The Entrecarder

On April 26th I posted the following puzzle:

"How does one drop a card on an Entrecarder who isn't currently displaying a widget?"

My intent was to warn fellow Entrecarders who had chosen to shortcut the system that their days were numbered and it was time to start playing by the rules. It's ironic that while they might have been getting credit for dropping on my site(s), they weren't actually visiting them and therefore likely didn't read or heed my warning. I'm not taking credit for those whose accounts were canceled today for it was not my intent to rat them out, else I would have listed them by name 3 weeks ago. The Entrecard security system is a healthy beast and it will eventually find out who is breaking the rules.

And it's not like the 6 accounts canceled today are the only ones that are breaking the rules when it comes to getting credits for card drops that don't result from an actual visit and manual drop. In the case of most of the accounts that were canceled today, I had received drops to one or more of my Entrecard widgets that were not published ANYWHERE. I had pulled them and placed this account's widget on their page and that's how I knew something was up.

I haven't spent hardly any time on Entrecard for much of the past 10days and haven't dropped but a handful of cards in the past 26 days. Out of curiosity I checked my Google Analytics numbers to see what kind of traffic I was getting nowadays, between both active sites for this account, entrecarder.com (new) and entrecarder.blogspot.com (original). Seeing as how I changed the url on my Entrecard account last week to the new site, I decided to look a recent day from before the switch (and during a modest ad campaign) and one from after the switch (with ads on my site disabled). Here's what I found for traffic sources and hits:

April 28 Original Site
Entrecard.com 48
Entrecard.s3... 40
Direct 29
Powerdropping.com 10
SiteHoppin.com 7
Google 3
All others 26
Total 163

May 12 Original Site
Direct 19
Powerdropping.com 10
Google 2
SiteHoppin.com 2
Entrecard.com 1
All others 9
Total 43

May 12 New Site
Entrecard.com 3
SiteHoppin.com 2
Direct 1
Total 6

It's not hard to see that my traffic has dropped significantly since I stopped dropping cards and after my ad campaign came to an end. Go figure...don't drop cards, don't advertise, and disable your own ads so your Entrecard doesn't show up on the campaign pages...and still expect to get any traffic? Well, sure. I did expect to get some SiteHoppin traffic, what with the new toolbar and as an owner of Beer Stocks. However, whether you chose the 7 hits on the original site in April or yesterday's 4 hits on the two sites, it's PATHETIC! Max! Help me figure this out! I own 6 Beer Stocks and I got 4 hits?

SiteHoppin aside, what was really surprising was the number of card drops I received for the two days. (Note that Entrecard's day doesn't jive with Google's, but that the numbers for each day were representative of other days, too and so I just washed the difference.)

April 28: 151
May 12: 90

What? Where did those 90 drops come from? I get 151 drops on April 28 from 163 (92.6%) visits to my site and 90 drops on May 12 from 49 (183.7%) visits to my sites? Ok, so I'm not going to complain about 70-100 drops a day on my Entrecard widget when I am doing NOTHING. From my traffic stats it's clear that there are anywhere from 10-30 people who have my site bookmarked and drop on it directly. Another 10 a day drop using powerdropping.com's list. Few, if any, of those folks are reading my entries and the most noticeable evidence was the dearth of comments on my EntreZoo post. Pin drop time. I'm not one to beg for comments, but normally a couple of folks--and I'm not just talking about the powerdroppers--would have said something had they actually read the post. I let that post sit there for 10 days, got over 800 card drops, 600 hits, and ZERO comments. Hmmmm.

There is a possible explanation for the disparity between card drops and hits...drops from the same IP address but from different Entrecard accounts. Well, that might explain yesterday's stat differential...but then why didn't the numbers show the effect of droppers with multiple Entrecard accounts back in April? Hmmmm. Another mystery.

Now, figures lie and liars figure, and as one (figurer, not liar) with a BS in Accounting, I am not too quick to read too much into the figures. Yet, the trend I see is far more disturbing than the possibility that a few folks might have figured out how to beat the system. I'm hearing the wind blow...as in ghost town. I'm sure I'm mistaken and it's probably just the air moving between my ears, but there is no question in my mind that Entrecard has taken another turn in its development and it is no longer what it was 30 days ago. Eh, big deal. Maybe a few of us were unrealistic in our expectations and the vast majority of Entrecarders are still tickled pink with the free, easy traffic. Yes, I would like to unload the 60000+ ECs I have accumulated for more than $3/1000 and am disappointed that the Credit Exchange is not a current reality. No, I haven't closed my accounts or written a "Entrecard is Bad" post. And yes, I have been enjoying the extra time I've had each day for much of the last month as a result of not dropping any cards.

Honestly, I don't know if I'll be posting as much now that the weather here in Utah has warmed up and there are more interesting things to do than blabber on about Entrecard, or anything else for that matter. The weeds in the yard are beckoning me, the kids want to play games, the wife is bugging me to get a real job and the time that I provided a small service to the growing Entrecard community has passed.

But don't let that stop you from dropping a card!

If I ran the EntreZoo, this is what I'd do:

1) My first order of business would be to let folks set the price of their own ad. (I've temporarily disabled ads on this site because folks kept spending too much for them.) The current ad system is responsible in part for the declining interest in Entrecard, even though it is an improvement on the old ad system. The dust has settled and too much of it ended up in our eyes, noses and mouths. People still spend too much to get on the Popular pages and lots of garbage and inactive blogs carry a higher price than they should because so many folks are bottom-feeding. However, I wouldn't just make this change by itself, but would consider additional changes to be a necessary part of a new system. (See items 2 through 8.)

2) I'd give each Entrecarder the ability to determine how many ads they would accept in their queue, up to a maximum of 30. The current system discourages anyone from purchasing an ad too far in advance based on its doubling the price day after day. If you give folks the ability to control their ad price you should also give them the ability to determine how many ads to accept.

3) Create a voting system for each ad that one purchases that would allow the advertiser to rate its performance. Market information is poor and a high Popularity ranking doesn't translate into high traffic, but how is an Entrecarder supposed to know which sites they should advertise on? Click through rates can be manipulated and user ratings could provide some input that would be helpful when choosing where to spend your ECs. Advertisers could rate each ad placement with "Exceeded Expectations", "Met Expectations" or "Did Not Meet Expectations" and an Expectations score could be determined for the past 30 days. If your score wasn't to your liking then you might consider lowering the cost of your ads. On the other hand, if you were consistently Exceeding Expectations you might consider raising the price of your ads.

4) The Ad Tax would go away or be greatly reduced. If an Entrecarder was able to earn the full ad price they set there'd be a bunch more advertising going on and I believe folks would try harder to make their sites more ad-worthy.

5) Create special clubs, services, awards, etc., that can be purchased by Entrecarders with their ECs. This would effectively take many of the untaxed ECs out of circulation and provide additional motivation for earning ECs. Examples of services could include additional database information that could help improve ad and card dropping strategies, like click through rates or the number of times dropped on someone in a given period of time, etc. Awards could be given to Top Droppers, Most Consistent Bloggers, Best Ad Value, or other types of recognition that would draw attention to Entrecarders who are very active in the community. Creating an Executive Wash Room type of VIP club where people could enjoy an unmoderated chatroom, or be included in planning sessions with Graham and Phirate, or other perks that would provide an additional reward for one's hard work and good blogging. Membership in other Entrecard clubs or services could be purchased with ECs and would allow those who choose to buy in with their excess ECs (or cash) to get some extra features and benefits, too.

6) Get the Credit Exchange system in place so there is a easy method for buying and selling ECs and for a market rate to be established. The rate would fluctuate based on supply and demand and Entrecard could manipulate it should they so choose by buying and selling ECs from a central bank. (I'll even let them use EntreBank if they want to.) I think the current price of $3-4 per thousand is too low to motivate people to earn ECs specifically with the idea of selling them. Conversely, $10/1000 is too high as it will attract the attention of those who will try and beat the system to earn some cash. Maybe one has to earn the right to sell their ECs by length of membership and/or community standing, which might inhibit spammers from setting up shop with garbage blogs just to farm credits.

7) Create a new Popularity ranking that was based on Entrecarder input and not on number of cards dropped or external rankings. Let each Entrecarder choose 10 blogs to put on their personal Top 10 list and weight each position accordingly. Use only the lists from active Entrecarders to calculate a Popularity ranking that others could see. The lists would remain anonymous, so there'd be no benefit to putting someone on your list unless you really like them. Prohibit the sale of list positions and discourage trading or otherwise attempting to manipulate the rankings. And yes, it IS a personality contest! Maybe have separate lists for different attributes, like Best Blog, Best Ad Value, Nicest Person, Best Commenter, Most Helpful, etc.

8) Allow for multiple blogs and remove any limits on drops per IP, but require approval for each new blog/account from the same Entrecarder. A simple yes or no question on the sign-up page would allow Entrecarders who are willing to play by the rules to state so upfront and be acknowledged as having multiple blogs. Use IP tracking checks to determine if someone has undeclared multiple blogs. One day we might be able to consolidate multiple accounts into a single account, but for the time being we could implement some more checks and balances that would weed out the spammers.

9) Create a TOS that has to be agreed to upfront, and not just the kind where you check one box and you're done with it. Make it interesting to read with key points highlighted and perhaps separated on different pop-up screens that each require a click to move on. So what if it takes 10 minutes to sign up for a new account instead of 5? At least this way new Entrecarders would know which rules they are breaking. Along with it I'd include a requirement for new Entrecarders to visit a FAQs page (or watch a video), just so they'd have a better idea of what it means to be an Entrecarder, the benefits of membership, etc.

10) Improve the communication between Entrecard and its members. The "buzz" line on the Dashboard is easy to miss and only a few people read the official Entrecard blog on a daily basis. Make the notices easier to see, send system messages, add the option in the Email Settings to receive an email when Entrecard sends you a system message, and create a method for highlighting a forum post that relates to an Entrecard policy change or other important information. I'd also start running surveys on the Dashboard to get input from the community about proposed feature changes or additions, as well as "temperature" checks about how well Entrecard is doing, burnout levels, etc.

There are several weightier matters that aren't as easy to solve as it relates to Entrecard's long-term planning and revenue model. If I were in charge, I'd be structuring Entrecard to become the premier community for bloggers, with the idea that some really big fish would want to Gobble it up for millions of dollars. Gobble would then put millions more behind marketing Entrecard and position it to be a key player in Web 3.0, the Semantic web. Entrecarders would have the opportunity of collaborating in the development of knowledge centers along their topics of interest. Gobble would have a leg up on developing collaborative teams of bloggers who could each receive some form of compensation for their contributions.

Entrecard has to continue to evolve to survive. Blogs have been around for a long time and there is so much redundancy that unless Entrecard looks to the future they will go the way of other social networks who have enjoyed success for a season but end up as virtual ghost towns when the thrill of the fad wears off.

I've had loads of fun manipulating the price of my own ad, largely because people were paying too much for it and so I figured out a way to discourage them for so doing, short of disabling ads entirely. The solution was simple: I bought my own ads from some of my other Entrecard accounts and drove the price up to 8192 ECs for most of the last two weeks in April, although it hit 16384 one day and was a "bargain" at 4096 a couple of times.

Imagine my surprise when someone actually purchased an ad on my site for 8192 ECs! I guess I faked them out because I was sitting in the #1 spot on the Most Expensive list, which was really fun and probably got me some extra traffic. Of course I rejected their ad request and the most anyone ended up paying for an ad was 1024 ECs, with the most common price (before I started buying them myself) was 512 ECs, which was still about 480 ECs too much. (No, I'm not sending out rebates.)(Oh, and for the record, I canceled all of the ads that I placed on my own site and got my 30000+ ECs back.)

April 18th was the last day that I dropped 300 cards and I've only dropped 66 cards total since that time. Also, I had not placed any ads for a long time from this account and I wanted to see how no drops and a few ads would impact the number of cards dropped on me. My stats page shows that the first ad I placed ran on April 24th and the last one completed on May 1st.



I tried to find sites to advertise on that would get me as many clicks for the EC as possible, but I also took a few risks and went with sites whose Entrecard featured pretty girls. Here's the results of my ad purchasing:

Entrecarder.......................................Clicks........Cost.......CPC
Dot Com Mogul.....................................78...............512..........6.56
ProBlogger Blog Tips.............................62...............256..........4.13
Slave to the Internet..............................51...............8............0.16
Fantasy Baseball...................................43...............512..........11.91
Orangeinks............................................40...............128..........3.20
Josh's Unconventional Marketing Blog...23................256..........11.13
EvilWoobie............................................22...............128..........5.82
Entrecard Favorites................................15...............128..........8.53
Joan Joyce..............................................15...............512..........34.13
Stephan Miller........................................12...............128..........10.67
AskTheAdmin.........................................8................32...........4.00
Pretty Girl...............................................6................16...........2.67
Internet Marketing Seminars..................5................64...........12.80
Follow Bec in her quest...........................4................32...........8.00
The Net Fool..........................................4................64...........16.00
Laura Williams' Musings........................4................32...........8.00
Making Mommy Hot...............................3................32...........10.67
You Can Learn Series.............................3................256..........85.33
Billion Dollar Baloney.............................3................32...........10.67
The SEOTree.........................................3................8............2.67
VikingBlog............................................3................8............2.67
Mom Is Just a Nickname......................2................32...........16.00
Liz Harper Fitness.................................2................8............4.00
AndroidGuys.........................................1................64...........64.00
Jackies Biz Blog.....................................1................8............8.00
Online with Michelle.............................1................16...........16.00
Nuda Magazine.....................................1................8............8.00
Internet Marketing Strategy...................1................16...........16.00
MMO with Etienne Teo..........................1................32...........32.00
OrangeBin...........................................0................8............n/a
Pinay and Photoholic.............................0................8............n/a
Hot Asian Actress..................................0................8............n/a
Adware and Spyware.............................0................8............n/a

Totals.................................................417..............3360.........8.06

My apologies for the ugly chart. I didn't want to emphasize any particular Entrecarder so I didn't link to them and I'm not savvy enough to get a table to work properly in Blogger. I did learn a couple of things from my ad campaign:

1) The average number of clicks per ad was 8. I can use that as a benchmark for future campaigns to see how well I am choosing my ads.

2) There are occasional bargains to be found. I didn't pay more than 512 ECs for any ad and was lucky to get ProBlogger for only 256 ECs.

3) Not all clicks resulted in a dropped card. It's true that the subject matter of this blog is going to be of interest to Entrecarders and not many other people. I'm guessing that I got about 30-50 non-Entrecarders to take a look at my blog as a result of the ads.

4) I wasn't "thrilled" by hardly any of the results and likely won't advertise very often. ProBlogger and Slave to the Internet were the best deals I found and while many of the others were acceptable, I don't know that I got any new readers as a result of advertising. Had I spent the same amount of time dropping cards as I did purchasing ads I would have ended up with the same number of cards dropped on me and I wouldn't be out the 3360 ECs.

5) It might be purely coincidental, but the number of comments to my posts dropped significantly during the this experiment. I suspect it was a result of not dropping cards on folks who would normally reciprocate with a visit and a drop, commenting if they had the time and inclination.

No one ad strategy will work for all Entrecarders as we each have slightly different purposes and desires for our Entrecard participation. I'm now trying to figure out whether or not I want to place ads OR drop cards anymore. I'm leaning towards spending my time writing posts, posting in the forums, and commenting on selected Entrecarders' blogs. I won't end up on the Popular lists or accumulate many ECs with this strategy, but I hope it will allow me to stay involved in the Entrecard community and neither wear out my welcome or burn out.