Entrecard Tips

Entrecard Continues Nose Dive in Traffic

2009-11-12T12:15:00.001-05:00

October wasn't a good month for Entrecard. Unique visitors dropped by nearly 7% in the month, with a drop of about 2% in total visits. Traffic remains fairly high, but you can see the progression in traffic declines.

Coming off a high of more than 1.7 million visitors in March, traffic is now at 1.1 million, and ranking is down 200+ sites.

While these figures can't really be viewed as 100% accurate, they can still give a good idea of the overall direction of site site - down. Not enough updates were provided, and the 15% reservation for their own ads also didn't appear to have a significant increase in their own traffic, but perhaps for new members, it did.

Additionally, you can't view this traffic as Entrecard's own, as it is a representation of clicks and views, as they serve the widget through their site. Perhaps the amount of traffic on the entire network has been decreasing at a fast rate, too.

What do you think about this decline?

Increasing Click-through to Your Widget

2009-11-01T07:15:00.001-05:00

The Entrecard widget was designed to make it easy for others to advertise on your site and for other bloggers to earn credits/attract the blog owner to visit their site in return. However, like all bloggers, you need to increase traffic, and Entrecard's traffic can be optimized further if you follow some basic steps.

Place the widget in an area that everyone can see it. Typically, this will be above the fold (or within 1300 pixels of the top of the page.
Don't include too many images near the widget, or it will be harder to find when someone scrolls down your page.
Explain to your readers what Entrecard is and how they could benefit, including a link near your widget.
Don't necessarily use the word "ad" near the widget. People don't usually click on anything with this word, so use something more friendly like "friends" or "follow blogger." Hopefully you get the idea.
Ensure your theme doesn't break the widget. I've noticed a few blogs that have un-responsive widgets, which are preventing the rest of the site from loading. Obviously, you are doing a disservice to your blog advertisers and those who visit your blog looking to drop.

I hope these tips have helped you, and they should address some of the issues that I've noticed across some of the blogs on Entrecard. What other tips could you suggest to increase click-through rate for either advertisers or bloggers?

Advertising Rates on Entrecard (Under the New Ad System)

2009-10-25T06:04:00.000-04:00

Within the new ad system (using 15% of their ad network), you can purchase advertising across all the member sites within Entrecard. I wasn't aware of this (the link is rather hidden on the homepage) mainly due to the fact that it wasn't promoted heavily. I figure they want more of the "outside" to advertise on the site, rather than purely the members.

I don't know how successful this has been - three of the ads that appear in my Sponsor Ads area are still from Entrecard. So, if this is true, they haven't enticed any long-term deals yet.

Pricing is $0.60 CPM for the entire network or $1.20 CPM for targeted categories (choose from one of over fifty categories). They will only accept 125x125 pixel advertisements, and a $25 minimum deposit is required.

The main benefits, as stated from this page are: maximum exposure and click-throughs, professional results, highly effective with detailed stats, and discounted rates.

What do you think of this pricing model (quite similar to the last time advertising was introduced) and how it is being marketed?

Entrecard Credit Pricing Reduced

2009-10-19T17:00:00.001-04:00

You can now purchase Entrecard credits for half the price, they can be found on this page. However, it is slightly harder to compare the value, as the interval has also changed, as follows:

4,000 Credits - $12.00
6,000 Credits - $23.20
16,000 Credits - $44.80
32,000 Credits - $84.40
64,000 Credits - $166.40

Have you ever purchased credits through this manner?

Advertisement Credit Tax Lowered from 75% to 50%

2009-10-18T05:19:00.000-04:00

In an effort to retain some of its users, Entrecard has changed the advertisement credit tax to 50%. So, if it costs 512 credits to advertise on your blog, you'll now receive 256 credits in return, rather than 128. The change will remain in effect for three months, unless some dramatic problem arises within the network to suggest that too many credits are maintained.

Please leave your thoughts on this here, and the discussion will continue.

September Entrecard Traffic Up Slightly

2009-10-18T05:14:00.000-04:00

Taking a look at Entrecard's traffic, you'll find that it was up slightly for the month, but is down nearly half since its peak in the January to March period during this year, when unique visitors were over 1.7 million and total visitors were over 4.4 million. During September, traffic figures rose about 2.3%, to 1.2 million visitors, but total visitors were down nearly 5%.

I expect next month's traffic to be quite a bit lower unless something is done to combat the people who are quickly leaving the service and not staying on the site.

Something interesting to note, however, is the number of visitors not going to the Entrecard site. According to the sub-domains feature of Entrecard, about 6,700 visitors went to the www.entrecard.com website during the month of September, while the rest of the traffic (1.1 million unique visitors) came from serving advertisements (at adn.entrecard.com).

If these figures are anywhere near correct, this may be one of the reasons why Entrecard stopped offering advertisements on their blog and main page - the amount of traffic on their blog/website is extremely low. The only reason the site is even considered in the top 1,500 sites is because of the number of advertisements it serves.

Let's assume there are 26,000 legitimate sites within the network (an average of 500 sites per category). I'm sure that there are less than this, as there are only about thirty "expensive" sites, which are the primary users of the service at this time. There are quite a bit of sites within the 384-1024 credit/day range, with traffic of these blogs in the 3-10K range/monthly.

The most popular/highest costing site on Entrecard at this point receives about 14K visitors per month/45K total visits. It also means that the average Entrecard user (assuming all traffic is from Entrecard) visited the site three times during the month).

Apart from these higher-trafficked sites, the average site on Entrecard receives about 42 visitors per month. Again, this is assuming my estimates are correct, and they may not be - I am open up to discussion and dispute on this if more accurate figures can be proven.

There simply isn't any reason why traffic will increase during the next month across the network, and the main reason traffic will drop in the future will be when the more higher-trafficked sites begin leaving the service. Compete's traffic may be really wrong, as Quantcast estimates traffic at 61.2K, coming off of a maximum of 95.2K since the beginning of Entrecard. However, approximately 90% of the traffic is from "adn.entrecard.com," similar to Compete. I'd assume these figures are low, as "100%" of traffic is from the U.S., which it definitely isn't.

Please lave your thoughts on some of these figures, especially if you can add more specific information about the traffic and return that can be expected from the site.

"The Ultimate Networking Tool" - Wait, What Network?

2009-10-18T04:44:00.005-04:00

It appears as though Entrecard is doing even more to alienate the members of the service that are left. The forums have completely closed (and have been closed for just a few days now).

Without any warning, the forums were closed, and there will be no new one opened for quite some time, if ever. The main reason was probably due to the moderators and members who would often get into disputes over rather minor issues. It became spam-infested over time, and really didn't provide much value to the site.

However, now that there are no forums at all, there is no way for members to communicate with one another and promote their blogs in this method. Forums serve as a method of off-topic conversation.

Their Twitter profile remains dull and not updated. No new updates have been posted since September, and I honestly doubt how much interaction the members of Entrecard receive simply browsing and visiting one another's sites.

Finally, all new posts on the Entrecard Blog will have their comments closed, ensuring that no negative opinions are posted on the site. All one would have to do is enter a simple Google Search for specific terms to learn about the negatives of Entrecard. I'm not saying everything is negative about Entrecard, but for the most part, they aren't working on the positive elements of the site that helped it grow so rapidly.

Now, for a network built around developing relationships, there is only one way to communicate with the site - through email. This is an extremely faceless conversation - they will never know any other details about you other than your name and perhaps your website. It's a mindset and business model that rejects what helped to create the success. Everything will disappear within a few months, and it wasn't the members' fault.

Poll - Do You Plan on Leaving Entrecard?

2009-10-16T00:13:00.002-04:00

This is just a brief poll that you can take so I can get a better idea of what you think about Entrecard? Have you left Entrecard, or do you plan on leaving soon?

Subscribe to Entrecard - Now Live!

2009-10-16T00:07:00.000-04:00

An option to subscribe to Entrecard is now available within your account, making it easy to remove all the sponsored ads. At this time, they are still testing the new system, so it would be worthless to block just two ads.

Pricing is $5.00 per month or $48 per year (great discount to just $4.00 per month). No refunds will be provided, and this is more of a donation to the service than anything else.

I would just like to know how many people that are members of Entrecard really even thought about this membership just to remove ads and support the system?!

Sponsor Ads Management

2009-10-10T00:19:00.000-04:00

A new feature was rolled out, allowing you to block one ad form their list. At this time, there are only two Entrecard-sponsored ads, but more will be placed here in the future. One of the problems that may arise is that two ads might not appeal to your blog, but you'll be unable to do this.

In the end, I simply don't see how this feature will really pay off. There will be difficulties in selling advertisements, especially to a network of users that don't really want to see them.

What do you think about this management area, and how should it be changed? By the way, you can access this area through the link provided in your admin area, or by attaching sponsor_ads after the trailing slash at the end of your user number.

Entrecard Resorting Back to its Old Ways?

2009-09-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

Recently, it has come to the attention of some members that forums are being deleted (as was a trend in the past). While I don't know the degree of what was said, it is in the policy of many forums and sites to delete boards which have become racially motivated or that defame other members. I don't know the whole side of the story, but looking briefly at the way the administrators and moderators are handling it, it is reminiscent of the past, in which entire forums were deleted, without due reason - often simply because someone became angered at another.

As Entrecard continues to look for ways to monetize through methods other than placing ads 50% or more across all the sites, they may even go down a "premium" route, in which ads aren't placed on sites and access to the forums is given a more "open" approach.

However, should this happen, it would further divide what community the site has left, and this would further set the network back. Honestly, the members grew tired of this a long time ago, and those few that are left are likely not going to tolerate it for very much longer.

Sponsors Will Appear Across 15% of Impressions

2009-09-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

Beginning next Monday, Entrecard will begin displaying their own advertisements on 15% of all page views/impressions. For example, if you have a blog that receives a hundred thousand impressions/page views per month, their ad(s) will display on 15,000 of them. The main reason behind this is for them to make some money (they can't keep the service running for free, after all!).

Some users have become concerned, although it is a far cry from the previous system, in which 50% or more of the views were not for their sponsors that paid through the credit system.

We'll just have to see how this impacts the overall market. Obviously, it may very well force the cost of advertising down again, as there won't be as many page views up for grabs.

The post with this announcement can be found here.

Entreard's New Referral Program

2009-09-18T22:15:00.001-04:00

Members of Entrecard can now refer new members to the site, receiving three hundred credits (the maximum you can receive from dropping cards on other sites). This will surely attract new members to the site, but we can only wonder why this feature wasn't introduced earlier/in the beginning stages of the site.

Login to your Dashboard area and click on the Referral Program to access the banners/links. You must refer new members, not just new blogs (added as linked blogs).

You Can Now Follow Entrecard on Twitter

2009-09-05T02:54:00.000-04:00

It's easy to stay up-to-date with Entrecard through their dedicated Twitter account found @GetEntrecard.

Toolbar Now Compatible with Firefox 3.5

2009-08-31T17:11:00.001-04:00

The Entrecard Toolbar is now compatible with Firefox 3.0 and higher, including 3.5. For details, see this post.

Some of the details and requirements have been copied below.

The toolbar only works with Firefox 3 or later. This will not work with other web browsers.
You must have an Entrecard account, the toolbar provides no functionality otherwise.
The toolbar should be compatible with Firefox on all operating systems, Windows, Mac and Linux
Under NO circumstances should you download the toolbar from any other source than Entrecard itself. Using modifications by third parties may result in the theft of your account information.
The Entrecard toolbar does not keep track of any browsing habits or information other than that directly relevant to your Entrecard operations. If there is no widget on a page, the toolbar will pay no attention to it.

Changes and Improvements at Entrecard

2009-08-18T13:50:00.000-04:00

Some changes have occurred at Entrecard, all of which should have been addressed a long time ago.

Included in the changes are:

Login and out problems have been fixed.
Auto-approving advertising requests have been fulfilled, meaning you can automatically accept all advertising requests. This can be found under your "Advert Settings" area in the dashboard.
The advertising directory has been purged of the blogs that do not have a widget present. This ensures that you will find more relevant and updated blogs when dropping cards or advertising.

Further changes may be made in the future, so we have to stay tuned.

Ad Prices Begin to Stabilize

2009-08-01T05:21:00.000-04:00

While I haven't been as involved in tracking the price of credits, the maximum price is a little over four thousand per day. Some of the blogs that I have on the site have been increasing in value without any additional promotion, so this may be a sign that things are beginning to stabilize.

As you may recall, the paid ads were removed from the system a short time ago and specials on purchasing credits from the site have also gone down (you get more for the same price).

It is still unclear how the new owners will really monetize the site, as the affiliate promotions and ads on the front page/blog likely aren't allowing the site to break even from hosting costs yet.

No More Paid Ads

2009-07-22T17:40:00.000-04:00

Paid ads will soon be a thing of the past, as the new owners are now honoring what users say about the service. This was to become the main source of revenue for Entrecard, although it was meant with a lot of backlash by the long-time members.

During the time that paid ads will be phased out, you will not be able to purchase new paid ads and any ads already purchased will continue to run. From this point forward, you may only use credits to purchase "ads."

Additionally, the cashout service will be dissolved, with the remaining funds used for cashout. Any credits not used for cashout will be returned to your account.

It is still too early to say the direction that the new company wants to take the service, as there are now no ways for the service to monetize. Other than the few hundred dollars the blog may make per month, no long-term plan has been exposed.

Additionally, the homepage has been reverted back to an introduction/ads format, with a stronger focus on attracting new members.

Entrecard Has Been Acquired by ZipRunner Inc.

2009-07-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

On July 16th, it was announced that Entrecard was acquired by ZipRunner Inc., an investment company that has been working with online businesses for a number of years. Entrecard, which was started nearly two years ago, has seen a number of challenges develop as its user base has grown drastically and a revenue program had to be introduced.

Much of the old staff will still be working at Entrecard, advising the new owners on the direction that the site should take and ironing out all the details. However, the difference is now in the extra support and funding that can be channeled through the site.

The CEO of ZipRunner posted the following on the blog:

Furthermore, ZipRunner is prepared to take Entrecard to the next level. We have carefully read blog comments and the help desk to gain a better understanding of users’ concerns. We value our Entrecard users and we intend to address your comments and to provide you with the best blogging service possible.

Personally, I don't know the exact direction that the site will go in after this acquisition. Most likely they'll put enough funding into the site to keep it open and possibly turn a profit.

In order to turn the profit and make some income on their purchase, they are likely going to invite more advertisers into the system, and this won't please its current members, but changes will certainly have to be made.

I'll be posting any new updates here.

Phase II for Entrecard

2009-06-30T16:32:00.000-04:00

Entrecard is preparing to go into what they coin as Phase II. A "general" account will be introduced, making it easier for people without blogs to purchase items from the Marketplace. Not only this, but it would limit the number of credits being created out of thin air, as is currently taking place.

Incentivized offers, better known as affiliate offers, will allow members to receive more credits for helping the site. I don't know whether the earnings will go back to the fund for paying out to reduce the number of credits, but at the very least, they may be going to the monthly hosting fees.

At this time, the cashout rate will remain the same ($1 for every 1,000 credits). Since closing the doors for third-party advertisers, they haven't been able to raise enough funding to increase this amount. Even at the current rate, they are having a hard time paying all the members.

The network that used to be ideal for bloggers that were looking to increase their traffic and new readers is turning more into a "cash-producing" site, as the focus is less on getting new bloggers and more on helping the bloggers earn credits, which aren't really great for anything other than purchasing products, which may be appealing to some, but not the entire community.

No News, New Traffic Figures

2009-06-19T10:11:00.000-04:00

On the Entrecard front, nothing new has occurred over the past few months, and there is really no reason to post here unless there is. There has since been a mass exodus of the program, as people don't see any real benefits to using it anymore. No new, large blogs have entered the network and advertising sales aren't at the level they should be for long-term prosperity.

A new monetization model, sponsored/affiliated offers have been introduced, although nearly all of the profit goes into running the site, and not back to the members as originally intended. We'll see what happens next.

In terms of traffic, I am simply stating facts, and do not want to imply the direction that Entrecard is going, but through this, there is clear evidence that it is going down.

Between May and June, as well as previous months (June data isn't in until the second week of July), traffic unique visitors dropped by more than 8% and total visits dropped by about 21.5%, and when you have totals between 1.5 and 3 million, this is fairly significant – more than 100,000 per month. However, it is still ranked fairly well compared to all sites, at 1,262, but at one point, it was within the top 1,000 sites worldwide.

Status of Cash-Out System: None

2009-05-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

There have been no updates on the cash-out system in nearly a month, with the most recent update on the blog coming on May 1st, but says little in terms of what was supposed to happen with the system. In reality, it is doing more harm than good to keep the users misinformed and out of the picture.

As it currently stands, roughly four hundred thousand credits have been depleted from the system, assuming that the correct percentage is being returned back to members. This is a far cry from the one million that were supposed to be depleted daily. More credits are being generated daily now than before, and many members have become infuriated to the point that they no longer want to participate in a system that doesn't invite new ideas from a traditional advertising system and traffic exchange, as the "community" has nearly died as the system has become monetized.

In the one to two months since the new system was launched, there have been numerous occasions where questions were left unanswered. The simple fact of the matter is that this advertising system needs to be advertised elsewhere, outside of the system, to people who may have larger budgets than many of the smaller, personal-level bloggers involved in the system.

For one, to encourage more people to cash-out, a flexible rate should be provided, depending on the demand: more demand, less $/1,000 credits, and the less demand, more $/1,000 credits. I am sure that there are ways to track the value that credits stand and appropriate pay rates (for paying in the future), so a system where there isn't a flat rate of a paltry $1.

Finally, even if there isn't funding behind the site like there once was, there is also an apparent lack of time being put into managing the blog, a critical part of the site, which serves to inform members and present them tips on improving their blogs. These are just a few ways that the system could change, and they don't require many drastic changes beyond simple modifications to what is already present.

The [Expected] Next Step

2009-05-12T18:17:00.001-04:00

Where do you want to see Entrecard go in the future? Right now, it appears as though it is quickly stagnating as an online service. Unlike offline companies, online services always have to be rolling out new features, and that isn't the way that Entrecard is moving.

Perhaps it could be that the advertising platform didn't launch as expected, with a lot of backlash from users, at least relative to the amount of positive thoughts on it. Otherwise, there really isn't anywhere that the system could go from here. It has accomplished the community part, through forums and social media tools, and the traffic part is mostly covered, with many people thanking the service for getting them at least noticed on the internet.

However, the one thing that I think could be changed at the moment is the economy. I don't want to get into any lengthy discussion about how it should and could work, but I want to say that I am slightly disappointed in how the cashout system and the removal of credits from the system was managed.

More than anything, you want to see the number of credits removed from the system be greater than the number that is created (in order to gradually reduce the number in the system). At the current rate of credit withdrawal and the number of users who are participating in the advertisement/credit system, the ratio likely isn't good enough to maintain a course of deflation. With deflation, you'll see lower credit prices across the system, from purchasing ads on sites to buying items in the marketplace.

Something that should have been done was credit limits on daily earnings from credits. Currently, this stands at 300 per account, but unlimited if you have multiple accounts and sites. Ideally, it should probably be around 100 per account/day, or 1,000 per IP address. This will still allow people to earn a good deal of credits, but the people who would rather stick to one or two blogs will see slight reductions in the number of credits generated, because there won't be room to increase the credits unless they add another account to the site.

Another issue that I had dealing with this is the price of credits: $1 per thousand, and the rate of time that it has stayed there. Initially, it was supposed to increase and decrease with the market, but it hasn't. Why not increase it by say, $0.25/thousand every week or so, to let members decide when they want to cashout. If a large number of credits are generated on a single day (5 million, for example), then decrease the rate of payout for a certain period of time until the number of credits is reduced again.

The ideal way it should work and the way that it does are completely different and the conditions involved cannot be controlled too much without inflicting a lot of backlash from members.

What are your thoughts on the cashout system (rate) and how the economy is managed?

April Traffic Figures for Entrecard

2009-05-10T10:39:00.003-04:00

It now appears as though traffic growth is slowing down slightly for Entrecard. Now, you have to take into account that a large number of bloggers left the network in April, when many of the largest paid-ads changes were taking place.

When you look at these figures, you have to take the overall trend, as traffic can vary greatly from one month to another and the quality of traffic you get from the service depends largely on how you use it. Additionally, any large drops in the overall traffic will mean less traffic to "distribute" among members.

Unique Visitors: 1,606,693, down 6.85%
Total Visits: 3,729,677, down 11.95%
Overall Rank: 1,127, down 81 places
Traffic from Blogger and Blogspot Total: 19.69%

Compared to other services that try to aim at the same niche, it is currently between MyBlogLog (1,014,560 unique visitors) and Blog Catalog (1,964,161 unique visitors).

Please note that traffic numbers from Compete are generally from the United States.