The Entrecard Widget is Gone from my Blogs

I've left Entrecard after a lot of loyalty and hope for things to grow and improve there. I did not take the decision lightly but it is based on something I feel strongly about though my opinions have weathered some storms and changes.

I strongly feel that a forum or blog owner must moderate comments and posts made by readers and users of the forum. It is a responsibility of the site owner to keep things civil and flowing. Also, they have the right to choose what is appropriate and what is not. However, no one should have their voice taken away based on their status, even if that is user status for the site or network. Being new to a site does not mean you should be ignored or not allowed to speak. I think a lot of people at EC will not have bought over 400 ads.

I don't know what my own status would be as far as that goes. I am not waiting to be approved or rejected based on the amount of ads I have bought. I asked for my account to be terminated and allowed them to do what they will with my remaining credits. There is a rumour that the moderators are stealing credits from abandoned or deleted accounts. Just a rumour but would not surprise me to know some are giving in to temptation. A lot of things going on with online networks are based on greed and opportunity. It is not easy to find one which has real ethics it stands behind.
This is the note I left at Entrecard:

Please delete my account. I've been loyal to EC for a long time but having to be approved to join the forum to have a voice at EC has crossed the line for me. I'm not asking to be approved or rejected I'm just done here. Any mods can take my credits - as I have heard they are doing anyway. Good luck to EC but Graham has gone far too far this time. My widgets will be taken down as soon as I send this note.

I think anyone upset with the way things are going at Entrecard should join the forums at CMF Ads. Even if you are not sure about using the ad exchange network there the forums are good. There is a real exchange of information and fun with bloggers, not all the talk is about CMF Ads.

Effective Advertising for Canadians

There's a pretty effective ad. I came across this ad on the site for the York Region newspaper. Someone had sent me a link to follow to a story they had printed. Anyway, I was struck by that ad with the maple leaf falling down. I even went to the site for the Nature Conservancy.

Online Marketing to Old Rules Won't Work

Let go of some of your old marketing ideas. Look around you, smell the coffee. This is the Internet and the format is not the same as offline.

In the past bludgeon-them-till-they-scream marketing may have worked. Out of one hundred telemarketing calls you may have caught someone on the right day and gotten them to sign up for your service. That won't work for email. It is too easy to delete it, unread and thus, unheard. Even auto deleted, untouched by human hand or eye.

Standard marketing will not work online because people online are being flooded with the stuff every day and in just about every way someone has thought up. The past several years of marketing online with constant onslaughts of spam have trained people how to not look at ads on websites. Think of the last site you were on. What ads did you look at, do you remember anything about them?

There are more ads and ad schemes online than on any other media. In one hour of time online looking at websites, checking email or using forums you will encounter easily double the amount of ads you would if you were watching TV, reading a magazine or listening to the radio. Read a book, that is one way to get away from ads (except for other books).

So the marketing plan online is ineffective and needs to be revamped. It may work on that thousand and first person to view your ad or be attacked by your marketing campaign to flood a social network. Meanwhile, what about that thousand people you just annoyed? There has to be a better way. Something more effective for your cost and your time and your energy.

I don't have the magic answer or the magic beans or the goose that lays golden eggs. But, I do know the old methods which are still being used are just turning the Internet into a wasteland. It's getting harder to find something to read versus something to ignore. Someone is going to come up with the marketing plan that works. Why can't it be you?

Instead of trying to get other bloggers to trade meaningless links with you and instead of trying to get everyone on a social network as your fake friend - come up with something new. The time it takes to find a better way will win you far more than clinging to the old ways. Be an entrepreneur instead of a follower.