Why EntreCard is a Small Blog Conspiracy
Posted on March 13th, 2008 by Jim under Blogging 101
The EntreCard system is a relatively new sensation that has hit the blog world by storm. In essence, it is a system that allows bloggers and website owners to exchange ads by trading “EntreCard credits,” gained from clicking around on other websites, for a day’s worth of ad space. I have had great success using this ad network to place my banner on popular websites where I couldn’t normally afford to pay for advertising. Point taken. When your small, EntreCard delivers. But when you’re big, EntreCard leeches traffic!
I feel like we should start with a description of the EntreCard system. It’s very smart in design, and is a sort of inverse pyramid-scheme of sharing traffic. When you sign up for an account on EntreCard, you upload your 125×125 banner ad and a short description of your website. Once you place the script on your website (seen on my sidebar), you can visit other websites and “drop your card.” This is nothing more than acknowledging that you have been to the website and have seen the ad currently sitting in their widget. You get one EntreCard credit for every “drop” you make, and can then turn around and use these credits to purchase daily ad space on participating blogs.
Why Is This Bad?!
I love EntreCard. Why? Because I am leeching off of the big guys for now. I think that any website that is popular and using EntreCard is out of their mind. The fact that just 10 minutes of link following can buy me a day’s worth of advertising on multiple websites like Feed The Bull and John Chow is ridiculous. Seriously, what the heck were these guys thinking? I give all of the credit in the world to John Cow for refusing this service. But evidentially, things have yet to hit home for many bloggers.
The system of estimating advertising costs for EntreCard is ridiculous. You can have a blog with 20 RSS subscribers costing 450+ credits a day, and then John Chow (almost 21,000) costs but 200! Something is wrong here.
Not only do the advertising rates make no sense, but the actual traffic driven to your website is downright lousy. Research shows that people clicking your ad on participating websites are typically looking to rack up more “drops” rather than a legitimate interest. What this means, is that the little guys (*I wave hello*) get awesome ad coverage, not too concerned about whether or not our name sticks as long as we
get some recognition. On the other side of the coin, people with legitimate traffic are only allowing EntreCard-drop spammers, who don’t generate and “real traffic,” to pass by their websites.
And we’re off to the races. Entrecard is a huge drag on your traffic and competition. Your traffic turns from solid organic growth, to crummy passer-bys. Your competition gains ground on you, while you loan out your subscribers to “lesser” websites at a discount. I can’t help but laugh. This is fantastic for me as a start-up, but the big dogs are losing money in this transaction.
EntreCard is a small-blog conspiracy, its a charity donation from the rich.
Back up the system as much as you want, but there is a natural flaw behind the reasoning in this system. The people at the bottom of this pyramid scheme are the big time popular bloggers with armies of subscribers. Who’s at the top? What I like to call “drop-spammers” that rack up credits with ease and leech away advertising room. I’m not as popular (yet) as competing blogs… so I’m stickin’ with EntreCard! 
-The Net Fool
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I am a big fan of Entrecard. It can bring a lot of traffic to your blog. If your blog is visually appealing with great content you can gain a lot of new readers. Gaining new readers is ultimately what every blogger wants. It is a give and take system that doesn’t cost anything. Small new bloggers can get in the game and it wont cost any money.
we use it on the blog and i’m pretty happy with the results. Sure a lot of them bounce - but I’ve also found a lot of great blogs with it.
Matt Ellsworth’s last blog post..My Condolences to a Fellow Entrecard Member
It also depends on your niche too. I’m generally getting no feedback from it, just chain-droppers, because my niche isn’t Make Money Online or a personal blog. Incidentally my personal blog Loves entrecard
Retro Garden’s last blog post..Top 5 Wierdest Beat-Em-Up Characters
That’s very true Retro, I think that the EntreCard system definitely favors the “making money online” community.. despite the fact that they claim to be open to every niche around. This is a small bloggers game
Care to share some stats about your use of Entrecard?
Options Strategery’s last blog post..Short Idea: True Religion Apparel (TRLG)
I’m surprised that when writing this article you didn’t consider the possibility that John Chow was being paid by Entrecard to feature the widget on his blog.
Tam’s last blog post..Let’s Stomp
I came across as a little rude there. Didn’t mean to.
To show there’s no hard feelings, I’ll sub to your RSS
Tam’s last blog post..Let’s Stomp
Hehe no problem buddy. Of course you have to assume he is being paid, my argument is that it is irrelevant. Small blogger’s like myself are given an opportunity to advertise on a widely popular blog for an “EntreCard credit” price that is really completely off when pitted against other going rates.
Again, giving to the poor, leeching from the rich
I totally agree. Also, I found out how to avoid most of the passerby traffic. John Chow and Problogger don’t buy as many ads as compared to other people, so if I were to buy ads on their sites, I wouldn’t have to worry about the “chain droppers” being my main source of traffic.
I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’ve heard that there are a couple of the bigger bloggers who are being paid by Entrecard to have the widget on their site for a certain amount of months.
Zero and Up’s last blog post..If you don’t use Entrecard, you’re missing out.