Entrecard’s new pricing finally unveiled!
Written on April 7th, 2008 by Graham
Today we release our long-awaited modification to the pricing system.
It’s going to go live within the next 24 hours. Just to be clear, we are talking about a complete change to the way everyone’s advertising prices are calculated.
Starting today, your ad price is determined solely by demand for your ad spot. Every time someone purchases, or applies to purchase an ad on your site, your price doubles. Every time an ad finishes running, your price halves.
To calculate your price at any given moment, just start at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, if you have 5 people approved and stacked in the “On your widget” column of the dashboard, and 5 people waiting for approval, you would calculate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, or 2 to the power of 10, which eqauls 1024 credits. And then in 24 hours, when an ad has completed running, their price would go down to 512. If no one bought an ad that day, tomorrow it would go down to 256. And then if someone bought an ad for 256, the price would go back up to 512.
So the price will actually fluctuate with each ad that has been bought and each ad that completes. If no one has bought an ad on you in a while, your price will get very cheap very quick. And if you want to buy an ad on a high-profile blog, you’ll be able to whenever you want, as long as you have enough credits.
Once again, all blogs start at a base of 2, and prices double for each ad that someone purchases, and halves for each ad that completes.
If you have any questions regarding this new pricing system, feel free to post them as comments in the blog, or in the forum.
Both Phirate and Myself really think that this new pricing system will give a more accurate representation of supply and demand for different people’s advertising spots. It no longer has anything to do with drops, but is now based solely on how many other people want an ad on your site.
As always, we recommend before spending a lot of credits to advertise on someone, to do a little research and make sure that purchasing any given advertisement on any blog fits with your goals.
Initial Craziness
Once we flip the switch on the new prices, you’re going to see some initial craziness. The top prices will be in the 10’s or 100’s of thousands Because the initial price will just tally up the number of ads in your que, and double it for each one. It’s going to take a number of days for everyone’s price to settle down to a demand level.
So once the prices settle down, we’ll all be able to get a handle on exactly how useful and advantageous the new system is. The first few days might be a little crazy though, so be forewarned.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
The much awaited changes. Like all other changes in a system, there is positive or negative reactions. In this case, what that would be?
April 7th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Positives:
1.) You can buy an ad on any one, at any time, as long as you have enough credits.
2.) Prices will be more fair. ProBlogger and John Chow won’t hover around 200. They will quickly be bid up to a more respectable price, simply because people are willing to pay more.
3.) You do not need to be drop-intensive to preserve a decent price.
Negatives:
1.) The prices are going to be VERY screwy for a few days. The most expensive person will be 500,000 credits!
April 7th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
What will happen to my current adverts? It is a good idea to cancel all my current adverts to wait for cheaper ads? Or I will cancel my ads on sites that I think there will be low demand for ads from advertisers…
April 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Cancelling ads does not effect pricing in any way.
Basically, its going to take a few days for everyone’s prices to settle down or up to the demand level.
Again, canceling will not effect anything pricing related.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
so everyone’s who’s on the queue now will be paying the old price? while everyone who ads on will be paying the new price?
April 7th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Exactly. Prices were locked in when people placed them.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
hmm….i don’t know if it would be more strategic to cancel the current ads so my initial rate is lower and i’ll get more advertisements, or just stick with the bird in the hand.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Cancelling ads won’t do anything though, the prices have already been calculated in the system and tallied up.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Sounds like fun!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
That means that all those “YOU DROP, I FOLLOW” movements are going to stop because dropping cards won’t mean anything anymore.
I wonder when someone will come out with “YOU ADVERT ON ME, I ADVERT ON YOU” lol. This implementation may screw up all the current popular blogs in a few days, but we’ll see
-Mike
April 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
@Mike Huang:
Dropping Cards still mean something – traffic.
Folks will still continue to drop cards.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
That’s true, but some will probably stop as we all know why people “DROPPED” cards in the first place. I know I’m assuming, but that is why the bounce rates get sooo high on some blogs. A bounce rate of 80% and up is basically just saying that a visitor loads your blog, drops a card, and leaves.
Anyways, I forgot to mention how are the ADVERTS going to be placed in the dashboard? What if one day, I get 30 adverts…? Shouldn’t there be a new set limit for this before it gets out of control again?
-Mike
April 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I’m so confused. I don’t know what to spam today on all the popular blogs. Maybe I’ll just spin a wheel and let it decide if Entrecard is great or doomed, if there is a conspiracy to keep me out of the most popular, or if it is simply because my fellow Entrecarders failed to recognize the greatness of my blog.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
How does this affect unapproved ads?
Is there a limit to the amount of ads contributing to the exponent?
April 7th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
[...] Entrecard’s new pricing finally unveiled! [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Let the games begin!
This should be interesting.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
The you drop i follow wont stop because we aren’t just drops, we are people who read/view/comment/see banners/add to alexa.
The “you drop, i follow” means “you visit, i visit” in some people’s point of view, and that’s great isnt it?
The new advert pricing system is going to be fun.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
@Evil – I now you’re always looking for the positives, but you gotta admit that 90% of the members on Lee Doyle’s “you drop, I follow” thing just drop cards. I did experiments with it and I’m sure some of you guys have high bounce rates too.
-Mike
April 7th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
I have an ominous feeling about this. Uh-oh.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
@ Mike, your concern about bounce rates sounds a bit funny. I don’t care about those rates because, frankly, I have a blog. And I want my readers to visit my blog often, preferably daily.
Now, if I understood you correctly, you want them to browse your archives every day, right? Or in other words, to read articles they already read a couple times once again, and again.
Well, I approach business blogging a bit differently…
April 7th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
[...] what they have done is changed the calculation of credits to advertise on a [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I like new ideas. Let’s give it a try and see how it works out.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
So this is why my price changed from 400ec a day to 32 ec a day :[
Don’t know whether I’m going to like the changes yet.. lucky I’ve saved up entrecard credits…
April 8th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Whats your cut for the advertising? Do you still 75%?
If so, It means we have less for future advertising unless we buy it from you. Does that sound about right?
April 8th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I must say, this is definitely a big change.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:50 am
I think it’s fair that cost is calculated for clicks on your widget because it reflects the number of clicks it could drive you when you advertise.
John Chow could be a great blog but it wont drive you as many visits ands clicks as popular entrecarders.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:03 am
LoL I just bought 160 ads worth of 8ec – 32ec out of top 10 most popular blogs
April 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
I’ve been reciprocating drops just because you took the time to visit my blog and drop your card. It’s a you scratch my back I scratch your back. Any comments that get left behind are just bonuses. But I really can’t wait until the madness ends and the real cost to advertise starts to show up. There is a good thing about this, because if you have had little luck getting ads on your widget, when the price goes down you’ll have plenty and won’t have to worry about showing your card on your blog.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:40 am
This is crap. The idea/concept is good – that price is set by demand, not by the amount of drops, but prices are now going way too high! Maybe if we increase the payout from dropping cards (at least 2 – 5 points per drop) and that might offset the damage from sky high prices…
April 8th, 2008 at 1:47 am
[...] by dropping more cards on other blogs. This is not going to happen any longer. Dropping cards is no longer linked to the pricing. An excerpt from their announcement: To calculate your price at any given moment, just start at 2 [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 2:03 am
We sure hope things will settle down soon ’cause we can’t afford advertising in our own blogs.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Hmmm, so the few people who magicaly jumped all the way up to the 300,000k + level had 75 people just itching for the new day to start?
Did the new change help you spot people running scripts ?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Just let us decide our own prices … I am beyond pissed with the new system.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:29 am
@Graham – I can see this question has yet to be answered, what percentage will entrecard be taking for the adverts, is it still 75%? If so, if an ad costs 2ec’s you are actually taking 1.5ec’s and I’m left with only 0.5, is this right? If it is, I think you should also start looking at changing how much you are taking away, because there’s a huge difference between taking 75% from 2ec’s and 500ec’s and what I get to keep in return.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Grrr… I dont know if i like this or hate it. I guess I will give it time to settle.
I do not understand everything yet so will hold my judgements for awhile. I hope it all works out.
Things did need to change for sure! I hope this is the right change
April 8th, 2008 at 7:25 am
this is, im sorry, a very stupid idea. makes it practically impossible for smaller blogs to ever advertise on bigger blogs.
how could i ever collect over 10000 credits just for one ad?? it basically does what happens in real life – makes the distance bigger between “big” and “small” people.
im considering deleting my account.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:31 am
and one more thing. it puts me off dropping cards as well. theres no point, im NEVER gonna collect enough credit for the sites im interested in anyway.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:32 am
So whats the point if drops no longer have an effect …. wasn’t it the drops that brought the traffic to entrecard in the first place?
If I understand this correctly (not saying I do) it would seem the people that helped build Entrecard up from its beginnings are now getting the wham bam thank you mam ??
I hope not!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
My brief take on this, advertising will become very expensive as it will take a lot of time and effort to collect enough credits for a good ad spot.
Popular blogs will be the ones that earn more from ads than from dropping cards, so they will be able to pick and choose their ad spots without having to do any of the hard work of dropping cards
Only way for not so popular blogs to become popular would be to increase their non-Entrecard traffic and hope it gets noticed in the community (I think the least Entrecard should do is to start publishing a traffic rank (Alexa or otherwise) for the blogs in the system so people are better educated on whether a blog is good for advertising or not.
All in all, I guess this changes Entrecard from a socialist type system to a purely capitalistic one
April 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I am very disappointed in that this seems skewered towards the bigger blogs and once again, the “little blogger” is being pushed aside. I joined entrecard because it seemed to be a great way for a small blog to increase their readership and exposure. If I am understanding this correctly (and I hope I am wrong) there is no longer any incentive for others to drop a card on my blog (and to discover what I am “serving” that day) It sounds like the small bloggers are going to have to find another community. If dropping and receiving dropped cards is no longer a factor then there is no reason for me to remain with entrecard; I can better use my time elsewhere.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’d say that overall this new system is a good way to determine ad prices but I wonder what effect it will have on the number of drops people make.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] announced their new pricing algorithm – now your ad price is determined solely by demand for your ad spot. Every time someone purchases, [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
lets say it takes you 4 hours over a period of 4 days to get 1200 ec by dropping 300 aday…. you then go a spend most of that on a 1024 ec ad, Would You?
I Don’t see how the math is going to work out…
Or after 1 days full dropping I can’t even afford to adverize on someone’s site that already have 2 accepted ads with my 300 ecs
Time will tell
April 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Looks to me that there should be some way to make up the delayed rejection. Some people reject after centuries. Making the ec to freeze!
April 8th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I am just enjoying reading these comments. I was fine with the original system, and I was happy I was working my way up the list in cooking and dining.
One thing I don’t like is that they removed the drop down menu from the campaign page, I liked the drop down menu put it back :p lol
April 8th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
[...] Today marks the first day of the new system in place for advertising with Entrecard. There’s a blog post about it here. [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
[...] i didn’t favor it much as i didn’t have time to go to various sites dropping cards. A new pricing system has now been introduced which promises to be [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
[...] for one thing, cheap doesn’t mean what cheap used to mean. Here’s an excerpt from the article on their blog below: Written on April 7th, 2008 by Graham Today we release our long-awaited modification to the pricing [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I feel like this was implemented to bring less value to the existing Entrecard-credits in the game. At this time EC is beginning to bring money into the game, I think this is Entrecard.com’s way of taking back control of the marked again.
Before, you could have several blogs and drop a lot of cards, and you would be king of the hill, now it’s different..
I don’t think this was a fair change to Entrecard, a better approach would have been to disable that people get EC from dropping, but instead only got credits from people dropping on them..
Let’s see how this turns out. I’m not positive..
Regards
April 9th, 2008 at 1:37 am
[...] strange thing is that, if you look at the post announcing this change, there are some of the same generalities strewn about, somewhat like WordPress did. In my (and [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Damn… I thought you all were just having problems with your site… Majorly bummed that this is the way things will be now… I hope as you realize this will not work you come to some compromise between the old and new way of doing things…
April 9th, 2008 at 6:10 am
Since the day the new ad pricing system was implemented, my ad price remained at 64ec/day with no noted increase when I have approved 8 ads on my widget.
It was said that your ad price is determined solely by demand for your ad spot. Every time someone purchases, or applies to purchase an ad on your site, your price doubles. Every time an ad finishes running, your price halves.
However, despite the demand on my ad spot, my ad price remains at 64ec/day.
Does the new ad pricing system works only on selected blogs?
April 9th, 2008 at 6:11 am
On another note, I think that the current ad pricing system makes it almost impossible for bloggers to purchase ad spots on other blogs, especially to the highly trafficked ones like John Chow and Problogger.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:31 am
… I don’t mind being oh so “valuable” … but I’m “masa” [for the people] and I’d rather have fair price with returning advertisers coming for more than one-night stands, er, one-day adverts ..
the rest of my two cents at http://maria.kalesanimaria.com/?p=575
April 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am
[...] Entrecard has changed its pricing, i.e. Entrecard Credit system. Instead of the usual dropping 300 EC per day to earn credits, now it [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I hope this isn’t entrecard jumping the shark.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[...] If you want, you can read more on Entrecard’s blog. [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
[...] I found the magic pricing algorithm on the Entrecard blog. . . . start at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 11:46 am
[...] they removed their Entrecard widgets but I have a strong feeling that they were disappointed with the new pricing system. Disappointed or jealous? Either way, the point is, they predicted that Entrecard is bound to [...]
April 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
[...] week, Entrecard introduced some major changes in their system. The price valuation of your blog is no longer dependent on how many drops made on [...]
April 13th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] The new ad systems works well, giving users a way to earn currency and an actual marketplace dictated by peers. The economy will beat down smaller site’s ad prices and bolster ad costs on popular blogs. The new ad pricing post on Entrecard details the changes in a better way than I could. To calculate your price at any given moment, just start at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, if you have 5 people approved and stacked in the “On your widget” column of the dashboard, and 5 people waiting for approval, you would calculate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, or 2 to the power of 10, which eqauls 1024 credits. And then in 24 hours, when an ad has completed running, their price would go down to 512. If no one bought an ad that day, tomorrow it would go down to 256. And then if someone bought an ad for 256, the price would go back up to 512. [Source: Entrecard Blog Post] [...]
April 14th, 2008 at 4:49 am
[...] new pricing algorithm calculates the price in this way: For every EC spot there are a number of adverts waiting [...]
April 16th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
[...] We will need some more time for the dust to settle sorta similar to Entrecard’s new credit system. [...]
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Entrecard increases bounce rate to most of the Entrecard users ,but why it this happen,it is because most of us just drop and bounce.On the other hand,i suggest that try to interact with the most frequent droppers to your site such as thank you message to them and build up some rapport or invite them to your blog to join some campaign or subscribed as reader or so on.Ultimately,you are not only will receive credits but a constant traffics and reduce bounce rate
April 30th, 2008 at 3:54 am
[...] When I say worth I mean part of the widget is used to advertise other blogs. If somone wants to advertise on your widget then they would do it through the campaign section within the entrecard dashboard. The amount of credits is dictated by the amount of drops and the popularity of people wanting to advertise on your blog. For more information check out the entrecard blog. [...]
May 20th, 2008 at 3:06 am
[...] People are still selling the credits on eBay daily. The price has gone down a little since the pricing conversion, but you can still turn a few bucks on it if you’re just hanging out at your [...]
May 30th, 2008 at 3:03 am
[...] I started with them in late March. I got hooked on the “powerdropping” for a few weeks and moved up on the Finance and Investing category pretty fast (I think I peaked at #5), but honestly after I wrote the article on “Reverse Engineering The Entrecard System” they changed the rules. [...]
August 11th, 2008 at 8:49 am
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