Entrecard exploring possibility of new owner
Written on September 25th, 2008 by Graham
My vision for Entrecard is enormous. From day 1, my goal was to build “the currency of the blogosphere” -and on top of it an entire economy of bloggers buying and selling not only advertising, but all sorts of products and services. The benefit for bloggers to participate was always the promise of more traffic, more community participation, comments and subscribers.
As you all may or may not know, I recently met with some VCs over a two month period. We were working out a deal in which they were going to invest a $700,000 “seed round”, which would open a headquarters and allow us to hire 10 employees, with a follow on Series A round of 2 to 5 million six months later. The deal fell apart in the 11th hour, because they lost faith in my ability to execute the plan as the only member of a one person team.
Around the same time, a family emergency ocurred that is demanding some time and money, which I don’t have much of right now while running Entrecard.
And finally, in the end, I want Entrecard to become the best it can be for you, the bloggers. This means putting it in the hands of someone who has the resources to invest in developers, designers, and roll out all the features that we have planned that will make Entrecard rock even harder.
I will not be putting the site into the hands of someone I think won’t act in the best interest of the bloggers, and I will not be putting the site into the hands of someone who I haven’t talked to extensively and gotten on the same page about where Entrecard goes from here. Bascially, I’m looking for someone who can execute my vision, because I don’t have the money or manpower to do it, and I’m disenchanted with VCs at present and don’t feel I have the resolve at this point to work out another deal with another firm.
Entrecard needs a team. It has gotten too big too fast, and without more servers, more developers, designers, and so on, it will buckle under its own weight. And so I have come to the opinion that the entire company, and all the bloggers using it, would be better served with a better-endowed owner.
I know this may come as a shock to many of you, but don’t worry. Nothing is final. I may not end up selling it. I may decide to cancel the auction and chase down the VCs with a second wind. But one thing is certain, something needs to change, and Entrecard needs the resources to get to the next level, and it is unfair to you, the bloggers, to make you the promises I have made of features to come, with no clear plan in sight to get them built.
That is all. Here is the link to the sale on sitepoint.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Shocking. I’d love to talk to you on the issue Graham. I’ll send you an email later today. Best regards
September 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I really hope this comment goes through:
I would be sorry to hear you go, despite what everyone is saying and despite the ‘empty promises’. This news is a shock and it’s very saddening to me. So I hope you don’t sell, because I think that if you were able to get this off the ground – you can do what needs to be done to make it ‘rock even harder’. I hope you get your second wind.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
If you sell it, make sure you tell them you pay me big $$ to be a member before you go.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’m collecting bets as I type this.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
EC is a GREAT project and facility to blogsphere. EC is dream come true for many newbie blogger. I’m really hope that EC still with YOU who really understand the concept and vision of EC. Hope you will get right VC to partner with you and will move EC to next level. GOOD LUCK!!!
September 25th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Graham…being apart of the EC worldwide community has been and continues to be an extra-ordinary experience and I thank you for opening the world up to me…I believe that this is ‘your baby’, and it is growing @ record speed…things are changing as we speak…so, whatever happens, whether you sell EC or keep it, know, that you have done a great thing and I hope the return for you is not just in dollars, but in blessings and good health…
all the best,
Amy
September 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Hang in there Graham.
‘Darkest right before the dawn and all that Jazz.
“Better endowed?” You’re kidding right? You are the John Holmes of the Blogosphere. Just swing it man!!
Seriously, take your time. Big things like this don’t come along too many times….
k
September 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Not shocking at all. Called it a while back.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Why don’t you get yourself some breathing space by introducing an annual fee per blog ?
If the figures you quote on your sales pitch are any way accurate you could raise a fair bit of money with just a small charge, say $15 . That would enable you to take the thing to the next level yourself and maximise the advertising revenue, remain blogger-friendly and not have to sell .
September 25th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Any fee will send most of the blogs fleeing to someone who isn’t charging. Spammers wouldn’t mind paying a small fee to targeted traffic but that wouldn’t improve the site.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I’ve known you since the MillionDollarWiki and I know how great you are as a developer. I do hope you won’t sell EC. Your vision might be the same with the new owners at first but who knows what will happen in the future? EC is a great tool for the entire blogosphere as it changed the way we advertise between blogs.
Hang in there!
September 25th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Open to an MBO? Us EC’ers being the Management?
September 25th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
My blog is having a wonderful time when EC was added a while ago and life has never been the same since then and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I hope you get things worked out and I hope that whatever it is, promise that you would keep EC concept as it is…
I wish you all the best!
September 26th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Please, don’t sell Entrecard…
Give it some time and really think it through. Hasty decisions don’t usually end well.
I hope things work out for you as I’d really like to see Entrecard go BIG with you around.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Wow, I’m not sure what to say. Entrecard as I know it has been part of my life since I started blogging. Imagining the changes a new owner might bring….
All I can say is do what is best for you. You’ve created a great community and I think we all would salute you on that. I can see how it would become overwhelming. If selling works for your life then sell away. But I join my fellow entrecarders in hoping you don’t.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Mate i saw about Entrecard over Sitepoint !! I can understand what is happened but i suggest to have some CPM based ads over here as your Revenue is only $2000 Per month (Very much low for 80m impre) have some banner on site with fixed rate is not that good idea for monetization !! Or try out contacting some company like yahoo As earlier done by Mybloglog.
Another Idea : Try some new Open source peoples to work for you !!
September 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Yes, Graham. I think you to cooperate with someone who has the same opion/mind with U. Keep on Working on it Graham. Go EC Go!!!
September 26th, 2008 at 5:58 am
What can we do? It’s not under our control. We’re just follower. Whatever happens, be it. Some things don’t last, some things change. And we’re just right here waiting. Wishing and hoping for the best and I would like to say thank you very much in advance for everything EC has done with my blogging things.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:29 am
I seconded Caledonian Jim’s comment.
I pay $5 a month to play games on a popular gaming site for fun. My blog is part of my business marketing (and it’s NOT spam) so I’m more than willing to pay more than that a month for a subscription in Entrecard.
Small piece of unsolicited business advice: you could use a business coach. There are some good ones out there who can coach you on-line without burning your wallet. There are some good business coaches here. I use a business coach and it’s one of the smartest things I’ve done for my business.
September 26th, 2008 at 8:07 am
To sell or get investors. The difference? Whether you have to run the company. A personal decision. Eventually, Google (etc) owns all the successful web-apps. Making it known that you are in the market IS the next step for EC. Congrats. Don’t compromise on the vision (ie. don’t turn EC into money-farm). The internet is free… let’s keep it that way.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I somehow knew something was in the works, but I am a fool.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Entrecard is a great concept, and you as the owner deserve the best if you decide to sell it. I hope you have the patience and perseverence to wait till the best deal comes in your hands. VCs are not that bad…
September 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
[...] developments, which means it also demands more fund. Graham Langdon, the owner of Entrecard is contemplating to sell it because he thinks it deserve an owner who has the resources to invest and deal with developers, [...]
September 26th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Graham, how about a bunch of us get together and do something. You have a service that works but can’t make a buck. There are people out here on the other side of the monitor that know how to make a buck, but don’t have a site like EC.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
You should have never given the link to sitepoint. LOL Your descriptions give EC the appearance that it would turn out to be a good investment for the spammer looking to bleed its members out of their cash, and dump paid advertisements into the widgets.
As soon as one penny is required of me, I will be forced to depart, just by virtue of the rules of our testable model.
I really wished you wouldn’t have given the link to sitepoint, it wasn’t good for me, and maybe others to see. But, such is life, folks gotta do what they gotta do I suppose.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Not surprised at all! I wonder why? O_o
September 26th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I hope that you are able to stand strong and get some more help to keep things going. Maybe a partnership instead of outright selling it. There is a very fine line between social networking and traffic exchange and you keep this place as a social network. I am afraid that the temptation to commercialize would be too much for people looking to get a return on all their investment. At any rate, thanks for standing by your convictions and not selling this thing to the highest bidder.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Don’t sell work out the funding!
I like Abhishecks idea if it comes down to selling make a proposal to Yahoo! If someone buys EC that is probably what they will do anyway if if they don’t use it for spam ads or gouging for subscriptions.
Follow your bliss not the VC’s decisions. VC’s can be really weird sometimes and I think we give the too much credit. Seriously.
September 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I hope you find a solution that allows you to retain ownership… I would hate to see someone else make huge profits after you’ve done all the groundwork…
EC is (technical problems today aside) very effective at doing what it does …. only a matter of time…
September 27th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Maybe you can sell Entrecard.com to the users – $25 from each blog would give you $1M. That would be pretty cool.
September 27th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
My concern is what will happen after the sale. It’s a foregone conclusion that the buyer will monetize to recoup their costs. I’m concerned a new owner will not be in touch with the EC community and will attempt monetization methods that drive away some of the best bloggers and biggest attractions to EC.
Graham,
I’ve never addressed you personally, but I have followed you for a while. You know you can make some cheddar off this site easily. There are a lot of people out there who would line up to buy premium ad space on this site. Even at a paltry $100-$250 for a 125×125 or standard banner, you would have a backlog of buyers for each month. You could also do CPI or CPC quite easily. You have the skill and this site definitely have the traffic.
At Sitepoint, you’re going to do good to get 3x the annual revenue out of this site. Most Sitepoint buyers are low ballers who buy cheap and flip the site after a while. Don’t sell this site short.
I had a site that got well over 50K uniques a month and was a PR6 and I sold it for $5K because “I needed the cash” and I had not monetized it enough. Bad move. I should have monetized it instead. In less than a year, I could have exponentially increased my income with very little effort. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. Monetize this site through direct premium ad sales.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:20 am
[...] the way Entrecard service could get new owner soon. It was announced in post at official blog. Auction at sitepoint is up and running. It is very interesting how it may resolve [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 7:53 am
[...] chance and not have his hopes ruined after one failure (although he has family problems as well, says his blog). He also founded the Million Dollar Wiki project (buy a wiki page for $100), an Alex Tew’s [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hi Graham,
Am happy to know that now u r not going with the sell out plan
Earlier I made a post in Forums >> Entrecard Economy >> ways to increase price of EC. The link is here:
http://entrecard.com/forums/9/14427/#p=12
I would like to add something to it:
1. I like the idea of you buying the credits at 5-6-7 USDs and selling at 7-8-9-10 USDs.Ban transfer of credits among users except linked blogs.. Its ur site and u have the right to sell it.This way u will earn more $$$s.
2. There is plenty of free space on site, use it for advertising…
3. The main problem EC advertisers face is of Quality Targeted Traffic. So I have a way to do that. Don’t allow anyone to DROP unless they wait 30 seconds on a site after loading. Am a software engineer and I know its east to do. So, no one will drop ECs fast and they will wait 30 seconds on each site and read the articles, so the quality of traffic will increase.
4. One more suggestion is whenever someone DROPs, the 1 EC Credit should be transferred to that Advertisers account and not to the Publishers account. Publisher already earned by approving ad. Now advertiser will earn ECs by receiving drops. So advertiser will be happy even if he/she doesn’t get traffic by spending 2000-4000 ECs,nhe/she will at least get back so many drops. That way there will be much advertisements lined up. No one will complaint that they spend 500-1000EC and they receive only 10-20 visitors.
5.Reduce the daily drop limit to 100. So there will be scarcity of ECs, so according to Demand/Supply ratio the price of ECs should go up.
These were my some suggestions..Hope u like it…
Thanks,
Ojal Suthar
September 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
[...] Entrecard members know, the owner of Entrecard made a big BUZZ around the blogosphere about the possibility of it being sold but now we know that he no longer wants to sell and plans to continue developing it for [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 9:52 am
[...] My vision for Entrecard is enormous. [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
[...] in the SEO and making money blogger realm. Last week Entrecard founder Graham Langdon posted a lengthy entry about selling the site and provided a link to an auction on Sitepoint. Two days later Langdon noted that the service was [...]