Saturday Saved- The Best for Last # 10

With quite a handful of my blogpals calling it quits at EntreCard, I deemed it best to republish an old article entitled Some of the Reasons Why More and More People Are Leaving EntreCard which I had first published in December 21, 2008., I find it so timely that it prompted me to recall from my archive for the purpose of this article.

Here it is:

I was saddened by the news that a number of my Top Droppers have now made a decision to leave EntreCard for good. One of them is WorldWide Travel Blog who has been a consistent Top Dropper across my blogs for a number of months and I will absolutely miss seeing his widget in my inbox. But guaranteed, that this isn’t goodbye because I will continue to visit his blog with or without the EC widget at his blog.

With the increasing number of bloggers making the decision to depart from the realms of EntreCard, I have made a summary of some of the major reasons why they have come to a decisive point leaving the EntreCard community. Some of these list are picked from some popular bloggers and I will be linking up to them at the bottom of this post.

A CLEAR WASTE OF TIME

No one is ever compelled to drop 300 cards each day! But to get the best out of EntreCard, one must drop to the maximum 300 cards per blog. Many EntreCarders refused to be a slave by spending their time dropping cards and use up hours and hours of going through blogs. Once you don’t have a speedy connection, it will take you forever to finish the task more so if you’ll be dropping for multiple blogs. Knowing the tricks on how to drop quick in just a matter of 30 minutes would help. I have actually shared some of my Dropping Techniques in the past:

My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part 1)

My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part 2)

I do not know how I was able to manage dropping 1, 200 cards everyday with my 4 blogs since I also have a full time work apart from blogging but much of the credit goes to my cousin Allena of In the Eyes of the Beholder who does the dropping chores on my behalf numerous times. I personally wouldn’t think this is a poorly invested time because I love getting a glimpse of other people’s viewpoints and thoughts. I daresay I have quite learned a lot from other people’s various ideas.

POOR QUALITY BLOGS

Yes, EntreCard may have failed in strictly implementing the Updated Quality Standards but since quality is subjective I can’t say much on the matter. I personally love going through blogs on a wide variety of topics and categories and I can put up with anything.

Some think that sub par and poor quality blogs possess the following:

Blogs that are nothing but paid posts – I have recently made a post out of this.

Slow blogs – Yeah! A number of them takes forever to load. Please put that video off and please turn off that autoplay music! I’ve had enough of these blogs. Good thing I am using the No Script Add On feature so I’m not quite affected.

Out of date blogs – It’s quite disappointing to see numerous blogs who were able to take time dropping their cards without updating their blogs. I can see lots of them. To get a wide readership, I understand that updating ones own blog is a must.

Poorly written content (grammar and spelling mistakes) – Many of the bloggers are using English as a second language. I am no exception. I am still a work in progress but English as a second language is no excuse for me not to brush up. There is always room for improvement. Some faux pas though are understandable. We just need to double our effort in learning the art of writing in a much respectable level. That is, being able to deliver a clear and comprehensible message to our visitors.

Well, if an EntreCarder is too particular of the above mentioned points, I am urging you to report blogs to the EC admin so that they can impose sanctions on those identified blogs. Notwithstanding the points earlier pointed out, I feel that blogging should be open to all levels of literacy and topics. EntreCard must be very careful when imposing sanctions though since QUALITY per se vary from one person to another.

A COMMUNITY INFESTED BY WAHMS/ SAHMS

I felt bad when I learned that one blogger particularly pointed out that one reason he is leaving the community is because of the SAHMS. I do not want to rebut him but with all due respect to the SAHMS, they are wonderful! You see, to each his own. I have high regard for them because they were able to make the most out of their time blogging aside from child-rearing and taking care of their own homes. Creating that balance is not easy. I owe them much of my traffic and majority of the good friends I have acquired from EntreCard are the SAHMS. To all of you blogging Mommies, Long Live!

POOR SYSTEM

Unannounced downtimes and outages is indeed very annoying! At least we deserve to know when service failure would take place ahead of time so that we can adjust. Though EntreCard have failed to send us notices for service failures umpteen times, I have to commend them for upgraded and better service.

JUNK TRAFFIC

EntreCard is a free advertising site. We expect to get traffic via the 125 x 125 slots we have purchased from other blogs. But since the price of advertising for popular blogs is too much for an ordinary member to afford, the ordinary members are drowned in the sea of active EC power users who were able to take advantage of the system. Added to this is the “drop and run” phenomena where blogs don’t really get long term traffic. I can’t say much about this but since EntreCard, this blog’s traffic had gone up to 100K plus and I couldn’t have done it if not for EntreCard.

POOR MANAGEMENT

One of the things that triggered some members to leave was Graham’s decision in deleting some popular members from the system. Turnip of Power, one of my Top Droppers, have been deleted for using Twitter. Quite a number of members now think that is such a crappy and silly decision from the management. ENTRECRAP as they have called it should have known better. Does Graham believe in second chances? Is a second chance being asked?

RECENT UPDATES:

As of today, September 26, 2009, more and more EntreCarders are telling the world that It’s the end of EntreCard, Now and Forever, AMEN! It’s the goodbye post by the ever so brilliant Windy and for him, EC is history. My friend Jackie of The Painted Veil is likewise saying cheribye EC! Among the popular blogs who declared fleeing the EntreCard community are The Virtual Dime Museum, Symphony of Love, and Politicus. US.

WHAT’S SO TERRIBLY WRONG?

EntreCard is in terrible quandary. After Graham Langdon sold it off to its present owner which is being represented by Cindy Ung, ALL members were expecting some more great changes and developments, at the very least we deserve something that will deter us from quitting.

THE PAID ADS

This has been the contention even before EC was bought off by Zip Runner. However, when the new owner took over, they assured the members that they will never generate money at the expense of EntreCarders.

But lo and behold!

Cindy Ung ate all her words! Isn’t she the one speaking now telling us upfront that “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, 09.”

MY SAY:

What the hell is Cindy Ung talking about? I vehemently disagree on this as I cannot let a third party service gaining control over my blog in whatever manner. Although it is a given fact that EC provides free traffic for my blog, but hey! My blog is MINE to control and I can’t simply allow outsiders “milking” for survival at the expense of MY OWN blog. I’ve worked hard for the stupendous gain with my Alexa rank which currently stands at 63, 247. These sponsor ads getting FREE exposure from my blog is UNJUST and UNFAIR! The management should better think hard and fast and come up with a workable remedy SOON. Members are getting so fed up by their fickle-minded decision-making.

The proposed 15% Inventory for sponsors is UNACCEPTABLE! It will be as disastrous as PAID ADS! What’s the vast difference anyway?

Ever since I began with Adgitize (which I owe much of my knowledge from a newfound blogpal, Eli of Business Sphere, I noticed that my traffic had a sudden surge. Therefore, I cannot give EC the entire credit for being instrumental with regards to being the only best option available to drive traffic to my Blog

RELATED ARTICLES:

EntreCard Updates

8 Reasons to Quit EntreCard

Goodbye EntreCard!

Banned From EntreCard for Using Twitter

I wish you blue skies and all things nice,

For my Saturday Saved- The Best for Last featured post this week, I deemed it best to republish my previous post My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part I). It was first published on September 6, 2008 when all my 3 blogs climbed up to Top 75 Popular blogs at Entrecard. Lainy’s Musings took center stage when it stole the No. 2 spot for a few hours, LOL! The post was to also heed the call  by fellow EntreCarders to write something about how I was doing my crazy drops.

Here it is:

My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part I)

First off, one must understand what Entrecard did for me. It did wonders for my blogs- Our Journey to Forever and Kuerdas (please try to swing by those blogs). It gave me more than 300 hits a day and more than the hits, I came across wonderful blogs and made friends with beautiful people. I couldn’t have done it if not for Entrecard.

When we see an EC widget, we would usually click “drop” on impulse. That’s how it is for novice. But let me emphasize here that every cards dropped counts. We need to be sure if the blogs we have just dropped our cards on would return our drops. It’s OK to drop on friends no matter what rankings they have at Entrecard. They would always reciprocate because they are friends!

DROP FROM THE POPULAR BLOGS

You may ask me, WHAT RANKINGS? In case you still don’t know it, I’ve slowly learned that every blog is ranked at Entrecard. ALL blogs are ranked according to POPULARITY. There are 52 categories and each blog is ranked according to popularity in each categories.

The rankings are the following:

1. Deeply committed – Deadly serious. A drop master!
2. Takes dropping Very Very Seriously
3. Consistent, regular dropper
4. Casual and relaxed
5. Just here for the view

Here’s how you can get to know your blog’s rank:

• Go to the CAMPAIGN TAB in your Dashboard
• Choose POPULAR
• Select ALL CATEGORIES
• Order should be by MOST POPULAR
• Choose NO MAXIMUM for Maximum Price.
• Choose 24 rows per page (Top 120 Popular blogs will show on the first page).

YOUR 125 X 125 ENTRECARD WIDGET PLAYS A VITAL ROLE

Out of more than 15, 000 Entrecard members, it will now be very easy to recognize the Popular blogs if you get yourself familiarized with their avatars. Once you see them anywhere, you will get to know they are those blogs who have been doing crazy drops, day in and day out! I know these blogs even when my eyes are closed, haha! Now, I would dissuade anyone from changing avatars every now and then. You wouldn’t want to lose your regular droppers, right?

COLOR CODING

One thing important to know is the COLOR CODING at Entrecard. These are as follows:

• Gold = Featured
• Rose = Favorite
• Blue = Ad purchased
• Green = Dropped
• Dark = Recently rejected
• Black= Not yet dropped

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I wish you blue skies and all things nice,