No credit fee to reject paid ads
Written on March 16th, 2009 by Graham
Guys n gals of Entrecard, there has been much controversy over the last few days regarding some proposed changes. Despite what has happened, I am very proud of each and every one of you. For you all to strongly share your feelings in some way, whether via blog posts, forum posts, comments here or via twitter, it humbles me that so many of you care. I appreciate all of your feedback.
As a direct result, and with the intention of moving forward as a team with the respect of our members, we wish to directly address your biggest concern with the new changes: having to pay a fee to reject paid ads.
We’ve listened to you loud and clear about the massive ad platform we’re launching, and over and over one piece of feedback kept popping up: “I don’t want a credit fee to reject ads!”
We were initially planning on charging a small fee to decline paid ads running through the network. The intent of this was to make sure that most ads run, while allowing you to reject ones you really don’t like.
But now it has become quite clear that as a community, you don’t agree with having to pay a fee, even if it’s just in the form of our virtual credits, to decline ads.
So, we have officially removed the planned credit-fee to reject. Rejecting any paid ad you wish will now be completely free when our new platform launches. As we move forward though, please understand that running these paid ads on your blog not only supports Entrecard, but also supports the entire virtual economy of Entrecard by providing the money needed to convert credits into dollars via our credit exchange that we are simultaneously rolling out.
I hope this has addressed all of your biggest concerns with the platform. I’d like to assure each and every member that we are here to work with you, not against you, and we listen at all times across all mediums.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
That’s good to know Graham.
Am I the first to comment on this, where’s everybody?
March 16th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
<shoots off the fireworks
March 16th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
You should have kept it the way it was. Too many people here at Entrecard reject ads over and over again. They’ll do the same thing to the paid ads. You’ll bring back your first plan when you realize how often people reject ads at Entrecard.
Jolie du Pre
Meet Her Here
http://www.meetherhere.com
March 16th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
/me grins
March 16th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for listening!
March 16th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Thank you for addressing this and coming to this conclusion, we do appreciate that you took our concerns into account.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
No, thank YOU for being a member!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am one of the blog owners who are picky with my ads. I feel much better knowing that I don’t have to worry about ads that don’t mesh with the theme of my site being shown.
I am sure that most of the ads will be fine, it’s just great to know we have the option of rejecting the ads without being out credits. I would have been fine with the fee/credit payment to remain ad free if we knew upfront what the fee would be.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Thats really a happy reading
March 16th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Thanks for this update! Maybe with this feature in place, the Today.com bloggers that use and love Entrecard can stay – we will just have to reject all paid ads, and it will not cost us ECs that we use for placing ads and buying in the marketplace. As it currently stands, we face the possibility of having to quit Entrecard as Today.com does not allow 3rd party ads to run on the Today.com network due to their contracts. I do hope that something can be worked out between Entrecard and Today.com so that all of the Today.com bloggers can remain a part of the Entercard community. I am not opposed to running the ads on my blog – I would run them if I could, as I know it would be of benefit to Entrecard. Thanks
March 16th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Kudos to you guys for all of this. For daring to suggest a change in the first place, and for not being too stuck on yourselves and proud to back down in the face of a backlash that would harm the community.
Onward to better solutions for all!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Jolly Good Show!!!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Can’t complain at your listening stance or your willingness to adapt.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
This is really good news!
Having the freedom to select ads that are suitable/related, feels much better. Thank you!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Thank you! sanity and free choice has won over at last!!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Great news
March 16th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
well that is good news
Thanks for the change!!
… the next question in terms of today.com is, is this good enough?
… think about it from an admin/control perspective: they then need to trust that individual today.com bloggers don’t slip up and allow these 3rd party ads to run. Much easier to ban than to have to check all the blogs for compliance, eh?
I’ll keep my ear to the today.com forums to see what the admins say to this.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Thanks so much for this change!!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
wow! Now everybody are Happy!!!!
Thanks a lot!!!!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
EntreCard Rocks!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Graham & EC – I am so impressed with your willingness to honor the wishes of your members! Honestly, I am stunned by your level of commitment to our needs. So many organizations only pay lip-service to member/client input when creating policies, but you are actively responding. I was so ready to leave when the initial announcement was made and less than 48 hours later, I am ready to stay as long as you’ll have me. I too am one that has very specific criteria for ads and now I am comfortable that I can keep my EC widget without compromising my blog. Thank you – I will be extolling the virtues of EC to anyone who will listen!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Definitely a good call.
Thank you for the consideration!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
This is the kind of thing that sets Entrecard apart from so many other websites: you listen to your users. I would imagine that you can expect many to run the paid ads. I know I personally will, as long as they are not objectionable.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
*claps hands*
This is music to my ears.
Since my widget is above the fold, I’m in compliance and most likely will not notice the change. Thanks for listening to us! THAT is what sets EC apart from the rest!!!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Thank you so much – that is great news!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I’m glad to hear this! (Feels new respect for Entrecard.)
Nathan – Inkweaver Review
March 16th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Thank you! I didn’t want to have just anyone advertising on my blog, thats not how I work! I don’t do advertisements like that! I was worried I was going to have to get rid of Entrecard..but now it will stay! Thanks again for listening!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Glad everyone is as excited about this change!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
This is great news. The question I have is, will we see the ads that will appear on our blogs in enough time before they appear for us to have time to reject them? And for people that don’t want any outside ads to appear, is there a way to reject them all at once, instead of having to do each one at a time?
March 16th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I so appreciate that our voicing our opinions helped sway this decision. I truly did hope by the time I came home from work today that there would be this kind of news waiting for me.
Thanks for listening to the mass public! This is what makes Entrecard so awesome!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
WOW!!!! This is the best news I’ve heard since yesterday!!!! I’m really happy about this, I have no problem accepting ads I approve of, for the sake of keeping Entrecard going.
Thanks so much for reconsidering this. It means a lot,
March 16th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
[...] plan to make users pay credits to reject ads on their blogs. I like the way the post is worded: Entrecard Blog Blog Archive No credit fee to reject paid ads And I’m glad that Entrecard decided to listen to the users. It definitely raised my respect level [...]
March 16th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I’m impressed with how you guys have handled the backlash, remedying two of the major problems people have. I still have misgivings about the program, but I definitely have more confidence in you guys and the new direction now, knowing that you can and will adapt when necessary.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
well graham this is extraordinary move as Bloggers like need to reject some adds having sort of porn logo or seductive logo as it does not suit with my blog theme.
thanks ,
once again
anisha
March 16th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I would suggest you one more thing that you can accept normal logos only and do not approve any seductive logo or if it is a part of website or blog picture then it would be best.
All entrecarders need debate on this topic,
thanks,
anisha
March 16th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Good news. I’ll take a wait and see approach. I appreciate your taking our views into account.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
This is good news…especially we Today.com bloggers. They have us on a pretty tight leash.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Graham And Co.-
As house “nay-sayer” over several previous EC changes, I was pleasantly surprised by your logical decision to raise money by selling ads. I’m even more pleased to see you responding so quickly to member complaints about “fees to reject ads” and forcing EC placement “above the fold”.
Hey, I bitch when I think you’re wrong; it’s only fair to tip my hat when you’re right…
-MR
March 17th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Thanks Graham
March 17th, 2009 at 2:08 am
I think thats great! I ran across so many blogs that were quitting this, I’m glad they fixed it. I’m new so I was clueless. But yea bloggers!
March 17th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Oh Graham.
You are a wonderful person to give so much of yourself to these bloggers you don’t even know.
Thank you so much for this, it really means a lot that you listened so closely to what people had to say. And you didn’t just listen, you did something most companies/organizations talk about, but never truly act out, you gave FANTASTIC customer service.
Now, let’s make Entrecard some money! Heaps!
I’m gonna go dance now!
March 17th, 2009 at 4:07 am
You’re really interacting and listening to majority of your members, although I don’t have any complaints. Kudos to you.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:21 am
I am glad that you listened to the community but more importantly is that you also acted on it. There are plenty of companies which may listen but when it comes down to it simply ignore it and fail to act.
I think this move has showed that Entrecard truly cares about its community and works hard to improve the services offered without sacrificing the community.
It is nice to see the hard work and consideration of bloggers at the same time you work hard to make the community better and more beneficial to all its members.
Thank you!
March 17th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Now this is a relief
March 17th, 2009 at 5:18 am
With this news, I’m adding my non-today.com blogs to EC specifically so that I can run widgets with paid ads.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Thanks so much — that’s such a relief to hear, you have no idea!
March 17th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I’m so happy for that change..
March 17th, 2009 at 5:47 am
This is great – it looks like everything will work out eventually.
If I understand correctly there will be 2 ads running per day on a blog that accepts paid ads – each 50% of the time
1 ad running for those that reject a paid ad/ads – (because it looks like some people don’t or can’t run them (the today.com)
So, since I don’t want to make money, just use credits to advertise my site I obviously only want to advertise on sites that will not run paid ads and will show my ads 100% of the time.
I don’t know if anyone has thought this far through but will there be a way to know when you are buying an ad from someone whether yours will be the only ad on that day or if you will be sharing that ad space with a paid ad?
Thanks for listening to everyone.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:50 am
thanks.hope more from u for future.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I am very pleased to hear that you have changed your stance on this. I understand that this will be a fantastic way for EC and people who run their blogs for profit to make money.
But, I just couldn’t take the fact that I was going to be debited if I rejected adds. I rejected an add once because of the logo that contain imagery that I deemed inappropriate.
Of course my grandsons would have loved the add. Wow okay well I guess I shall enable advertiser again.
Thank you for listening to us. If we did not care we would not have been taken such a strong stance.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Good news,thanks Graham;)
March 17th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Absolutely great news. I was afraid I would have to leave EC. While I still don’t quite understand what the new program will or will not do for me, I am sincerely glad you came to this conclusion. This was a real sticky point! Good job!
March 17th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Graham ..
Thank you for restoring my belief in people, at least online. Prior to joining EC, my blog was part of another social network that was horrifically run (and culminated with a massive Internet blackmail and extortion campaign last summer), so I apologize for being cynical with regards to your previous announcements.
And slowly, I am starting to feel like EC is a community.
Cool beans, Graham!
March 17th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Thank you Graham for listening! I applaud you for that.This will make Entrecard a better community
March 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Oh my goodness, this all looks suspiciously democratic. Any more and we’ll all be seriously content. And then whar would we do???
Once again, I salute the EC team and community! You’re terrific!
March 17th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Thank you…for allowing us the “choice”…
I do not think you will be disappointed.
~Lily
March 17th, 2009 at 10:00 am
This is really good news, and it may help guide you in the type of advertisers you work with. EC, on the whole, has been a pretty ethical community. If enough of us refuse to run ads for diet pills (as an example- I sure will zap those) you will know that the community does not want to go down that road.
To reiterate what I said on the other post… you MUST ad a category for Outdoor Recreation / Nature. There are oodles of boots, canoes, tents, gadget and clothes that people BUY to use outdoors. The tech world just hasn’t noticed.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Re the Today.com bloggers and others who may choose to do so… why not have a way to just block all ads on your site. It’s so simple, I’m sure you have already thought of it.
I am also concerned about when in the process we approve or reject ads. If we have to wait to see them on our blog before we reject them some damage may already be done. I would much prefer a queue similar to the way we accept or reject EC ads.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:20 am
This is great news however you are teaching us to complain and cry and threaten to leave to get what we want. Next time some undesirable changes are made people will only complain even more. Why not do the research before making the changes to see what the members actually want and then once the decision is made, you stick to it.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:31 am
This is quite a relief! I felt sad reading some of the blogs I love announcing that they are dropping EC. I hope that this post will rectify everything and win back those members you have lost. Thank you for being considerate of the members’ views and opinions.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I have not been following this too close, but the obvious solution is to give people who do run the paid for adds a bonus, as opposed to penalising those who do not.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for the change of heart, this helps a lot.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Good choice. Now it’s going to be up to the members to not abuse your generosity. I have no problem with you guys making money. You have costs to pay and you should see some return on your efforts as well.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
you all are GREAT! I’m so excited about the new format – I think it’s going to go over REAL BIG. Thanks so much for listening!
March 17th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
This is good news. I wasn’t planning on leaving but it made me sad to see so many people upset about it and ready to jump ship.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
That’s great news. A very selfless move too by the Entrecard Administrators. I certainly appreciate it. I’m sure the community you people help put together will find ways and means to support Entrecard’s advertising ventures.
Thanks for the break. More power to Entrecard!
March 17th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
glad I could be of service to ya’ll.. blog posts and tweets are greatly appreciated!
March 17th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I’m glad too. I have a family friendly blog and I was worried about having to have ads on my blog for things I don’t think are family friendly. I also don’t want “get rich quick” things on my blog too. I’m happy that I won’t have to “pay” to reject them. Although I’m pretty sure I’ll accept almost all of them (I usually do) I do like that flexibility.
Thanks!
March 17th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
This is a good move forward. I like where things are going now. Though, that rule for placing the widget is still bothering me. I still feel it should be in each blogger’s domain to place the widget wherever he wants.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
yahoo!!!!! I was worried about the fee since i didnt have much ec credit on my account. Thanks for really listening and working with us and for us. Entrecard is the best!!!!!
March 17th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Thank you, so much for changing this ONE little thing! As a multi-blog publisher of family related content I had concern about the issue of finding a Paid Ad not fitting with the nature of the Blogs. I am happy to say, that I can put this concern to rest and move forward. I would have paid the credits to not run advertising that wasn’t fitting however–I am happy this compromise has been reached!
March 17th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Actually I would not have minded “paying” to reject ads, if it were 5 or 10 credits, it would have been fine.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:02 am
hooray!
March 18th, 2009 at 12:03 am
This is great news! Thanks Entrecard! ^_^
March 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Thank you very much Entrecard team for being so open with your members . I wonder if all members will have paid ads on their widgets and will all members be allowed to exchange their credits with cash? and is there an exchange rate we should know about?
March 18th, 2009 at 7:05 am
is smart as most of us here are not making any money online. It is very hard to do so as most places such as surveys and affiliate traffic inducing programs like linkrefrerral and traffic swarm are a waste of time! In fact, they charge you for the referrals you send to them, by having their link on their sites and blogs!
Granted i have made some money off the net through an affiliate called Adult friend finder and some money through art modeling bookings through One Model Place and Model mayhem but..for the most part, I’d have to say it wasn’t worth my time.
Many here get giddy over thinking they can make a fast easy buck through the net. The reality is there is money to be made for sure but..one needs to keep their mortar and pestal or brick establishment they work out of too and get referrals and clients from being seen on the net. In other words, keep your day jobs folks!
Many here claim to be making a lot of money off their blogs. To them i say, show me the money! I’d love io see your bank statements. Yes you can make a quick dirty buck off the internet by being a cam girl and stripping and playing for the camera and an unlimited audience of voyeurs if you like for sure but..if it is legitimate work you seek from your home and computer then you are talking a whole different ball game, pardon the pun..and for that you will need a magnifying glass and a blood hound to look for and find Real paying employment. Just my humble opiniion and experience folks.
That is why I think one should not get their panties in a ruffle if they see a pic from their blogs on my blog with a link to their blog stating where I got it from as I am not making anything from my blog and it is for entertainment purposes only! I offer a service to the public of FREE advice as I am an alternative health practitioner,artist,designer,pet pro and environmental activist.
I also think entrecard should continue to offer traffic to one’s blog as they were doing in exchange for their link on our blogs as is a win win situation for all of us! It however; is not FREE! This delusion seems to be rampant here and elsewhere on the net with respect to social networking sites including Linkreferral,easy Hits4u,Blogupp to name but a few..The fact of the matter is that time is money and it takes time to go to other people’s blogs and view and review them or comment on them and drop ..That is time I could be spending at a REAL J O B that pays guaranteed sALaRY FOR my time as opposed to some spontaneous income here.
If it is FREE merchandise you seek, then writing reviews in exchange for it, is a viable solution to what may be ailing you!
March 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Thanks entrecard for respecting the members wishes. You continue to show you are a community that cares about it’s members.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Thank you! And thank you for caring what your community thinks. That is pretty huge.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I doubt that I will end up rejecting any ads, unless they are truly dubious..
Especially if they offer the potential to earn revenue and are partially contextual.
However I offer my appreciation of this option and think it shows that you guys listen to your audience, who are after all, also your business partners!
Microsoft not so long had a scheme through Live Spaces where you could use their blog hosting service free of charge providing they were allowed to advertise on your space! (with no benefit to you) and if you didn’t want the ads, you had to pay to get them removed…on top of this you couldn’t put any ads on your own blog because MS, use a code cleaning service to remove HTML/Javascript from hosted pages for ’security reasons’.
Live Spaces very recently decided to remove the ads from the blog page and place them instead on the login screen for the Live Spaces user (hmm unpopular perhaps), now directly advertising to the blog creator instead of their audience.
Now I suppose Live Spaces isn’t a bad option if you want to write a blog, for the sake of…writing a blog (maybe for friends or a bit of practice) but for the rest of us, without any advertising options, well you could imagine at how unpopular this might make Microsoft, especially in the eyes of a blogger and how generally unethical it makes them appear, even if the service they offer is free!
So I offer my appreciation and thanks for not heading down that road and also to say bring on those paid ads : )
March 18th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Thnx entre team.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:04 am
This is good news! Thank you!!!!!!
March 18th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Thank you for voicing out our concern, it has been very helpful to at least wash away our doubts and provide solutions to that problem
March 18th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
That’s some great news!!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
And if everyone rejects the Ads then what?
It does nothing for Entrecard.
There needs to be some sort of carrot and stick.
Maybe you should get paid a small credit fee to host the ad and lose out if you don’t.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
All right!
) That’s more like it!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Perhaps it would be a good idea to give the person running the ad as many EC as if they were running a standard ad from a blog. Supposing enough people take advantage of the cashout, it would not have too much of a negative effect on the EC economy. It would also be a good encourager for people to run the ads. They get the credits, and they get to support EC to. Win/win, simple as that.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
That’s better! Thanks for re-thinking this point. I’m certainly willing to give this a try. Not sure I understand how we’ll be paid cash though for cashing in EC credits. Through PayPal?
March 18th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Thank you for reversing the decision to charge credits for rejecting ads. One should never have to “pay” to avoid offensive material. Good move. Thanks for listening to the users
March 19th, 2009 at 5:48 am
I will gladly accept them but not at a cost to my credits. That’s silly. Accepting any of them should take care of that. I can’t imagine there will be many we will reject — at least I hope not. All things within reason!
Thanks for hearing and for reacting.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Thanks Graham.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:09 am
great news
March 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am
This is a good decision. I think that every rule which can reduce our credits in any way will always have very few supporters.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Well, I guess they had no other choice. Here’s why :
http://www.rajtilak.net/2009/03/decision-time-for-entrecard.html
March 19th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Guess they never had a choice!
March 20th, 2009 at 12:19 am
this is not good for me.. allowing anybody’s ads in my website is just helping them. We need to help one another…maybe time to get selective if it shows nudity and obscene tpics..
March 20th, 2009 at 1:46 am
thanks for this. does that mean there is also no credits for accepting ads?
March 20th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Thank you that being accomodate what your user need.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
yahoo!!!!! I was worried about the fee since i didnt have much ec credit on my account,Thank you for addressing this and coming to this conclusion.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Thanks this all seems good.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:06 am
In actual fact, Entrecard respects our wishes far more than Today.com do.
I have to put up with totally inappropriate – sometimes quite nasty ‘adult’ ads because I have no way of rejecting them. My blog lovebritfood.today.com is family-friendly but Today.com have been unhelpful in their response to users who want to restrict the types of ads shown on their site.
Congratulations Entrecard for seeing sense on this and on the ‘above the fold’ issue.
Surely it would be easy enough to detect if a registered blog address ended today.com and just not allow paid advertisers to access them to make an offer?
March 21st, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Good post, your post could really help me in my work. Hopefully this will help increase my traffic more. Thanks for sharing.
March 21st, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Good that is good news!
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
I don’t see any value for paid advertisers, so it is probably a mute point on how or when to reject them. I know I wouldn’t pay to advertise on a network where I didn’t get an above the fold and/or had to deal with constant rejections. At least with an opt-in/opt-out model advertisers would know the true advertising population.
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thank you for such an understanding person in entrecard thank you for hearing & thank you for everything…
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Would it be possible to only allow people who don’t reject paid ads to cash in their ECs for cash? This would allow for people to have only free ads running that wanted to, but also give a real incentive for some people to accept paid ads.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:42 am
This is a very good and informative post. I look forward to see more.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Greetings all members,
I would just like to say hello and let you know that I’m happy to be a member – been a lurker long enough
Hope to contribute some and gain some knowledge along the way….
April 4th, 2009 at 1:45 am
This is great. Won’t these credits be transferred to the publishers?