EntreBlast

Archive for April, 2009

As a blogger, you should know one of the most important aspect of establishing your blog is branding. Having a nice logo and a catchy blog name is only the first step. Having a unique and appealing template is probably the biggest part of branding. How long does it take for you to assess a blog and decide whether to even look at the content? Probably less than five seconds. If you’re theme is just plain or too messy – you’re losing potential readers without even knowing it!

Dropping on other Entrecard blogs, I notice that many of those blogs have boring themes. I’m not trying to sound mean, but it’s true! Either that, or one of those popular free “premium” themes.

I have a special deal for Entrecard members. I’ve decided to offer my Wordpress design services to Entrecard members! You have the chance to get a unique, fully coded, custom made Wordpress theme.

These themes have a simple web 2.0 look, are compatible with Wordpress 2.7, and are widget-ready!

Check out my portfolio!

Price: Right now, you can order a custom Wordpress theme for just 6000 ECs. Custom work like this usually goes anywhere between $40 – $100+. So, this is a steal! If you’re interested in paying in cash, I’m offering a discount to EC members. Usually, the price is $40 but if you say you’re from Entrecard, I’ll offer my services for just $30.

Visit the Entrecard Market to purchase with ECs or contact me to purcahse with money or if you have any questions. You can expect quality work, a fast turnaround time, and unlimited tweaking until you’re satisfied!

While I was dropping today, I came across this image below an Entrecard widget:

Ecocarders is a group for Entrecard members who blog about the environment or going green. The group contains about 50 blogs who are in the “green” niche. These blogs wear an Ecocarder badge near their Entrecard widget.

If your blog is environment-related, it might be beneficial for you to sign up and join the Ecocarders group. It’s simple to join and you get a link on their Ecocarders List page, and probably some traffic too.

Entrecard has announced new forum rules. There is NO bashing allowed on the Entrecard forums, and you must be a member to join. But, perhaps the most controversial new rule is: you must have purchased 400 ads to join.

This move is a major flub by Entrecard. Already, the forums aren’t as active as they could be, and this just makes it worse. This severly cuts back the activity of the forum. The forum should be another helpful tool for bloggers wanting to promote their blog, but it was also used to just relax, get to know other bloggers, share tips and tricks, and promote contests.

Why these new rules?

Obviously, it’s because some members of the forum were just going around complaining, bashing, and starting controversy. However, apparently this has nothing to do with the Entrecard bashing on the forum:

Graham believes in negative controversy, this is nothing to do with bad rep slinging. It is expected there will be negative talk about entrecard and its decisions.

Then why all of a sudden do we have these new rules? It’s understandable they won’t permit bashing on the forum. But the restriction that you have to have purchased 400 ads in order to join? This prevents all new members from joining the forums, and many of us members who don’t buy a lot of ads- but use our Entrecard credits for other purposes such as contests.

I’m normally for the moves Entrecard makes, but not this one. Many people have complained about this new rule but apparently it’s not being changed. Maybe when it’s noticed that the forums are now completely dead, they’ll think about this 400 ad rule.

Comment on this post, and share what you think about Entrecard’s new forum structure.

Yeah, so I have’nt checked up on Entrecard for a while. Sure, I am still subscribed to their blog feed so I get the headlines of the latest news, but I’ve been so caught up in other projects I kinda left Entrecard sitting dust.

As you should know, Entrecard has launched a paid ad network. Blogs and websites alike can sign up and purchase, with real money, ads on Entrecard members’ blogs. While, you don’t get any of the cut for approving paid ads directly, it is beneficial in two ways.

1) Sell Credits – now, you can sell your Entrecard credits to Entrecard and make money. 75% of the revenue from paids ads goes to the members, with only 25% going to support Entrecard. With this, the option to sell Entrecard credits is available.

2) Entrecard is Supported – This is probably the best idea Entrecard has come up with to try and earn some money. One of my biggest concerns has been- is Entrecard earning enough money to stay afloat? For a while, the answer has been “barely”. This new network should surely improve this, and that makes me happy.

I love seeing little companys that put so much in for their members and community to start earning some money to finally be fully financially supported, and even starting to profit. Graham is someone who I, and probably many members of the Entrecard community, have grown to trust and respect. He’s put a lot of work into this, and deserves to be rewarded. While I sound like this new network is going to make him rich, that’s doubtful. It’s hard to say how much exactly they will be taking in, and how much it goes to supporting Entrecard (probably nearly all of it).

However, there is no doubt that this new ad network will surely benefit Entrecard and its members.