Entrecard just announced that in a short while, they will be co-launching an Ad Network and a Credit Cashout Service. What this means, immediately to all Entrecard members, is the following:
A real ad network
Entrecard will be opening as much as 50 percent of their ad impressions network-wide to third party advertisers. They will be accepting cash payments to run 125×125 advertisements through their widget network. Ads will be sold as run of network, or targeted by category, for a low CPM rate to be announced.
This means, daily Entrecard ad purchases need to be planned accordingly. Whereas before, when a blogger purchased an ad, they were buying a minimum of 100 percent of the impressions, they are now buying a minimum of 50 percent. However, the maximum is still 100 percent of the impressions, because if Entrecard have no ads booked for that category, or for the network, for any given day, the blogger will still get all of the impressions.
Exchange credits for CASH
With the money they make selling as much as 50 percent of their network impressions, Entrecard will purchase credits from its members, and delete them from the system. This means they are going to let bloggers sell credits for cash, right from their dashboard! This has been the single most requested feature since Entrecard was launched. Members have clamored for a way to sell Entrecard credits for cash, but the same problem always arose: where does the money come from to let people sell their credits? How can Entrecard use their greatest resource (millions of daily impressions across ~60 niches) to benefit everyone?
After much deliberation, the answer became clear. Entrecard must open up their ad network, and funnel the proceeds of the entire operation back to its members!
The state of the economy
The state of the world’s economy is grim. We are in a global recession. People need simple ways to make money now more than ever before. Therefore, it became Entrecard's imperative to turn itself into a viable way for bloggers to make money. The great way to do this is by allowing its members to cash out on their credits, and allowing them to earn credits by selling products and services in the Entrecard market, advertising on their blog, publishing on their blog, and dropping cards. Entrecard is making big moves to help its members earn a second income.
In parallel, the Entrecard economy has been in a state of inflation since day one. Every day, more credits are created than are deleted. As of writing this, there are 44 million credits in the Entrecard economy, and they are adding more each day. This is not sustainable, and so it has become clear that they need a more efficient way than advertising taxes to eliminate credits from the economy. The good news is that if this works, they will be able to lower the advertising tax.
So, by paying the bloggers cash for their credits, and then wiping them from the system, Entrecard estimates that they can delete as many as 1 to 2 million credits per day. This will immediately shift the economy into DEFLATION, which means the credits will become MORE valuable, instead of less valuable, both in their purchasing power and in their monetary value.
Finally, Entrecard has needed a solid revenue model since day one. They are excited to have settled on a viable revenue model that allows us them make money at the same time as passing on the majority of their revenues back to their members. For any given day, Entrecard will take 75 percent of their revenues and pass them on to its members by way of cashing out their credits. Entrecard will take the remaining 25 percent for themselves to grow the business as a solid revenue source.
What if the member don’t want these ads on their site?
Entrecard have always prided themselves in being a service that offers its members complete control over what does and does not appear on their own site. Yet, at the same time, they are forced to mitigate this ideal with their decision to launch a more traditional ad network, as a way to make money for the bloggers, restore the economy to balance, and make some money for themselves.
Entrecard will continue to allow bloggers to reject any ad they wish. Originally, to reject ads from paying advertisers, bloggers will need to pay a credit fee for each ad they wish to reject. However, one blogger informed this writer that it has been removed already.
New 1-Page-down rule
The “Above the Fold” rule that we notified you we were implementing in a week’s time has now officially been changed to a “1 Page-down Rule.” What it means is that your widget should be placed withing one stroke of the page-down key.
It was immediately clear after their announcement that a strict “above the fold” mandate was not something that many members wanted to, or could, comply with. So, as a clear signal to its members, that they listen to all the feedback and incorporate as much of it as we can, they have gone ahead and decided on the change.
To recap
Bloggers and Entrecard members can boil this down to the following 4 bullet points:
A real ad network
Entrecard will be opening as much as 50 percent of their ad impressions network-wide to third party advertisers. They will be accepting cash payments to run 125×125 advertisements through their widget network. Ads will be sold as run of network, or targeted by category, for a low CPM rate to be announced.
This means, daily Entrecard ad purchases need to be planned accordingly. Whereas before, when a blogger purchased an ad, they were buying a minimum of 100 percent of the impressions, they are now buying a minimum of 50 percent. However, the maximum is still 100 percent of the impressions, because if Entrecard have no ads booked for that category, or for the network, for any given day, the blogger will still get all of the impressions.
Exchange credits for CASH
With the money they make selling as much as 50 percent of their network impressions, Entrecard will purchase credits from its members, and delete them from the system. This means they are going to let bloggers sell credits for cash, right from their dashboard! This has been the single most requested feature since Entrecard was launched. Members have clamored for a way to sell Entrecard credits for cash, but the same problem always arose: where does the money come from to let people sell their credits? How can Entrecard use their greatest resource (millions of daily impressions across ~60 niches) to benefit everyone?
After much deliberation, the answer became clear. Entrecard must open up their ad network, and funnel the proceeds of the entire operation back to its members!
The state of the economy
The state of the world’s economy is grim. We are in a global recession. People need simple ways to make money now more than ever before. Therefore, it became Entrecard's imperative to turn itself into a viable way for bloggers to make money. The great way to do this is by allowing its members to cash out on their credits, and allowing them to earn credits by selling products and services in the Entrecard market, advertising on their blog, publishing on their blog, and dropping cards. Entrecard is making big moves to help its members earn a second income.
In parallel, the Entrecard economy has been in a state of inflation since day one. Every day, more credits are created than are deleted. As of writing this, there are 44 million credits in the Entrecard economy, and they are adding more each day. This is not sustainable, and so it has become clear that they need a more efficient way than advertising taxes to eliminate credits from the economy. The good news is that if this works, they will be able to lower the advertising tax.
So, by paying the bloggers cash for their credits, and then wiping them from the system, Entrecard estimates that they can delete as many as 1 to 2 million credits per day. This will immediately shift the economy into DEFLATION, which means the credits will become MORE valuable, instead of less valuable, both in their purchasing power and in their monetary value.
Finally, Entrecard has needed a solid revenue model since day one. They are excited to have settled on a viable revenue model that allows us them make money at the same time as passing on the majority of their revenues back to their members. For any given day, Entrecard will take 75 percent of their revenues and pass them on to its members by way of cashing out their credits. Entrecard will take the remaining 25 percent for themselves to grow the business as a solid revenue source.
What if the member don’t want these ads on their site?
Entrecard have always prided themselves in being a service that offers its members complete control over what does and does not appear on their own site. Yet, at the same time, they are forced to mitigate this ideal with their decision to launch a more traditional ad network, as a way to make money for the bloggers, restore the economy to balance, and make some money for themselves.
Entrecard will continue to allow bloggers to reject any ad they wish. Originally, to reject ads from paying advertisers, bloggers will need to pay a credit fee for each ad they wish to reject. However, one blogger informed this writer that it has been removed already.
New 1-Page-down rule
The “Above the Fold” rule that we notified you we were implementing in a week’s time has now officially been changed to a “1 Page-down Rule.” What it means is that your widget should be placed withing one stroke of the page-down key.
It was immediately clear after their announcement that a strict “above the fold” mandate was not something that many members wanted to, or could, comply with. So, as a clear signal to its members, that they listen to all the feedback and incorporate as much of it as we can, they have gone ahead and decided on the change.
To recap
Bloggers and Entrecard members can boil this down to the following 4 bullet points:
- In a week, Entrecard is launching an ad network where anyone can advertise through Entrecard widgets for CPM rates. This can be run of network advertising, or targeted by category. They are making available 50 percent of their inventory, or approximately 40 million monthly impressions.
- With the money they make, Entrecard is going to buy credits back from its members. Bloggers will be allowed to sell credits via their dashboard, and Entrecard will devote 75 percent of daily sales to buying credits back.
- The economy will no longer be in a state of inflation, but rather in deflation which means credits will gradually start becoming more valuable.
- For all this to work, Entrecard must institute a 1-Page-down rule, which goes into effect in a weeks.
I was considering leaving ec, but felt I should stay in there and see what they came up with to improve the system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this information. I'll be hanging in there for a while longer now.
You didn't notice the credit fee for ad rejection got removed?
ReplyDeleteI just around with Entrecard because with Entrecard I will never found this awesome site.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates guys. I just made some changes to the post above.
ReplyDelete