Keith Goodrum

At the end of September my account at Entrecard got deleted. Without realizing it I had violated their new Terms of Service.

I had added a lightbox hover ad to subscribe to my blog update list. I’ve used various hover ads int the past to allow people to add themselves to the blog update list, and decided to give a new one a test. I’m constantly tinkering & testing new plugins, widgets and other things here. I believe testing is an important part of running a blog.

So, here is the rule I broke from their updated blog quality standards…

Main Rules

5. No full-screen ads or popups: Blogs that include full-screen ads or popups will be removed. This includes any popup window that appears when the site has finished loading or when clicking to view an article. It is OK for links to display a popup window if the user clicks a link, e.g. FeedBurner email subscription, but popup ads or forceful messages asking people to subscribe without clicking anything are intrusive and therefore not allowed.

No biggie… it’s their playground and they have the right to set the rules.

It took me a couple of weeks to figure out my account had been deleted…

I haven’t been in my Entrecard much the past few months. One day I tried to login and I kept getting the username or password not recognized message

I just figured I’d forgotten my password, and didn’t place a priority on getting it recovered. It kept getting put on the backburner. A week would go by I’d try logging on and it wouldn’t work… (I know… I know I need to get robo form.) Then one day I clicked on my widget, and saw a message that my account was deleted.

So, I emailed customer support, and in about a week I got everything squared away. They reinstate my account, and I put the widget back on the blog. I was relieved because I have over 13,000 credits, and got it all back.

After going 2 weeks without Entrecard… it got me thinking

My account had been deleted because I had a hover ad. I wondered if it was worth it to keep the Entrecard widget on my blog if I can’t have things like hover ads announcing special offers? or have the option to use it to build a list?

As I was reading the updated blog quality standards I noticed a few other new rules. Such as you can’t be commercial more than 50% of the time…

Additional Rules

A2. Sites where more than 50% of the content consists of paid posts, posts with links to online stores, or affiliate links. This quota is a total, so if you write less than 50% of each type of paid content but the overall paid content quota exceeds 50%, that is not permitted. Reviews are OK, but not if every post contains an affiliate link.

So what if you post an affiliate link in every post… if you are giving quality content, instruction, information or entertainment – Who Cares?

Not sure where this aversion to earning a living is coming from, but I’m starting to see why they are having a hard time getting funding…

Anyhow, end of my mini-rant. Entrecard has every right to set the rules as they see fit, and if I want to stay around I’ll have to abide by them… but I’m evaluating whether I want to live by those rules.

I like being able to test & tinker with my blog, and try out new things.

It’s fun to see what works, and what doesn’t. This is one of the interesting things about blogging. But I really don’t like the idea of having to clear things with someone first. And that’s what Entrecard’s blog quality standards boils down to for me.

It’s a tough decision, because I like the idea of Entrecard. It’s fun to be around a community of other bloggers, and be a part of something bigger than yourself. But I don’t like the idea of someone else intruding on my ability to run this blog.

Maybe I’ll have a blow out my credits contest, and give everything away if I make a decision to give up my account…

Since I haven’t gone over my 50% quota… here’s a random affiliate link!

Extreme Clickbank Tactic Makes $109,151 In 30 Days!

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