On Your Widget Now –New “Paid Ads” At Entrecard: Revival of Cash Out And Power Drops?
Posted by
eli
on 8/23/09• Categorized as Entrepreneurship
Today: “Paid Ad” is here again
Today, August 23, 2009, I was surprised that in queue on my Entrecard Dashboard is a “PAID AD” waiting to be approved.
The Recent Past: “Paid Ads” was terminated on July 22, 2009
To the best of my personal knowledge, the new “paid ads” is the first time since July 22, 2009 when Cindy Ung, the new Entrecard’s Director of Business Development, announced in the Entrecard blog that effective on that date, the new management would no longer accept applications for “paid ads” on the members’ widget spaces.
The announcement of Cindy Ung on July 22, 2009 states that based on user comments and blog posts, users have not been happy with the “paid ads” that was implemented a few months ago.
Although a good portion of the paid ad revenue (75%) was given back to the users through the Credit CashOut Program then implemented by former founder Graham Langdon, the new Entrecard management under Ziprunner have found that most users would prefer not to have “paid ads” on their widgets at all. Hence, the new management decided to eliminate “paid ads” on the members’ widgets.
Cash Out Program was eliminated on July 22, 2009
Because of the termination of the “paid ads” effective July 22, 2009 the Credit CashOut Program” whereby members can exchange their Entrecredit (ec) for cash was also eliminated.
End of the Power Drops
As a result, many of the power droppers had reduced their power drops. After all, why drop 300 cards a day when you could no longer cash out or monetize the EC earned via drops?
Today “Paid Ad” is back and running
When I visited the blogs on my drop list today to drop on the cards, I have noticed that some members have approved the new “paid ad”.
Thus, the ad currently running on their widgets sometimes disappear to give way for the new “paid ad”.
A case in point: when I drop on the widget of A Grateful Heart, the ad currently running was that of Topclanz, but after I dropped, the “paid ad” appeared. It means there were already two ads running in that blog’s widget, one after the other, one paid by ec, the other a “paid ad.”
New “Paid Ad” – Drop 300 Cards in under 15 minutes only. Wow!
Incidentally or by coincidence, the new “paid ad” that appears on the widgets of some blogs today was “ECATF Drop Smarter.”
I clicked on the ECATF ad image and it claims to be an exclusive Firefox extension that places every Entrecard widget in the top left of your computer screen, making it easy to find and click the EC widget of the member blogs.
By the way, ECATF has no Entrecard widget, so it is safe to conclude that it is an outsider and not a member of EC.
By using it, ECATF is claiming that an Entrecard member can drop 300 plus cards in under 15 minutes!
The new “paid ad” sounds too tempting for a would-be power dropper to buy that product. Who would not want to drop 300 cards in under 15 minutes only, as ECATF claims in its advert? After all, is it not a fact that dropping 300 cards a day would consume 2-3 hours daily?
What if many members will buy this exclusive Firefox extension and use it? Will this not revive and increase the power droppers in the EC community?
Please note that I do not in any way endorse the use of ECATF and it is mentioned here for illustration purposes only.
“Paid Ad” A New Or Revived Entrecard Policy?
I have no idea if Entrecard has a new policy of reviving the “paid ads” as of today. I read the Entrecard blog but there was no announcement to that effect-at least not yet.
If Entrecard has revived its acceptance of the “paid ads” policy, then I’ll be heading to the paid advertisement section in the next few days and advertise this blog- this time via a “paid ad.”
Disclaimer: Business Sphere DOES NOT endorse “ECATF Drop Smarter”, and the name was mentioned in this post for illustration purposes only.
Hi Eli,
Yes, I saw that too. And like before, it got refused. Like you, I clicked on it to see what it was all about. I’m feeling that this is a gimmick by EC to score some cash out of us. I’m betting the “sell back your credits” deal didn’t go so well and this is another try at getting some money out the deal for them. It won’t be long before EC becomes a paid blog network, in my humble opinion.
Looking forward to some good news, Eli
Sincerely,
Mike
Mike, thanks very much for your wonderful observation about this new EC surprise development.
I bet EC is trying to find some cash now to continue operating, considering the huge expenses in maintaining web hosting and servers, plus administrative expenses for salaries, office, electricity, etc. I think Entrecard could not live by its entrecredit (ec) alone, it needs cash.
However, It is unfortunate that EC management did not announce this new “paid ad” policy, and the first paid ad is even an outsider, not an EC member.
Worse, the product the first “paid ad” is promoting is to power drops 300 cards in under 15 minutes. I think it is even against the very essence of EC– a blogger community where bloggers know one another, commenting on members’ blogs, fostering online friendships, and reading the blog posts for the purpose of enriching one another.
This power drops is nothing but to get entrecredit, and for what purpose? It will just succeed in demeaning the social network and the camaraderie of the members in the EC community.
Sad that the EC management has accepted this new and first “paid ad” to promote power dropping. It could have accepted other paid ads that do not foster power dropping, like the blogs of the members.
Agreed.
While I understand the need to turn a profit, I think this isn’t the way to go about it. We should have been informed of this decision (I looked around in the forum and found no mention of this).
You are absolutely correct. An ad such as this completely goes against what Entrecard is “supposed” to be about, i.e. social networking, friendships, etc.
Off topic, I’m curious as to how, besides Entrecard, you’re pulling in such traffic and how you were able to accomplish the feat in such a short amount of time. You can message me if you’d rather not share that info publicly. That is, of course, if you don’t mind.
Sincerely,
Mike
Hi Eli,
some information about ECATF. I visited the site already in the past as they advertised in Adgitize in April/May. There they just wanted 7$ for the Firefox-Add-On. Now there seem to be three packages and each of them costs 10$, 20 or 30$.
In the past they gave away the Adgitize-Add-on for free which had the same effect like the EntreCard-Add-on – moving the Adgitize ad to the top.
In case of monetization, could it be with the new packages that Ziprunner gets some commission from selling some packages as the price increases by nearly 50% and new packages have been established?
Which reason could Ziprunner have to higher the already high bounce rate which EntreCard produces for its members?
This was my first thought too, just hadn’t the time to write it down yesterday in an extensive way.
Good job, Eli!
@ Mike:
Eli knows where to look up the informations to get a good popularity. He likes to comment on other blogs which makes him interesting for other members and they visit him back. His articles are one of the best written in the EntreCard community. This is one of the things that led Eli to such a big popularity.
Hi Eli!
I got so pissed today. I just learned that the 300 drops I made yesterday wasn’t counted at all! Imagine, I’ve got only 26 return drops! Would you believe that?!
To make matters worse, all 40+ blogs I’ve dropped on today at noon time when I went home for lunch reverted back to 0. And to my surprise, the Paid Ads which I really loathe and hate is back! These must be one of the lies which is now beginning to unfold.
Seems like I was wrong when I placed my stakes high on the new management. But the new management can not forever fool their members. I am waiting for their explanations on this, if ever there is one coming. I never heard of any announcement that there is outage of some sort on August 23. Not a word, no nothing. Just like the previous management. So what more could we expect?
By the way, I never accept paid ads, I reject ALL paid ads. But they still show up.
I only just rejoined EC because of the “no paid ads” announcement. That’s why I left in the first place. I will not hesitate to leave again if paid ads are being resurrected. Shame.
Were you notified to a change in the terms of service? Was the person who bought today’s regular ad on your site informed he would be losing half his page views? Is it so hard for Entrecard’s “director” to take 5 minutes out of the day to explain the situation?
@corny
Thank you for sharing information on what I already knew, but it’s obvious to me that you didn’t read my comment. Otherwise, you would have noted that I specifically asked Eli about what other methods, BESIDES ENTRECARD, he was using to drive TRAFFIC to his blog, not about popularity. I am well aware of what it takes to become popular within EC, I have the third most popular blog in the blogging resources category, right behind your review blog, in large part due to having loyal readers like Eli. He doesn’t always leave a comment on my blog, nor do I expect him to and likewise I don’t always either. But he and I both are secure in the knowledge that we have and are continuing to develop a friendship beyond EC and beyond the blogoshpere. Our blogs are merely the method by which we keep in contact with each other. Interestingly enough, I have blogged about this very subject. Eli and his wife are more than just fellow bloggers, they are my friends and as such, I have developed a personal interest in their lives, not just their blogs and I am confident that the feeling is mutual. To me, that’s what blogging (regardless of niche) is really all about.
Popularity comes and popularity goes, Cornyman.
But friendships are forever.
Eli,
I apologize for using the comment section of your blog to preach my gospel, but I felt it was necessary for me to respond to Cornyman. I hope you don’t mind.
Sincerely,
Mike
@ Lainy, I share your feelings and frustrations. I dropped 250 cards, as usual, on that day, and one of my drops was on your site, but everything was gone with the wind, reverted back to zero. Such a wastages of my valuable time, like yours., I also REJECT ALL paid ads, because it is unfair to EC member who bought ec to advertise for a full 24 hours ad exposure, only to find out that the advertiser only get 50% exposure due to paid ad.
@ Kathy, yes, it’s really a shame. No prior announcement about the paid ads. I read in the EC Forum yesterday that the EC Admin, in response to the posts there by the 2 bloggers, saying to just reject the paid ads. But that’s nonsense. EC Management should not have accepted the paid ads in the first place since they also said it’s a thing of the past and no more paid ads after July 22, 2009 as they have announced in the EC blog.
@ Turnip, I am honored by your visit and by your comment about your fave pet peeve — Entrecard. Didn’t expect that the CMF Admin himself would comment on this humble blog. No, the Entrecard director did not announce and explain the situation. Members who put ads using ec on other members’ blogs really lost half of the page views, but nobody has prior knowledge that the paid ad would be running. Every member believes that paid ad was already terminated by the EC management effective July 22, 2009.
@ Mike, no problem. Your freedom of expression is always respected in this blog. I believe Cornyman gets your point and takes it well.
I could care less hether Entrecard reinstates paid ads or not. Who cares? All you have to do ireject the ad if you don’t want it on your blog. If you like what the sponsor is about and it pertains to your blog then accept it. It is a Win,WIN strategy for all of us as it generates money for the network which pays for our advertising and hosting so we can get some traffic to our blogs cause as you know a blog is only as good as the person who sees it! Just my two cents so now I’ll shut up and I wish some of you would too! lol.. as sems like some here are just pissed in general and really love to stew and moan about eveything. God help us if there ever is a real problem! done -ANN
@ Ann Reilly, the issue here is that Entrecard has announced on its blog that paid ads is a thing of the past, that EC management has already terminated the paid ads, and that effective July 22, 2009, they would no longer accept the paid ads.
Then, without prior notice, paid ad just appear on everybody’s widget. That’s the sole issue, and nothing more. And to me the issue is serious as it impacts on the credibility of EC management vis-a-vis the manner of dealing with the members and the EC community as a whole.
So, as you can see, it is not the issue of accepting or rejecting paid ads. We understand fully well that Entrecard needs to generate money for the network to pay for hosting, admin expenses, etc.
I myself am not pissed in general and love to stew and moan about everything. I am just raising a valid issue as an EC member.
is Entrecard launched a cash out program again??
As soon as I noticed there was a paid ad waiting for approval I contacted Entrecard. I then looked further and found that Entrecard was having a major problem and many things on the site were not working properly. Within a short time Entrecard emailed me asking me to decline the ad. It was already gone though. I assume this was just part of the major problems that they experienced that day. The new company has not given us any reason to not trust them so I will trust them until they do.
I don’t know why the EC management didn’t explain but in the forums you’ll find that they said this is the last of the remaining ads that didn’t see a full run and that paid ads have not been resurrected.
http://forums.entrecard.com/showthread.php?t=13319
nice blog, I agree with u