My two cents on paid ads

It seems like everyone has complaints about this new paid ad system that Entrecard is forcing down our throats. Well, I'm no different. I realize that it is a necessary evil and all, but to me, it just seems as if it takes out the human aspect of advertising.

Didn't we all join to gain readers? Do you really want to pay someone to read your blog? I know I don't. No offense to those that have paid for ads, but in my book, priority should go to those that use their hard earned credits to advertise on my site.

I forgot whose blog it was that I was reading last night, but someone suggested they just make a whole different widget for the paid ads. That makes sense to me. Unfortunately, Entrecard won't even delete cards that have accounts deleted from their site, so how can we even think they'll do something that would actually make sense like this?

On top of all this, my dashboard is cluttered with paid ads, yet I haven't received any normal ads lately. Not to mention the ads that I have bought aren't getting seen because of these paid ads.

They say the ratio is 50/50, but think about it...if you go to a site that has at least 5 paid ads running and then the 1 normal ad, chances are you'll see the paid ad, and on top of that, unless you're willing to sit there and keep refreshing through the ads on a given blog, you probably won't get to the normal ad. To make thins worse, you can't even tell which ones are paid and which ones aren't.

I really wish the powers that be at entrecard would come up with something better than this. As I said before, I understand they need to make money, but some of us joined with the intent of everything being free, and don't want to be subject to this Nazi-esque regime of paid ads. Perhaps they should do the most logical thing, have those that pay for ads be the ones that show paid ads and leave the rest of us be.

So, here's my decision about ads and entrecard in general...those that have paid ads running I will let you run your course, if you have been a faithful dropper in the past...other than that paid ads will NOT be run on my blog. So, for everyone else, don't be afraid to buy up some ad space. As far as I'm concerned, the blogger to blogger contact with no monetary involvement is better. This system doesn't sit well with me. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I have been growing ever more frustrated with entrecard and have thought of leaving more than once, this is seriously about to push me over the edge, but I want to see if they can right the ship.

While I'm thinking about it, has anyone else noticed that since they've started with the paid ad system, the site has been down almost daily? Isn't the whole purpose of this thing to make money for upgrades and such? Apparently it's not working!

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother!