For the past week I’ve been debating with myself (and it was a lively debate!) about dropping EntreCard from my sidebar.  At the beginning it was a great way for me to find other sites that were similar to mine, and get to see sites that I normally wouldn’t ever have stumbled upon.

But checking my stats, I’m wondering how many people are like me - you know drop a card, click that link, drop a card, click the link, etc - and don’t really hang around to take in the sites, but just bounce from one site to another.  I have to say that there are A LOT like me who do that - judging from the bounce rates I see in my stats.  That’s nice and everything - thanks for stopping by for 2 seconds - love ya… kiss.kiss.

I’m now thinking that EntreCard has run it’s course here and I won’t be accepting new cards.  I’m not saying never again - but it was a fun experiment and I’m looking to try new things.

I was never quite sure what the rage was to get/earn entrecard credits - I mean apart from trying to advertise on the “big name” sites - but whenever I tried, they were always booked.  So my entrecard credits just sit there.   I would spend them on the lower credit sites, and then they’d build back up and try, try again I never had any luck advertising on the big names.

John Cow has also given up EntreCard - you can read what he has to say about that over here.

So the one side of my brain that said “drop Entrecard” won.  No more requests will be taken.  Once everyone has advertised that is still in the queue I’m taking it down.

C’est la vie!

Popularity: 9% [?]

I’ve been using EntreCard for a few weeks now and it’s been an eye-opener.   I seriously didn’t think that because it was a free service, and that the site(s) I’ve got in there aren’t crazy and out to lunch I would get too many rejection notices.

Lately I’ve been getting a lot.

WTF?

I’m not exactly advertising my card on strange niches… I think people are becoming more competitive.  LOL.  I guess I’ll have to whip the boot out and start punting right back.  The strange thing is -  one such character advertises on my site - then I try to do the same on his.  He then goes on to REJECT my ad.  What an asshole.  But I guess I can’t get too bent out of shape - since it’s a free service and all… but damn.  Now people are starting to play this a little more.  One rejection punted my “business card” because I had requested too often - I did it twice.  Maybe it was two in a row.  Heaven help me.  But I got the boot from there too.

I’ve actually been approving everyone up to this point.   Maybe I need to get picky.  But currently I just don’t see the point.  It’s a free service.  If you have a site that isn’t complete shit then I’ll approve you.  What the hell.  Someone out there reading this site, might click and actually enjoy it.

Whatever.  Get over it.  I’m moving on

Popularity: 8% [?]

There are tons of designs available for us out there when it comes to skinning our Blogs. I’ve been working on a few designs myself and I’m always downloading the freebies when I see them, because you never know when something like that would come in handy for your next project and you don’t have time to design or buy.

But here’s my question to you.

For your next project:

a. Would you be more inclined to use a freebie theme (that you and hundreds of others might have).

b. Would you purchase a pre-made design?

c. Would you go completely custom and hire a designer to make you one?

I’m leaning more towards going for a pre-made one and then tweaking it myself.  The custom sites are a bit more expensive, and I don’t think I would personally do that myself until I knew the site was taking off, or that I was super passionate about the subject and wanted to individualize it. I guess it really depends on the situation…

What do you do?

Popularity: 7% [?]

Over at How to Geek, they’ve created a pretty nifty WordPress plugin that will work on your dashboard (much like Google Mail… which they used as the basis of this plugin).   This plugin will alert you when someone has commented on your blog.  I’m not sure if it’s an exclusive - 1 blog plugin sort of thing or if you can have multiple blogs.

I’m not sure I’ll be using it any time soon - since I’m finding myself already WAY TO DISTRACTED with stats, posts, rss feeds and all that stuff.  But if you like to be notified as soon as someone has commented, this might be what you’re looking for.

… um to call this a plugin… I’m not sure if I’m using the right term - but it will alert you to comments on your computer much like Google Mail does.

Check out the nifty WordPress Comment Alert thingy here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

… I’m trying to break out of the “all eggs in one basket” idea and try my hand at doing an ecommerce site.  I’ve looked into the different programs out there like zencart, oscommerce and other free ecommerce programs available to me to try my hand at selling things online.

Now I have a paypal account handy and I love it because pretty much every place that sells something has paypal as an option.  But I’m thinking of trying to expand on it - do I go with google’s payment system.  Do I try my hand at going with a company that specializes with online transactions - to try to make myself seem “bigger” than I really am - maybe to give people more options, look more business-like.

I’m just rambling here.  I know through my day job it’s hard to find a good system to process - and I’m worried, about cost.  I’m worried about how easy something like that would be to load up on my site.  Oh hell, is my site even big enough to bother.

I’m not sure.. so I did a little digging around and found a couple of ecommerce providers and one was First Data who offers free merchant software.   I’m all about the “free” word - especially if I’m just starting out selling.  Because I’m trying to get back into doing some fun things in my spare time, I thought of something I could make - one of a kind or limited quantity knic-knacks I could make, and like to do, but I don’t want to be spending tons of cash to keep it going - it wouldn’t work for this project.

So I thought I’d see what these guys had - since I’ve not ventured much past paypal for online options.   The first thing I liked when I read their info was that it would be processed on their servers - more security - less hassle for me    I had the option of offering products through a shopping cart or direct sales from my site - this might work well, because I want to run my knic-knack site from a wordpress layout.  Which leads to other questions, I’d probably have to ask them if I went ahead with it.

As I read through it, I thought they carried much of the same as PayPal - in terms of what they accept, 24-hour support and all that stuff that goes along with a merchant provider.  So  I went to see what their fees were for this offer and they guarantee low rates - but didn’t mention them online.  I’m not sure I like that part - but I also know that the form I would have to fill out - to find out the rates - if it would be worth my while, would build up their potential client base.  I felt a bit… wrangled.  But I also would probably do the same sort of layout if I were them too.

I don’t know if I’m going to go this way - paypal just seem so much easier for the time being, until maybe I start making decent money and then move on… or if I have tons of transactions a month - then something like this would definitely be worth my while.

Popularity: 3% [?]