Quo Vadis, Entrecard? Can It Still Survive This Time Around?
Posted by
eli
on 9/26/09• Categorized as Business Advice
Happy days still elude Entrecard, that wonderful blogging community where its member-bloggers can boost their visitors and grow their blog audience.
image from speedcathollydale.blogspot.com
The Calm Before The Storm: The Controversial Sponsors Ads
On September 22, 2009, Cindy Ung, Entrecard’s Director of Business Development, announced on EC blog as follows:
“. . . 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.. . 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.”
In answer to the question of what a member can do if he/she doesn’t want Sponsor ads running on his/her blog, Cindy answers as follows:
“You will have an option to decline any Sponsor ads that conflicts with your blog, religious beliefs or any other reasons. However, you just can not decline ALL ads.”
The Recent Past: Paid Ads Before, Sponsor Ads Now
The new Sponsors Ads now is Paid Ads before. The Paid Ads resulted in the exodus of many members from Entrecard as they did not like their blogs running paid ads, even if they could reject the same.
Thus, a few days after Ziprunner bought Entrecard from Graham Langdon, Cindy Ung announced on the EC blog on July 22, 2009 that EC management has decided to eliminate paid ads on the members widgets and that they won’t accept new paid ads.
Now, paid ads has resurrected from the dead and is now Sponsor Ads. Same dog, different collar.
Why I Will Not Run Any Sponsors Ads On My Site?
Read again Cindy’s statement: “You just can not decline ALL ads.”
All Entrecard’s members (“users” as Cindy puts it) have to run the sponsor ads on their EC widget, whether they like it or not, since all ads will be distributed evenly in the entire network.
Therefore, the Sponsors ads to RUN on the members’ or users’ blogs are objectionable. Speaking for myself, here are my reasons, as follows:
1. My blog is my personal property and I did not waive my right to it when I joined Entrecard.
Stated differently, a blog is the personal property of the member-owner, and as such, the owner has full control and supervision of his/her blog, INCLUDING the legal right to refuse or disable any sponsor ads.
As a lawyer, I read American law and jurisprudence, and that is very clear in the law and the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court on personal property rights.
If there is anyone out there who says otherwise, please cite to me any provision of American law or U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the contrary.
Entrecard’s management clipping the right of the blog owner to decline ALL sponsor ads from running on his blog, which is his property, is legally objectionable, being infirmed, and has no leg to stand on.
This cherished legal principle of property rights does not give Entrecard the right to impose on any of its “user” the acceptance of sponsors’ ads.
I perfectly understand Entrecard’s need to generate revenue to cover its overhead and operating expenses and keep its service free to all its members for years to come. No argument with that. But not at my expense.
2. My blog’s traffic does not ALL come from Entrecard.
My blog receives 700-800 visitors daily, and all of these do not come from Entrecard, only 30%-40% are EC members. Therefore, 60%-70% of my blog visitors have nothing to do with Entrecard.
So, why should I let 60-70% of my daily visitors see the sponsor ads of Entrecard when EC did not provide me with all these visitors?
3. Entrecard’s using my blog for taking 15% of its entire ad network inventory for its own sponsors is NOT fair and equitable.
Why not equitable? Here’s the reason: My site is high-traffic, getting an average of 22,000 page views per month, with 700-800 daily visitors. Again, most of these visitors are not coming from Entrecard alone but also from search engines as well as from other referring sites like Adgitize, CMF Ads, and Project Wonderful. I personally paid for my adverts on these referring sites, not Entrecard.
At the same time, another blog, with only 50 visitors daily, which some EC members’ blogs are, will also show 15% of the sponsors’ ads.
This is unfair to my blog because both my high traffic blog and the low-traffic blogs of other members are getting the SAME service from Entrecard.
This is a case of unjust enrichment, unjustly enriching Entrecard’s sponsors and other members at my expense.
4. Reduce Ad Views of EC Members. This is the most important reason. Running sponsor Ads 15% of the time would be UNFAIR to my advertisers who are EC members, since their ad views on my site will be reduced by 15%.
This means a member who advertises on my site will get 85% of his ad exposure only. But he /she had paid hard-earned credits for the ad, spending a lot of time dropping cards.
The New Exodus
Even before the effectivity of Sponsor Ads on September 28, 2009, some members are already started to leave Entrecard. Among these are the respected bloggers of such well-known blogs as The Windmill On The Hill, The Painted Veil, The Virtual Dime Museum, Politicus.US, to mention a few.
Other bloggers are on a “wait-and-see” attitude, but some have repositioned their EC widgets, this time at the bottom of their sites, near the footer, or down below the fold.
Some members have already disabled the ads in their EC widgets, such that they are no longer accepting new ads, but in the meantime still dropping cards.
Where Are You Going Entrecard?
Indeed, the coming days are challenging for both the Entrecard management and the members or users.
It is up to EC management to respond to the challenges, given the situation and the facts, as well as the members’ comments as posted on the EC blog and in the Forum.
Whatever decision Entrecard will take in the coming few days, it will surely impact, for better or for worse, to its future as a business company and as a blogging network.
I agree that EC is a shambles (still), at least in terms of business model. I’ve said so on my own blog today, by coincidence.
However:
“So, why should I let 60-70% of my daily visitors see the sponsor ads of Entrecard when EC did not provide me with all these visitors?”
- You do have a choice you know. You can remove the EC widget.
And if you get 800 visitors a day, and 40% come from EC, then that’s still 300 coming in from them, which isn’t bad for a free service (yes, not counting the drops you have to do).
I suspect that EC can reserve the right to Change its terms of Service like any other company. It’s up to you to choose whether or not to use this service with the new terms.
“This means a member who advertises on my site will get 85% of his ad exposure only. But he /she had paid hard-earned credits for the ad, spending a lot of time dropping cards.”
- On the other hand, EC allows this service which would otherwise not be available.
“So, why should I let 60-70% of my daily visitors see the sponsor ads of Entrecard when EC did not provide me with all these visitors?”
But wait! You are ‘subjecting’ all your visitors to the normal EC ads too! What’s the difference? By that logic you should only see adverts from the advert system you come from. ?
I think some of your reasoning is flawed, and if you don’t like the service you can remove the widget any time.
And yes, some people may leave EC, and there may be a drop in the short/medium term, but there’s always new bloggers out there who will sign up to replace them. And there are many who will stay of course. EC is still working for me for example, so I’ll be keeping the widget.
THAT SAID, I agree very much that EC management is a mess. As I’ve said on my blog, they seem to have set off with no valid business model, and only now are thinking about how to make money with it.
The ‘solutions’ they’ve come up with wouldn’t be that bad if they’d implemented them properly, but it would have been far better to sit down, do some more coding and come up with a compatible but separate system for paid ads. That way you keep both sides happy.
Great points sir! That makes me one of those who wait and see.
@ Chinaren, I always appreciate it everytime you comment on my post. You enhanced my article each time you comment because you add a different perspective and point of view, thus making the topic more interesting.
However, I don’t think some of my logic is flawed, And no, I won’t remove my EC widget yet for the time being. I will wait and see after September 28, 2009.
Otherwise, if all members will remove the EC widgets from their blogs, then what would happen to Entrecard now? No more Entrecard to speak of, since technically speaking, it has no more members.
Thank you for dropping by my blog and for your intelligent, witty, and very responsive comment.
@ Mikes, I too will wait and see, like you. Thanks for commenting.
Now this is what Polly should read, hehe! A legal counsel that could speak on behalf of all members
Thank you for coming up with this very well laid-out, very sound reasoning and very logical post , Atty. Eli! Not all all flawed.
Personally, I love EC for the traffic it has brought to my blog and the beautiful people that I came to know. I couldn’t have done it if not for EntreCard. That is the ONLY reason why I am sticking a while longer.
But for the most part, the flawed management is making me think twice. If they won’t listen to their members to find workable remedies to their predicaments, they will be losing loyal and pioneering members, that is, if they care enough for their members who have been there for quite some time already.
I couldn’t agree more with you. In similar vein, I placed this entry on the Entrecard forum which by some miracle hasn’t been censored (sorry, moderated) yet : -
It seems that ownership of Entrecard causes people to take leave of their senses.
A few months back, we had the unedifying spectacle of Graham repeatedly alienating bloggers with ill-thought out and half-baked “initiatives”, using censorship and arrogance to try and force his flawed strategy through, culminating in the paid ads fiasco.
When that argument finally stopped, many good bloggers had gone – but at least we thought things would settle down with new owners, making all the right noises.
And yet, only months later, we’re doing it all AGAIN. Paid ads by the back door – no consultation – take it or leave it – Entrecard blog comments not published – Forum threads closed – same old, same old.
There is no need for any of this, Entrecard. If you want paid ads income, simply give us 2 widgets – one for bloggers, one for paid ads, with the ability to accept or decline for both widgets. So simple and yet for some reason the powers that be within Entrecard have a mental block every time it’s suggested. Will you guys pull your finger out and get sensible ? Or are you prepared for a second exodus of bloggers that might finish Entrecard off ? With the growth of CMF Ads and Adgitize, it’s not as if you can afford to lose bloggers. It’s sad, because there used to be such a reservoir of goodwill within the blogging community towards Entrecard which has been dissipated not just by bad management decisions but also by the way they’ve been implemented.
Hi Eli,
It was nice to read this article, and you brought up some good points. I agree with your point about high-traffic blogs making Entrecard the most money but getting the same service. You worked hard to build up that traffic, and new EC users will be using a system built with money that you make. I certainly hope they appreciate it.
On the other hand, I disagree with your personal property argument in terms of the EC widget on your blog. The widget is Entrecard’s source code loading off Entrecard’s servers, and they have granted you the right to use it on your site. If they choose to modify the source code to display their own ads, you have no legal recourse because you do not own the code or the network. Your legal case could only succeed if you had a contract with them stating that they would provide X service for X amount of time and not alter the service during the entire contract period.
Thanks for writing the article though. It was good to read and definitely got me thinking.
-Steve
Fact of the Day.CA
Thank you for this post. As a longstanding Entrecard member, this is the latest twist in a long and torrid Entrecard affair. Will Entrecard survive this latest development? Yes. Will membership decline? Probably, at the start. I think we need to remember that this is a free service and anybody who is not confortable with the rules can remove the widget at any time.
That being said, i do miss the good old days.
Hi Eli,
First, thank you very much.
You know why, my friend.
Irt your post, this move was not unanticipated. And while I am not happy with this decision, it’s likely I will not leave EC because of it, due to friends like yourself.
But I must say, (and with all due respect) Chinaren misses the real point here. EC plans to sell advertising on web parcels they do not own and they do not intend to pay members for “leasing” said space. Therein lies the illegality, in my humble opinion.
I hope this finds you well, Eli
Sincerely,
Mike
Hi,
When EntreCard started with the PaidAds routine, I refused them… With EC now running a referral program as well, its just become another junk exchange.
I held off leaving in hopes that the new owners would bring life back into EC. I should have stuck to my instincts.
My traffic sharing program, “Along for the Ride!” has done remarkably better then EC for quality traffic in its short life thanks to its many good members. I’ll just have more time to work on it soon.
@ Steve, I did NOT say that the EC widget on my blog is my personal property. Far from it.
If you read my article, what I say was that my blog is my personal property and I have control and supervision over it, being my property, and not the EC widget.
Of course, the EC widget is the property of Entrecard and they can modify the code anytime, in the same manner that my blog is my property and I can also remove the widget anytime. That’s crystal clear in my article.
Being my personal property, I have the right to control what’s appearing on my blog, INCLUDING the ads that appears on the EC widget.
In fact, EC recognizes my proprietary rights of my blog because it pays me credit for running an advert that appears on its widget, and even impose a 75% tax from my blog’s earnings.
You really should drop by Random Ramblings and let Polly know this. she has desperately been searching for an American law to site against this.
I have left twice before and each time it do cause a lot of my traffic to disappear. so I came back. Then today when they announced the pay program I was willing to give it a shot.
But, so many are still so uncertain I am afraid I will live to regret this decision too! I hope not!!
Thanks for posting this. It was very interesting!!
Jackie
I tend to come down somewhere on the middle on this. I am not a lawyer, though I cover a lot of legal issues on my blog. It does seem that contract law would take precedence over property law in this case.
Eli writes, “My blog is my personal property and I did not waive my right to it when I joined Entrecard.” While the terms and conditions that EntreCard publishes does not explicitly state you are waiving any rights, it could be argued that there is an implied contract in having the EntreCard widget on your website. This would fit well with the arguments others make about, if you don’t like it, remove the widget.
The terms and conditions do say, “Entrecard reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. In such an event you will be notified four days prior via the email address associated with your user account. ”
It would seem that if EntreCard could easily modify the terms and conditions to address the concerns that Eli raises.
However, at least right now, EntreCard has not modified the terms and conditions, and, in fact, the terms and conditions contradict the new policy.
There T&C says “It is your sole responsibility to examine sites wishing to run their card on your widget, and decide for yourself whether you want to link to their site through the widget.” Unfortunately, the new policy currently makes that impossible.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. Besides the legal aspect, there is the business aspect. Any site that gets advertised via EntreCard that the blog owner disapproves of runs a significant risk of receiving negative value for the advertisement.
I can easily imagine bloggers writing posts to the effect:
Some of you may have seen advertisements for x website on my EntreCard widget recently. This ad was placed without my endorsement and as a matter of fact, I strongly encourage you to avoid x website and any products they might offer.
This can be done in a Googlebomb fashion where the link to the website name actually goes to a site criticizing the website.
As it stands right now, I do not expect any market savvy organization to use paid advertisements on EntreCard. However, there are plenty of organizations lacking any sort of market savviness that could get sucked in.
@ Lainy, Caledonian Jim, Wenbin, Mike, Mar Matthias, Jackie, thank you all for your wonderful and intelligent comments that enhance this post on EC.
@ Aldon, thank you for adding another point of view and raising additional issues about EC. I’m glad you brought up EC Terms and Conditions, and for informing us that EC is now contradicting its own terms and conditions by its new policy. Very interesting development and policy changes, indeed.