As many of you fellow bloggers now know, there are monumental changes occurring with our Entrecard membership. None of which pleases many bloggers, it seems. I’ve seen a few posts up about this, and thought I’d quickly let you know my thoughts and intentions about the group.
Bluntly, I HATE the new changes. The idea that I will penalized for rejecting arbitrarily-placed advertisements on MY blog that I PAY for is a stench in my nostrils. The mad hatters at Entrecard say they need to make more money, that Entrecard cannot be a free service anymore. Initially, Entrecard was established as a bloggers’ community where bloggers could meet other bloggers and find new blogs and get the word out about their own blogs. I guess that initial vision is in the toilet. Now it’s all about money.
With that said, I want to state that I DO UNDERSTAND that Entrecard can make money if it wants to. That’s fine. But it was sold to us as a free service. Moreover, the blanket-action that says we have to allow uninhibited advertising on our blogs, or be forced to pay (either in credits or cash or both) is reprehensible.
1.) The Entrecard website gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a DAY. Advertise on the ENTRECARD site, why don’t you?
2.) MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, Twitter, etc etc charge nothing to bloggers. What is it that they are doing correctly that Entrecard is not doing?
3.) Bloggers are firecely independent and jealous of their own blogs. Entrecard is doing the worst possible move– forcing bloggers to give up authority of a portion of their blog to maintain a failing social networking/advertising economy.
Nonetheless, I love the EC community, even if I can’t stand the mismanagement of the site and the childish actions of the owner. I don’t think I am ready to leave just yet. I am preparing to leave, but I am still hopeful that perhaps something will turn around here. The probability of that is low, as many of you have shown; yet I am still going to hang in there for a few weeks.
I wish someone would pop up who could have a website simliar to what the Entrecard idea did for the blogging community. I like CMF Ads, but that is a very passive advertising network, and not really a community. I also like dropping my cards on other blogs– it was a discipline that I really would not otherwise do without that incentive to get credits. I like to visit blogs, but I find that without the dropping of cards, I am less inclined to visit blogs.
So that’s where I stand right now. I’ll be leaving my widgets up until I am 100% sure of what to do.
16. March 2009 at 9:42 pm
Hey, good news of a sort. When I logged in to drop from my inbox tonight, there’s a message up: they’re not going to make you pay to reject ads. I’m not sure what else lies ahead, but there’s hope.
16. March 2009 at 10:16 pm
Well, I went and checked out the Entrecard blog after I saw Susan’s comment. I’m glad (and very surprised) to see the change about charging credits to reject ads. Since that’s the case, I won’t be taking the Entrecard widget off my blog after all. Yea!
16. March 2009 at 11:29 pm
Even though they aren’t charging to decline an ad I’m still torn about the path they are choosing. I’m not sure exactly how this is going to work but my gut reaction is that I don’t like it. Right now I’m just going to wait and see. I’ve come to love Entrecard. I’ve found some great blogs and it would be sad to stop but I will if I don’t like what they are doing.
17. March 2009 at 2:14 am
I don’t know how all this is going to play out at this point either. I want it to work out and not become the monster that it is looking like it could
17. March 2009 at 5:56 am
I just cannot see EC letting the people have a very big piece of the pie.We will have to wait,and see just how they handle the payment feature of the new program.
17. March 2009 at 8:30 am
Susan, thanks for that information! Wow! That’s great news to me.
I see that everyone is still cautious. Yeah, I’d say the initial statement was quite a shock when it was released several days ago. I’m glad the powers that be at EC are listening to the members… and I understand they can’t keep forking $$ over to run EC… but there has got to be a better way.
Thanks for your comments.
17. March 2009 at 10:38 am
I’ll just kind of rock along as usual. The day being an Entrecard member costs me a dime — for any reason — is when I’m gone.
17. March 2009 at 1:04 pm
I am holding on to see if they make any changes. In the meantime, I am making a list of all my favorite blogs that I drop on. I don’t want to lose them and will still hit their sites to see what they have to say. That is, after all, the point.
I am so afraid my readers will have forgotten my URL and not subscribed to me.
17. March 2009 at 5:44 pm
I have loved EC…not the management but the ability to discover new blogs (like yours!) that I never would have found before. I loathe the idea of being penalized for rejecting an ad…it’s MY blog and I will decide what I want on it! Arg! That is the most frustrating thing.
I am sad at all the blogs I’m seeing leaving that were on my favorites list.
I don’t plan to leave EC and really like being able to have all my favorites in one place that I can access on multiple computers.
17. March 2009 at 10:26 pm
I’m hanging out for a while to see what will happen. They’ve all ready decided to NOT charge for rejecting ads, but I need to see what else is in the wind before I make a decision about leaving EC or not.
18. March 2009 at 9:56 am
I’ve taken the widget off one of my blogs, but I was thinking of doing that anyway. The other one is still in the system and I’m in wait and see mode.
18. March 2009 at 11:55 am
Yes, it seems we are all “waiting.” I do wonder what the EC folks have up their sleeves…. sigh
Pam, I noticed you took your widget off.
I like your blog a lot. I hope things get better at EC, enough for you to place the widget back, perhaps?
At any rate, i will always continue to visit my favorites, widget or no widget. I don’t often comment, but I do read. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment here, friends!
18. March 2009 at 1:28 pm
I stopping by some of my favourite blogs to say hi. I left EC after Graham made a very rude and nasty comment to me http://tinyurl.com/ctw6vs feeling that I could not in good conscious remain a member of a system where the owner has no problem insulting members. Quite a few members quit just on the basis of that one comment. Anyway, EC is going through a lot of rather poorly planned changes. Those using today.com will no longer be able to use the EC widget once paid ads are shown so a lot of them are unhappy and leaving as well but they will be forced to as soon as the new changes take place. A lot have turned to not accepting or buying ads taking the wait and see approach. Unfortunately the writing is on the wall for EC but for those wanting to stick it out it is still a good place to discover other great blogs.
18. March 2009 at 2:51 pm
I stopped using Entrecard after using it for over a year. In that time I have seen many incidents that rival what has taken place over the past week. It seems Entrecard generates more issues than I have seen on other networks.
Each time I read about the changes to Entrecard I wonder if Graham has a directory for the network. It seems he is just putting in a bunch of changes without thinking them through or planning for them.
If he introduces 3rd-party ads, that will reduce the number of impressions your ad will receive on any given blog, unless the owner of the blog has rejected all the 3rd-party ads.
When it comes to selling your credits, how much is Entrecard going to buy them for? Keep in mind that Entrecard has been having trouble with cash since near the beginning. How many credits will they be able to buy, and for how much? If they use the cash they get from selling space to 3rd-party advertisers, what will they use to survive?
With the current business model, I can’t Entrecard being around too much longer.
That’s just my two cents.
18. March 2009 at 3:20 pm
Garden Gnome– I read your post about the EC comment to you. Holy cow! That is inexcusably nasty! I feel so awful for you.
Paul, I did notice when you left. You were one of my top droppers.
What you say is very insightful. I certainly think that with social networks, less intervention is better. EC seems to really go against this trend.
As to selling credits, etc etc… I just wish EC would go back to CARD DROPPING and we bloggers using our credits to advertise on other people’s blogs. The Make Money Schemes have been a severe detriment and have turned many social, friendly bloggers completely off. What the heck ever happened to that initial idea?!
I understand the EC guys need compensation for what they offer. But it should be based on merit– their merit– not on our blog property. I think there is a growing mentality that social networks and advertisers somehow feel part ownership of our blogs. This is wrong and bloggers will always resist it.
18. March 2009 at 7:01 pm
I too am taking a wait and see attitude. I’m thinking that how this goes down is going to change 15 more times before it’s all over.
19. March 2009 at 1:31 pm
Well my active days at Entrecard are over. I just have no heart for all the shenanigans going on. Everytime I turned around there was a new way to help you but most of which never worked for me.
I am about ready to pull my card as well. But meeting great bloggers has been wonderful! That is the part I hate about it, but right now to find really good bloggers through Entrecard ain’t easy.
Either way I will pop in my old haunts from time to time when time allows or Gator forgets the chicken coop key in Dad’s work truck like today! What a smart kid that kid is! He is just like his dizty mom!
19. March 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’m waiting and seeing as well. Already he’s changed two things (the location of the widget and the fee for rejecting ads). Maybe more will change once the ads actually start showing up, and he gets more feedback. On the one hand, I don’t like someone selling ad space on my blog. On the other hand, I’m scared if I take the widget off, my visitors will plummet, and my RR will rise, and not in the good sense. I’m looking at CMF and Blog Explosion just in case I need a backup plan.
22. March 2009 at 12:33 pm
Wow…I’m stunned by some of the comments here–and about what’s been happening on EC! This has been a great spot to meet you and other top-notch bloggers. But if things get too out-of-hand I will be quitting. This is supposed to be about community…sure they need a way to make money and keep things going…but not at the cost of the community. They will be shooting themselves in the foot.
I’m going to stay put with EC for a while and see what happens.
Thanks for sharing all this information!
Sher :0)
31. March 2009 at 1:18 am
Glad you like CMF Ads. We make advertising as simple as it can possibly be, which frees up everybody’s time and means we can all spend more time in the forums. You really should check out the CMF Forums – our members are friendly and helpful, and the community is very active. CMF is much more than just an ad network.