Entrecard's new paid-ads system

4/05/2009 07:33:00 AM

We're all getting used to having paid ads on Entrecard. I have to admit I hated the idea at first, because I didn't like the idea of advertisers who had no interest in my site using its space to promote their own sites without giving me anything in return.

What I didn't realize until last night is that not all of the paid ads will be coming from outside of EC. Other EC members can also purchase paid ads. And now I see that this approach has definite advantages for new bloggers like me, who are still trying to increase exposure of our blogs. I purchased $10 worth of ads for Outlandish Observations last night about 8 pm, and almost immediately saw a huge jump in traffic on this site. And doing my normal EC dropping routine this morning, I saw my card on a number of different sites, none of which I would have considered buying ad space from under the old system.

So, at this point, I have to say that I like what I'm seeing, so far, despite the initial bugginess. And frankly, that surprises the heck out of me. <g>

27 comments

Unknown said...: Which underlines that those who have the money to invest siege over those who have the time to invest.

Those who bought ads with their EC's were pushed away on my blogs for those who paid money, even without me approving the money paid ads.

The fun is out of surfing, because I see the paid ads all over the place.

I approved one paid ad, and now the same person has paid again, the add is in my list again, without my approval.

So yes, paid advertisement is taking over.

So sad, because in the end people are paying far more than the system is worth.; April 5, 2009 at 9:35 AM
Anonymous said...: I have to agree with Laane. I ended up dropping half as many cards yesterday because I kept getting the same ads over and over again while surfing.

Also, yesterday Adgitize passed EntreCard as the advertising network driving the most traffic to my site.

Unless EntreCard fixes some of the bugs, their going to see a lot more of their traffic taken up by Adgitize and CMFAds; April 5, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Flo said...: I agree, I did not realize it would be ECers and I'm happy with them. I got your ad on one of my blogs :) It is a bummer that unpaid gets pushed aside but in my mind it's kind of like first class. Everyone pays, it's just some pay more for better service.; April 5, 2009 at 12:52 PM
WashWords said...: i'm still trying to figure it out and hear both your points and those contradicting your point. What I don't like is the "one day to reject" policy. Some "ads" are not PG or just patently offensive (let alone whether they're at all related to my topic, writing/washington dc.) Yours came up for approval and I'll happily accept but... I resent that if I don't explicitly delete/reject "edible and delicious" an ad that shows scantily clad asian girls, it pops up on my site and I only have 24 hours to accept/reject! who has time?

Anyway, i guess we'll see what happens... jury still out for me, but I WISH entrecard was better at supplying info. I found out the most about this change here on your blog!; April 5, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Karen Henry said...: Flo - I think I agree with you. At least that's my initial impression. We'll see what happens.

WashWords - I think it's pretty funny that you found out the most about this change from my blog, considering that a) I've only been an EC member since the beginning of the year, and b) what I know about it, I know from following the EC forums over the last few days.

Laane and Orient - well, the "chain-dropping" method won't work anymore, that's true. I mostly use the Firefox toolbar to do my drops, so that won't really be an issue for me.

I'm still waiting to see how this all settles down, but based on just today's results, I can see that the traffic on this site is way up, with minimal effort or expense on my part, and I'm happy about that.

Karen; April 5, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Lynne said...: I just hope they get the bugs worked out. I'm not earning anything, credits or otherwise, if a paid ad is on my site. I'm getting fewer click throughs (at least I think so, the stats don't work, so I'm having to guess).; April 5, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Stephen Eli Harris said...: Well, I was wishy-washy over the whole idea for the past week or so and now that it's been implemented, I'm even more so. I noticed right away that I was no longer getting request to add non paying member ads, which is a bummer because I wont accumulate as many credits now.

Having said that, I went out on a limb about 5 minutes ago and pay-paled 10 bucks over to EC and started a campaign. Let's see what happens eh?; April 5, 2009 at 8:24 PM
Jude said...: I have no problem with it so far and I still make credits from dropping and I always use my inbox to drop and usually when people buy an ad on my widget I only get 25% anyhow and 75% goes for taxes so my credits come from drops.Most blogs have so many ads anyhow and social traffic really doesn't do much clicking on any thing so it's no problem for me.; April 5, 2009 at 10:33 PM
juliana rw said...: Hi,

can i ask something? When you adv, you choose payment for click or CPM?? Actually I have no idea which is better to choose for advertiser. Could you give me a point of view. Thanks; April 6, 2009 at 4:23 AM
Unknown said...: Thanks for your post. I am still pretty well confused about the whole thing but you at least are direct about it. I am in it to get exposure, so I guess I will go ahead and approve sites that have nothing to do with mine. It isn't that I insists everything be about pets, but I was hoping to increase by using more "homey" and "gentle" sites. Nothing wrong with my readers learning about new and different things, I am just not sure they are all relevant in any way. I will follow you on twitter and hope I can get more of your take on things. Meanwhile I have site in pending that I want on my site. They seem to just linger in there. Hope it all works out for all of us!; April 6, 2009 at 4:42 AM
Armand said...: I got a long list of ads today, a few of them are paid ads, I don't know, but I just approved them every single one.; April 6, 2009 at 4:45 AM
Blues City Radio said...: I guess I don't mind the sites that aren't relevant too much.

But the R rated stuff that is coming through doesn't sit well with me at all. One site I rejected should have just been called "The F Word Site" because that was the predominate word on there.

Don't know how much I like the paid ad thing so far...; April 6, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Karen Henry said...: Fisher - Just so you know, I only started using Twitter a few days ago. I'm still just playing around with it. <g>

Juliana - I have no idea what the answer to your question is. Why not ask on the EC forum?

Blues - This is the reason I am glad we have the option to reject any ad we don't like. I've decided not to accept ads from any non-EC-member sites, at least for now.

And traffic on my site yesterday did indeed hit an all-time high, due to the paid ad I was running. I'll let the $10 run out and then decide if I want to do that again.

Karen; April 6, 2009 at 7:33 AM
Unknown said...: Hello...Yup...it certainly is not like...for a lack of a better term..'the old days'....
I hardly recognize any of the good old droppers...unless I select them manually.
Oh...then try getting into entrecard to get to them...blah...

The change is extreme...what use to be a place for bloggers has turned into an arena for advertisers.

My angst is growing out of frustration that it is an actual chore now to try and reach 300 drops. My decision is swaying towards joining the non-entrecard bloggers.

Have a better day today bloggers!; April 6, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Bethany said...: I ended up here on your blog because your paid card is in my ec spot. I jumped at the chance to click when I saw it was an Outlander site. I absolutely love the books so much!!

Anyway, it worked well for me that you bought ad space, because I found your fun site.; April 6, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Karen Henry said...: Bethany:

Thanks so much! I'm really glad to hear you say that, because people like you are EXACTLY the ones I'm trying to reach with that paid ad.

Karen; April 6, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Heathen Mom said...: I am still not sure what I think about the paid ad system entrecard has started. I did start a paid campaign at entrecard, but it's still not approved. I am wondering if it will actually help drive traffic to my site. I am waiting for a little bit before I make my final decision if I will stay with the program or not. I'm researching other means of advertising as well.; April 6, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Anonymous said...: As a followup to my earlier comment. Yes, chain-dropping is dying as a result. This is unfortunate because it means a decrease in clickthroughs. As a general rule, if it is a paid ad, I don't click on it, and I only approve paid ads from sites that I already know and trust.

When I get a chance, I'll do some analysis on the cost of ads on EntreCard as it compares with other blogger oriented advertising sites.; April 6, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Tina said...: What I am most concerned about is my ability to control the content of my blog. There are just certain things I don't want to promote. Do I have the right to say, "No", without losing Entrecard?; April 6, 2009 at 12:15 PM
CastoCreations said...: We only have ONE day to approve/disapprove paid ads?!?!? That is NOT okay. I don't even check EC everyday sometimes. :(

On the other hand, I'm glad to have found your blog, which I wouldn't have w/o the paid ad.

Still, it takes a lot of time to go through all these paid ads. I don't like it so much yet.; April 6, 2009 at 1:17 PM
The Ebon Swan said...: I dunno about this paid ad thing. I was away for one day and the next thing I know I've got ads going through my site that I sure as heck didn't approve. I wound up having to go back through and cancel a few of them, which frankly, I shouldn't have to do with just 24 hours. A girl's got to work; I can't sit on my entrecard 24/7, nor do I have the inclination to do so. I'm hoping somewhere along the line they'll either give me the heads up that there's ads on deck like they do with the conventional ones, or that they'll give us more time to process them. Either way I want to have more control over what *I* am implicitly promoting though my ad space.; April 6, 2009 at 4:31 PM
JMom said...: I just found out about this new paid ads this morning when I signed on to Entrecard. My initial reaction is to back away from it, questioning how they could be making money from my sites but I get nothing in return not even EC credits?

Then I read your post and the ensuing discussion and that kind of calmed my initial reaction. Thank you.

I'll have to check it our more, but I may also run a small campaign like you did just to see how it works.; April 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Jena Isle said...: I just wish that those who had previously bought ads should be given priority first. They should be fair even to those who have paid their ads through EC credits.; April 7, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Speedcat Hollydale said...: Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment next time and say hello :-); April 8, 2009 at 5:36 AM
martinact420 @ Great Ways to Make Money Online dot com said...: I don't like the paid ads at all and I have decided to do something about it. Come and see my Old Skool Drops List. Thanks...; April 9, 2009 at 2:30 AM
pcmemoirs said...: I didn't think the paid ads thing would work, but after reading your post here, I think I might give it a try. Thanks; April 10, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Phyl (from Bookishgal) said...: I got kicked out of Today.com as a blogger because I objected to how they handled this change, but I wasn't thrilled about how EC was doing things either.

I've been debating whether or not I should add EC back onto the new location of my Bookshgal blog, but after seeing this discussion, I'm leaning toward "no."

It looks like it was a very good idea for me to keep track of the URLs of all the favourite blogs I discovered through the "old" Entrecard, because I probably wouldn't discover so many any more, through the "new." I guess I'll just keep visiting on my own. And if things get better with EC, we'll see if things need reconsideration later.; April 11, 2009 at 8:51 AM