education, help support are the keys not law enforcement, pity the person who holds the tape measure even with screen resolution you also have differing screen sizes as per say. i only see a lot of unneeded work and frustration.

if the anticipations are rite then sharing the success stories will see people want to move it up on their own bat, also provide a real resource on how successful people work / do things so others may follow and learn, and in doing so create an environment of a happy team.

put the big stick away, it never works.

I do understand Entrecard’s situation but it must also understand the users situation. This is a catch 22 situation, love to see the end result.

I had manage to delete my blog pop-up, please take a look, and get me back on the line… I had send a ticket but no reply, so I had no choice but to post it here…. thanks !

Let’s do the dry run and see what happens. I know you guys out there are trying to help. Cheers.

James has an excellent point that needs to be clarified as soon as possible. The screen resolution issue has been raised quite a few times over the past few days concerning the new ‘above the fold’ or now ‘one page scroll down’ rule and I have yet to see an answer. The screen resolution this rule is based on is vital in redesigning our blogs. Can someone from Entrecard provide an answer so those of us who need to redesign our blogs to meet the new rule can in a timely fashion given we have less than a week to do so.

Thank you and I look forward to the changes.

Excellent. Everybody is vying for that “first-fold”, we’ll end up pushing down our own ads and navigation links to fit-in everybody :p

So with that, big kudos. Something new, a “change”.

Thank you.

i’ve changed mine to the “upper fold” area.. i think it’s ok

A “page down” placement? I think this requirement is still exaggerated. In my opinion each entrecarder should be allowed to place the widget wherever he sees fit. Even ad networks don’t force you to place their ad code on specific places, but give you the liberty of choosing it yourself. It’s our blogs, for crying out loud!!

“If you are going to discuss bounce rate from a position of authority, PLEASE do not print misinformation.” Was this by any chance in response to MY comment?

AGREED… the position will have nothing to do with the bounce rate. I place my widget near the bottom of the page for the very reason that placing it at the top makes “hit and run” dropping easy and fast.

At least if they have to scroll to the bottom, they might see something in the blog content that catches their eye.

Well , I have placed my widget at the top of my site sidebar and I will settle it there –it seems nicer there:) , anyway when I press page down my widget disappears but I think this will not be a reason to delete my account after all it is at the top.

See yourself http://www.host4nocost.com

I will wait to see how this plays out. In the meantime, can you let me know if the existing placement of the EC banner on my website would pass the test? I can’t move it further up.

thanks for listening and responding to your users.

I want to ask how the “exchange for cash” will work.I mean will there be some limitation for credits to exchange or something like that.

Thankz

[...] Entrecard is Making Changes They’ve changed a few things since their last post: Entrecard Blog Blog Archive “Above the Fold” rule officialy changed to “One Page-d… __________________ *Sadie* – Sadie’s Skinny and Sadie’s Say-So Follow me on Twitter SadiesSkinny [...]

In reference to the “page down” requirement, in addition to screen resolution there also seem to be some differences between Firefox and IE 6 and 7. How do we nail this down?

I thinking of this as a way to make real money while get my credits. But, what will the buy back rate be? Is there a limit?

I’m sure a few people might just want to cash out. So how will you separate the people that see this as a new income source and those that just want to go.

I know the drop and run would feed this idea to make money. What if you paid 2 or 3 credits per site. NOT per click, but per page. Allowing each visitor to get a credit for the next two pages they hit. Would this not reduce the bounce rate?

what every that case I think your going a great job… An I know you need to hear that from only me… Now you can go about your day with out worry.

This will be a little bit long, so I apologize, but I have quite a bit to say.

Let me say this before I get started. I have nothing against the new system. The widgets on my blogs have been above the fold and near the top from day one because I’m in this for the community.

“AGREED… the position will have nothing to do with the bounce rate. I place my widget near the bottom of the page for the very reason that placing it at the top makes “hit and run” dropping easy and fast.

At least if they have to scroll to the bottom, they might see something in the blog content that catches their eye.”

I would agree in some cases, and disagree in others. If your blog has content I’m interested in, I read it. If it doesn’t, then I won’t. I try to drop on a wide variety of other sites to get my name out there, but I don’t expect them to read my site if they aren’t interested. The same would apply to regular readers who aren’t members of Entrecard. Instead of “drop and run,” it would be “realize this blog doesn’t have anything for me and hit the back button.” The scenario is different, however, the end result is the same. In other cases, I disagree. I hate blogs where the author has it set up to display a ton of their recent posts, and then residing at the bottom is their EC. The intent is clear. It takes a minute to load all of the posts before the EC even appears. Not only is this bad blog design (because it means long loading times even for readers) but it is also bad for me as an Entrecarder. When I see this, I don’t think “drop and then see what this blogger has to say.” Instead, I think “I just spent all of the time I could be reading your blog waiting for everything to load.” What I mean by this is that your bounce rate may decrease, but it is ARTIFICIALLY decreased. It might look good in writing because people have to scroll through your content to get to your widget, but many will still go straight for the widget. THEY WILL have spent more time on your site, but not for what you want them to. And I’ll tell you that statistics mean nothing to me. I’m not in this for the number of readers or the rank of my blog. I’m in this for MY READERS. That is why I put my widget at the top: it allows my readers to find content that interests them, and it helps the blogs of this community.

“Ad placement has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with bounce rate. Bounce rate is not limited to “Drop & Run” traffic. A viewer who reads your entire main page but doesn’t click to any of your other pages adds to your bounce rate, too. This is why blogs have higher bounce rates.

If you are going to discuss bounce rate from a position of authority, PLEASE do not print misinformation.”

This is the one thing I think everyone is missing: people who really do care to read the content of a blog aren’t that likely to click on the links anyways. I believe this will be especially true of the advertisements Entrecard will be placing on the widgets.

I am excited by the opportunity to earn money in the future with Entrecard. I haven’t spent a single EC since signing up here, but not because I saw this coming.

On the other hand, I completely understand the complaints. Users should inherently have control of THEIR OWN BLOG and I believe that Entrecard should respect this. The “if you don’t like it then kindly leave” approach may be beneficial for Entrecard in the short run (as far as the having a sustainable business pespective is concerned), but there is danger in the long run: quality blogs will be turned off with Entrecard’s attitude. In the end, you may find yourself with blogs that just barely make the quality guidelines. You may find yourself with people who do not care about blogging at all, but instead with making money using the system. And when you try to fix the system they may all tell you they can make more money elsewhere anyways and leave. I don’t want to see Entrecard in this situation.

I would propose (and I’m sure that it has been suggested before by at least one of the technically-minded ECers) that there be two separate widgets: one for advertisers that must be toward the top of the page, and another standard widget for blogs. The advertising widget can say “advertise here” while the standard widget can say “drop.” At least this way, people can put their EC widget anywhere they want. If people really cared about how effective their advertising campaigning was, they would look at the blog and see if it is a good fit. While this might be cracked up as “good for everybody,” there are already blogs like this, and people already have the option of advertising on these blogs. The ONLY thing the new system will do is seemingly force bloggers to comply if they don’t want to loose countless hours of hard work. A two-widget system would solve this all, and probably not be that hard to implement unless the current coding would make it prohibitively hard to change. I understand that in order to do this before the new system goes up you would have to postpone the change. I don’t suggest you do this. Instead, I would suggest that the new system go into place with the promise that this system will be implemented in the near future. This system would also be better for all bloggers. Advertisers and bloggers would both get 100% of the advertising time. Another option yet would be to let the blogger choose between the two schemes.

I just feel that possible ways of addressing bloggers’ concerns are being overlooked in favor of getting this system up as soon as possible. However, a statement that changes would be made to address these concerns after the change would help to keep quality blogs here with Entrecard. I just hope that whatever you should choose to do strengthens the community and doesn’t destroy it. We have seen too many sites suffer simply because of their effort to make major change for what they feel is better while the changes did nothing good for the users. I don’t want Entrecard to be one of these sites, and I’m willing to try my part in ensuring that this does not happen.

Thank you for your time.

I have moved it way up there now, but is it too close to my header?

Bye..

I honestly don’t get the fuss about this issue…. even most of the blogs that I visit that aren’t top of the fold are pretty easy to get to … on a few GOOD blogs, I even go back so often that I remember to hit the END button to get to them

having the widget near the post you want me to read is the ONLY way to get me to read your articles… I read what’s near the widget – and if that happens to be way old stuff, I glance and don’t bother

any word on today.com blogs? I’m afraid to go look for an update in our forums

I look forward to the above the fold rule because I was really getting tired of hunting for the widget on some blogs. My widget was always above the fold, so I have nothing to worry about.

Looking forward to seeing how the other changes work out.

Will there also be a post addressing clearly the concerns regarding having to pay a fee for rejecting ads, as if we didn’t own our blogs? This issue is not a secondary one. It is actually the main reason for many bloggers getting ready to leave.

I’d like to know how it is oh so more for the better to have our widgets closer to the top of the blog page versus the bottom?

Someone here in the earlier comments had commented that at least if it is toward the middle to the bottom of the page, people will have to scroll down to look for it, and in turn might find something worth while to read while scrolling. I agree with this thought process because I tend to do this.

If I go back a blog that dropped on me, and return the favor, if the widget is at the top of the page, I tend to just drop and go onto the next blog. If I have to scroll, I tend to read what they have on their blogs.

I still don’t like being told where my widget needs to be placed. However, I am willing to try and see if it does boost my drops. I will work on it this weekend with my theme.

Thank you here again for listening to all of us and having what it takes to make the changes that so many of us were concerned about.

I appreciate you taking the time to listen to the concerns listed above and for being so responsive. Entrecard is a marvelous concept that I am thoroughly enjoying. Would you consider taking a look at my site? Due to the configuration of the blog, I am not certain the Ecard can be placed elsewhere and I would very much like to continue participation.

I was going to write a long comment ranting about this new change EC was about to make until I read Paul Baines.I believe he pretty much covered it all.I’m willing to see it all in action and how it pans out but if I’m not satisfied I’m heading for the hills.Some one is bound to create a better format once the vacuum gets turned on.All those dust particles have to land some where.Just a thought.

I think the fact that you have changed the above the fold rule is a good idea. Hopefully it will actually help with the bounce rates.

I saw this post on my dashboard but I honestly don’t think the issue has been properly publicised. I think we need to take the effort ot make sure everyone knows about this before we have to take more effort asking people to clean it up.

Thank you again for listing haven’t made a EC since I signed up but I guess I should have seen it coming. I am excited about the opportunity to earn money in the future with entrecard. to all of us and again thank you for caring.
Helen Yelverton

As one of the previous comments said:

“I think this is a good change because I’ve been to blogs that don’t have a widget at all, but are advertising. I’ve been to some where you have to search for the widget even with the above the fold rule.”

I’ve moved mine on top of the page and it really helps, I have more people click and drop