EntreBlast

Archive for the ‘Updates/New Features’ Category

Entrecard is changing their marketplace! The new marketplace can be found at: http://entrecredits.com/market/. You can see that it uses it’s own domain name, entrecredits.com and is not integrated with Entrecard.com. Users will have to handle exchanges privately and manually as opposed to the Entrecard system.
In my opinion, this is a step in the wrong direction. Entrecard instead should have fixed up the marketplace with a better system and layout. The new site for the marketplace is hideous and extremely lazy of them.

About a week ago Entrecard announced their plan to implement a sponsor ads program, similar to the old paid ads system that was running. However, this new program is not optional to members. Hey, I told you they were going to have to do something to make money when Entrecard removed the paid ads program originally. Instead, members can opt out of the sponsor ad program with a yearly fee of $50.

This program will being on October 5th. It has stirred quite a bit of conversation around the blogosphere and I’ll share you my view on the new program next.

Just when I pointed out how quiet it was around Entrecard…

Entrecard has announced a referral program where you can earn 300 Entrecard credits for referring a new member to Entrecard. They HAVE to be a new member and active for 14 days before you receive credit.

There are two new sections in your Entrecard user dashboard one provides buttons and banners to use to refer members, and the other lists members you have referred. This is my Entrecard referral link.

I won’t have much luck because my blog is about Entrecard – so my readers already know about Entrecard and probably have an account. But, I’m interested in seeing how much success other people will have with this.

The Entrecard Toolbar has finally been updated and released to be compatible with the latest version of Firefox – version 3.5. The Entrecard Toolbar has been unusable for a while now because newer versions of Firefox have been released and Entrecard has failed to keep up with the updates to ensure it’s still compatible with Firefox.

Click here to download the latest version of the Entrecard toolbar. (Note: this isn’t the exact download link, it will take you to the Entrecard page where you can download it.)

Early this morning Entrecard sent out an e-mail to all users describing a change that will be made to the Entrecard system in order to battle the rising inflation. Entrecard credits are becoming less and less valuable because there are more credits coming into the system than there is going out. While Graham attempted to solve this inflation problem by allowing users to sell credits back into the system, this feature has been removed. So, the new proposed solution is:

Members will only receive credits for dropping their cards, not for cards dropped on them.

So go ahead and continue dropping daily and you’ll receive 1 Entrecard credit for each drop you make, like always. However, you won’t receive any Entrecard credits for those who drop on your blog. The goal is to bring credits to a higher value.

Today, Entrecard users received an e-mail detailing a couple of improvements made to Entrecard.

• Login/Logout Bug Fixed – Apparently some users were having trouble logging in and out. This has been fixed.
• Auto-Approve Ad Feature – A new option to automatically approve all ads has been added. This can be found by going to your Dashboard and then clicking on the ‘Advert settings’ link under ‘Your Account’. This is a great new feature to help speed up ad approval times.
• Campaign Directory Cleaned – The Campaign section serves as a directory for all of the sites you can check out and advertise on. However, there were some sites in there that no longer had a widget on their blog that still showed up in the listings. These have been removed so there is no worry about accidentally advertising on a blog with no widget.

These changes have also been posted on the Entrecard blog.

While I was browsing through Entrecard blogs today, I noticed something new about the Entrecard house ad. Instead of the plain black image that says ‘Entrecard’ on it, the new house ad looks like this:

This is a definite improvement from the old house ad and will certainly entice visitors who have never heard of Entrecard before to click on it. This ad appears on widgets that don’t have any ads purchased by a user to place on the widget. Of course, if you see this ad, you should check out that person’s Entrecard profile and buy an ad on their site to help them out!

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.

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.