The Entrecarder

Before you read this post, go to Ben Barden's blog and read his interview with Graham Langdon, Herr Doktor & Creator of Entrecard. I've been a fan of Entrecard from late last year when I signed up for the first of what ended up being 20 Entrecard accounts. I'm still a fan of Entrecard, even though I'm now a bit wiser and not so much a fan of Graham Langdon.

Don't get me wrong...Graham hasn't done anything unkind to me or anything that can be considered unprofessional or unethical. As far as I can tell he is a sincere, hardworking entrepreneur. However, sometime in the last 4 months Entrecard ceased to be about Graham and took on a life of its own as a community of bloggers, a fact that I suspected before reading the above-mentioned interview and that I am convinced of now more than ever. Graham doesn't drop many cards, he doesn't blog very often, and he only occasionally posts in the forum (RickRoll?). There's nothing wrong with that...except I believe he doesn't fully understand what he has created...and that could be a problem.

Graham and Phirate didn't expect that folks would drop hundreds of cards every day in order to earn credits, nor do they think it is necessary. Of course it's not necessary, but when you see dozens or hundreds of folks spending so much time dropping cards--when they could buy them--that should be a clue as to what is appealing about the community. Most people aren't going to buy ECs, especially with a new ad system (folks, Who - Won't Get Fooled Again) that still stinks, only with a slightly different odor than did the old system. Clearly Graham and Phirate envision a different Entrecard experience than some of the folks who have been most active as Entrecarders over the past months. I wrote about some of the issues that I felt needed to be addressed and received a response from Graham that indicated he had "rebuttals" for most of them, which made me feel like he had his mind made up and wasn't interested in my input. Cool. It's his baby and he's earned the right to make the decisions.

Mike Huang from Bloggin-Ads.com is just one of several Entrecarders who have announced recently that they are "done" with Entrecard. Mike and the others don't seem to be angry, just making a decision that it's no longer worth it to be Drop Master...to which a few of us have suggested that he and the others just keep the Entrecard widget on their blogs and don't worry about dropping cards. Ironically, this seems to be what Graham had in mind in the first place. To me the answer is simple: Monetizing Entrecard Credits created a monster that can't be ignored by many Entrecarders. Provide us a way to make money from our blogs and we'll focus on how to maximize that income while we build traffic. That's part of the Entrecard pitch, even if the fact that Entrecarders fully embraced it seems to have taken Graham and Phirate by surprise.

Entrecard is going to continue to grow and will provide a great opportunity for thousands of bloggers to get cheap exposure to their blogs. However, I think it would help to view the Entrecard experience as a training ground, a phase for newer bloggers to hone their craft and learn from their peers. Some will decide that blogging isn't their thing and some will decide to move on to greener pastures, but it's my opinion that most will agree that they had some really good experiences as a result of being an Entrecarder, and that's almost as good as money in the EntreBank.