Sure, it’s in their terms…you have to keep your blog updated, but why? People that advertise on my blog still get traffic from targeted readers. Although many of my post are older now the information in many is still valid. The same people that were once interested when the posts were first posted would likely still be interested in the same post now. So why does EntreCard care if I have up to the minute post on my site? As long as the people who choose to advertise on my blog are happy then why should they care when my last post was? And it’s not like it cost very many credits at all to advertise on my site with EntreCard.

So, I’m curious if others still feel EntreCard is even worth having on my site. I’ve built up credits so I could go on an ad-blitz sometime in the future so haven’t even actually used my credits…ever. So in essence they have gotten free exposure and placement for their members all this time and now they want to cut me off. Should I care? Or should I just delete them now and not bother with it anymore and stop the free spot they have gotten all this time?

Just looking for opinions really.

Dear “publisher”,

ShoppingAds is undergoing a revamping and in the process has redefined the requirements of quality and traffic volume for the publishers we work with. Due to this restructuring, we regret to inform you that we have had to deactivate your account moving forward. If you have remaining earnings in your account from your last payout. You needn’t worry- you WILL be paid on or after our next payout date, March 1st, 2009.

Thank you kindly for your cooperation, and good luck with your future marketing endeavors.

The ShoppingAds Team.

my reply

That’s great news! That means I don’t have to put your shitty app on my sites again to hit the payment threshold. I was wondering how to get my money from you without having to support your network and this works out just right.

Thanks much for the great news!

Were you one of the ones who was still running ShoppingAds and are now left without an ad network to use? Here are a few shopping ads alternatives.

ShoppingAds Alternatives

TTZmedia – a lot like shopping ads, or better yet how auction ads used to be. TTZ is owned by John Chow as well so if they screw you then you should have some great linkbait lol.

Here is an example…as you can see, it works a lot like shopping ads:

Amazon Associates – If you somehow never signed up for amazons affiliate program it might be a good choice as an alternative for shopping ads. They actually have a ton of newer tools to make it super easy to promote amazon items. I absolutely LOVE the newer “site stripe” which is basically just a header bar that shows up when you are signed in…then you just find pages of items you want to promote and click the button in the header and it automatically creates an affiliate link for you that you paste into your blog. SOOOO very easy to do when you are doing niche blogging or just want to link to a book real fast.

Here is an example of one of their many widgets:

Ebay Partner Network – they also have newer widgets and tools to promote their auctions.

Here is an example of one:

And lastly, CJ has a TON of advertisers to choose from. Might not be as easy as just throwing a widget up on your blog/site and letting it automatically display “related” items, but to be honest, this is probably where the most money is to be made with this kind of thing. If you know your audience, know your niche and know what they want you should be able to put super targeted products/services on the site which could really convert for you. I loved the ease of the widgets myself but after dealing with shoppingads/auctionads and getting ripped off by not getting credit for clicks and such, I’m starting to see that being lazy was costing me…though that seems like it should have been obvious for some reason lol.

I’m a nobody in the marketing sector and know less than most when it comes to affiliate marketing. But I’m experienced enough to see when someone bitches out. And in my opinion, Amit completely bitched out with his post about efficientPPC a while back.

I had been reading various reviews on both efficientPPC and speedppc for a couple weeks trying to decide between the two. Being a broke noob, I couldn’t afford both and I’m not even close to A-list freebie whore level yet.

Almost every REAL review I read showed why speedppc was the better of the two because of the many extra features and probably because it was the “original”. EfficientPPC was/is basically just a copy-cat. For my money I’d rather pay for and support someone who actually has some good original ideas. Otherwise you end up with software that is always trying to play catch up while the innovator comes up with the real ideas.

Now, I haven’t tried efficientppc myself so I can’t do a full side-by-side comparison myself and not even sure if I’d want to spend my time doing that. But based on the feature sets, actual user reviews of both apps and knowing that speedppc was the original is enough to make me choose it. Price is also up in the air because SppedPPC is a one time fee and while effiecientPPC has a one time fee that is a bit cheaper if you opt for the low initial payment with the monthly charges it could easily become much more expensive. All while getting a lot less features than SpeedPPC.

So why do I care if Amit would be biased towards his friends product since I am obviously biased towards SpeedPPC? Because he wrote this:

“Anyhow, I’m excited to announce that Felix has just released a new tool to build your PPC campaign at blazing speeds, called Efficient PPC, that puts speed ppc to shame.”

Why am I calling him out here? Because I tried calling him out on his blog but he was too much of a puss to let it through moderation and reply to it. I asked him what exactly it was that made efficient PPC put speed ppc to shame and basically said he was full of shit. I told him that I’d like to see a real review from him where he actually did a side-by-side review so he could show us why he feels Efficient PPC “puts speed ppc to shame”.

I don’t really care if he just wanted to pimp his friends software. I mean that is pretty much the way things work but for him to claim it is so much better and bitch out an not post my comment, well, I thought it was worth posting about.

I’m sure SpeedPPC would be open to providing their software for such a comparison, after all, it does have more features and is more useful. But my guess is Amit won’t be willing to do it considering him avoiding even my comment.

I’m obviously pretty biased about SpeedPPC but not because I am pimping a friend out but because it is a better value according to the many reviews I read. I also don’t have any problems adding my affiliate link for SpeedPPC since it’s a product that I honestly feel is good and worth it. But I don’t make any silly claims on behalf of my friend and if reading reviews isn’t enough for you then I would suggest that you try both out and compare them yourself.

If you are interested in one of these, here are the two places to start. It’s each of the site owners feature list where they compare their own software against the competitor/s. Of course you should be able to read between the lines where each highlights their advantages and ignores the parts where they don’t match up to the competition. But also look for what seems like conveneint missing features that the other software has.

SpeedPPC comparison chart
EfficientPPC comparison chart

Then make sure you spend some time reading real review of both, ideally from real people that have used both. It may be harder to find reviews that are not biased by the affiliate programs that each offers of course but there are some out there from well known marketers who did reviews without even using affiliate links. My post is an honest opinion, regardless of the affiliate link , but I haven’t actually used both so can’t compare them in a fair way. Of course, as should be obvious from my biased post, I did decide to go with SpeedPPC and completely happy that I did. I wonder if those that bought EfficientPPC based on Amits glorious review are as happy with their purchases.

But what I think disappointed me the most this year is they seem to have scrooged me on Christmas!

Last year, I was still pretty new to AdSense and I only earned a little bit in the last few months of the year. I didn’t earn enough to get the digital photo frame Google gave out to so many people for Christmas last year but I did get a nice Christmas card which let me know they at least knew my name.

This year, I made quite a bit more. Not “super affiliate” type earnings but more than I thought was the minimum amount needed to be considered worth of a gift. So I was excited thinking I would be getting the cool Google USB card drive that everyone else was getting and blogging about. I was sure I would finally get to see what it was like to be appreciated enough by Google to get a cool Christmas gift and couldn’t wait to blog about it and then show my non-web friends how much THE Google loved me.

I didn’t even get a card to hang on the wall this year. Thanks for ruining Christmas Google!

It was rubbed in even more over the last few weeks because I kept seeing everyone else blogging about all the great stuff all their various networks sent them. Matt Cutts even sent Tamar an awesome looking Google beanbag chair! Not fair Google! And I know you aren’t broke because I see my dwindling checks and know you are not paying me anything extra these days.

But I still love you and I still love schwag and will hope for something special this year that I can actually show off and be proud of.

Here comes Santa
It just so happens that there is a very cool piece of Google schwag that I have a chance of getting my grubby little hands on regardless of being left out of Google’s reindeer games. Not that Google would be so kind to send me but rather the very cheery and generous Dan Perry is holding a fun little contest giving away his awesome mini Google fridge. From what I understand, these are given to AdWords advertisers who spend a bundle so, if true, odds are I wouldn’t be able to get one of these cool mini fridges any other way.

How do I win it? To win, you…I mean, I, just have to write a post and submit it and if the judges think I worthy, I get a cool late xmas gift…you know, since Google doesn’t have time for all of us…

You can read more about how to enter, as well as see some great various schwag on the blog of one of the judges, Tamar Weinberg.

Writing to Santa
So, because I definitely want an awesome mini fridge with the Google logo on it to remind me of their cold heart come next xmas (I’m definitely not sending “G” shaped fudge pieces to them this year), I’ll share what I will be using it for and why I need it.

Mojo Stalking
Ever since I read the “Hairdoll Secrets: Entangling Success” ebook I have been working on my strategies and building my dolls. Of course, for those that read it, it states in “chapter 7: Hairdoll Maintenance”, that it is important to keep your hairdolls cool and dry to better preserve them. I think a mini Google fridge would work out perfect for that!

I can’t even remember where I bought it from (probably from Joel Comm, that guy will sell anything!), but it has changed my way of thinking. For those that have yet had the priveledge of reading it, the basic foundation is to succeed in any business it is important to build your very own hairdolls of those around you who are already successful, preferably with their own fallen locks. Obviously, this takes time but eventually you get a decent representation and if using authentic strands, the power can be amazing. I know what you are thinking but don’t worry, it isn’t some kind of creepy “voodoo magic”…those guys are sick in the head.

After reading the 349 page ebook you learn about capturing some of the successful persons mojo and binding it into your very own hairdoll to control and obtain complete dominance. I mean, I am already seeing postive results…ever since starting to make my hairdolls, my friends have been forfeiting poker nights and don’t even want to come over because they know they will lose. Just think of how it affects your competition who doesn’t have hairdolls, or who don’t take enough pride to get authentic A-list celeb hair! You will surely rank higher than someone if your hair doll is made out of real John Chow hair and theirs isn’t. Of course that is common sense but the ebook is packed with other great info and tips. Best ebook I have paid for yet and I have bought a lot of crappy ebooks! Honestly a steal at just $247!

So, to make sure all my hard work isn’t wasted, if I won, I would be using the cool mini fridge to help preserve my hairdolls. I could probably also keep a can or two of Dew chilled as well since there looks to be ample room even with the dolls in there.

I haven’t had time to collect the materials needed to make my Dan Perry hairdoll yet so not sure how well I will do in this contest but figured it was worth trying anyway and he is a genuinely nice guy so might as well throw him some link love (Matt, Dan did not pay for any links on this blog so don’t screw me over!).

But here are my 3 hairdolls I have started so you can get an idea of how well they work out.

Matt Cutts Hairdoll:

John Chow Hairdoll:

Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker Hairdoll:

For everyone else that bought the Hairdoll ebook, feel free to post your collection too!!!