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Entrecard!!….WTF????
- Mike in category: Marketing and Advertising, article marketing, blog marketing, internet marketing
This recent deal where Entrecard’s new owners have decided to impose paid advertising whether you like it or not proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, like Graham before them, they really have no freaking idea just what the hell they’re doing. Isn’t Graham supposed to be an adviser?
Oh wait.
This makes perfect sense then.
Gotta tell you. Entrecard has got to be one of the few, if not the only, membership type sites out there that absolutely refuses to LISTEN to its members. I just don’t get it. Actually, I do.
They’re just trying to make a quick buck or two. And I’m hip to that, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But what they don’t know is….WE (us members) ALREADY KNOW THAT WHAT THEY HAVE PLANNED IS A PISS POOR REVENUE MODEL!!! Hell, they think we have no clue of what we speak of. It’s not like we haven’t been down this road before, you know.
I assume they know what happened when Graham tried this revenue model. It failed. Miserably. Mostly due to the Graham’s failure to LISTEN.
And then there’s the issue of Entrecard not being willing to use their own web space. Or better put, referring to the membership as “inventory”. Their use of the word “inventory” implies ownership. Ownership of YOUR blog. And if you don’t like it, leave Entrecard. They figure any attrition from the network can be replaced by newbies, hence all the referral banners they have available for us to use to refer people. For us. To refer. Meaning they do little to increase the membership, they depend on us to do it for them.
How do they repay this? By shutting down the comments section on the Entrecard blog. Can’t have no “rebelling” going on. Doesn’t matter that the suggestion of a separate paid ad widget would be one that most people would be more comfortable for us members. Doesn’t matter that commercial banner advertising is the least effective means of online advertising. Doesn’t matter that they could put contextual ads on every page of Entrecard and make money. Doesn’t matter that we aren’t stupid and we would click on those ads, knowing we were helping to maintain the network. Doesn’t matter that they could create their own products and market them to us via email, email marketing being a much better way of marketing a product or a service. Heavyweight internet marketers RECOMMEND stuff to their mailing lists all the time, not only that, they make a good amount of change doing so. But the biggest thing to me is the fact that Entrecard seems to believe they can make money off web space they do not own without any incentive for the membership.
In conclusion, there’s absolutely no good reason for Entrecard to force the membership to show any type of paid advertising on the EC widget. It’s a bad business model. And remember, Entrecard, we aren’t your “inventory”, we’re your members. Big difference.
That’s all I got for today, my friends.
I hope this finds you well.
samdaddycool 6th October 2009 12:45 pm
That’s explain to me lots why lots of people are leaving entrecard now.
mkyd1963 6th October 2009 1:06 pm
And that’s too bad. Understand, I’ve got no problem with EC getting paid. I do have a problem with them getting paid off my work. It’s as simple as that. Thank you for your comment and I hope this finds you well.
Mike 7th October 2009 8:50 am
I feel pretty much the same way. I want to control what ads are shown on my blog and as soon as Entrecard forces some ad that I don’t like, I’m definitely going to be gone. Until then, I’ll continue to use Entrecard less and less. There’s ways to make money, that isn’t one of them.
mkyd1963 7th October 2009 12:28 pm
Exactly, Mike…I cannot fathom why some folks don’t get that part…Granted, the widget is theirs, but the web space that widgets sits on is mine….Thank you very much for your comment and I hope this finds you well
Eli from Business Sphere 7th October 2009 8:39 pm
Mike, latest development in Entrecard, as of October 8, 2009, just to let you know.
After the EC management closed the comments section on its blog, today, they closed the Forum.
Funny but earlier today Sheila of the AdMaster and I were posting our respective comments on the Forum thread, touching on the banning of Caledonian Jim (Caledonian Comment) and later on, the termination of his EC account with his 12,000 ec therein. Jim said Entrecard robbed him of his 12,000 credits.
Now, the Forum is also gone with the wind.
In my opinion, what the EC Admin are doing is myopic, ill-advised, and counter-productive.
That is not the way to run and manage a huge blogging network that Entrecard is.
The Admin (Andrew Te and his manager Cindy Ung) are just dissipating the goodwill of its member-users by their latest exercise of bad management prerogative.
Just because they own the company does not necessitate their closing the Forum as well as the comments section on the EC blog. They do not want to listen anymore to their users/members. Such whimsical, despotic, arbitrary decision does not sit too well with some of the members, especially the thinking and perceptive members like you and me.
This morning Symphony of Love, one of the most popular blogs in all categories, appeared on my dashboard, without the EC widget. He wrote me a private message to bid goodbye, as he already removed the widget and canceled his account.
Interestingly, my blog is now No. 7 – 8 of the most popular blogs in all categories since 3 days ago. I’ll hold on for a few days and wait and see. Indeed, these are turbulent times in Entrecard, and the coming days are uncertain.
Of course, there’s life after Entrecard.
All the best,
Eli
mkyd1963 8th October 2009 7:09 am
You’ll not get any argument from me, Eli. They are on the verge of running EC into the ground. Like you, I am waiting to see just what these people (I say this not for lack of a better word to describe these people) are going to do. However, it’s my humble opinion that, like Graham before them, they’re making a huge mistake by not listening to the membership. It’s us who will ultimately determine their ad prices. Thank you so much for stopping by, Eli. I appreciate your insight and wisdom.
Custom T-Shirts 20th October 2009 2:05 am
It is a very nice and good post. Keep up the good work.