Sunday, April 5, 2009
Getting used to this new EntreCard thing
EntreCard has implemented a system of paid advertising in addition to the usual EC ads. There are some people on EC who have been complaining about it, for myself I think it will take some getting used to but it will be OK in the end. EC needed to find some way to monetize itself so it could grow and improve for its users. I do feel a little odd about it at the moment, I have 21 paid ads waiting to show on my widget vs 8 EC ads. I think I'm going to wait for new EC ads to add to the list before I approve any more paid ads. There needs to be some balance between the two, you know?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
21 comments:
I haven't figured it out yet either. I do notice that EC is malfunctioning today; always seems to happen on weekends.
dropping by some love :D
it's quite annoying. and i think the paid ads actually show up more often than the other ad...even though they said 50/50? :/
I have a much larger number of paid ads than I do regular ads right now, too. I understand the purpose of the paid ads, but I don't want to give too much preference to them over those who have used their own credits to put ads on my page. I think that I will also be waiting to approve a lot of my paid ads to keep a rough balance.
I just wrote a post on this too. It is pretty annoying. I used to love dropping cards, but now half of them take me to an actual website that doesn't even have the widget up.
I'm thinking exactly the same thing as you. I was astonished to see so many paid ad requests. I approved a few before I decided I just didn't want to have 3 or 4 WEEKS of paid ads in a row. So I rejected some--those that I don't think "go" with my blog--and am waiting to approve more of the others until after I get some more requests from those who are using their own credits.
I think it's annoying. The paid ads should be separate from the credit ads.
It's definitely going to take some time to get used to this..I've been rejecting some too just because of the volume..see how it goes I guess!
I had approved over 30 paid ads, but tonight, they're all gone. I have no idea what has happened to them.
I agree and am declining quite a few paid ads since it seems (so far) to be an unfair balance. I now put my mouse over the widget and it says "paid" at the end of the url at the bottom so I know not to waste my time clicking on it....oh did I just type that! lol
I'm doing the same thing...waiting to add more paid so they balance.
And unless I am missing something - it'd be nice to have a filter of sorts before the approve/reject so I don't have so many incompatible ads to reject.
But i'm giving it some time...agree with the understanding the monetization necessity.
They just started the program so I figure that there will be bugs at first - and there are! :) Hopefully it will shake down soon.
I've been getting more paid than unpaid ads. for the last two days, I've had nothing put paid ads, although I noticed that quite a few of those ads are for Entrecard sites.
Random thoughts:
I try not to accept more paid ads than real ads.
When I am surfing, I try to avoid clicking on paid ads.
When I am buying ads, I'm much more choosy. They have to be twice the value you they used to be before I'll buy them.
Finally, I'm respecting the 'strike' today and not dropping on anyone and I've canceled the ads that I had bought for today.
I expect that things will settle down. They always do. But, it will take a little while and until then, I'm approaching things a little differently.
Due to my discomfort with the new set up, I have decided to reject all paid ads from now on. I have allowed the previously accepted to run...all 46 of them. No more though. I will only accept regular EC point ads from now on...or until EC folks come up with something more equitable and easy to run.
I'm not so sure this paid ad thing is a great idea for Entrecard. I thought the idea of Entrecard was to give you an incentive to visit other blogs, to drop, if you take that necessity out of it with paid ads, well then I think Entercard may be a thing of the past and become just another paid ad site.
Yes the balance is very lopsided. And sadly those of us using EC ads, are only 50% of what we purchased. Seems there are many things there on EC not working well of late. I think they should invest time to fix things before they start new things, then ease them in gradually. I think they've lost of people. First many of us that were Today bloggers, either quit or switched blogs. Many I've tried to purchase ads on aren't accepting ads and they're in the process of quiting. The market place isn't working right. They've locked over half of the bloggers out of the forums with the need to have purchased 400 ads before you can get in. Even the introduction thread which should be designed for new folks to say hi, new here, here's my blog etc. I have a question.
I'm reading and hearing more negative than good comments, so only time will tell how it all gets sorted out. I've stopped recommending to others that they join it and am trying to play through myself at the moment.
Sandy
welcome mats always out, look forward to your visit
oophs, gotta leave my url here, you don't have your settings to accept and url beyond the generic google one
http://travelingsuitcase.blogspot.com/
Hey there, i know exactly how ya feel, I*ve been gone for 4 months, the whole system is new to me too. I*m on the same end with about 20 paid ads.
I agree. At first, I was approving all of the paid ads. Now I find myself being more discriminating. When I approve a blog EC ad, I feel that I am helping a blogger like myself. When I approve a paid ad, I feel a little bit differently. I want it to reflect content that is in keeping with things that I approve of.
According to Phirate, no matter how many paid ads you have in queue, they will appear no more than 50% of the time.
For me though, that means that my EC spent on ads has been cut in half since my widget won't appear more than 50% of the time on blogs that accept the paid ads.
I for one am not accepting any paid ads until EC works up a dual widget where the paid ads can rotate through one side and the EC paid widgets will get their 24 hour display.
all good points, I try to approve credit ads over paid too.
Lauren Wolf
Your Sensual Advocate for tasteful, heathy, modern sensuality
www.signaturesensuality.com
lwolf@signaturesenuality.com
I think, the objection over the paid ads for entrecard is because it may overpower those who used to manually surf and drops their cards.
I've been using entrecard for just a month now.
I gave up a few weeks ago. I do not accept paid ads now and I don't drop as often as I used to. I have lost steam and that is unfortunate.
I do however still visit several wonderful blogs thanks to EC.
Post a Comment