Entrecard Strike

9th April 2009

First, let me start this post by stating right up front, I fully understand the need for those who run Entrecard to earn revenue to help pay for servers, hosting, etc. I also believe that there is room for the paid advertising on EC, but the system as it’s currently operating, is not working (unless you’re paying to run an ad) and needs some healthy revamping. I support EC and it has been a completely free service (not counting the time I put into it on a daily basis) and has helped increase my traffic, helped me find new blogs that I love, and helped others find me.

That being said, I am very disappointed and frustrated at the new system. Many EC bloggers just like myself, spend hours per day investing time dropping their card on other blogs. I do know I could reduce the time simply by dropping and running, but I enjoy the blogs that I drop my card on and have a tendency to stop and read and many times comment on posts. With all of this, I drop 300 EC per day normally, and, prior to the introduction of the paid ads, I received between 300-400 drops back on my site each day. The paid ads have changed all of that.

You see, now, even though I have an ad, paid by EC credits, in the queue, an ad paid with $ will supersede that ad. In fact, yesterday, my unscientific experiment of refreshing my screen, resulted in my seeing the EC ad less than 17% of the time versus seeing the paid ads. Mind you, I can’t even tell you what paid ad might possibly appear on my widget because the paid ads do not appear in my dashboard. I don’t believe this is fair to the person who has spent the time dropping cards and earning credits to pay for advertising with EC credits and then lose a significant amount of impressions for their ad in my widget. EC promised that we would still receive a minimum of 50% impressions, that is not the case. Many have stopped purchasing ads with EC credits and many more have stopped dropping all together.

For these reasons, and perhaps because I think I need a break from EC, I am going to participate in the Entrecard Strike on April 10.

To show the importance of droppers for the entrecard system.
To show we’re no second rate entrecarders.
To show we want to have complete control over our own site.
To get equal respect for EC and money paid advertisers.
To prevent the decay of the system.

Again, I am not against EC accepting paid advertising, but I do believe there has got to be a better way. I am not interested in cashing in my credits for cash, although I know there are those members who are interested and that is fine. I would accept a widget with 2 spaces (vs. the one we currently use), allowing for both types of ads to run simultaneously.

I encourage participation and you can get your own graphic here .

Please note, while I won’t be dropping cards on April 10, I WILL still be visiting sites!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am and is filed under a little bit of everything. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

April 2009
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Mar		May »
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

April 2009

« Mar

May »

1 On April 9th, 2009, Jude said:

I respect your decision to strike, but I’ll still be dropping and I’ll drop by and see you tomorrow anyhow hope you don’t mind if I still give you a credit even if your not dropping back.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

2 On April 9th, 2009, blueyes said:

I’ve got the same issues about these paid ads. I am going to let what I have run and then decide what to do because I do get a lot of people stopping and reading instead of dropping and running like you and I have found a lot of blogs that I like out there because of dropping too so it would be a shame to let it all go by the waste side. In the meantime though I’ve signed up with CMFAds which a lot of folks are doing now too.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

3 On April 9th, 2009, Michelle said:

I completely agree with you. EC really needs to make some serious changes. Though I don’t think I’m going to jump on the band wagon to strike just yet. I’m going to wait a little while to see if EC works the bugs out. If they don’t do something soon then I’ll be willing to strike. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post and for stopping by my place.

4 On April 9th, 2009, lynne said:

Jude – Obviously everyone is going to decide on their own if they would like to participate in the strike or not. I think overall, most EC members agree that there has to be a better way for the paid ads to run without taking so much away from those that pay with EC credits. I will still visit anyone who drop on me, so you will still get my traffic count and I will still read posts tomorrow. Take care and thanks for stopping by.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

5 On April 9th, 2009, lynne said:

blueyes – I’ve noticed the CMFads on several sites, I might just have to check those out. I am actually approving paid ads to run on my site, I’m not against the paid ads with EC, just how they’re been given priority over ads paid for with EC credits. I’m not ready to leave EC by any means, just want them to take a harder look at their methods for achieving revenue.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

6 On April 9th, 2009, lynne said:

Michelle – I’m just taking a day off from dropping EC, although I will do my best to visit any site that visit me. I would like EC management to seriously consider some of the ideas its members are offering for more equality between paid ads and those that are paid with EC credits.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

7 On April 9th, 2009, FishHawk said:

I was given the same idea about Entrecard developing a double-sided badge that would hold both paid ads and regular adverts at the same time a little over a week ago, and I made a ticket to tell them about it. Sadly, I haven’t received a reply yet.

Anyway, I hope you can forgive me, but I’ll be dropping my 300 again on Saturday–Our Heavenly Father being willing, of course. For I am absolutely thrilled with the amount of traffic I have been getting since coming to Entrecard, and I am willing to put up with their nonesense for the time being in the hope of actually making some money for a change. Hopefully, things will work out soon.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

8 On April 9th, 2009, lynne said:

FishHawk – I think the double sided badge is a great idea and I don’t understand why it’s not even being considered.

Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment, I really do hope EC will be reading all of the suggestions being made and improve the current system.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

9 On April 9th, 2009, glitch said:

Since the new system started, my drops haven’t decrease but I received decreased drops than before. For this, I make it a point to NOT drop on advertisers as my way of protest. Still, I reciprocate drops. I hope EC will improve the current system.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

10 On April 9th, 2009, David said:

I am a casual user of Entrecard. It is a great tool for getting exposure to our blogs. I struggle to drop 30-50 a day. Heck, I struggle to find time to write my blog, so Entrecard is not at the top of my worries. I really think they could do something similar to what affiliate programs provide…widgets with a choice of size and format. One space for bloggers, another for advertisers. Of course, the blogger spot will hold higher credibility then paid advertising. I enjoy chain clicking and discovering new blogs. I DON’T enjoy running into advertising dead-ends. Entrecard needs a lesson in marketing. They are wasting their huge potential.

posted on April 9th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

11 On April 10th, 2009, Buzzing J said:

Hope you don’t mind me giving you a drop today.

While I agree the current system is not satisfactory, I’m just not sure a strike is the correct way to get the attention.

My opinion is that it would be unfair to those who drop on me with the usual expectation of me dropping back, and not getting it.

Let’s hope all this mess will be solved in a satisfactory manner.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 5:17 am

12 On April 10th, 2009, clair said:

I had no idea this strike was on. I have noticed a drop in traffic since these paid ads went into effect and I’m not happy with that either. Even those paid ads that I’ve rejected seem to be showing up still in spite of me having changed my settings, etc. Yeah, EC definitely needs to think through how they’re going to deal with all these quirks!

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 5:29 am

13 On April 10th, 2009, Mike said:

Greetings – I am a today.com blogger and I have had to basically drop EC due to their paid advertising program. I am able to use the EC widget on my blog, however, the traffic does not count in may stats. I stayed on at EC so I could keep up with my sites that I visited and those who came to me. My EC ads have dried up since they started the paid ad program. I have a few EC ads in the queue and most likely when they all have run, I will drop EC completely – unless more EC ads come in. I spend a lot of time denying paid ads as I can not allow them to run. Thanks

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 7:09 am

14 On April 10th, 2009, Jeannine said:

Hi Lynne, I have not been dropping much lately so this is the first I have heard about the strike. I have not accepted any paid ads as I do not agree with someones paid ad running along with an ad purchased with a lot of dropping hours. I have also sent feedback requesting a separate widget for paid ads. I would also like to support entrecard, but not if it means my regular advertisers will not get the exposure that they are due.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am

15 On April 10th, 2009, Heathen Mom said:

I am still in a wait and see mode regarding this new system. I hope the bugs all get fixed and something wonderful is the result.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 10:08 am

16 On April 10th, 2009, Mrs. Mecomber said:

I wish I had seen this earlier! I have only seen this publicized on your blog and after that, maybe two others. Although I don’t have the badge, I am not dropping in solidarity with you all. This paid ad system stinks; they need to alter it and stop making such changes on whims. Here’s hoping we have an effect.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

17 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

glitch – I am hoping that EC will look for a better method of utilizing paid ads because this current system is not a good one. Many today.com bloggers had to leave EC and this has also caused a reduction in drops per day.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

18 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

David – I do think the paid ads have a place with EC, just not the way they are currently taking over. I’m a firm believer in a 2-ad widget so that both paid advertisements and EC credit ads can run at the same time. For those who don’t want to run paid advertising, the widget would remain as it is today.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

19 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

Buzzing – Thanks for dropping in today. I don’t consider the strike unfair, only because I have posted that I will not be dropping back so anyone stopping by who actually reads a post will know that I won’t be returning the drop today. However, I certainly do appreciate you dropping on me today and will return to my regular dropping tomorrow.

What I do consider unfair is the fact that those who use EC credits to buy ad time are being pushed aside for those ads paying with cash. The strike is a way to attempt to get the management of EC to listen to the ideas that its members have. We’ve submitted tickets, emails, comments on the EC forum and blog and nothing is working. We simply want the system of paid ads to be improved, not go away.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

20 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

clair – I’m having the same issue with paid ads appearing in my widget that I didn’t approve and that aren’t on my dashboard. EC tells me the system is fixed, and yet, the ads continue to appear. The drop rate is down, members aren’t purchasing ads with their hard earned EC credits because they aren’t getting the ad time. It’s very disappointing.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

21 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

Mike – I did go into my EC settings and check the box to only accept paid ads in my category, that has greatly reduced the number of paid ads. I would still like to see a separate widget for paid ads and no penalty for those who choose not to run paid ads. I think if that had been done to begin with, today.com would not have had the issues with EC, which is really unfortunate.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

22 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

Jeannine – I support EC also and I wish they would listen to the ideas of its members. We’re not asking them to stop with the paid ads, we all understand their need for a revenue stream. Unfortunately, they’ve basically crushed their original purpose of a free site to help bloggers increase traffic.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:42 pm

23 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

Thanks for joining in Mrs. Mecomber! The more that participate, the better the chances of making an impact and getting EC to listen to its members.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

24 On April 10th, 2009, lynne said:

Heathen Mom – I’m hoping they get the bugs fixed to. I do think paid ads have a place at EC and serve a purpose.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 3:10 pm

25 On April 11th, 2009, Louise said:

I can’t stand the new way. GRRRRRRRR

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 1:38 am

26 On April 11th, 2009, lynne said:

Louise – This new EC system is very frustrating, isn’t it? I do hope they come up with a solution soon. There are certainly quite a few good, solid suggestions coming from it’s members, I just hope EC listens.

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 7:14 am

27 On April 11th, 2009, Mike said:

EC needs to listen to its membership and try to accomodate them. Today.com listened to its membership and has allowed its members to keep the EC widget for ‘marketing / advertising’ of their site – Today.com will not pay for any traffic generated through EC, the Today.com blogger will still earn EC credits as usual. The way I am working EC is that I visit sites I like and leave comments, eventually they start following me back by the way of the comment, as I have bookmarked them and come to them that way and not through EC after several drops. I may drop if I am at their site and leaving a comment on a post.

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 9:06 pm