EntreCard: Revealing the Secret behind the 3 identical ads in your inbox!

BigDaddyRichard from Trader's Hub wrote yesterday and Eli from Businessphere wrote today about an ad that appears in many of our EntreCard InBoxes not only once but three times.
In my case it appeared three times at the end of each day (since 27th November). I think the person behind this ad drops especially on the TOP 300 blogs to get as many clicks as possible for its purposes.

Big Daddy Richard and Eli think it is a trick of EntreCard as the same ad picture appears three times in your inbox.

But the solution is very simple, no trick by EntreCard but the member tricked EntreCard and its members.
And in this case it means, the member uses THREE DIFFERENT accounts for three blogs. As i read now the comments on some of the mentioned blogs (description below), it seems he setup these blogs in the past for other persons (or under other names) but they have the same appearance (blog templates). Some are not updated since August 2008!

If you hover with your mouse over the three pictures you can see that they are linked with three different member accounts
http://entrecard.com/t/oc/54360
http://entrecard.com/t/oc/53839
http://entrecard.com/t/oc/33411

To access now the user profile you have to take the number of each link and add it to
http://entrecard.com/user_details/

If you click on these three links, you will be taken to the three "different" accounts

http://entrecard.com/user_details/54360 --> http://entrecard.com/details/142085 Software Blog
http://entrecard.com/user_details/53839 --> http://entrecard.com/details/142089 Jennys Personal Blog
http://entrecard.com/user_details/33411 --> http://entrecard.com/details/141888 Reahsblog

The Software blog seems to have a redirect to the -for all three same- targeted web site http://blogproduction.blogspot.com/

If you click on the given URL in the Blog details it takes you to the above mention Blogproduction website (without any EntreCard widget).

Have a look at the MOST RECENT POST and click one of the posts, this will take you to the REAL Blog behind the picture (and all except the SOFTWARE BLOG and ReahsBlog which you can only access by the below mentioned Blogroll listing!) have an EntreCard widget.
If you look on this Blogproduction website you can see that in the Blogroll "Jennys Personal Blog" and "Reahsblog" is mentioned (there is the connection that it's the same user with different accounts, perhaps he wants to cash-in the referral ECs as linked blogs wouldn't be allowed to receive additional free ECs and so on?)

EntreCard System is too easy to abuse!

You just have to go to your Dashboard:

1. Take a look at the section "Your Blog" in the middle of the page
2. Click on "Edit"
3. Change the website URL to any other website which you would like to promote :)
4. Save it, EntreCard doesn't look any more if this is a page with EntreCard widget (otherwise these THREE blogs would have been already deleted!).
5. In case we report them, EntreCard might get active and sent a message to their Dashboard to place the EC-widget on this blog within a specific time frame (24 to 72 hours)
   

Adgitize: Let's see what's going on now!

UPDATED Weekly - I will write a summary of the previous week in Adgitize each Tuesday (after the Sunday-Earnings are published)

Since 21st November i could achieve the necessary 80 cents (for 30 day months, 78 cents for 31 day months) with points between 450 - 470, on 26st November i achieved 97 CENTS for 470 points (Thanksgiving-Holidays in USA, lower overall points) and it's getting better each day, see at the end of the post!

With 74 ads to be renewed in the NEXT 5 DAYS (until 2nd December) we could see a drop in advertisers by 1st or 2nd December to less than 150 from actually 177 advertiser.

This said it means, you really can get profitable again as ACTIVE PUBLISHER (with 400+ points and 78 cents/daily!) by buying an ad for 24$ in Adgitize and you can boost your traffic by 70 - 100 visitors daily.

I will publish this and the next month statistics about the amount of advertisers in Adgitize, so that we can see how many renewed their ads and how many left Adgitize as advertiser after their price hike.

If you like to participate, you could also share your earnings per day and for which amount of points you got this earnings. I will share them now daily in this blog post!

Highest number of Advertiser on 31st October - 216

In this number are around 20 persons who bought a 2nd or 3rd ad for 14$ (instead of renewing their old ad for 24$).

This means that it will be most likely to see in the next two weeks a decrease of advertisers back to around 200 (like the number has been on 29th of October!).

On 2nd November the advertisers decreased already to 213 (-3).
On 3rd November the advertisers increased to 214 (+1, but still - 2 in comparison to 31st October). That means there has been at least one member who paid the new ad price!
On 4th November the advertisers decreased to 210 (-4 towards yesterday and -6 towards End of October).
On average each day 7 advertisers should renew their ad (210/30 days = 7 ads expire each day)
On 5th November the advertisers increased to 213 (+3, but still - 3 in comparison to 31st October).
On 6th November the advertisers decreased to 212 (-1, but still - 4 in comparison to 31st October).

Ken Brown commented yesterday on this post and wrote that since 5th November 24 members renewed/bought ads with the new price (if you calculate this for 30 days, we would have 150 advertisers until end of November).

On 7th November the advertisers decreased to 207 (-5 from yesterday and -9 in comparison to 31st October).
On 8th November the advertisers decreased to 201 (-6 from yesterday and -15 in comparison to 31st October)
On 9th November the advertisers decreased to 199 (-2 from yesterday and -17 in comparison to 31st October)
On 10th November the advertisers increased to 201 (+2 from yesterday and -15 in comparison to 31st October)
On 11th November the advertisers decreased to 199 (-2 from yesterday and -17 in comparison to 31st October)
On 12th November the advertisers decreased to 195 (-4 from yesterday and -21 in comparison to 31st October)
On 13th November the advertisers increased to 197 (+2 from yesterday and -19 in comparison to 31st October)
On 14th November the advertisers decreased to 195 (-2 from yesterday and -21 in comparison to 31st October)
On 15th November the advertisers stabilized at 195 (0 from yesterday and -21 in comparison to 31st October)
On 16th November the advertisers decreased to 191 (-4 from yesterday and -25 in comparison to 31st October)
On 17th November the advertisers decreased to 189 (-2 from yesterday and -27 in comparison to 31st October)
On 18th November the advertisers decreased to 183 (-6 from yesterday and -33 in comparison to 31st October)
On 19th November the advertisers increased to 184 (+1 from yesterday and -32 in comparison to 31st October)
On 20th November the advertisers decreased to 182 (-2 from yesterday and -34 in comparison to 31st October) (after the new day -21th- began the advertiser dropped to 176, let's see how many renew and how this affects the earnings over the weekend)
On 21st November the advertisers decreased to 180 (-2 from yesterday and -36 in comparison to 31st October)
On 22nd November the advertisers increased to 181 (+1 from yesterday and -35 in comparison to 31st October)
On 23rd November the advertisers increased to 183 (+2 from yesterday and -33 in comparison to 31st October)
On 24th November the advertisers decreased to 181 (-2 from yesterday and -35 in comparison to 31st October)
On 25th November the advertisers decreased to 179 (-2 from yesterday and -37 in comparison to 31st October)
On 26th November the advertisers decreased to 177 (-2 from yesterday and -39 in comparison to 31st October)
On 27th November the advertisers decreased to 175 (-2 from yesterday and -41 in comparison to 31st October)
On 28th November the advertisers increased to 176 (+1 from yesterday and -40 in comparison to 31st October)
On 29th November the advertisers decreased to 174 (-2 from yesterday and -42 in comparison to 31st October)
On 30th November the advertisers decreased to 171 (-3 from yesterday and -45 in comparison to 31st October)
After 12 hours we have on 1st December only 158 advertisers left (at the start of 1st December it have been just 156 advertisers)! --> More money left for the members who gain 300/400+ points, even when the earnings will be slightly lower (around 80 cents)

Will you renew your Adgitize ad?
	Sure
	No
	Perhaps
pollcode.com free polls

0.80 $ are needed daily to get a 24$ ad paid back (in the bracket you can see, if i reached this amount!)

1st November - 500 points - earnings: 0.79 $ (0.79 $ - 1 cent less)
2nd November - 500 points - earnings: 0.75 $ (1.54 $ - 6 cents less)
3rd November - 520 points - earnings: 0.75 $ (2.29 $ - 11 cents less)
4th November - 500 points - earnings: 0.72 $ (3.01 $ - 19 cents less)
5th November - 500 points - earnings: 0.70 $ (3.71 $ - 29 cents less)
6th November - 500 points - earnings: 0.72 $ (4.43 $ - 37 cents less)
7th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.73 $ (5.16 $ - 44 cents less) less overall points give higher earnings, look out for high points on weekends!
8th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.67 $ (5.83 $ - 57 cents less) seems to be so low from the massive drop in advertisers on Sunday
9th November - 470 points - earnings: 0.67 $ (6.50 $ - 70 cents less)
10th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.64 $ (7.14 $ - 86 cents less) the decrease in advertisers affects the earnings as the "old 14$ ads" won't get renewed until 1st December!
11th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.66 $ (7.80 $ - 1.00 $ less) like the day before... not many new ads are getting bought, earnings remain like in October for the next few days!
12th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.66 $ (8.46 $ - 1.14 $ less)
13th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.71 $ (9.17 $ - 1.23 $ less) higher earnings due to less overall points during the weekend!
14th November - 440 points - earnings: 0.76 $ (9.93 $ - 1.27 $ less) higher earnings due to less overall points during the weekend!
15th November - 440 points - earnings: 0.76 $ (10.66 $ - 1.31 $ less) higher earnings due to less overall points during the weekend!
16th November - 470 points - earnings: 0.73 $ (11.39 $ - 1.41 $ less) it seems like the earnings are rising for the first time even with less advertisers!
17th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.71 $ (12.10 $ - 1.50 $ less) it seems like the earnings are "rising" as we have less advertisers/points!
18th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.75 $ (12.85 $ - 1.55 $ less) after 3 days i think we can called it CONFIRMED the earnings are "rising" despite less advertisers!
19th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.77 $ (13.62 $ - 1.58 $ less) CONFIRMED the earnings are "rising" despite less advertisers, can buy new ad for 24$ in the next days!!
20th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.77 $ (14.39 $ - 1.61 $ less)
21st November - 450 points - earnings: 0.83 $ (15.22 $ - 1.58 $ less) FIRST DAY WITH MORE THAN 80 CENTS/DAY, overall weekend points low!
22st November - 470 points - earnings: 0.84 $ (16.06 $ - 1.54 $ less) SECOND DAY with more than 80 Cents/Day, even with 5% higher overall points but weekend!
23rd November - 470 points - earnings: 0.82 $ (16.88 $ - 1.52 $ less)
24th November - 470 points - earnings: 0.80 $ (17.68 $ - 1.52 $ less) It seems 180 advertisers is the limit to get 80 cents, let's see which earnings we can score for the 25th with just 179 advertisers!
25th November - 470 points - earnings: 0.80 $ (18.48 $ - 1.52 $ less) still could score 80 cents, even with just 179 advertisers and 1.700 more overall points in the system!
26th November - 470 points - earnings: 0.97 $ (19.45 $ - 1.35 $ less) Thanksgiving holiday weekend until 28th/29th November in the USA, low overall points!
27th November - 450 points - earnings: 0.98 $ (20.43 $ - 1.17 $ less) WOW, the highest daily earnings i ever got in Adgitize since i started in April 2009!!
28th November - 450 points - earnings: 1.05 $ (21.48 $ - 0.92 $ less), the best earnings but also the lowest overall points, earnings will be lower for the next two days but still around 80 cents :)
29th November - 460 points - earnings: 0.97 $ (22.45 $ - 0.75 $ less) USA back from holidays, overall points growing again, same will be valid for tomorrow!
30th November - 470 points - earnings:0.84 $ (23.29 $ - 0.71 $ less)

EntreCard: Facts about Sponsored ads!

Like mentioned in the previous post about the first sponsored ad, we got this week a real invasion of sponsored ads (up to 12) from members of EntreCard. Yet there are still no advertisers from outside the blogosphere who wants to promote their products in the EntreCard network.

And there are good reasons for those Outside-Advertisers and EntreCard-Members NOT to spent a part of their budget in the EntreCard network

1. 25 $ is good for only five days FULL EXPOSURE in the whole EntreCard community, for a targeted campaign it's depending on the amount of blogs and activity in the category (10 - 30 days).
   For one month you would pay 150-200$ but if EntreCard members recognize there is NO CARD TO DROP or you DON'T drop back, the clicks will get less and less but the ad is paid by "automatic" ad views NOT for each click! The result will be disappointing over a longer period (more than one week!).
   
   
2. Goal of the ad campaign is to get more visitors (clicks)
   EntreCard promotes the price of 25$ with 40.000 (over all categories) or 20.000 ad views (one targeted category).
   The information Eli from Businessphere and Chinaren about their Click-through-rate is in my opinion more than disappointing for this 25$ investment.
   You can get in these four - five days around 450 - 600 clicks, depending on the amount of sponsored ads and the approval of your sponsored ad by the EntreCard members.
   
   In comparison to Adgitize -where you get "on Auto-Pilot" monthly around 2.000+ clicks for a 31 day ad for the price of just 24$ - the EntreCard-Deal is TOO EXPENSIVE especially when you see the 1-week-ad in Adgitize for 12$ which give you on average 77 clicks/daily = 540 click/week!
   
   
3. EntreCard "promises" EC-based ad price raises up to 2.000%.
   This promise is just fulfilled if you have an ad price of 2 or 4 ECs!
   Like we see/have seen on the actual sponsored ads which are in the TOP 15 most popular blogs (EZGreatLife, Businessphere, Seek No More, SpicyBugz World, The Junk Drawer), there was just a slightly higher ad price to achieve (from 1.024 to 1.536 or 2.048 EC) which is the normal price hike after a weekend (when the ad prices are always lower!).
   Strangely the ad price went up for most of them as the sponsored ad has expired :)
   
   You should think twice when you buy an ad on one of these sponsored ad members.
   As i said, the ad usually runs just for five days (the sponsor has the possibility to pause the ad, too, and run it hours, days or weeks later again as long as there are remaining funds!).
   
   If you buy there an ad, the ad price should be lower than 32 EC, otherwise the traffic surge has stopped already when your ad runs and in case the member didn't drop back, your investment might be worthless.
   
   

What's positive on sponsored ads in EntreCard?

1. If you are for a few days not available for dropping your cards, you could buy your sponsored ad to maintain your position and your ad price in EntreCard or ad/page view points in Adgitize (but like i said, it's expensive).
   
   
2. You could reach immediately many blogs without spending tons of ECs to advertise (success is around 1,5% of the ad views give you clicks for all categories and 3-4% for targeted category ad campaign), some of them could become regular readers!
   
   
3. You can pause the sponsored ad (after you deposit the 25$) and start a new campaign hours, days or weeks later (they write about a 30 day period when the deposited money should be used), suitable for low-traffic weekends!
   
   

UPDATE 29-11-2009:

• EntreCard marks members who have opted-out of sponsored ads with a star in their ad picture (if you look in the campaigns), i saw two or three blogs today (SpicyBugz World, Maitri's Blogs)!

What's your opinion about Sponsored ads in Entrecard? Are the sponsored ads acceptable or not?

As advertiser have you been satisfied with the results?
Is it worth the investment or would you say, i learned my lesson? :)

Join the Holiday-Contest now!

Sticky post (read below for my new interesting articles):

All you have to do is... just drop your EntreCards on one or more of the our mentioned blogs and make ONE comment on this Holiday-Contest post for having the chance to win FREE Advertising on Cornyman's Money-Blog (from 19th to 27th November).

The prizes have a worth of more than 200$, you can see them on the above mentioned link. If you do a blog post about this Holiday-Contest, you can get some free ECs, too.

How to get more referrals + EntreCard's new inflation!

I wanted to write some more tips how to get referrals and about EntreCards new fight against their EC inflation.

I guess, it's just time to write a short summary of both topics now before i will go on holidays (this post was pre-written on 19th November).

Getting more referrals for your programs:

There are a lot of programs in the internet and offline which allow you to earn additional income by referring other members to these programs.

The best way to get referrals is

• write honest reviews about the programs
• show the advantages and disadvantages of the programs
• in case you get incentives, you could give a partial kickback to your referral
• show off your payment proofs

More about this points will follow after the holidays (on the weekend).

EntreCard's fight against the inflation!

I hope everybody reads the blog in EntreCard and buzz's on the Dashboard :) Then you know that you can "earn" a lot of ECs by referring new ACTIVE members to EntreCard.

Now it's 800 ECs that you can get instead of the previous 300 and on TOP the new referral will get 200 EC as starting capital, so that they can see immediately the effect of advertising.

Will there be a great impact by advertising with just 200 EC?

In case you use it for the 2 EC-Blogs, the new referrals might get disappointed, if they use it for 32 - 128 EC-Blogs it will look much brighter but then the ECs are already used and they have to be really active, so that YOU get your 800 EC :)

Now, with 200 new ECs in the system (virtual money from hot air!), EntreCard is driving itself more and more into the inflation and ad price bubble. By giving away 800 EC to the old members it seems that they are really in need of new MEMBERS, MEMBERS and again MEMBERS. I mean not really members... as we are their AD INVENTORY.

The real purpose of this new EC inflation!

It's not about the benefits of the new members (as they have to work to earn new ECs each day). It's really just about getting more ad space for their own survival. The same is valid for their 50% discount on buying ECs. They make this offer just because they need money, yes!

But on the other side, they wanted to get rid of ECs in the system by giving less ECs to the users (remember the only 1 EC-policy for the dropper which started on 1st September). Sure, if you give less it's more likely that someone will BUY ECs.
I wonder if really someone did buy (i read from two or three persons that they did as they re-joined EntreCard in the past) for a price which is not really valuable for the return you get.

Quick calculation:

Buy 4.000 EC for 12 $

my average ad price 1.024 EC (max click one advertiser got once: 90, if it went bad: 20 clicks)

3$ for one day exposure x 30 days = 90 $, i guess for a one month ad on this blog i charge 20$

A NO-GO for serious advertisers!

There are cheaper methods to buy ad space on my blog.

Look on my sidebar, there is LinkShowOff for 2$ (Eli's Businessphere link is there since July, if someone else buy now, he would drop out of the list as he is the fifth one... so the 2 $-investment would be good for 5 - 6 months).

Or use CMF-Ads for at the moment 0.33 $ for 30 days (but you share it with around 20 other advertisers), in December the price will go back to 0.60 $ (which means more exposure for the advertisers, as there will be less who want to pay this price).

Tomorrow a new article will follow about the way the new sponsored ads in EntreCard are working and if they are worth their money!