There have been a couple of recent posts at Entrecard which extol the traffic numbers generated through the entrecard widget. I couldn’t help but get out my trusty calculator to do a minute or two of additional analysis. What I found made me wonder.
Are their own numbers deceiving the members and advertisers of Entrecard?
The first numbers I saw were in a post at the Entrecard forum by Jawsome (Head Moderator). He states the following.
I think the number on the main page are wrong. Here is some readings from the admin side:
24,696 Non-deleted blogs with either a widget running or a credit balance above 0
26,749 (+75) Widgets detected by scanner
25,629 (+49) Blogs currently marked active
Rounding up is common IMO.
You either believe those numbers or believe Turnip when he writes - Entre-Fraud: Why Does Entrecard Lie about its Number of Blogs.
The second was from a blog post by Graham which stated Entrecard generates 5,000,000 hits per month.
Entrecard is all about buying ads with our virtual currency that you earn for free. Collectively, these ads channel over 5 million monthly visits to our members blogs. Right now you can buy ads on over 30,000 blogs across 60 vertical niches.
First let’s point out the obvious. The numbers in the posts don’t match up. Where the Head Moderator clearly states the stats in the admin side show 25,778 active blogs, Graham clearly states there are ads available on over 30,000 blogs.
Who should we believe? Who really cares, for our calculations I am using Jawsome’s stats as a specific number sounds more plausible. After all, he had just checked right?
Using some simple math to break these numbers down here is what 5 million hits means using their own numbers.
5,000,000 (hits per month) / 25,678 (active blogs) = 194 (hits per blog - per month) or 6 hits per blog - per day.
Boy Howdy - doesn’t 6 extra hits per day just make you want run out and join up?
Before you do though there is one thing you should know. Their recent changes allow Entrecard to sell ad space from member blogs in order for Entrecard to make a profit. So maybe I should have asked do you want to give up prime ad space on your blog for an extra 6 hits per day?
You can read more about those recent changes in Entrecard Sells Out!
Let’s not stop there. Let’s look a little deeper into the numbers. Entrecard allows members to drop cards on up to 300 fellow members and heavily encourages members to do so. I wanted to know just how many droppers making the maximum number of drops it would take to reach those 5,000,000 hits per month. Some simple math shows us.
5,000,000 (hits per month) / 30 (days per month) = 166,666 hits per day / 300 (max number of drops per day) = 555 members making the maximum number of drops per day.
The numbers tell us that all of these hits could be made by 555 active Entrecard members doing their maximum number of daily drops. The rest of those 25,678 blogs could be just sitting there generating nothing. After using the system for a while that really does not surprise me.
This still leaves out one key factor. That being quality of traffic.
I was a member with them for some time and during that time I got a very good feel for the kind of traffic it generated. It is basically a traffic exchange. Members earn credits for dropping on other members blogs so of course members want to do their daily drops. If you hurry and you have a high speed connection you might be able to finish 300 daily drops in around 45 minutes.
That represented a lot of time out of my day and the day of the members doing their dropping. What typically happens is members do what is called drop and run. They drop on you and run to the next blog to drop on them. This creates and obscene bounce rate. My bounce rate for Entecard traffic was always over 90%.
Now I know that some find it hard to see the forest through the trees. These new changes are allowing outside businesses to pay Entrecard for advertising space on member blogs. When businesses spend money they have an expectation of a return on that investment and the run and gun type of traffic will not offer the kind of return they expect.
Entrecard members click on widgets to find the next blog. It is called widget surfing. They land on the next blog and look for the widget in order to drop and gain their credit for the visit. The outside advertisers will not have an Entrecard widget there. Entrecard members will find no widget and will get frustrated at the time it takes looking for one. After all they only want to drop and run.
How does this translate? Well Entrecard members will quickly stop widget surfing because half the sites they travel to will not contain another widget to click. That miniscule 6 hit per blog / per day number may drop significantly across the board as Entrecard members stop widget surfing all together.
Lets examine something else the Turnip mentions in the post Entrecard’s Bizarre Monkey Tale.
It is pointed out in that post how bloggers can have numerous blogs registered with Entrecard. Members do this in an effort to build credits in support of their main blog, because for every blog they have registered with Entrecard, members can do another 300 drops per day.
Allowing members to have multiple blogs in support of a main blog creates an environment where it encourages the kind of run and gun traffic which drives other Entrecard members and advertisers bounce rate into the stratosphere.
When a Entrecard member has six blogs running there to maximize the number of drops they can make, do you think they are hanging around any site longer than it takes to click on the widget? To do 1800 run and gun style drops for 6 registered blogs would take around 4+ hours. Run and gun is all they do because their only goal is earning another entrecard credit.
The real sad thing is that this mulitple blog activity with its run and gun dropping will only increase when Entrecard members can begin to trade in their credits for cash.
Is this the kind of advertising you would pay for as a business owner? Traffic which just drives up the bounce rate on your site with no conversions. Traffic which only comes to your site looking for a widget in order to earn another entrecard credit. Traffic which will quickly leave disappointed because there is no widget there to click on.
Entrecard had some promise but the decisions of management there are pushing it towards failure.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I agree that the new changes is going to increase the drop and run downside to entrecard. I know for sure that they are not correctly reporting the numbers of blogs in their system as four of my blogs are still listed even though my account was supposedly deleted and widgets removed from all my blogs. One of the worst things about the drop and run is the increased bounce rate. My bounce rate decreased by 10% within the first 24 hours of leaving entrecard. I think the lower bounce rate is a nice trade off
March 29th, 2009 at 11:15 am
@Moms Cafe - My overall bounce rate has also dropped substantially by well ver 10%
Another side effect is Alexa rankings. Prior to joining entrecard my alexa was in the 70k range. After joining entrecard, even though my overall traffic increased, my Alexa dropped off a cliff.
The same day I removed my entrecard widget My Alexa jumped into the 40k range where it has hovered around ever since.
I don’t believe in coincidence….
March 29th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
The amount of active blogs is a constantly changing number. Would you be more invited to join from a comment such as “Advertise on 30,000 blogs or more for free” or “Advertise on 25,839 today and the number will change daily for free”. Personally I would probably not click or second guess an ad like the second one.
The controversy of Entrecard is only bringing about awareness of its existence. Whether good or bad… Its still being spoken about. The most impossible thing in the world to obtain is to make everyone happy. There will always be someone who doesn’t like a particular piece or even its entirety. So, thank you to all the bloggers much like you keeping the controversy alive.
Entrecard has never said or been advertised to Bring you 100% quality traffic. It is also referred to as a “sweat” program in that you must put in what you expect to get out. Like anything else in the blogging world, there are thousands others just like you wanting to be seen, heard, read and clicked. I have done a study myself of how to go from 4 popular rating to 1900 popularity rating. If you drop 300 cards a day, and more specifically drop back on the blogs dropping on you, comment on their posts and actually read their posts. The same effect will come back to you.
Entrecard is not money based. Meaning you do not have to spend money to get results. Infact you have to give results to get results.
So, entrecard brings you the traffic. Will you be able to handle the traffic? Will you be able to gain the attention of the traffic enough to make them stop and actually read? That would be your job.
Thats just my personal opinion
March 29th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Overall I’d say your logic is sound. I thank you for checking out my articles and doing your own calculations. The best point you make is some people who drop 300 cards do it for multiple accounts.
Where you state “It takes 40 minutes to drop 300 cards”, that is incorrect. It took me exactly 22 minutes to drop 300 cards. I proved this night after night for almost 1 year. I’d time myself while dropping cards, because I sure wasn’t reading the blog.
Entrecard needs to look at it’s numbers very carefully before launching such haphazard rule changes.
March 29th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
@Jawsome thanks for stopping by from your moderating duties at entrecard forums.
The active blog number is a simple enough thing for any coder to make a small script and insert it to show an accurate number there. It might take someone who knows what they are doing a couple minutes.
I do understand how making it sound better has its benefits though.
Not even controversy can save you with direction entrecard is going. A visit to the entrecard forum to read from all the unhappy members shows us that. I just post what I feel on the topic.
And Jawsome my blog was always above 1900. Popularity was not my problem.
You mention quality of traffic. The thing is that entrecard is not set up in a way to reward quality posts or blogs for that matter.
It is set up merely to reward members who click the widget on as many blogs as they can as quickly as they can. Many of the high ranking blogs at entrecard are rubbish. Rarely updated or filled with duplicate content. I will just call out a couple of the well known examples. Remember Monkey Tales? How about Selcom60?
The thing is that people like to selectively remember that time is also money. A time investment can be much more involving than simply paying a fee.
Entrecard brings traffic that is only looking for one thing. That is the next widget to click.
Now that I have approved your comments here Jawsome lets see if Entrecard approves that comment awaiting moderation on their blog. I had to fudge an email address because mine is apparently banned there….
March 29th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
@Turnip - You must be a pretty fast dropper!
March 29th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
@Jawsome, I would be more likely to join and advertise on a network that said “Advertise on 15,000 blogs or more for free” and was honest about it’s stats. I don’t care what your database says, the only numbers that matter are the ones that are available to potential members and advertisers from the campaign page. When your sitewide advertisers do a quick count of what they can see available to them and compare it with what they are being promised by the owner, EC will be lucky to get any paid ads at all.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@Bruce:
I agree with you about monkey tales. He has yet again completely disappeared. I tracked all ip’s associated with all of his accounts back to the same city/state. (Meaning selcom60’s) The same day that turnip posted about it. He was GONE.
I do however have a hard time believing that entrecard as a whole is made up completely of gunners.
When I mentioned the “sweat” technique. I had meant to also mention that time is money. I feel there will always be a group of bloggers who are not entirely committed enough to spend real life money on blogging. In my opinion, Entrecard is the perfect service for this demographic.
I’ll check the blog for comments needing moderation. The spam block on the ec blog is rather sensitive.
@Turnip - Thank you for posting. I always stay up with your blog. I actually find out about stuff from you faster than finding out myself.
It’s much appreciated and I respect you as a blogger.
@Guinevere - In my history of entrecard this is the first time it has been made noticeable the differences being displayed. I have also checked myself and the numbers given by turnip and others are correct. However, as I have mentioned, they do not correctly match the statistics given by the admin side. The only possible answer I can give to this is that it is coding/database error. I could not agree more that the only numbers that will be of importance are the ones that are visible.
Thanks,
Andy T - Jawsome
March 29th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Ok, you guys are not going to believe this. I asked them to delete my account 13 days ago, all 5 blogs. They deleted 1 and left 4 refusing to delete. That’s after 14 messages saying they deleted my account. Finally yesterday I was down to only 3 blogs left then this morning down to 1. Bonus “except” I am now getting EC traffic on my primary blog that somehow the funny admin managed to restore on EC. Then a second blog has been restored! Funny, funny EC admin. Why would they be adding blogs that don’t have widgets back into the EC system if they weren’t trying to inflate their numbers. This is way too funny!
March 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I am a memeber of EntreCard and I have bypassed the entire dropping and advertising element all together. I have been using the marketplace to sell services and then I buy real d space on blogs for a month at a time or other services like getting a retweet or something like that. In my opinion, EC is very useful from that persepective. I think the dropping and daily ads are a waste of time.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
@Gardengnome1/Mom’s Cafe Home Cooking - I have tweeted to you on twitter multiple times asking for the url’s of the blogs that are undeleted. I have not deleted them or undeleted them. However, if you would let me know I could handle the matter.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
@Jawsome, see here is the thing. I asked politely for my blogs to be deleted. Fourteen messages later to tell me one was deleted I started marking as spam. Now I figure if you guys are “smart” enough to put my deleted blogs back onto entrecard you should be “smart” enough to take them back off AGAIN. This is entrecard’s problem not mine. You want to keep sending me free, low quality traffic go right ahead. You guys really need to find the delete key on your computers. It’s been fourteen days now! Come on already. My 2 year old grandbaby can even find the delete key!