Why EntreCard Sucks
September 7, 2008
My EntreCard account was deleted recently not because I broke their Terms of Service but the head honchos at EntreCard decided to have bigger head. We understand that for them to grow further, EntreCard need to improve the quality of their free service. But some of their decision made to improve their quality are discriminating.
Updates: Stirring EntreCard Nest
EzRichProject.BlogSpot.com was disqualified because EntreCard said that this blog have too many affiliate links ! Well, this blog is about making money online and the core topics covered affiliate marketing. So, of course, I have provide links to my principal affiliate.
EntreCard also said that this blog have too many pay-per-click advertisement links. Oh come on, it a standard practice for most bloggers who monetized their blog to include an advertisement block on the right panel, header and the blog post. Even JohnChow front page is full of advertisement craps.
Thus, as a result of the above disqualification, my blog account was deleted together with my EntreCard credits totaled over 5,000K. Over five thousand EntreCard credits forfeited. Erase. Gone into thin air.
Wait. I'm not sour because EntreCard disqualified my blog and forfeited my EC credits. But EntreCard sucks, because I have seen (until now) a lot of blogs which are still active in EntreCard network that even have more worst faults, like inactive blogs (no updates for weeks), blogs contents showing banners to affiliate sites, blogs contents that are not even worth reading. Those spamblogs still rule in EntreCard network. There are even sites with textual pornography in their network which they have not penalised!
While my blog is no longer listed in the EntreCard network, I still received email stated that I need to approve those EC ads application. WTF. Why send email notification for me to approve the ads when my account has been deleted. Yes, EntreCard is spamming me.
Okay, enough criticism and argument on EntreCard. For the hardcore fans of EntreCard, below is the sole benefit of being inside EntreCard network.
EntreCard give you traffic
The only good thing about EntreCard is that it drive traffic to your blog for free. But it's not going to be a flood of traffic especially if you are not an active EntreCard member who like to drop card (or surf to another EntreCarder's blog) or make a reciprocal drop. For example, if you surf into EntreCard network and drop 50 times, you probably get back 20-30 reciprocal drops. The "drop on you" will only be higher is you are really active or you are quite famous or you have a big circle of friends in the EntreCard network.
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The shortcomings of EntreCard are listed below:
Shorter Staying Power
The staying power of visitors from the EntreCard network is extremely short. That's because their main purpose is just to drop the EntreCard and not really bother to read your post. And if you check your traffic analysis from Google Analytical, it will show that your site Bounce Rate is high.
Email Notification Even When You Account Has Been Deleted
Some bugs in their software. There are emails notification send to users whose blog has been disqualified but they could not login into EntreCard to approve the ads because of termination of their account.
EntreCard Screening
Their screening process on which blogs have quality or at least have satisfactory contents are not well coordinated. Or perhaps they are being disorganized or discriminating. Ya, I think they discriminate blog which are categorized as make money online.
A-List Bloggers Abandoning EntreCard
For pioneer members of EntreCard, they can by now, noticed that most A-List Bloggers such as JohnChow.com and ProBlogger.net have discontinued their membership with EntreCard and have remove the EC widget from their sites. Dumping EC widget from their sites, indicate that those A-List bloggers preferred loyal visitors and serious readers. Not like member of EntreCard who just like to browse fast without reading so that they can earn the precious EC credit faster.
EntreCard traffic plummeted
See the graph below, it show that traffic to EntreCard has plummeted, probably due to their mass cleanup operation.
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September 8, 2008 5:56 PM
If you make your blog conform to their standards, they might reinstate your account. I think you like them or you wouldn't mind that they deleted your account ;) But they need to issue warnings and tell people what they need to do to improve their blogs. Their excuse is that they don't have enough people working for them to do things the right way. That may be a sign that they will be bought out by google or someone. But I don't think they'll go out of business unless someone else comes up with a better idea.
September 8, 2008 10:19 PM
To many affiliate links... I didn't see them crying when John Chow had their widget on his site.
September 9, 2008 2:51 AM
The reason John Chow and Problogger left was they were paid to join Entrecard and help get it established. 6 month contract I believe. They left at the end of the contract, not for any other reason.
September 9, 2008 3:23 AM
sbhacker, you are right about John Chow's blog. He shouldn't have been allowed either. But that is like saying, 'since OJ Simpson killed someone and didn't get put in prison, I shouldn't either!'.
They hold the right to kick out anyone for any reason. And I must agree with EC on this one. This website is about 'making money online', but uses a default template and uses amateur ways of making money.
You have a 'users online' widget for crying out loud.
How can you teach someone to make money online when you seem like you aren't even making much yourself?
This is a scam blog. If I were EC I would ban this thing too.
October 4, 2008 5:49 AM
Well, I'm just going to have to weigh in on this after being deleted with no warning today.
Their way of communicating is copying and pasting policy and shoving it down my throat.
I have stopped using them and will make sure anyone who asks me about them receives the truth about their poor service, understaffed or not.
Here's a link to my Entretarded image.
http://www.realscottsdaleliving.com/wp-content/uploads/entretarded.jpg
January 7, 2009 4:46 PM
Good post. Hi just a quick comment about the entrecard deal. Yes they suck plain and simple. I saw the same thing you saw. Others blogs that did not got penalize with the so call standards and links Blah blah. They just decided to random delete blogs to clean the system. So If the big gurus don't use entrecard. We all will survive without it. Better places will take are links.
My blog deleted by them was:
http://createcash4uonlinesuccess.com/category/entrecard/