The View! WrOnG! Neither of them want to pay for an actual day-care because they think their children are too good for one (using the pretense that they can't afford it, when in actuality, they are eligible for financial help), so they rely on family members to do their regular babysitting (the other grandmother in both cases). However, if the other grandmother has something going on, the babysitting falls back on me. And it has been falling back on me quite a bit lately. The worst part is I don't agree to it - I get volunteered to do it by my hubby. Makes me so mad. (he does way too much for his grown children who should be able to go more than one day without calling dad to do something or another for them!) So, to keep the peace, I babysit. One problem, though - I DON'T GET ANY WORK DONE!!!! I had to baby sit one day two weeks ago, 3 days last week and so far one day this week (which I didn't even know I was doing until the kids showed up at the house - 4 year old and 5 month old)(which set me back as Monday was a holiday and I stupidly took off to hang out with a friend all day and today my son has a doctor appointment to have outpatient surgery on his foot. I always seem to get volunteered to do one thing or another for his kids which ends up taking a lot of my time...and I shouldn't be worried about my son - he's 13 and still lives home. He is my responsibility, so it makes sence I would have to do for my kids. I have a 21 year old daughter who is out on her own and the only time she asks me do to something for her is to look up something on the internet as she doesn't own a computer or to get a hold of my mother for her (her g-ma) if she can't reach her. It just aggravates me that I do more for my grown step-children as they can't seem to do anything for themselves (dad never taught them how, apparently. Can you believe that he used to drive to his one daughters apartment once a week just to get her garbage to bring here because she didn't want to drag it to the road once a week?) than I do my own children who demand my time to spend time with them, not do things for them. Well, Jacy will demand a slushy from time to time. I am so glad I raised my children to be independant. I love them calling me or asking me to spend time with them, not do things for them. I could go on and on - it seems like every day I have to break my schedule to do something for the kids that can't do anything for themselves. Oh, you haven't seen anything. I could start a new blog just about my step-children that will read like scripts from the Lifetime Channel. Ask my kids! Drives them nuts! Can we say D-R-A-M-A? RRRRRrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, thanks again to all your comments - you each will be hearing from me soon! Oh, have a great day (I will be TryinG!)

Entre - Adgi-CFM-Wonderful!


What?!

Okay, as you know, I have decided sticking around EC for a little longer. However, I want to explore other advertising venues: Adgi-CFM-Wonderful.

I have advertised through Project Wonderful before, but usually just to host ads on my site. I don't even have a clue how much I have earned in ads on my blog in the last 6 months! I started with PW because I thought I could take the money I got for hosting ads to pay for my own ads. Win-Win situation. I currently host Adgitize ads on my blog, but never really looked into using them for advertising. Something I always wanted to do, but never got around to. I want to look into other paid advertising such as the one's above, and I will be linking my online shops to the ads. Over the last month or so, I have been reviewing what things I have done for my business over the last two years. I may be a little premature, as I usually do this every January when I write my updated business plan (yes, I update them every year...keeps me on track!). As you can tell, the focus has been on advertising. I spend almost no money on advertising, however, it tends to cost me a lot of time. I have been wondering if it is worth that.

Here is where I need your help:

If you have ever used any of the above-mentioned ad venues, how did it go? Was it worth the money spent? If your ads pointed to your online shops, did they bring you sales?

But, before you answer in the comments below, I just have one thing to say. This little 'situation' has become quite a journey. I want to thank every single one of you for taking this journey with me as well as responding and sharing your opinions as well as frustrations. I shall want to repay you for your opinions and advice some day! If you have previously done a blog post regarding the above-mentioned advertising venues, please put the URL for the page the post appears on in your comment.

Entre-Contemplation

Okay, I have had a few days to mull over comments received from the EntreCard post last week. If you missed the post, click here. Much to think about. I really want to thank the 30 participants in that post. You all have given me food for thought!

One conclusion I picked up from a multitude of comments (and was a total conclusion, not really something that was mentioned) is a long-term benefit of EntreCard. When you sign up for EC, you are basically a nobody in the blogging world. Not because no one likes you, but because no one knows you are there. So, you get on EC and start dropping like crazy. You buy some ads and the next thing you know, people are dropping on your blog. Even better, people are beginning to follow you and subscribe to your RSS feed. So, you keep on dropping and dropping. Eventually, you become disenchanted with EC and contemplate leaving. You may decide to stay, but not drop quite so much. Whatever you choose, what is the one valuable thing you didn't have before EC? Followers and subscribers. Wow...that's pretty big. Especially considering that the only one reading your blog before you joined EC was yourself! Mull on that for a while.

I still haven't made a concrete decision, as many of you are still working through. I have a feeling, though, that I'll probably stay with EC for a little while longer. I may taper off my droppings over time. (oops, now, that's not what I meant!), but I think for now I will continue down the EC path. Some of you mentioned other avenues to pursue in which I will be looking into. I will probably be taking the stand of EntrePod...following blogs that I do enjoy before they go 'bye-bye' on EC. I have found so many cool blogs and met some cool friends through EC, so for now, I will be staying where my friends are :)

How Do YOU Drop?


Okay, all you card droppers! In everything we do from day to day involves some type of a habit. For me, this includes dropping habits. I'm weird, I have a very specific way that I drop. The use of the EntreCard toolbar aids me in this, so if you don't have one, you really should get one!

First thing in the morning after my coffee, I open 20 tabs of EC blogs from my Inbox. While it is loading, I do 10-15 minutes of housework. When I return to the computer, I read the blogs, make any comments I'm compelled to make and drop my cards - takes me about 10 minutes as many blogs haven't changed their post, so why read it again? Then I load 20 more from my Inbox, leave to do some housework, come back and read, comment and drop. This continues until my Inbox is tackled.

Then I select the next set of 20 from my Favorites list. I again leave to do housework for 10-15 minutes then come back to read, comment and drop. This continues until my favorites are done (and believe me, I have a lot of favorites!)

When the favorites list is done, and here is where I rotate depending upon the day, I will choose either the Art category, the Fashion category, the History category or the All category. Also depending on the day, I will filter them as either Most Popular or Random. For example, after I dropped on my Inbox and Favorites this morning, I then selected the Fashion category and filtered it by Random. I continue on this way until my 300 cards are dropped.

What do I get out of it? I get my 300 cards dropped, I get to read some cool blogs, and I get my housework done all at the same time. This process usually takes me about 2 hours, but you figure I have to do my housework anyway (I can't stand a messy house), and since I get up early, I usually done dropping by 9am - still plenty of time to get up in the studio to do work.

I do need to say that sometimes I do take a day off or a couple days off, especially if I have an appointment that day and my whole schedule will be thrown off.

So, now you know my habits...what are your Entrecard dropping habits?

Making Changes for the Better

Well, I've sat back and kept my mouth shut with all the debate going on about the changes Entrecard has made, and I'm still going to for a large part. I think only time will truly tell if the changes they've made will benefit the community at all. I've seen some things that I take as negative, and some things that could be positive, but aren't very much so yet. 

That's not why I'm leaving though. 

I started Entrecard as a means to drive traffic to my blog in an attempt to raise sales. Well, I have driven traffic to my blog, and I have made some new friends along the way.  I greatly value that! I've also made one sale. 

Wait? One sale? That's something to be happy about! Except I've been doing entrecard for month's now, and I know that really none of the rest of my sales in that time came from entrecard. 

Hmm...that doesn't sound very productive at creating business does it?

Now add that together with not having a very fast internet connection... Yes, loading all the blogs takes me hours and hours! I always multi-task while I do it, but I don't really think it's that productive a use of my time. Think of all the things I could be doing instead! Alternative methods of advertising, working on crafting new designs, writing, there's so many posibilities! 

I still really value my bloggy friends though. So I'm working on getting my google reader set up with the blogs that I actually read an comment on. I'll still be around entrecard for a bit this week as I make sure I catch all of them :)  Then, with a smaller range of blogs to visit, I'll work on building relationships with those people :) Because really, that's what the bloggy world should be about, not number of visits, but quality of visits and the friends made!


EntreCard News...


I don't quite know what I think about the whole EntreCard paid ads issue. I have tried it and found it to be a waste of money, so I will not partake as an ad seller anymore. I do not plan on cashing in my points (you get so little money for it anyway) and feel that using the credits for buying ads is much more financially beneficial to me.

So, therefore, at the present time, I will still accept paid ads ONLY from content-related blogs. The second requirement is that you are in the EC system and have a card for visitors to drop. This way, readers clicking through ads don't come to a stand still at my blog. I apologize for the many refusals I have had to make. I may stop accepting paid ads in the future in all fairness of EC credit ads.

A Treasury and Giving Credit :)

Lots of goodness going on lately! First I want to say thanks again to Peacox Creations for featuring me again in a treasury! It's already expired (took my time getting to it) but it's still pretty! I'm in the middle of the third row.

I also want to say thanks to my entrecard top droppers for the month!

Click on any of the pictures below to check out their blogs :)







I also wanted to announce I'm going to start a "top commentator" contest this next month!
I'll give you the details in the next few days :)

The First of the Season :)

First of all - sorry I haven't been around on EC or anywhere else much the last few days! I found out on Monday that I was going to get to do my first market this weekend, and I was soooo not prepared! So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all week long. 

The market is today! I'm really excited! If you live in the Portland Vancouver Area, come check out the market at 4148 NE Hancock St, Portland, Or 97212. I'll post more about it after I get back! Well, maybe not tonight, but in the next day or so :)

Since I'll be at the market today I'll be putting my shops on vacation mode. Don't want to accidently double sell anything! I'll reopen them tonight if it all possible. Just need time to take off any items that sold. :) Can you tell how optimistic I'm being about making sales? Wish me luck!

Top Droppers for March

A Very Special Thank You from my Top Entrecard Droppers for March. Here's to YOU!
******NOTE: Top Dropper Gets a FREE AD SPOT For The Month!******