Image Source: EXIT > Countesy Of: Duchamp
Not too long ago, I was very exciting about the promising service from EntreCard, which kick BlogRush out of my blogs. Five months later, I realized that EntreCard did not generate the traffic they claim they do. It makes no difference than BlogRush. I did not remove EntreCard from my blogs. Few more months later and now, I got email from EntreCard saying two of my blogs has been removed / deleted.
EntreCard sucks! EntreCard is removed from my blogs forever.
One of the reasons for the deletion is the blog was part of my online store. According to their quality content policy, a blog link to store or be part of the store is not considered as good quality content. Does that mean commercial blog is no longer a quality blog? I think that is BS! I guess their real excuse to delete my account for my store blog is that I have PerformancingAds running on my blog, which generates real money for my blog.
There are few reasons that I think EntreCard is no longer a good service to the blogs.
- You are charged for transfer credit between your linked blog.
- You are limited to transfer up to 1000 credit per week.
- You can’t really sell your credit or exchange credit to get traffic.
- The click through rate is very low. Thousands and thousands credits are wasted without generating a single click.
- Put their revenue first before customer satisfaction.
I think EntreCard has tried very hard to generate real revenue since January 2008. However, they are losing ground since they realized that their traffic exchange model do not work. However, I do like their idea of posting 125×125 banner on blogs.
What lessons have I learned?
- Listen to your customers – Isn’t customer always right? May be not. However, they don’t seem to have the right attitude to listen to what their customers said about them.
- Don’t make wrong judgement based on your own points of view – They don’t think the way their customers think. If you don’t put yourself into customers’ shoes, how do you know what your customers really want? You will just drive your customers away!
- Be open! Be patient! – I understand that making profit is the ultimate goal for every business. In stead of in the hurry making profit, a business should be more patient and find out what went wrong in their business.
- Make improvement! Not Limitation! – Limit your service to your customers will kill your revenue. If your business has potential, you should be more open and improve your services to provide more features to your customers. Treating your customers like rats will end up limit your own revenue.
There are many blog post about why “EntreCard Sucks.” I don’t think I need to repeat that here.
This is my ExitCard to the EntreCard! Goodbye EntreCard!
You’re the second person I’ve seen lately dropping EntreCard!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@DCR:
I may be the second one dropping EntreCard, but I am sure that I am the late in the EntreCard Sucks trend.
I remember a few months ago, I got email from EntreCard. They were crying for revenue and did make the wrong decision on taking away the trading features from their users. They told their user to be aware of the changes. It clearly state that more limitations will be applied to the system.
If they were giving out more features and freedom to trade the credit points, they should make profit already.
Obviously, they don’t look out side of their own circle. EntreCard is not the only one to post 125×125 ad banners, but they are certainly the one not making profit.
Hey There,
I totally agree with your post. I’m just getting starting with advertising on my blog, so this is good advice. I have spent nearly two years just writing because I love it, but not until recently have I realized I might be able to actually make some money. We will see.
It seems there are many companies out there wanting far more money than they are worth. Bloggers now, more than ever, need to be careful of what they pay for. I have been saying for quite some time that the problem with ALL of this social networking and “money making schemes” is that you spend so much time trying to get started with them, and even spend money, that the traffic just doesn’t seem to equal the effort. And, to top it off, you forget about the important thing – the content on your blog! I understand why google is now penalizing people for promoting more than they actually produce. And, as a content producer I agree with it.
Love your blog, I will keep checking it out for advice!
cheers
http://www.freeryantoday.com
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Ryan:
Thank you for stopping. You have interesting domain name and interesting blog. I agree with you. Content is King. Without a good quality content, nothing will last.