Archive for June, 2009
Written on June 30th, 2009 by Graham
Greetings Entrecarders,
For a long time, there have been people who argued the pros and cons of participating in Entrecard. Those familiar with Entrecard are no doubt familiar with all the arguements. The pros are that it brings you traffic, you find good blogs, you gain quality, returning readers, you make friends, you create a support network, and you can advertise on tens of thousands of blogs for free.
The cons, more or less, have all centered around our bounce rate. While a good deal of participants in Entrecard drop with the intent of exposing themselves to good content, and actively engage in the blog, it’s no secret that a large number of Entrecards also “drop and run”.
Up until now, we’ve always allowed the “drop and run” phenomenon to take place. We figured if someone was interesting to the visitor, they’d stop and read, and it was best to let everyone go at their own pace. But now we are taking a slightly different approach, in an ongoing effort to increase the quality of Entrecard traffic across the board.
Starting soon, “dropping and running” will no longer give you credit. We are developing a proprietary algorithm to determine whether or not you engaged in the blog you visitied in some way. If you did not engage in the blog, you will not get credit. We won’t be disclosing exactly the algorithm we use, so that people can’t game it easily.
The point of Entrecard
The point of participating in Entrecard is to find new blogs you enjoy, and to interact with each other. Dropping and running, midlessly, in an effort to gain credits is the exact opposite of what Entrecard is truly about, and after a lot of deliberation over the last year and a half, we’ve finally decided to take a stand against it. It does not benefit anyone in the network, and we’d rather provide a third of the traffic to our members, but have that third be quality traffic, then to provide the amount of traffic we do now whilst only a portion of it is quality traffic.
We’re still in the process of developing this, so input is welcome. However, we are well aware that the community will be divided by this. On one hand, people who are unhappy about the quality of traffic, and people who engage in the blogs as they drop will be happy with this change. The power droppers, or the “drop and run” crowd, who this directly affects, will no doubt be up in arms because they cannot earn credits so easily and so automatically. But the traffic this group is providing to the network is of little quality, and I think we’re ready to move on.
Written on June 26th, 2009 by Graham
That’s right guys and gals, we’re preparing to take Entrecard to the next level, and for phase II we are considering a number of things that we want your input on.
General Accounts
One of the big features we want to launch soon is a “General Account.” This would differ significantly from the blogger/publisher account that you all currently have. It would basically be a stripped down account that is open to everyone. You wouldn’t be able to buy ads with it, and when someone with one of these accounts “drops a card”it wouldn’t go into your inbox for re-dropping, because this person is not a blogger or a publisher and thus doesn’t have a widget. It’s intended for a blog enthusiast/reader who wants to earn credits by visiting and reading blogs, and then spend those credits in the market place.
Sound off: How do you feel about us rolling out an account that is open to everyone, does not require a widget, and lets you earn credits, give them away, or spend them in the shop? Let us know!
Gearing up the incentivization engine
So far, our results with incentivized offers have been excellent, and it’s opening up a whole set of new doors. We’re thinking about all sorts of different things we can auto-incentivize with credits, similar to our offer engine. For those unfamiliar, on your dashboard you now have a tab to “earn EC” where you can earn credits by completing certain offers, like a free trial of netflix. The credits are put to your account immediately upon offer completion.
So, we have a number of things that we want to incentivize. We don’t want to give away too much, but we want to know if overall you’d like to see more options and greater opportunities to earn credits automatically by completing certain actions/tasks, which could range from installing a widget on your blog to installing a facebook application.
So, please give us your feedback on those two elements of Entrecard Phase II, and we anxiously await some spirited discussion!
Written on June 21st, 2009 by Graham
Greetings Entrecarders!
It is with great pleasure that I announce our latest initiative in monetizing Entrecard, the implementation of an offer-incentive system Gambit. No doubt many of you are already aware that we recently began testing the Gambit system, which lets Entrecarders participate in various offers and receive credits instantly upon completion of offers.
So, Entrecard members are signing up for free trials of Netflix, taking surveys, and more, and earning cold hard Entrecard credits.
We made this move for a number of reasons. The obvious answer is that we make money when you complete these surveys, and we are continually looking for value-added ways to generate revenue. The value was clear: Entrecarder’s have always asked for more ways to earn credits. So we considered the following:
a.) it doesn’t change the current system at all
b.) it’s completely optional. those who want to participate can, while those who don’t never have to see it
c.) it’s a free way for Bloggers to earn credits. No longer do you have to spend a hundred dollars to get a lot of credits real quick.
…and the decision was clear. We’re quiet excited about this program, and other similar ones we will be implementing soon, because they hold the promise to monetize virtual currencies, and are doing so very successfully with a handful of online games. . So look for the “Earn EC” tab on your dashboard if you’re curious and want to earn some extra credits.
Cashout Update
We’ve now paid out thousands of dollars to members via the cashout system. Thanks everyone for being patient while we got it off the ground. Hope your spending your earnings wisely! Also, a number of people are wondering if Paypal will be the only accepted form for distributing payouts, and we are aware that you are requesting alternative forms of payouts. We’ll try to get that in as soon as feasibly possible.
We’re listening to you, and growing (again)
Very recently, you might remember us launching a paid ad system which let outside advertisers advertise across Entrecard widgets. Across the board, everyone was very clear and vocal that you didn’t like it one bit. So, after trying it out for a while and listening carefully to your feedback, we disabled the advertising system for all outside advertisers (though Entrecard members can still buy exposure for their “Entrecard” across the network).
It was pretty interesting to observe the communities reaction. At first when we announced the system, a number of people started leaving Entrecard. And it wasn’t really until we made the change, and disallowed all outside advertisers, that our growth numbers swung back to positive. And then it was like flipping a switch.
Overall, the experience was very humbling: for the first month ever, more people left Entrecard than joined. So, you can imagine how quickly I realized that we had made a mistake by letting outside advetisers in, and that the special, close-knit community we have here at Entrecard doesn’t want to let your run of the mill internet advertiser into the building.
But now we’re back on track to add a few thousand bloggers this month, and continue growing, and with the new revenue that the Gambit system is generating, we’re cooking up some great stuff.
That’s all for now. I just want to thanks everyone for being the awesome bloggers that they are.
Cheers,
Graham
Written on June 1st, 2009 by Graham
Greetings Entrecarders!
Three big announcements today.
Cashout Apps Approved!
First and most importantly, all the cashout applications have now been dealt with and either approved or denied. Thank you for being patient with us while we tested in the Beta Phase, worked out the kinds, and got the whole thing spinning.Hopefully you can start earning some money! and to help you get started…
Drops will count for 2 credits today!
That’s right, for today only, drops will earn you TWO credits, and the receiving blog will get 0 credits. So, if there was ever a day to drop some cards, find some blogs you love, or even read some old favorites, here’s a great excuse to do it!
Big Change to the Ad Network: Only Entrecard Blogs
Moving forward, we’re making a big chance to the Ad Network. From here on out, only Active Entrecard Members can advertise via our ad network. We listened carefully to all your feedback during the trial phases of our ad network, and one thing that kept recurring is that you only wanted bloggers and other Entrecarders advertising on your widget. So, we’re going ahead and making that change. From now on, the only advertisers approved into the Entrecard Ad Network will be advertising an Entrecard blog with an Entrecard Widget, just the way you like it!
Please help share this news with any blogger friends or communities you think may be interested to hear all the news.
