Entrecarder.com

Before you read this post, go to Ben Barden’s blog and read his interview with Graham Langdon, Herr Doktor & Creator of Entrecard. I’ve been a fan of Entrecard from late last year when I signed up for the first of what ended up being 20 Entrecard accounts. I’m still a fan of Entrecard, even though I’m now a bit wiser and not so much a fan of Graham Langdon.

Don’t get me wrong…Graham hasn’t done anything unkind to me or anything that can be considered unprofessional or unethical. As far as I can tell he is a sincere, hardworking entrepreneur. However, sometime in the last 4 months Entrecard ceased to be about Graham and took on a life of its own as a community of bloggers, a fact that I suspected before reading the above-mentioned interview and that I am convinced of now more than ever. Graham doesn’t drop many cards, he doesn’t blog very often, and he only occasionally posts in the forum (RickRoll?). There’s nothing wrong with that…except I believe he doesn’t fully understand what he has created…and that could be a problem.

Graham and Phirate didn’t expect that folks would drop hundreds of cards every day in order to earn credits, nor do they think it is necessary. Of course it’s not necessary, but when you see dozens or hundreds of folks spending so much time dropping cards–when they could buy them–that should be a clue as to what is appealing about the community. Most people aren’t going to buy ECs, especially with a new ad system (folks, Who - Won’t Get Fooled Again) that still stinks, only with a slightly different odor than did the old system. Clearly Graham and Phirate envision a different Entrecard experience than some of the folks who have been most active as Entrecarders over the past months. I wrote about some of the issues that I felt needed to be addressed and received a response from Graham that indicated he had “rebuttals” for most of them, which made me feel like he had his mind made up and wasn’t interested in my input. Cool. It’s his baby and he’s earned the right to make the decisions.

Mike Huang from Bloggin-Ads.com is just one of several Entrecarders who have announced recently that they are “done” with Entrecard. Mike and the others don’t seem to be angry, just making a decision that it’s no longer worth it to be Drop Master…to which a few of us have suggested that he and the others just keep the Entrecard widget on their blogs and don’t worry about dropping cards. Ironically, this seems to be what Graham had in mind in the first place. To me the answer is simple: Monetizing Entrecard Credits created a monster that can’t be ignored by many Entrecarders. Provide us a way to make money from our blogs and we’ll focus on how to maximize that income while we build traffic. That’s part of the Entrecard pitch, even if the fact that Entrecarders fully embraced it seems to have taken Graham and Phirate by surprise.

Entrecard is going to continue to grow and will provide a great opportunity for thousands of bloggers to get cheap exposure to their blogs. However, I think it would help to view the Entrecard experience as a training ground, a phase for newer bloggers to hone their craft and learn from their peers. Some will decide that blogging isn’t their thing and some will decide to move on to greener pastures, but it’s my opinion that most will agree that they had some really good experiences as a result of being an Entrecarder, and that’s almost as good as money in the EntreBank.

Tags: Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

Results of last week’s survey about the percentage of your site’s traffic that comes via Entrecard:

0………………..1 (3%)

<25%.............9 (25%)

25-50%………5 (14%)

51-75%………5 (14%)

76-95%………8 (23%)

>95%…………2 (6%)

Don’t know…4 (11%)

Don’t care…1 (3%)

Total respondents = 35

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

How does one drop a card on an Entrecarder who isn’t currently displaying a widget?

Note: The above is a rhetorical question. Please don’t answer. I’m not interested in circumventing the Entrecard security system. However, I know of at least 10 Entrecarders who have been and this is a little word of warning to them.

Tags: Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

One of the most well-known Entrecarders, Lee Doyle, isn’t always a happy man, although he would like to be. Fresh off a post where Lee is attempting to re-vitalize his U Drop - I Follow movement, Lee is a great example of moving forward despite significant difficulties in his personal life. I’d be angry most of the time to be going through what Lee is going through, and I believe it attests to his character that he is able to look beyond himself for ways to aid the Entrecard community.

Lee is a young (25) father of three who is battling for the right to stay regularly involved in all of his children’s lives, and in the past has been an outspoken proponent of fathers’ rights, which he believes has led to some of his current difficulties. I’ve had a few interactions with Lee regarding his Followers and found him to be a reasonable and amicable fellow. He really does Follow those who drop on his site with a drop of his own and is seeking to improve his U Drop - I Follow movement by weeding out those who are Followers in name only.

I’ve found that a good way to see what a blog is about is to take a look at the Categories. Here’s what I found on Lee’s site:

* Uncategorized
* Poems
* Funny
* News
* Rants
* Fathers-4-Justice
* Website
* Blogging
…..o Guides
…..o Meme
…..o Debates
…..o Questions
…..o Blog Of The Week
…..o entrecard
…..o Blogging Tools
* Computing
* My Case
…..o Social Services
…..o Police
* My Children
…..o Harmony
…..o Faith
…..o Jack
* Media
* Fans Section
* Thoughts
* Interviews
* Reviews

Tags: Profile // Add Comment »

Three weeks ago I spent too many hours on a post that took a look at what it took to get onto Entrecard’s Popular page, which at the time consisted of the 30 Entrecarders with the highest ad prices. Shortly thereafter, Entrecard changed the ad pricing system and the Popular page ceased to exist, replaced by a Popularity ranking number for each blog. There is still value to being in the top 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 (depending on the Browser tab default) in Popularity, as your Entrecard will be seen by more folks. The Popularity ranking is currently determined as it was before, by the number of drops your widget has received in the past 5 days. I thought it would be interesting to see how the ad pricing system changes impacted the 30 Entrecarders whom I had previously highlighted.

I’m using the same table as before, only I have taken out the Location and Alexa Ranking columns and added current Rank and Ad Price in bold.

Rank	Image	URL	Ad Price
1 2		Internet Business Guide	838 1024
2 6		Dot Com Mogul	808 1024
3 1		Monkey Fables and Tales	734 2048
4 18		CK Marketing	684 1024
5 99		Ahkong.net	675 1024
6 86		Personal Finance Management Guide	650 256
7 -		Chalk is Cheap	642 -
8 11		Fantasy Baseball	636 512
9 129		SiteHoppin’	622 1024
10 4		Saphrym	607 1024
11 171		Josh’s Unconventional Marketing Blog	599 512
12 8		Turnip of Power	598 2048
13 15		Joan Joyce	590 512
14 54		Reward Rebel	585 256
15 28		Sense to Save	584 1024
16 48		Media Morgue	582 512
17 59		Pandora’s Casket	575 512
18 51		Lee Doyle	574 256
19 72		Blissful Weddings	571 512
20 5		Diet Pulpit	567 1024
21 35		Geek Mom Mashup	560 1024
22 177		artconstellation	558 256
23 10		New York Nitty-Gritty	550 512
24 351		Momma Muse	544 128
25 31		Bloody Computer!	538 512
26 68		malinesky	534 256
27 136		Biyahilo	520 256
28 239		My Absent Mind	515 512
29 195		Hulag	509 256
30 116		Wild Clips Comedy	498 512

First off, let me say that these numbers are moving all the time and since I started this post there have been several position changes in the Top 30, as well as Ad Price changes. I’m presenting this information to highlight trends and am not claiming any precision in the analysis.

I can think of several possibilities for the fact that almost 2/3 of the Top 30 from 3 weeks ago are no longer in the Top 30, and a good number of those are no longer in the Top 100. I suspect that the #1 reason is that they are no longer dropping as many cards as they were before the ad pricing system change. Second, some of them were involved in the U Drop I Follow movement and the new drop stats have weakened the Recipro Groups considerably, as it is easier to see who is actually “Following” your drop. I noticed several blogs who used to have Lee’s graphic are no longer displaying it.

There are a couple of other reasons that might explain the shift in the Top 30, like burnout, disenchantment with Entrecard, discouragement resulting from Alexa’s changed algorithm, better ad info and cheaper ads resulting in more folks advertising than dropping cards, and maybe fewer overall drops in the system than before. As far as overall drops goes, I don’t have access to the numbers, but looking at the Top 10 blogs from 3 weeks ago and the 10 Ten today, we see total drops for 5 days of 17,240 versus 16,524. The difference is not significant enough to suggest that there are fewer cards being dropped over all, at least on the Top 10 blogs.

What is clear is that it costs more to advertise on most of the Top 15 blogs than it did 3 weeks ago for ads you want to purchase right now. The upside is that one lucky person will get to purchase an ad for half of what is currently listed as the Ad Price once the current ad expires. The average price paid for an ad on the Top 15 has likely dropped in the past 3 weeks, but, again, I don’t have access to those numbers. Right place, right time (hint: many ads currently expire between 8AM - 9AM ET) and you can occasionally get a bargain…like finding Problogger available for 256EC.

It was my intent to include updated Alexa numbers, but the rankings came out weird this morning and I’m delaying that analysis for a future post.

Tags: Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

Bloggin-Ads was created by Mike to explore the whole Blogging Community by reviewing a blog every single day. Mike started this idea because he felt that people paying to get reviewed was not very fair to smaller blogs or blogs that do not receive income. Regular visitors to Mike Huang’s Blogging-Ads will note that he and his wife Michelle have expanded their original concept to include “Blog Reviews, Ramblings, No Money Involved!”

Before I address Blogging-Ads’ content, let me say that Mike already has 3 things going for him in my book: 1) He’s from Los Angeles, where I spent most of my life prior to moving to Utah; 2) He’s a devout SiteHopper; 3) He always has pretty girl pics on his Entrecard. While age is no real barrier to becoming a successful blogger, I’m still surprised by how young some of our Entrecarders are (Mike is 20), probably because I have children ages 25, 21, and 18, and while I accept their skills and accomplishments, I haven’t quite made the full mental shift to embracing their generation as peers.

Mike is a fan of the NOT-Evil one, which is interesting because Blogging-Ads is not an MMO site. They do take paid banner ads in order to pay hosting fees, etc., but the reviews are not paid and there aren’t any funny MMO schemes woven into the site. Recent posts include some of the above-mentioned “ramblings”:

User Friendly Is A Bonus
John Chow Is NOT Evil
Global Warming: A Scientists (rare) Perspective
Retiring Early With A Bang
The Secrets Of eBooks
Recommendations

I first became aware of Bloggin-Ads via the “One Heck of A Giveaway Contest” Mike spearheaded in January, in which I was fortunate enough to be the winner of Group 6 prizes, which included 200 OneBuckWiki pages from SiteHoppin Max. Not many other Entrecarders can boast 917 subscribers and I find it amazing that Blogging-Ads has a price of 256 EC at the moment. I wonder if Mike and Michelle will continue to go the review-for-free route, considering the number of subscribers they have? Personally, I wouldn’t think less of them for charging a few bucks for a review, seeing as I’m thinking of doing the same. Of course, my subscriber count hovers around 20, but that should be worth about a nickel a day, don’t you think?

Tags: Profile // 1 Comment »

The Cleveland Ohio Real Estate Blog has some great tips for buyers and sellers of real estate, regardless of where they are located. Great tips aside, it’s the person behind the blog that has made a mark on the Entrecard community. I did have to look up her full name, but that only helps support my point that Cecilia Sherrard, aka The Realtor, is one of the few Entrecarders whose first name is sufficiently well-known as to generate immediate recognition from many of the active members of the community.

Perhaps it’s due to her photo being an integral part of her Entrecard, or maybe she’s easy to remember because of her quick wit and humor, but there have been few Entrecarders who’ve hit the scene running as quickly as Cecilia did and become so recognizable so fast. After reading her bio page I shouldn’t be surprised at all, as Celicia has garnered many awards as a successful Realtor. What is surprising is that she manages to find the time to stay active in the Entrecard community! I spent 8 years as a Loan Officer and interacted with many real estate agents, most of whom weren’t particularly drawn to techie stuff, and the more successful ones (like Cecilia) were too busy for something like Entrecard. Honestly, it was usually the guy who sells two properties a year that was into Internet stuff and not the top agent in the office. What that tells me is that Cecilia is just plain good at what she does.

Cecilia also did something that I think is really smart in that she put her URL on her Entrecard, which might seem unnecessary as far as the Entrecard community goes, but makes for a great ad on sites like Chow, Cow, or Problogger, where the vast percentage of visitors aren’t Entrecarders. She’s got name recognition, face recognition, industry recognition, URL recognition, and location recognition all wrapped up in her Entrecard presence. There’s a lesson to be learned here for those Entrecarders who are in the community to promote their businesses.

Tags: Profile // Add Comment »

Do you know this blogger? IT-Aid: PC Tips, Tricks and Tweaks is at this writing in the 56th position on the Popularity rankings and deserves to be there. Check out these stats: current Alexa 3 month ranking of 114,492, but 1 week ranking of 37,148, Drop Master status, and a Google page rank of 3. What’s not clear is who the author is, merely a username of Slavezero. Ah, well, a few minutes of searching did not yield a answer and so Slavezero’s anonymity can be left in place.

Ok, so IT-Aid is the real deal and that’s leaves us asking the question “Why?” This answer can be found without much difficulty as the site is full of exactly what the title suggests, tips, tricks and tweaks. Recent posts include:

* The easy way to Fix your Task Manager
* Restore your desktop icons arrangement
* How to disable PC speaker beeping on errors
* How to convert DVD movies to PSP format
* FREE Traffic Exchange / Stumbleupon Exchange
* FREE Blog Backup
* World’s Fastest Internet
* Future applications for mobile devices using nanotechnology
* The Ten Most Dangerous Online Activities
* How to Remove Happy99.exe

Not thrilled with that list? Give credit where credit is due…someone, a LOT of someones, must enjoy these posts and it would be wise for each of us to take a closer look, if for no other reason than to place an ad on their widget. This is one Entrecarder who is headed to the top of the heap!

Tags: Profile // Add Comment »

For starters, you’ve got to love the non-politically correct title of today’s highlighted Entrecard Advertiser. Is A Man’s World is authored by David Jackson, a New Zealander, and the site’s byline is Where Technology and Humanity Meets, which helps focus in on the real intent of the site, which has nothing to do with the anti-feminism movement.

From Dave’s About page:

This blog is about My thoughts, My Interests with Sports as well as technology, planes, motorsports, everything about big boys toys, including New Ideas, News, Gadgets, Resources related to technology, Opportunities, Comedy and more…. that is why my Site calls “Is a mans world” I will be posting contents that interest men and women in some occasions.

Sure enough, the top post categories on the site are Home Technology, Motorsports, Mega structures, Technology, Airlines, Supercars, Make Money, & Big Boys Toys, topics that have traditionally been “guy stuff.” Dave must be doing something right as Is A Man’s World has been climbing the Entrecard popularity rankings of late. (It’s not hard to figure out…he’s dropping lots of cards and placing ads on good sites.) I liked the site right away, because it has a “guy” feel to it and he’s featuring a SiteHoppin Beer Credits widget.

The blog is appropriately listed in the Entrecard Men’s Interests category, but that shouldn’t stop the ladies from visiting to see what interests the fellas. However, if you’re looking for controversial commentary about the sexes or how to win a man’s heart, you’ll have to look elsewhere. This blog is about the stuff that interests guys, not what’s interesting about guys.

Tags: Profile // Add Comment »

The Noob got married! Any day now Bloggernoob will be returning from his honeymoon with pics and stories for all his fans. In the meantime, the “BrotherNoob” is filling in and has written some interesting posts of his own. This is a site worth spending some time on and not just passing by while dropping cards. Chances are, if you have already been to the Noob’s site, you might have missed his video that got over a million hits on youtube. It’s on his About page, as well as some FAQs that give you an idea about his personality.

Bloggernoob has been very successful making money online in just a short few months and if you are trying to do the same you should check out his income recap post for some ideas. I enjoyed the random pics of starlets that are scattered around Bloggernoob’s site, decorations and eye-candy that have nothing to do the various posts, but make your visit a bit more enjoyable nonetheless.

Bloggernoob has been pretty vocal about the Entrecard popularity rankings and for good reason. At the moment he boasts 282 Subscribers and can back that up with the number of folks who have signed up for various programs via his affiliate link. Of course, the new Alexa rankings smacked the Noob on the backside along with most of the rest of us, but it’s my belief that the Noob’s widget is a good one to consider buying an ad on. I did!

Tags: Profile // Add Comment »