Today.com - Why They Suck

today.com SUCKS

You most likely know by now that Today.com canceled my account.

I have said little about it here until now for two reasons.

1) They canceled my account March 27th and I would not be paid until April 13th.
2) There were a few unpublished posts I had on my account that I wanted back.

My notice of cancellation was slightly different than those who are sharing it on their blogs. Mine said:

We regret to inform you that your VIP account with Today.com has been
canceled. We feel that your blog is no longer a good match for the
Today.com VIP program.
We wish you luck in your future blogging endeavors. Your final payment
will be sent on our next pay date: 4/10/09

Best Regards,
Today.com Support

The reason that I was extremely caught off guard was because there were no warning signs.

I had never had a pay reduction, where others had. I was still receiving the $1 per post and $2 per 1000 impressions.

That led me to believe that my blog must be working well for them, otherwise, I'd have had the pay cut that so many were complaining about.

The only thing I could think of that caused this action was that I somehow pissed them off with my last post, which they deleted.

All the post said was that they were no longer allowing us to use Entrecard because they don't allow 3rd party paid ads. I also said that this news plus the fact that at the time I didn't have a computer I could use regularly would cause me to blog less often, which made me sad.

I also had posted in the forum that I didn't understand why they were forcing us to lose Entrecard when we had the choice to deny the paid ads and that I get a big chunk of my traffic from EC.

That's it.

No big statements of distaste. No rebellious actions. I said one little thing that they didn't like and so long 30something.

When this first happened, I was beyond outraged. Then I thought, well, I had been considering giving up blogging because my computer was not working and it had become such a pain with Today.com anyway, so maybe it was a sign.

As the days passed, I started to feel this tremendous pull and guilt.

I knew there were readers who had been keeping up with various posts, but at that moment, about my grandma's party. There was guilt for just disappearing.

I knew I would really miss some of my blog friends, so there was guilt for that.

I felt guilty for ending my creative outlet.

And then, the warrior in me took over. In case you don't know, my name is Gaelic for Warrior Woman. I am pretty even-keeled, but if something pushes me too far or I feel wronged, the warrior is unleashed.

I decided that they were not going to stop me from blogging. I had learned enough from them to do it on my own. So what if I didn't have a steady pay from it, even though I could really use the money.

I was calculated in starting my blog and what little I said or did.

I was testing the waters as well.

Now that I got my last payday and got my unpublished blogs back, I have no reason to stay silent.

If they could simply cut someone like myself off with no warning, what about others who did have there pay reduced?

What about blogs like who had regularly brought them mass amounts of traffic? Who they praised constantly?

Whether you said something minor or threw an all out tantrum, they put a target on your blog and out you go.

Less than a week after they canceled my account, they sent me an email offering me a "great rate" for advertising on Today.com.

That pissed me off! You cancel my account, do not respond to my inquiries about why I was canceled, but you are offering me a great deal to advertise on Today.com?

While I was looking for advertising opportunities, it was more for those who would advertise on my site, not vice versa.

But really, do you think I would trust them enough to pay to advertise with Today.com? Having been on the inside and seen the issues they were having with advertising and the way they treat their bloggers, do you really think I would give them money and expect them to do what they say they will?

Today.com offers false advertisement and censorship. They offer great money making opportunities, but they lie. They limit what you can do, who you can network with, what you can say, how you can say it and they DO NOT pay the $2 ppm like they say. They only pay for traffic from places they think worthy of paying. Other traffic generators do not get you paid at all or you get a lower rate.

They want you to peddle goods with their affiliate links. They want you to refer others to them. But you say one thing questioning their decisions and they cancel your account without warning.

They make your account inactive, not your blog. They can assign someone to take over your blog! If you leave on your own accord or they throw you out, they not only take your content, they take your reputation as a blogger and can do what they want with your blog going forward.

DO NOT BLOG FOR TODAY.com! They mislead you and then steal your content. DO NOT ADVERTISE WITH TODAY.com unless you want no results and you want to be affiliated with a company that is dishonest and CENSORS its writers!

One of the things that really upsets me about being locked out of my account, even 3 weeks later, is that I have no access to my comments.

What I mean is that there are some regular readers who did not have a blog to link back to, they only left an email address with their name and now, I have no way to find them and tell them that I am still here.

In addition to that, I am mad that I cannot get those emails for comments I still get regarding my ductogram and biopsy last fall.

I still get comments from women who are told they need a ductogram and are looking to find out what the experience is like and for an outlet. I respond to them via email and have often developed a friendship. I have no way to respond to them now. That actually hurts me.

I did try to leave a comment on my last post to tell people where I am, but the Today.com Nazi's deleted it.

Flit over at Just Flitting has posted some things you should do if you have been exiled like we have or if you fear you will be....

Since I could not do some of these things BEFORE leaving, I did what I could after the fact. I have copied and saved all my old posts in case they go belly-up. I also went through a ton of my comments on there clicking on the links to let those bloggers know where I am now in case they didn't already find me.

I also deleted all my photobucket photos that were on there to make it look as ugly as possible.

Those of us who were exiled or left knowing they eventually would be have banned together. Many of us have created blogrolls of Today.com exiles. Hospitalera has a post listing those of us that left. Lost for a reason has a post with a huge thread of comments from ex-today bloggers. (Check out the Today blogroll to the right for more)

There is even a blog for those of us that have been exiled, Today.com Exiles.

I still visit some of the Today blogs because I like those blogs, but more importantly I like those bloggers. I won't punish them for what Today.com has done.