Entrecard Again
The past few weeks we’ve seen a barrage of changes in the entrecard community. As I posted here when I was still new in the community, Entrecard is fun.
Entrecard is Fun
Entrecard is fun since you get to be a part of a community and be able to advertise your site without paying a single penny. But some members ruined the fun so Entrecard has to guard itself by introducing changes. Among the recent changes and other rules, we are reminded of the following:
1. Blog’s must be updated within the last three (3) months
2. No full screen ads or popups
3. Blogs cannot consists of more than 50% advertisement posts, paid posts, or affiliate-linking posts
4. Entrecard widget must be present
5. No auto-playing audio
My three blogs with entrecard are safe with these rules as I easily complied with the five. I don’t want to visit splogs, so those changes I totally agree with. Those who failed to comply were either deleted or at the brink of deletion as there will be no notices served.
Previous changes include:
1. Buy credits for less: Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. (I think it used to be $9)
2. More pricing increments: Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps.
3. Members are not allowed to sell credits
4. Credit transfer limits: Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week. Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.
5. Transfer tax: From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).
6. Blogs cannot be unlinked: Once you link a blog, it’s there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.
7. No more coupons: You are no longer allowed to send coupons.
8. Shop closed: Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice.
I only have one thing to comment on, and that is about selling. Why can’t members monetize the credits they earned? The people behind entrecard can act as middlemen. Members sell to entrecard, let’s say 1,000 for $3, and entrecard, in turn, sell it at $6. It would make everybody happy and add more fun to entrecard. Don’t you agree? But personally, the credits I earned are spent for ads and giveaways. Selling would just be one option.
Sale of Entrecard
As to the news that Graham would sell Entrecard, I wouldn’t be surprised. Perhaps, this could be just another of his business endeavors guised as a community. Buy why don’t we all members donate a dollar each for Graham? That would not be heavy on our paypal accounts and that would probably be a nice Christmas present and a thank you to the one who founded entrecard. I don’t have $50 to spend on adspace in entrecard so I’d just settle for the $1 donation.
If perhaps the new owner have much better plans and projects for the community, then why not. That would be great news!
Exit from Entrecard
I also read rants and some exit speeches of friends and superstars who left the community. They have their reasons, mostly about the slow loading time because of the widget, and the unwanted traffic from fellow entrecarders. In my past post: Lightning-quick Visits and Other Web Traffic, entrecarders averages 50 seconds in my blog. In the last 90 days, it did not improve. The reasons given are valid and well founded. Visitors from entrecard account for only 22-24% of my total visitors. That does not include those who drop from their bookmarks, or visit from their blogrolls. As of now, the bulk of my traffic comes from the search engines. I’m not really bothered by the seconds entrecarders spent on their visits here. I’m bothered about the loading time which would inconvenience the 75% of my visitors. If entrecard is the only script there is in a blog, then it could be the main culprit of the slow loading time. But if the blog has loads of ads and other scripts, then obviously, we know who’s to blame.
I’ll Stay On
I’ll stay on with Entrecard even if I don’t visit the forum and socialize with other fellow entrecarders. This community helped my in my traffic, made me discover other wonderful blogs, and let me advertise for free. I had fun with dropping and advertising. My hopping list is mostly composed of fellow entrecarders (with a few exceptions). I will purge my bookmark to make a new list; prioritizing those with EC and great content. (My apologies to those who have left, but I have another bookmark for great blogs without EC).
I’m happy with 50-100 total drops a day, from the bookmark and from the inbox. Anything in excess is a burden. I don’t race to become the most popular blog in my category. When no one else visit my blog, like my Busby SEO Test site, I’d be happy for every single entrecarder who drops by.
All in all, the benefits of entrecard outweigh the negatives. And I have not yet fully experienced all these benefits. It is true that entrecard is not the only source or traffic, but 30-50 visits from entrecarders is still worth it. So, why leave now?
p.s. If you clicked on the wrong entrecard widget and was lead to my other site, then you must be here only for the drop. Got you, buddy! 
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Ceblogger is a CPA trapped in his cubicle while his mind wanders outside watching the world, and exploring possibilities his mind conceived.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The recent changes on Entrecard are for the better. Some poeple don’t like them though and have left
Like you said, dropping 200-300 became a burden and it wasn’t really worth it, especially if you have to do something else during your spare time