Testing Entrecard, my views on it
I decided to test Entrecard. I have integrated the button beside the Top Commentators section at the sidebar.
If you do not know what Entrecard is, it’s simply a banner exchange program. You display others’ banners on your blog and in return you get to advertise on others’ blogs. Everytime someone advertises on your blog, you earn credits. These credits later can be used to buy advertisements from other blogs. Actually the system is more complex than that (you can earn credits in many ways), but in simple terms it’s a banner exchange program. You can read more on how it works here.
After I signed up and put up the code on my blog, the advertisers started to flood in. After 20 minutes all 10 spots (for 10 days) were full (sold out). You know why people flood the new blogs? Because in the beginning it is very cheap (only 1 credit) to advertise on the new blogs. Later, the system will start to adjust the price depending on the demand and the number of people drop their cards on your blog. As you can see below, the price has changed to 3 credits (it’s just changed to 5 credits).
Does it bring any traffic?
It’s too early to tell, but if I were to state the stats only, then so far within half an hour it brought 19 clicks.
I will have to see at least few days before I can say anything on the performance. Also as you can see these clicks are from entrecard and not from other blogs.
As you can see below 19 clicks, I have not bought any advertisements from other blogs. So, actually the performance of the system would also be based on the blogs that you are advertising. Some blogs bring tons of clicks, and some not. So you have to know where to advertise. In the beginning you don’t have credits, so you won’t be able to buy any advertisements until you have accumulated some credits.
Even after you have accumulated tens of credits, you will need hundreds of credits more if you want to advertise on popular blogs like JohnChow.com. So it might take you some time, before you get your banner on those popular blogs.
My Recommendations to Entrecard
Based on my limited usage, I would like to suggest few features to Entrecard.
- Introduce “buy credits” feature - this would allow new members to buy credits if they want. Otherwise it might take few days to weeks for someone to accumulate 200+ credits.
- Allow members to convert their credits into $$ - if user has too much credits, he/she might simply remove the code from his blog (i.e stop using the buttons). After all, he/she will have enough credits to spend on buying ads from other blogs. But if the user have the option to make money, he/she will want to use it even more effectively. Because the more you use it, the more money you will make.
- When the spot is full, allow people to advertise anyway - currently if the spot is full, you cannot advertise on that particular blog. You can only check back the next day, most probably to find that the spot has been filled again. I think it’s better to let people at least to get in the queue. So if the spot is full (all 10 of them), let the interested person to queue and be the 11th. This way, next day, he can automatically become the 10th. Why loose advertisers when it’s difficult to get them in the first place?
- Rotate multiple ads in one day - this would allow to clear the bottleneck that the system is having at the moment. Also, I think having 2-3 buttons rotating in one day will be more interesting to the blog visitors.
- Introduce referral system - this would encourage members to promote entrecard, as a result entrecard’s number of users would increase. More users means, more banner exchange, and that is good for everybody.
I will update you guys again on its performance after 1-2 weeks. Till then you can join Entrecard and advertise your blog on AdesBlog (while it’s still cheap, only 5 credits). You can also read Entrecard blog here - entrecard.com/blog
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8 Responses
to “Testing Entrecard, my views on it”
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- Dec 23, 2007: AdesBlog.com » EntreCard performance after 12 days
By Affiliate Confession on Dec 11, 2007
I’ve been using EntreCard for about a week now and I’ve received some pretty good traffic from it. Much better than BlogRush. I got zero traffic from them.
By Ray Edwards on Dec 11, 2007
Thanks for the tip on this… looks interesting enough to try it out.
By Thomas Dean on Dec 11, 2007
Today I signed up on Entrecard, my stats are quite similar to yours. It’s a great advertising program, I’m really quite excited about it.
I disagree about the “Introduce “buy credits†feature”. People with alot of money can just buy their way to the good advertising spots. Leaving the little guy like myself, working even harder.
But I think rotating different ads on the widget would be a neat idea.
By Iantrepreneur on Dec 11, 2007
yup! me too I have received tons of requests once I first started with entrecard - I am writing another followup of entrecard this week - I think users are more geared towards dropping cards and earning points
By Ades on Dec 12, 2007
looks like it’s working well on many blogs then… good. I will review the performance in a week or two, so stay tuned.
By Ades on Dec 12, 2007
xBrain, your comments always end up in my akismet, just now deleted one of your comments accidentally.
You are right it’s a great tool for new blogs, since it can bring 10-30 unique visitors a day.
By James Pong on Dec 18, 2007
I have Entrecard for less than a week but I’m getting lots of traffic from it. Like Affiliate Confession said, it’s much better than BlogRush.