EntreBlast

Archive for the ‘Updates/New Features’ Category

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.

Yesterday evening, Graham has posted on the Entrecard blog changes that will affect all of Entrecard’s members and how they go about dropping. The change is to “take action against the bounce rate”. Because, (one of) the biggest complaint Entrecard critics have against Entrecard, is the bounce rate.

So, what’s going to change? Apparently, they are working on a new algorithm used in the Entrecard widgets to detect whether the dropper has interacted with the blog they are dropping on. If you don’t interact with the blog (how involved you’ll have to be, Graham is leaving that as a mystery), you don’t receive credit for that drop.

This is the news, however, stay tuned for my follow up post about my opinion on the change that will be implemented “soon”.

A new feature has been added to Entrecard with a new way to earn Entrecard credits! Now, you can earn ECs by completing offers!

If you’ve ever joined a “Paid to Complete Offers” site, then you already know how this works. For those who have never done this before, it’s pretty easy. There are a variety of offers available with different instructions. Some are free, some require a credit card, and some are trials. The free ones are the easiest to do, but are also the lowest paying. If you see an offer you like, go ahead and click on it. Make sure to fill out the offer completely.

A new tab in your Entrecard dashboard says Earn EC. That’s where the offers are. I’ve seen some as low as 30 ECs (free offers) and some worth a couple thousand Entrecard credits. Check it out, complete some offers, and earn some Entrecard credits!

One suggestion that I would make to the Earn EC page is allowing users to sort in order of highest paying offers or lowest paying offers. In the e-mail sent out, Graham said there were some offers worth 20,000 Entrecard credits, but I haven’t come across it.

Looks like Graham has woken up for a deep sleep and has made a few updates around Entrecard. It’s good to know they are still alive!

Cashout Apps Processed

Finally, the cashout applications have been processed and either denied or approved. If you were approved you will notice a few new options in your dashboard where you can transfer ECs to your Cashout balance and you’ll receive money for ECs.

Entrecard Ad Network Only Accepting Entrecard Blogs

A chance to the Entrecard ad network is that it now will only accept blogs and only blogs that are with Entrecard. This is an interesting move that will probably hurt the paid ad network system, considering most Entrecard blogs can advertise with ECs on blogs through Entrecard anyways.

Enter Your E-mail and Receive 100 ECs

Here’s an offer that can’t be refused. You can earn 100 ECs from Entrecard simply by signing up for Shoemoney’s FREE internet marketing course. Don’t worry about getting junk e-mail, it is disclosed that your information will not be shared with anyone and Jeremy Schoemaker is a reputable guy.

Here’s how:

1. Visit Shoemoneyx.com

2. Enter your name and e-mail address

3. Forward the e-mail you receive to Graham at graham@entrecard.com

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.

This may be a bit old news but I’m catching up here. Entrecard has finally decided to upgrade their forums to a new and improved vBulletin forum. It’s a completely fresh and seperate system so old posts are gone, and you’ll have to register seperately on the new Entrecard forums.

However, the upside is so much better. The new forum is  faster than the old one, and is organized a whole lot better. Threads dont’ disappear through the pages just because they are old and users have a vast range of new opportunities. You can easily PM a user directly, leave reputation, and even have a signature. The PM system and signature option becomes available after 15 posts. Users can also subscribe via e-mail to their favorite threads to track to posts.

If you’re familiar with vBulletin these things are common in a vBulletin forum but still certainly beat the old Entrecard forum. So, if you’re one who has avoided the forums because of it’s inconvenience, I recommend you check out the Entrecard forums now and give it a shot.

You cannot transfer more than 1000 Entrecard credits a week – a new change in the Entrecard economy as of yesterday. If you are a member of Entrecard with a lot of Entrecard credits, you probably sponsor contests around the community. Now, it’s harder to do that. Not only that, but how about giving away Entrecard credits? Most Entrecard contests (about 90% of them) contain over 1,000 ECs in prizes.

In response to this problem, Graham says:

we can give them elevated status easily enough and have already contacted almost everyone running a big contest. no worries. contests will be paid out without a hitch.

We want to see contests continue and will do so in a slightly more sanctioned way.

I then left a comment asking for more information on the elevated status.

Here is Graham’s reply:

We’re working towards a method of sanctioning contests and will update everyone on the blog once its ready.

It will involve some sort of inspection, to see where your credits came from, some sort of planning so we know the exact day you’re giving them away, some sort of accountability -that you’ve been active in the community and we know who you are vs. someone who just shows up today with a million credits suspiciously and wants to hold a “contest”

So once we have some firm ground rules in place, the huge contests can continue because we do not want to see the contest culture of Entrecard die!

Alright, so that gives contest holders breathing room, but what about those who sponsor Entrecard contests? The ones that truly make huge EC contests possible? This not only limits them on how many contests they can sponsor, but also how much can they sponsor. For the Summer Credit Splash, I rewarded those who sponsored 4000+ Entrecard credits. This influenced people to donate more, and also helped make the contest a lot larger.

The purpose of the cap is to eliminate the selling of Entrecard credits, which is now against the rules, and I understand that. I think it’s legitimate and useful. However, I propose the transfer limit to be set at least to 5,000 ECs/week. This is fair to us and yet still helpful in getting rid of credit farmers.

Please share your thoughts on the EC transfer limit and on my proposal.

8 major changes have been made to the Entrecard Economy system:

• Buy Credits for Less ($6.00/1000 ECs)
• Pricing Increments Added (View the advertising page for details)
• Members are not allowed to sell credits
• Credit Transfer Limits (limit of 1000EC/week)
• Transfer Tax (12.5% on transfers)
• Blogs cannot be unlinked (unless you ask for deletion)
• Coupons are Gone
• Shop is Closed (until an improved shop is released)

Some aren’t so major, and some have been talked about a lot and were bound to be put in action, but there is only one I and many other Entrecarders have a problem about: credit transfer limits. Tomorow, I’ll post my little rant/investigation on this new change. Feel free to share what you think of these changes below. Which ones affect you?

For more information, check out the Entrecard Economy Changes official blog post.

Looks like the Entrecard staff has finally taken intiative to get rid of a wider variety of spammy blogs. Entrecard has updated their quality blog standards for participating in Entrecard. Some are old and obvious while a few are new.

The new standards for being able to participate in Entrecard include:

• No Full Screen Ads (the ones that take you to another page and though you have the option to skip, it is seriously annoying)
• Entrecard Widget must be present (doesn’t make sense for you not to have the widget on anyways)
• No Auto-playing audio (not too many of these but they are annoying as well)
• Content must be recent (last post cannot be older than 6 months; about time they did something like this!)

I am very happy with the recent update to their blog requirements. It is possible to fix your blog if you are not meeting any of these requirements, just make sure to do so soon. Check out the full list of blog standards for Entrecard on the Entrecard blog.

With recent drama among the Entrecard forums, changes are made! A new category in the Entrecard forum has appeared called ‘Firestorm’. It’s for everyone who wants to rant! The description makes it clear what it’s for:

“Hostile, aggressive, uncivil posts only. You have been warned.”

Welp! If you feel like letting off some steam- maybe you’re tired of slow loading times or spammy blogs on Entrecard- than check out Firestorm.

Update: Well, it didn’t last very long. In less than 24 hours, the Firestorm category has been closed. Whether it’ll come back up, it’s doubtful.