All Entrecard users received another cryptic message from the new owners yesterday. It says "We are pleased that many members are taking advantage of Entrecard services and that Entrecard is able to help users increase traffic to their blog. However in order to continue providing this free service, we will be taking 15% of our entire ad network inventory for sponsors as of Sept. 28"
It does explain that we will be able to "disable sponsor ads" that we don't like.
No one knows what this means, really. There is some discussion going on at the forum, with the return of paranoia too. Several negative posts have not been approved, and people are wondering if we are back to the old days of censorship.
I am concerned that "disable sponsor ads" means that they will run until we see them and block them. Two of my blogs are specifically focused on quiet outdoor recreation, and I don't want certain kinds of ads there. EC has promised no nudity, violence, or anything illegal. Well, there is a lot of sleaze that doesn't quite fall to those levels that I really don't want to advertise.
Most people think this will mean that 15% of the time an Entrecard paid ad will show instead of one purchased by another blogger with EC credits. So the value of those credits, which are already the lowest since I joined, will go down even more.
My blogs get very few click-thrus from other EC ads any more anyway, even though total hits from all sources are up. The value seems to be mostly in banner exposure. I hate to have that reduced to 85% of what it is now.
I would be willing to display paid EC ads 100% of the time IF they were something like this mockup. No links here... this is just to give an idea of what it would look like. These would be my conditions:
1. There was an ad or ads appropriate to my topics
2. I could choose what ads to display ahead of time
3. It was a two-box system- similar to my mockup.
What do you think?
| web ad income Sept 21 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.29 Adgitize $.55 Project Wonderful $.01 Shareapic $.01 Chitika $.31 ______________________ Total: $1.17 |
2 comments:
I'm not too concerned about losing 15% of the views on ads I place. To compensate I'll just reduce the price I'm willing to pay by 15%. (I already reduced it 50% since we no longer get a credit for being dropped on). Hopefully everyone else will do the same.
However, I'm quite concerned about what kind of ads will be on my site and if they'll show before I have chance to stop them.
I'm also wondering why Entrecard hasn't got any advertising anywhere on their site? Surely they could generate some revenue by putting ads on the homepage, forum, blog and dashboard?
I've also cut back significantly on my advertising and watching with disappointment as other sites leave EntreCard. It cuts back on my motivation to drop.
I have written two blog posts about this. Yesterday, I wrote EntreCard Updates where I look at this, as well as compare this to Adgitize, CMF Ads and other sites.
Then, today, as I thought more about it, I set up a survey asking where people place their ads.
I hope you and your readers will stop by and fill out the survey and I look forward to seeing what others do.
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