So they did reply to the feedback form I had used to send the message and this is the response I received:

“We regret to inform you that your ad has been declined due to the fact that we are increasing prices for our advertising slot. We have expanded our ads to also run on our homepage, in addition to our forum and blog, and we have reduced the per-spot rotation from 4 to just 2. The new price is $250 per month, if you are interested.”

Holy crap I’d have to be selling diamonds to afford to advertise with them. It’s one thing to use credits that equal 50 bucks, but to use somewhere around 42,000 credits and no one would probably click anyhow is ludicrous. They also told me I could expect my EC-credits back within 24 hours, but they would deduct a transfer cost.  Wait a minute they are rejecting me after accepting my credits and I still have to pay a frickin transfer charge.

Okay, this will be the last time I try to help support Entrecard even though it still tells me to spend 50 dollars or equivalent credits to support them on my dashboard. I joined SezWho, but soon realized that wasn’t for me same as that other thing before that which also was a bust. I purchased OIOpublisher to help support and I can’t say that it’s very good either so this was my last effort to help.

From now on I will simply drop cards and that’s it.

I have noticed so many businesses closing around town and it’s very scary with the economy the way it is. Even though my partner has a really good job right now he works for a small business none the less. We’re concerned about the taxes the Obama administration is planning for companies that make over 250,000 a year. When that actually goes into effect I have a feeling they might just close the door because of some past difficulty and then we’ll really feel the recession crunch.

Americans everywhere are anticipating some miracles in the near future with our economy, but I don’t share that optimism I’m sorry to say. I would love to feel positive, but it just hasn’t happened for me yet, but we shall see. At least we’ll be rid of the Bush admin and as far as I’m concerned the worse 8 years our country has endured. At least gas prices have come down some so that’s at least one bright spot, but food prices have increased along with many other things.

People are doing their best to survive and cutting down on unnecessary purchases, but with Christmas coming parents do like to make their children happy and splurge on them, but not everyone will be able to do as much as in past years. At least we know from past recessions that they don’t last forever and it’s a cycle so the goal during these trying times is to ride the wave and survive and conserve as much as possible, even with tax cuts it’s still going to be rough.

Before I purchase anything I like to read the reviews because the feedback is very important. I just saved my grandbaby a lot of headaches by not purchasing an Eddie Bauer highchair because I read what the mothers had to say that had experience with them and the majority gave it a thumbs down. If your working online you should do the same thing doesn’t matter what product it is always read the experience that other people have had.

If you need more information then I would suggest reading their web hosting blog. It’s a frequently updated blog that gives information on many different subjects like  content management systems, control panels, domain names and registration, e-commerce issues, security Issues and protection, search engine optimization and marketing and of course the latest web hosting news and types.

I also bought an Oio ad from Entrecard for 8,300 credits on the 14th and it’s yet to appear. It didn’t tell me that I was in a queue so I’m not sure what is going on there. When I bought it I’m quite sure it said 166x whatever the days were, but then it came up 8,300 credits so now I’m not quite sure of anything. I guess I’ll wait and see for awhile before I send an e-mail, but there was a slot open and that was the only reason I decided to advertise. I actually don’t think many people choose to click on those ads just like anyone else’s blog.

People do click on the EC ads because they want a credit, but unless they are very curious about other ads then I really don’t think they click so much. I know when entrecard is down and I am dropping then I am more inclined to click ads from project wonderful that I recognize as being entrecard droppers when I don’t have those sites bookmarked and that’s the only way I can view anyone, but they haven’t been really slow and horrible of late. I have noticed people simply aren’t dropping as much as before.

I know everyone is extra busy with all the holidays and maybe working extra hours for Christmas because of the bad economy and people simply aren’t dropping right now as much as before. I know I haven’t been and for some people they feel very guilty for not returning drops, but there’s no reason to because life happens and there are usually more important things to take care of like your real world and not the virtual one. I have 3 blogs and for this one and the beauty blog I’m  going to start posting twice a week because it’s getting overwhelming.

The link wasn’t a very nice link and to think I almost let it slip pass really ticks me off at how sly people are getting with their spam comments. I’m sure in future they may come up with something that will slip past and that’s a shame because most people don’t even check something like a smiley and I have no clue why I did this time, but from now on when I see one I’ll be sure to run my cursor over it. I’ve been getting so much spam lately that I simply delete.

I use to go through and check for legitimate comments, but with all the trash I see I stopped not that I’m a prude, but it’s so boring to see all the repetitious crap. It would be so nice if it would stop, but I doubt it ever will. I also moderate all comments because I can’t believe how many spammers actually take the time to sign up because they think they will be able to post comments. I usually go in and delete all those periodically.

Have a nice weekend and make sure you check those smileys before you approve your comments. I use to have it set that after the first approved comment that person could then leave unmoderated comments. Until someone left a nice comment the first time then started spamming so I switched it so I could moderate every single comment after that. If you leave comments and don’t see them then that means they slipped into Akismet and got deleted.

You then start to think one of two things, is it worth it or how can I do this better? The majority throws in the towel, but those that have a desire to make something happen persevere. Regardless of whatever you have heard about making your fortune online it just doesn’t happen for everyone and it does not ever happen over night. I can not think anymore because as I mentioned before I am burnt out, I have tried so many different things and even though I was optimistic they never seemed to pan out.

I haven’t given up yet, but I do need to regroup and get a better perspective and I certainly appreciate all the support that has been given to me. I will have to make a list and give them link love, but right now the one that comes to mind that I will list right now is Lea of Ocean Of Perspectives she is a very supportive person even if she is going through a hard time herself and she always has something constructive to say on her blog so I encourage you to visit her and see if there is something you can use.

From everything I read in order to look professional they said I needed to purchase a hosting package. I still didn’t understand anything, but I jumped in and figured it out as I went. I did a search for website hosting and saw there were many options and I chose the cheapest one I could and for a couple of years it was okay, but I had to keep ordering more space and bandwidth and the support was okay at first, but then I couldn’t reach anyone.

They went out of business and didn’t even tell me and to this day they still try to get money from me from an automated system and I had a mess trying to work everything out. If you are just starting online or you use a free blogging platform and you’re thinking about getting your own domain you should always read user reviews before you decide on what would be best for you and which hosting package might be right for the project you are thinking about.

There is a website that rates and reviews the top 10 website hosting companies out there and you can leave your own review of the one you use which could help someone else make an informed decision. For the uninformed among us there are a lot articles that will also explain many things in depth so you can understand better. I certainly wish I had access to all of this information in 1998, so do yourself a favor and compare before you decide.

I do have credits stored and since there really isn’t much use for them other than advertising I really should use them up before I lose them or stop using Entrecard. It would be nice if we could sell them back to Entrecard and I guess in the future that might be possible. I know many people have made extra money by selling them in the past, but that was never anything I was interested in. I really need to start spending less time on this computer.

I’m not sure which direction I even want this blog to go in because I’m getting burnt out and with so much information out there I really don’t think this little blog adds anything of significance to anyone, but myself which is fine. I may even remove the Izea code because I don’t even write that many reviews for them. Maybe I should just work on getting my rank back instead, I did remove it from one of my other blogs.

Things change so fast online that I simply can’t keep up anymore and actually real life is more important than spending my time trying to keep up with trends and programs that may or may not work. I guess we all come to a point when we have to learn to prioritize especially when you can’t stay focused any longer. The main reason I started this blog was to learn how to make money with it and I have made enough to pay hosting fees, but that’s about it.

I’ll give myself till January to decide on the fate of my blogs.

You need a user friendly site of course with original content that people will find useful and helpful because the majority of people come online to find information or entertainment not to buy so if you provide good content and concentrate on only a few affiliate products you will have a better chance of someone actually clicking through and purchasing something and making a sale, but it does take a lot of work.

Most people like a simple, but professional looking website and If your blog or website has lots of advertisements and flashy banners and is full of affiliate links or ad blocks before they even see your content then they may get confused and not understand what your site is all about. I know when I visit a busy looking site if I don’t see what I’m looking for I simply close that site down and go to the next. Don’t make it so hard for your visitor to find your information and lose a possible sale.

I’ve been told by the experts that people will click on text links more often than the flashy banners. I use the small banners, but only a few because I don’t want to add a lot of distraction for the viewer. I try to keep it simple because people like to visit a site that loads quickly and they get very impatient and leave if they have to wait for graphics and videos to load, your load time is very important.

Most people detest paid posting especially if there is no real content and unless they are dropping a card for EC’s then more than likely they will drop and run because your not offering them anything of value. Of course the person doing the paid posting is earning a few dollars, but for how long if they can’t get traffic to their site. I do a review every now and then, but I try to do something that will be helpful to others, but not always.

You can find a lot of blogs that cover this niche in depth if that’s something you’ve been considering, but there’s much to consider like your affiliate links being hijacked or removed so you don’t receive a commission. Like I said I do a few affiliate programs now, but nothing compared to when I first started. I thought the more the merrier maybe someone would click on something, but they seldom do because it’s too confusing.

So do your best to keep it simple and direct and focus on just a few instead of everything out there and good luck.

Many people have found ways to make extra income with AdSense, affiliate marketing, writing articles, selling e-books, writing reviews and selling advertising space, but unless you’re a real go getter I don’t think you’ll be able to quite your day job. Although I have seen some people that do paid reviews make 20,000 or more a year, but at what cost to the actual readership of their blog and page rank? I know that I don’t read paid reviews even though I write them every once in awhile.

People have made money by writing reports that tell you how to make money and some claim you can make money without putting out any of your own money except for the money you put out for their report of course. Now didn’t that just sound stupid and ridiculous? You would be surprised how many people still fall for that especially new people eager to earn money online. Some people have had luck with MLM programs, but it’s usually the people that start them.

Many people earn online through Elance and if I were a great writer or knew how to program or design I would definitely check into these types of bid sites. A few that you might want to check for yourself would be GetAFreelancer, Ifreelance or Guru to name a few to get you started. Many people just starting online may not know about these resources so it might be a way to get your foot in the door. I have read good reports from contractors an bad ones.

Like I said money can be made online through several different channels, but it just depends on what your talents are and how hard you’re prepared to work. Many people simply seem to have the know how or knack for making money regardless of what they do unfortunately I am not among them because I’m not very ambitious and as you can see from some of my past posts there are many programs that haven’t worked for me. So whatever approach you take for making extra income I wish you all the best.