I appear again to extol the virtues of marketing yourself, a product or service with your blog. I must apologize for my lack of posting, the move here to South Dakota took a lot of energy. Not only that, I must admit to a bit of culture shock. South Dakota is quite a bit different from California, so this is taking a bit of getting used to. Not that any of this has much to do with marketing your blog, but I thought I’d let you know.

I see that Entrecard, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to bring back paid ads, dress them up a bit and call them by another name, i.e. “sponsored ads”. I also read that Entrecard considers all us members as “inventory”. How do you like that? Entrecard seems to think they OWN us. We are their inventory and we have no choice but to bend to their will (according to them, anyway). And for the tidy sum of $50.00 a year, you can display a widget free of “sponsored” ads. Let’s get one thing straight. Those damn paid ads didn’t work under Graham and I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to work this time either. How about banner advertising being the least effective means of online advertising? Did you even know that, Entrecard? Ever hear of email marketing, Entrecard? Have you even considered just how big your email list is, Entrecard? I’m pretty certain EC could pull a 1-2% conversion rate on anything they chose to pitch to us. I’d much rather click on the delete button in my email than be FORCED to display an ad I may not approve of. And that’s all I have to say about that.

That’s all for today. I hope this finds you well.