I've been with Entrecard since early December. I've been a vocal critic early on but haven't said much since. Entrecard has done many things correct, but there are still some problems which jeopardize the system in the long run:

1. Remove the link between drops and site value. Earning credits should be an end in itself. There is no reason to tie site value to it. Much of the problem in Entrecard is people trying to increase the value of their site to they can get on the most popular page. There is a view that the higher the value of your site, the more successful your site is.

Site value should be de-linked from how many drops it gets. The simple solution is to just let everyone set their own price or set up a Project Wonderful type system. This would be superior to some secret algorithm which includes things like Alexa and Technorati ranks, both of which can also be gamed.

2. Reciprocal dropping is gaming the system. Sorry, it is. How many people would bother to visit your website if you weren't dropping on theirs? My guess is it would be much less and if that is the case, then the traffic is just illusionary. If you didn't know who was dropping on you, the incentive would be to visit sites you are interested in.
3. Get rid of categories. Let each site have 3 to 5 tags. Let people search by tag.
4. If you want to increase quality of site visits, reduce the number of daily drops. There is nothing magical about 300. This would also reduce "entrecard fatigue". People might still chain drop, but given time constraints, the odds of people lingering on their favorite sites is greater.

I definitely agree here, especially on tags instead of categories. Right now, it's a big competition to get to the top 3 of each.

While dropping isn't everything, it does reward those who visit the sites, which is all I ask for. Obviously people would like to advertise on the top sites only, but if people stopped dropping, there would be no more top sites. Only the same 5-6 that had a large following before entrecard. Currently the system works, as those who need the most from entrecard also contribute the most. Some try too hard to get noticed, but you always get those in any forums.

Chaind-drops, reciprocal dropping, 300 drop limits..

What is Entrecard all about? The above features are likely to turn EC into a traffic exchange system. It will increase your traffic, not readership.

I don't mind having extra traffic, but this subject is highly debatable in the blogosphere..Will be a hit and miss..

I agree 100%. I'm sick of this "so and so doesn't drop on me so I won't drop on them", "let's start a group and punish those who don't spend 24/7 on the computer endlessly dropping cards and not reading the blogs unless they're in the reciprocal clique.." I mean seriously people- this is Internet/Blogging Social Networking- not Internet/Blogging Credit Dropping Gladiators.

If people only drop their card on a site and don't do anything else, perhaps they didn't like the site. Or maybe they didn't have anything to say. Whether you use Entrecard or not, most visitors do not leave comments. Most people just read.

If I didn't use Entrecard then yes, fewer people would find my site. I know that some people just drop their card on my site and don't do anything else. However, some people also read my site. Some people subscribe. Some leave a comment. All as a result of me using Entrecard. How is that "illusionary" traffic?

That said, I'd be fine if categories were replaced with tags, and reducing the daily drop limit would be OK with me.

I have no problem with dropping being rewarded in earning credits. That's the core of the system.

The problems is placing an extra value in the form of site costs attached to drops. It is like saying "if you earn $100,000 a year, we'll also make your house worth an extra $50,000 when you sell it because you make so much money."

The act of placing an ad and attracting readers from outside Entrecard seems lost in the mania of increasing site value and playing up to other people in Entrecard.

I have been dropping on sites I thought have been droppin on me but soon found out that when you switch up and drop on new sites... well I got a 30-40 % more drops then before..

I didn't say all the traffic was illusionary. I have certainly gotten some regular readers from Entrecard too. If Entrecard was useless, I wouldn't be here.

Chain dropper traffic per se isn't that big of a deal either. If someone wants to visit your site for only 5 seconds, there isn't much you can do about it. That is assuming there is no cost to getting the traffic...

However, the way Entrecard is working, you have to spend a great deal of time to get poor quality traffic.

If someone from within Entrecard visits a site, they will probably determine if it is worth returning in 1 or 2 visits. There is no need for a daily return. Problem is, that is exactly what the site is set up for right now.

The focus needs to get back to using the 125x125 ads to get traffic from outside the Entrecard community. That is the real prize, and right now the system isn't designed to maximize that.

IF they change the pricing mechanism to something more sane (ala PW), then there is no reason why sites couldn't have more than 1 Entrecard ad display on their site. You should still only be able to drop on one site per day, but there is no reason why you couldn't run multiple boxes to display ads. That would maximize the opportunity for bloggers to get ads to the public.

Even though PW costs real money, the time commitment to Entrecard has become so large to gather credits, that it is actually cheaper to spend money on PW than it is to spent time on EC.(assuming a minimum wage and $5 per 500ec)

As I've said before, eventually a 300 person group of clickers will form and only click on their own blogs. Let them exist off each other. I'm happy for any traffic, droppers or not. Converting them is your job and not entrecards. Of the 300 blogs I drop on, only about 32 fall into the "I'm obligated to read" category. The rest of you better write something interesting.

Whether you pay project wonderful, or buy entrecard credits, it's still cash. That's who I sell my credits to, people who want to target entrecarders without having to drop.

Everything you are right instead of running one 125by 125 ad you can run 2 side by side or 4 that sounds like a damn good idea!!

Thats odd turnip Most people say there "Bounce" rate is around 70-85% mine is only about 50%.It's a weird thing to deal with but a visit is a visit to me and if i get a reader thats a great feeling.

"its still cash" can be said of $1 or $1,000,000. There is a difference.

I could give some details, but there are sites on PW which cost $0.03 per day to run the exact same 125x125 ad which costs 300ec to run on Entrecard. I'm sure everyone on both networks have found similar disparities.

Something is out of wack. That something is the pricing scheme on Entrecard (or the lack thereof).

Any of you people with too much time on your hands and wants to write a winning article, compare the PW costs vs Entrecard costs vs unique visitors per day. Should be very interesting. Then have a "most overrated" "most underrated" and "just right" category.

I like the idea of using tags instead of categories but why not both? I mean the structure is already set for categories and there really is no need to take it out. I'm guessing from the back end side of things it would be easier to add tagging as a function.

That will make me search for sites using tags. Much much easier to find sites in your niche which are not always in your chosen category.

I should add that because real money is involved, most people who are in both EC and PW put the PW ad higher up in the site.

Entrecard brings it's own unique advert style to the blogging community. If they change it to a Project Wonderful style or any other format then it wouldn't be "Entrecard". Finding new and improved ways to bring free traffic to our blogs is what brought us to Entrecard, and that's why we all signed up and stayed.

Personally I like the categories and the general set up of EC(although tags and some other tweaks would be nice.) Entrecard does bring excitement, competition, a sense of community, and most importantly...free traffic we probably wouldn't have gotten on our own.

If they change it to a Project Wonderful style or any other format then it wouldn't be "Entrecard".

That is a tautology.

Entrecard is like four months old. This isn't some venerable old institution which has serviced several generations of bloggers since 1897.

It didn't come out of the womb in a perfect state.

Categories are unwieldy because not everything fits nicely into categories. A category is nothing more than a single, enforced tag. Tags offer more flexibility and greater precision for you to target where you would like an ad shown.

I definitely see your point Everywhere...I agree with the needed tags. With time Entrecard will go through enevidible changes and grow some hair in the right places. Until then I'll enjoy what Entrecard has to offer.

Didn't Phirate say earlier on that they were bringing in an economist or something to look more deeply into the "pricing" and economics of the EC program?

I think that they're already looking into the "disparities" - and I also think that everyone's suggestions have value. In the interim, I'll be just fine finding new blogs to read and hoping that others are finding my blog as a good read as well!

I'd much rather pick 3 tags for my site than pick a category. I see that as a minor change.

What I read was they were going to create some sort of algorithm to determine value. Which will open the door to gaming and be hopelessly complicated.

Just have a bid or let site owners set the price. The simplest approach would be the best approach.

THE BIG DIFFERENCE between PW and EC aside from the fact that one is "cash" and the other "time", is that with an EC ad, there's a MUCH HIGHER chance that someone will click on it to your site because they are chain dropping.

For PW, there is NO INCENTIVE whatsoever to click on the ad so it's pure branding. PW is also so easily gamed since you can bid on your own ads by opening several accounts and I've mentioned many times before how I've lost money this way. I don't trust PW at all.

I hate the fact that quite a number of high priced sites have very poor quality blogs, but hey, that's true of anything in the real world. Lots of low quality items get sold at high prices because of marketing.

CONTENT may be King, but the Queen is Marketing and when those guys drop their cards everywhere, they're doing the hard work of marketing.

I don't mind having tags but I think that categories have their place too. I would like it if clickthroughs from the widget could be accurately recorded and then the cards were listed in order of the highest follow through traffic rather than the highest cost of credits. It sort of feels like the there is too much of a divide between the top blogs in each category and the rest.

I don't think that dropping is a bad thing - even when I was away for a week, my card value didn't really drop that much, I was still on the top row of my category. I do think that developing a system that takes into account drops AND traffic would be the best option. I mean, if we want a site that runs like project wonderful, we can just USE project wonderful. I like project wonderful too, I just appreciate the different systems. This isn't perfect but I don't think card drops are solely to blame - although I do think that a lower card drop limit is a good idea. I don't really know how anyone has the time to consistently drop 300 cards - and it does sometimes feel like we all should be dropping lots of cards just to stay on top of the categories.

As for the point made about people being punished for not returning drops - if a person consistently doesn't return drops then it's probably because they have no interest in the dropper's site so why would the dropper continue to visit them? Communities are made up of give and take. Just as an example, I was dropping my card on the same blogs with my writing blog and my personal blog - some people in the writing category never drop on my writing blog BUT they drop on my personal blog - this tells me that my writing blog holds no interest for them so why would I bother them with it? I still drop on them with my personal blog but I use my writing blog drops for people who may be interested in reading that blog. Sorry if that's confusing, it's must my take on it :/

I don't think there is a right or wrong system here - it's still so new that changes can be made without disrupting things too much. I'd be happy to see if it works better another way as long as the best method was the long-term result.