Irrelevant?

So..I get a lot of my traffic now through Entrecard. I'm very happy for it because I have gotten a lot of comments and readers through EC that I otherwise would not have gotten. I also get a lot of "drive-by" traffic from those that only drop and don't read. I don't really mind that at all. For every one of those types of droppers, there is one out there who actually stops to read every once in a while if I happen to post a discussion they are interested in. I like to read the blogs I drop on. If I see a post that interests me, I will most certainly stop, drop, and comment.

However, a big pet peeve of mine with regards to EC is the advertising. Not that this is any fault of EC...it's the other clients, customers, users, or whatever you want to call us EC people. I generally like to advertise, or at least attempt to purchase advertisements, on other blogs within the same overall category as mine. This has not happened yet under the category this blog is under. However, I do have another blog. I recently attempted to purchase advertisement on another blog under my same category. Could someone please tell me how my ad request could be denied because it was "irrelevant?"

If we are both in the same category, does that not automatically mean that our respective blogs are relevant to one another? Now, I can most certainly understand how me advertising this blog under a category of Health and Fitness would be irrelevant. But, how could advertising under a Politics category be irrelevant if both of our blogs are Politics related? I thought perhaps it was just a fluke, so, I tried again with the same blog. Yup..same denial.

I guess there's a reason why that individual's blog remains at the bottom of the popularity list as well as advertising rate staying at 16ec and below consistently. Here's a word of advise, if someone wants to spend their hard earned credits to advertise on your blog...especially when the blog that wants to advertise is in the top 10, you might want to consider allowing that blog to advertise. It will help to drive traffic back to your sight as well. When bloggers purchase ad spots on my blog, I try to reciprocate..assuming I have enough EC to purchase space on their blogs (I spend a lot of EC on advertising so sometimes I have to wait a few days to build it back up to buy in to the more popular blogs). In any case, I get the whole relevancy thing..but...if you are in the same blog category...the assumption is that it is relevant. Otherwise, if you don't think our blogs are compatible and relevant, and I know for sure that my blog belongs in that category, perhaps it is your blog that is in the wrong category and you should consider moving it.

Sorry for the rant...just had to get it off my chest!!!