EntreBlast

Archive for July, 2009

Check out the Forum Marketplace

Yesterday I mentioned that Ziprunner is trying to increase the activity in the  forums with the addition of the iTrader feature to the Entrecard forums. At around midnight, they sent out a mass e-mail to Entrecard members promoting the “new” Marketplace in the Entrecard forums. It actually has been around for some time now, but it’s pretty dead. What is interesting about this e-mail is that they are trying to promote the Marketplace section in the forums and not the ‘Market’ system that’s on it’s own. Are they scraping it?

Purchase Entrecard Credits and Get Bonus ECs

For a limited time, you can get a bonus amount of Entrecard credits if you purchase 10,000 or 25,000 ECs. If you purchase 10,000 ECs for $56, you’ll receive a 5,000 EC bonus. And if you purchase 25,000 ECs for $125.00, you’ll receive a 12,000 EC bonus! This offer is only until August 1st, which is just two days away! So if you want a nice boost in Entrecard credits, I would take up on this offer quick! Click here to purchase Entrecard credits.

Entrecard Trade Limits Increased!

Though this was only one sentence out of the entire e-mail, this is probably the most exciting news! (Well, for me anyway) To promote the use of the Marketplace in the Entrecard forums, Ziprunner has lifted the Entrecard transfer limits from 1,000 ECs to 25,000 ECs! This is one of the biggest improvements Ziprunner has made to Entrecard thus far. As you probably know, I was really vocal about lifting the EC trade limits. It was just ridiculous to limit users for transfering 1,000 ECs a week. I won’t go on and on about it, but I’m really glad they have changed this limit. Because of these limits, you can expect I’ll be planning to host a big contest soon.

Ziprunner, the new Entrecard management, (I will stop calling them by their company name Ziprunner and instead something like ‘Entrecard staff’ eventually) has installed a feature called iTrader on the Entrecard forums. It basically is a reputation system based on successful trades. For example,  if a user takes up the offer for stumbling for 50 ECs and the other person gives them the 50 ECs after they’ve done it, they would leave each other a positive iTrader rating. This would let other users know that the person is trustworthy.  By this, Ziprunner is really trying to promote activity to the Entrecard forums. If more members were to join, I’m sure it could be really useful. By putting your blog URL in your signature and posting often, it’s easy to not only get some visitors but also readers who might subscribe and come back.

With my old theme, I had a top commentators plugin that I used to reward my readers for commenting on posts. When I uploaded my new theme, I forgot all about the plugin. But, it’s back now. Even without the plugin, I’ve received a lot of comments lately and have had more participation in my posts than when I used the plugin! That just goes to show my posts are worthy enough to grab the attention of my droppers, and I appreciate that!

Now, there is some extra motivation for commenting on my posts. The top 8 commentators will be listed along with their website in the sidebar. The list will reset monthly so if you’re on there, you could be on there for a while. Just another way of saying thanks to my readers and commentators!

Well, Ziprunner has announced two changes that have more of an effect on users than the new homepage design. The paid ads system has been removed. This is a great move on their part because most Entrecard members hated the system and refused to allow the paid ads on their widget. However, the downside to this is that the feature of allowing members to sell their Entrecard credits is being removed as well. They will try and pay off as much of the Entrecard credits that have been waiting to cash out as possible with the funds that are left from the paid ads system.

Overall, this is probably a very good move on their part. The paid ad systems angered many members. However, it will be interesting to see how they will try to bring in revenue in other ways because if they aren’t profiting, Entrecard will surely go down the drain.

Looks like Ziprunner (Entrecard’s new owner) is getting down to business and working to fix up Entrecard. A noticeable change is the new homepage look. Okay, it’s not a drastic change but it IS different from what it looked like before. Personally, I like it better now.

For anxious users waiting to see what Ziprunner does, I think this is a good sign. It’s only been a few days and changes have already begun to be made. Let’s see what they do next.

When I decided to bring EntreBlast back to life after a few months of not posting anything – I set my ad prices to just 500 ECs in order to regain advertising interest. It’s been over three months and I have not increased the cost, meaning those who are currently advertising are getting a super cheap deal. The price of advertising on the Entrecard widget is around 256 ECs for just one day! That means by purchasing an ad on EntreBlast, they are getting their moneys worth (or ECs worth) in less than two days time.

EntreBlast has grown a lot in the past three months after coming back alive. EntreBlast now receives over 100 visitors a day and over 3,500 visitors a month. It has an Alexa ranking of 93,754.

With that said, the price for a one month ad will be rising to 1000 ECs. Well, technically 999.99 ECs because Entrecard has ridiculous, annoying trading limits that I don’t understand. However, the price in dollars will not rise. It will still be the extremely low low price of $5. Of course, I prefer to be paid in real money rather than Entrecard credits, which is why I’m not raising this price. Either way, you’re still going to get your money’s worth in just a few days.

The cost of a one month ad in Entrecard credits will become 999.99 ECs starting Friday, July 24th. This gives you three days to jump on the opportunity of purchasing a one month ad for just 500 ECs. When you have purchased an ad, it will be placed in a queue and will appear on EntreBlast once an ad spot opens up (starting the 24th). Your 30 days won’t start until it becomes live, so don’t worry.

Click here to purchase an ad on EntreBlast. Jump on this 500 EC offer before the price rises!

Now with Entrecard under the new management of Ziprunner, there is hope that Ziprunner will bring about changes that Entrecard users have been asking for, but have been ignored. There are a lot of changes that are needed, and to make it easy for Ziprunner I am going to compile a list of the most suggested changes made by you guys and e-mail it to them. So, comment on this post and list suggestions you have for Entrecard. If the suggestion needs explaining, please be sure to do so.

Some suggestions I have:

1. Lift the EC trade limit.

2. Fix up the forum.

3. Do not impose Graham’s changes to the dropping policy.

Yesterday, Graham Langdon, former owner of Entrecard, announced that Entrecard is now under the ownership of Ziprunner Inc. Unfortunately, I was unable to find their website or any information about them. Goodbye to Graham, and hello to Ziprunner. Graham came up with an innovative idea that changed the blogosphere, but the change had to come. A one man show was just too much to run such a big and popular site. It is now in the hands of a company, who can hopefully bring about some much needed and asked for changes.

Ziprunner acquires Entrecard and a whole mess attached to it: discontent and angry members who have been urging for changes to be made. The new ownership will most likely bring back old members who left because of the previous poor management. Hopefully, we will be able to actually communicate with the staff and get some of our issues with Entrecard solved.

Though Graham will be around as an advisor, it is up to the new Ziprunner management to earn the respect and hearts of the Entrecard members. In order to do this they must:

1. Establish themselves, and fast. Right now, no one knows anything about this company or the people behind it. With Graham, it was just one guy who we could easily familiarize with. This made it feel like a community. With a company, it feels more business-like and distant and that’s not a good thing because Entrecard is based around a tight community. They should make a statement and give us some names.
2. State their intentions. What plans do they have for Entrecard?
3. Set up and handle customer support. Let’s face it- no issues were dealt with under Graham. If you had an issue or a complaint, you could fill out a ticket, yes, but it would never be answered. Let’s hope Ziprunner will be able to deal with complaints and suggestions better.
4. Make some changes. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. Being under a company, there is more manpower that can create changes to improve Entrecard.

I am optimistic about Entrecard under Ziprunner Inc. I believe that they will be able to bring about some good changes and fix the slumping reputation Entrecard has. It’s a big task but it can be done. This is my farewell to Graham Langdon. I appreciate your hard work and dedication to this project. It was a wise decision to sell and put Entrecard in better hands to allow it to expand. Thanks again.

That’s right. Entrecard has been sold by Graham Langdon and acquired by ZipRunner Inc. This has been posted on the Entrecard blog and sent via e-mail to Entrecard users. The letter reads:

I’ll expand on this tomorrow.

Entrecard has been down for a few hours today with a server issue. The homepage is accessible as well as the blog and the forums, but the Dashboard and other parts of the site are currently down and not working. The Entrecard widgets are still working though. The error message reads:

We’ve got some unexpected database load problems. We’re working on it like crazy, things will be back to normal soon, it’s just that there’s a lot of data there and it takes time to get things sorted out. sorry!

Hopefully Entrecard will be back up sometime today so we can go about our daily dropping! I’ll update this post when it has been resolved.

Update 3:20 pm EST: Entrecard is now up and working.