Trying Entrecard Again?

I'm signing up for Entrecard again.  I will not use it for all my blogs, but I'll start with this one and see where it goes from there.

I know a lot of the hard-core droppers like to hit EC and Adgitize, killing two birds with one stone.  I'd put all the banners in the same place and make it easy for them.

I will not be investing nearly as much time on EC as I did before, but I'm willing to see how it's working under the new management.

Entrecard: Paid Ads Coming Back?

I got this email today from Entrecard:

We are pleased that many members are taking advantage of Entrecard services and that Entrecard is able to help users increase traffic to their blog. However in order to continue providing this free service, we will be taking 15% of our entire ad network inventory for sponsors as of Sept. 28, 09. This is a standard business model used by free advertising networks. The revenues generated by our sponsors will help cover overhead expenses and keep our service free to all our members for years to come. To keep things simple and fair, all ads will be distributed evenly in our network. We are currently working on a feature that will allow users to disable sponsor ads that may conflict with their blog. This will be available in a few weeks.


Please be assured that we will screen all sponsor ads to ensure that they meet our guidelines. All sponsor ads WILL be family oriented, and will not promote nudity, violence or anything illegal.

So paid ads are coming back? I guess it's better than that 50/50 split they had before, but I'm still not coming back to EC anytime soon.

Entrecard: No Credit for Receiving a Drop

Got this email today from EntreCard:

We have noticed that the total number of Entrecard credits in the system has grown rapidly. This has been due to the fact that more credits are being created than credits are leaving the system. If this inflation continues, Entrecard credits will be worth less and less. To ensure a stable credit economy and reduce the outstanding credits, Entrecard will no longer give Entrecard credits to the person receiving a drop. In other words, instead of awarding 2 credits for each drop (one to the dropper and one to the blog site owner), only 1 credit will be given to the dropper. This change will be effective September 1, 2009 and will last until further notice.

I didn't spend much time dropping back when I was using EC, so this further confirms my decision to leave. 

It seems EC just can't get rid of the credit inflation problem. 

Entrecard: Goodbye, Paid Ads

Just as I leave EC, paid ads disappear.  They announced it on their blog a few days ago. 

So should I put all those widgets back on my blog?  I'm not planning on it right now.  I'm open to the idea of using EC again, but I'd really like to see what the new management does first. 

Entrecard has been Acquired by Ziprunner

Got this in my email:

Dear Entrecarders,
It is with great excitement that I announce Entrecard.com, Inc. has
been acquired by Los Angeles based ZipRunner Inc.

ZipRunner has the resources, vision, and dedication to Entrecard that
will allow it to grow in pursuit of the vision I laid out nearly two
years ago.

Moving forward, my relationship to Entrecard will be that of an
adviser, and I will help the good folks at ZipRunner take the whole
project to the next level. Expect a follow up communication from them very soon.

ZipRunner Inc. was chosen out of a number of potential suitors because
of the resources they can dedicate to the project, their exciting
vision for the company's future, and their understanding of social
media and the blogosphere.

I urge you all to look forward to a bigger, better Entrecard, and I
couldn't be more proud to bring it to this point before passing the
torch. I've heard first hand all the great things that are in store
for the company and it's members, and needless to say it has me quite
excited.

If you would like to keep in touch with me in the future, your can
find me at my new blog Ontrapranore.com where I look forward to
sharing my stories of entrepreneurship and starting/running internet
companies.

Whether you love or hate the decisions I've made for Entrecard in the
past, I always did the best I could to move the company forward given
the resources I had, and I always had the best interest of the members
in mind. Now, with new management and ownership stepping in, I urge
anyone who has left the service to give it another chance, and I urge
those who have been loyal members for days, weeks, months, or years to
look forward to a brighter future, a reliable and stable service, and
great new features and strategic direction.

Signing Off,
Graham Langdon
Founder of Entrecard

Ontrapranore 

So what does this mean for EC?   I have no idea.  I'll try to keep checking their website.  If any really good changes come about, I'll consider rejoining (not holding my breath). 

Goodbye, Entrecard

Well, I've officially said "goodbye" to Entrecard--at least for now.

This is not a rant against Entrecard--I still think it is a pretty good (free) way to get some extra traffic if you are a new blogger or don't yet have much of a following.   I also appreciate the blogs I found through EC.   
 
I tried to be optimistic about the changes.  I thought the paid ads would mean we'd keep more of our credits.  But it just seems I'm getting less and less from EC. 

I'll give you an example:

My fitness blog now gets between 800-1000 hits a day. My ad value never seemed to go up with the traffic.

Speaking of traffic, here's a sample of some of the clicks I got from advertising:

30-40 hits per ad just doesn't seem like a good exchange for a premier spot on all of my blogs (especially when you don't get to run an ad every day).

Here's a sample of "organic clicks"--clicks received directly from the EC website:

Again--not very high.

I'll admit that some of this is my fault--I have done very little clicking lately.  But that's another reason I'm leaving EC--I don't have time to click and earn points.

In short, using EC was feeling too much like working for someone else's profit.  I completely understand why they started running paid ads, but the changes haven't been good for me.

Goodbye for now, Entrecard.  Maybe some day I'll come back. 

Soon I'll try to do a post comparing several of the 125 banner exchange programs.

Entrecard to "Take Action Against the Bounce Rate"

One thing that's always been a concern with EC is the high "bounce rate"--people stopping by your blog just long enough to earn a click.  Entrecard has just made this announcent on their blog:

Starting soon, “dropping and running” will no longer give you credit. We are developing a proprietary algorithm to determine whether or not you engaged in the blog you visitied in some way. If you did not engage in the blog, you will not get credit. We won’t be disclosing exactly the algorithm we use, so that people can’t game it easily.

You can read the whole post here.

I'm not really sure what to think of this.  As I've mentioned before, traffic is traffic--I don't think it is EC's job to make sure people hang around one of my blogs.  I'm afraid this technological intervention is going to cause more problems than it resolves.

I'm still not sure how much longer I'll keep using EC.  I thought all the changes would mean we (the bloggers) would be able to keep more of our credits.  It still hasn't happened.  Right now I don't really see that I'm getting much traffic out of EC.

Should I Try CMF Ads?

I'm seriously considering trying CMF Ads on some (or all) of my blogs.  You can click here to see a review and comparison of CMF with Entrecard (EC). 

Does this mean I'll stop using EC?  I haven't decided yet. 

Entrecard Updates

If you've checked the Entrecard blog you've noticed a couple of new things:

1.  They are cashing out credits.

My thoughts:  I'm glad to see this, but when will EC be able to give us full credits for ads purchased on our site?  I thought the cash-out would elliminate "credit inflation" and allow all credits paid to go to members.

2.  Only EC blogs are allowed to be paid advertisers.

My thoughts:  I really liked this move.  Not only does it award loyal EC members, but it seems it would help with click-through-rate on ads:  I'm more likely to check out an ad if I know I can earn a click point.

But I've noticed something else:  it seems the credit value of my blogs have gone down lately.  In other words, people just aren't willing to "pay" as much to advertise--even on my fitness blog, which gets about 1,000 hits a day.  Anyone else notice this, or is just me? 

Entrecard and Adgitize: Traffic is Traffic

More thoughts on Entrecard and Adgitize.

One criticism of banner exchange programs (such as EC and Adgitize) is that members drop by your blog only to earn click credits.  I do understand this concern.  But here's the way I see it:

*For a brand new (or obscure) blogger, any form of traffic is better than getting just a handful of hits a day.

*If someone visits my blog and has no incentive to stay, that's my fault--something is lacking in my content.

In other words, EC and Adgitize do a pretty decent job of bringing extra traffic to your website.  But high quality content is what will keep readers there, and that is your responsibility.

Another Perk to Adgitize: More Entrecard Drops

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems my Entrecard drops have gone up since I started running Adgitize campaigns.  I think it's because many bloggers like to click both Adgitize and EC (the proverbial two birds with one stone).  Anyone else noticed this?

Entrecard: Random Thoughts

Entrecard is still working pretty well for me.  Some of my ad placements still get a pretty good number of clicks--free traffic is always a good thing.  I also get "organic" traffic (traffic from the EC website itself).

Here are more completely random thoughts on EC:

*I've noticed less paid advertisers since EC went up on their rates.  I wonder if they'll eventually have to go back down a bit.  I'm glad I ran a little campaign back when it was 2 cents per click--that was a steal.

*I've declined a few advertisers, but not that many.  So far I'm fairly pleased with the quality of paid advertisers.

*I really hoping EC will keep buying up credits and get them out of the system.  This should reduce inflation and allow us to keep more of our credits earned through advertising (vs the current system in which 75% of your credits just "disappear" in transactions).

*I still find some pretty neat blogs/bloggers through EC.

*I haven't spent as much time dropping lately.  It doesn't really have much to do with the changes--I just haven't made the time to do it. 

What about you?  How have the changes at EC impacted you?

Entrecard Paid Rates Go Up

Entrecard has doubled their paid rates.  In order to be fair to existing customers, they have doubled our balances.  This is fair enough and makes sense to me--I'll still get the same number of clicks.

I probably won't run another campaign--4 cents per click is a bit steep for me.  But I don't blame EC.  They are simply following the rules of supply and demand, and 2 cents per click was a steal.

I think the more profitable Entrecard becomes the better it will be for the users.

Paid Campaigns on Entrecard

I'm going to run a paid campaign on Entrecard.  2 cents per click is really a good deal, especially for banner ads.  But there's another benefit I didn't even think of--free traffic and clicks!

Here's what I mean:

As soon as I started running my ad I saw this when I checked statcounter:

If I understand this correctly, these are clicks from members deciding whether or not to approve my ad.  I imagine they clicked my EC button before they left (that's what I do if a potential advertiser is an EC member).  I assume these clicks don't count against my pay-per-click, so it's extra free traffic.

I never thought about this before, but this is another nice perk of running a paid campaign on EC. 

Entrecard, Monetized

Looks like Entrecard is now monetized.  It's easy enough to reject ads--there's a column where you can choose.

So far I've only rejected one paid ad.  I think EC won't have a big problem with too many ads being rejected.  

You can also go into your advert settings and set it to run only ads you approve.

I hope this works out for the folks at EC.

Entrecard: More Thoughts on the Changes

Here's another good thing that could come out of the Entrecard changes:  inflation control.

As you know, 75% of your credits just "disappear" when you buy an ad spot.  Let's say someone buys your ad slot for 64 credits.  48 of those credits just vanish--you get the remaining 16.  EC does this to control "credit inflation."

Maybe they won't have to do this after the system changes.  I like the idea of keeping more credits, and I think it could happen.  Let's say only 50% of the credits disappear--or what if none of them disappear?

I'm not sure this will happen, but it is a possibility.  

Entrecard Update

I just happened to read the Entrecard Blog today.  Here are a few things I noticed. 

1.  They will not allow ads for gambling, adult websites, etc.
2.  They will not charge a credit fee for rejecting ads (they've responded to feedback from the bloggers).
3.  They are not requiring all bloggers to put their ad "above the fold."  The rule has been changed to "one page down," meaning within one stroke of the page down key.

This is good news for me--my greatest concern was paying credits for rejecting ads.  I'll be as flexible as I can with allowing ads, provided they don't go against my conscience.

Big Changes with Entrecard

I'm sure everyone has received the email:  Entrecard will begin accepting third party paid advertisements and make part of their system money based (vs purely credit based).  Here's a summary from their mass email:

You can boil this down to the following 4 bullet points:

1. In a week, we're launching an ad network where anyone can advertise through Entrecard widgets for CPM rates. This can be run of network advertising, or targeted by category. We are making available 50% of our inventory, or approximately 40 million monthly impressions.
2. With the money we make, we are going to buy credits back from you. You will be allowed to sell credits via your dashboard, and we will devote 75% of daily sales to buying credits back.
3. The economy will no longer be in a state of inflation, but rather in deflation which means your credits will gradually start becoming more valuable.
4. For all this to work, we must institute an above-the-fold rule, which goes into effect in a weeks.

Here are the major problems I'm concerned about:

1.  You have to pay a credit fee to reject paid advertisers:


We will continue to allow you to reject any ad you wish. However, to reject ads from paying advertisers, you will need to pay a credit fee for each ad you wish to reject. We don't know how much this will be just yet.

This REALLY stinks as far as I'm concerned.  I'm very particular about who advertises on my websites, and this might be a deal-breaker for me.

2.  You'll have to share your ad impressions with those who have paid money to advertise. 

Whereas before, when you purchased an ad, you were buying a minimum of 100% of the impressions, you are now buying a minimum of 50%. However, the maximum is still 100% of the impressions, because if we have no ads booked for that category, or for the network, for any given day, you will still get all of the impressions.

You'll be sharing as much as 50% of your ad time with third parties who have paid for advertising.

I do see one advantage to the typical entrecard user:  the ability to trade credits for money.  Entrecard plans to buy back some of the users' credits:

With the money we make selling as much as 50% of our network impressions, we will purchase your credits from you, and delete them from the system. This means we're going to let you sell credits for cash, right from your dashboard! 

I'm not going to jump to any conclusions--I'll wait and see how this works out.

What do you think?  Is this a new birth or the death of Entrecard?

24 Hour Cooloff on Entrecard

Not really sure why this happened.  I don't see anything about it on the EC blog.

Entrecard Time-Saving Tip

I can be picky about my advertisers.  But until recently I didn't realize I could automatically approve anyone that I've allowed to advertise before.  Just go to advert settings in your dashboard:

Now, click both of the options, including Accept ads automatically if they have been approved previously. 

I wasn't aware of this when I first started using EC, so I was having to go back and re-approve blogs that wanted to advertise a second time.   This setting keeps me from having to manually approve trusted advertisers.