This is not a rant against Entrecard--I still think it is a pretty good (free) way to get some extra traffic if you are a new blogger or don't yet have much of a following. I also appreciate the blogs I found through EC.
I tried to be optimistic about the changes. I thought the paid ads would mean we'd keep more of our credits. But it just seems I'm getting less and less from EC.
I'll give you an example:
My fitness blog now gets between 800-1000 hits a day. My ad value never seemed to go up with the traffic.
Speaking of traffic, here's a sample of some of the clicks I got from advertising:
30-40 hits per ad just doesn't seem like a good exchange for a premier spot on all of my blogs (especially when you don't get to run an ad every day).
Here's a sample of "organic clicks"--clicks received directly from the EC website:
I'll admit that some of this is my fault--I have done very little clicking lately. But that's another reason I'm leaving EC--I don't have time to click and earn points.
In short, using EC was feeling too much like working for someone else's profit. I completely understand why they started running paid ads, but the changes haven't been good for me.
Goodbye for now, Entrecard. Maybe some day I'll come back.
Soon I'll try to do a post comparing several of the 125 banner exchange programs.