Shame on you Entrecard!

Someone at Entrecard has been moving the goalposts, or else they can't count.

The guidelines say quite clearly that there have to be 5 posts within a 3 month period. A few days ago I received an email from admin that they had deleted one of my other blogs that had been in existence and on entrecard for barely 6 weeks.
They say 'quality posts'. The definition of 'quality' is nowhere to be found except in negatives about what you CANNOT have (like nudity, hatred, illegal download links and so on) and my blog doesn't fall into any of those categories, in any way shape or form.

There is another vague and ambiguous rule that talks about affiliate links. My blog had ONE affiliate post and a number of other links that gave additional information about the product.

Nor have I been notified either directly by a reader or by Entrecard that there has been any complaint about content or posting frequency - this action has come totally out of the blue.

While some sites are allowed to stay on Entrecard indefinitely even though they have no widget, mine gets deleted without warning although it had a valid widget on there from day 1. If I find a site without a widget or with content I consider boring or trivial, I just move on. I don't write angry emails and say it should be removed. From now onwards if I find ANY reason to object to a blog I come across, I'll do it, and those without widgets are going to be top of my list.

Entrecard's direct response was non-existent, so I moved my enquiries to the forum. The answers I got were very far from satisfactory. They have now blocked the original URL, so I have created a new blog, imported all the posts and will eventually put it back in my links list. But not just yet.

I have big issues with the way that Entrecard define and apply their rules, especially the 'quality' definition, which IMO should be totally removed. It is the opinions of the Entrecard COMMUNITY that is the measure of whether a blog belongs there or not.

They have categories for both Internet Marketing and Make Money Online - and others that have a high proportion of blogs which promote one product or a whole array via affiliate links. Why have these categories, then remove a blog because it is alleged to have affiliate links in more than 50% of its posts - which incidentally was never the case. Hot Choc Profits promotes a single product, but the affiliate link only ever appeared once, the other links are informational.

I have changed the content of the posts around a bit today, putting all the links in just one post.

However there is another issue which I think may have prompted the attention of Entrecard's admin in the first place. I made the first post on Hot Choc Profits sticky by changing the date to one a long time in the future, Now, if they have some automated checking mechanism, it may have triggered a report that there were not 5 posts in the last 3 months.

I've seen 'how to' for making Wordpress posts sticky, but not for Blogger - other than the date change method which I never really liked.

My fledgeling business really needs the attention that Entrecard can supply and the only reason I hadn't posted more often is that I have had a very bad dose of flu and I'm also suffering from depression. I haven't done a lot of dropping, posting or even been online that much at all for a couple of weeks.

If you have asked to advertise and not had a reply, I'm sorry. Ditto, if you have dropped and not had a drop back for a while. I've had ads pending for weeks and weeks till I have deleted them and no response or apologies whatever from the blog owners. My average response time for ads on any of my Entrecard linked blogs is less than 3 days. I have an automated acceptance for people who have advertised with me before.

In conclusion, I would appreciate if visitors here would visit Hot Choc Profits and say in a comment whether in YOUR opinion it deserves to carry an Entrecard widget. Thanks and a very Happy New Year!