The changes to Entrecard’s advertising model

Entrecard has finally announced that, starting in about a week, it will be opening up their network to 3rd party advertisers.  The advertisers will be able to buy up to 50% of the whole network’s (or a particular category’s) ad impressions.  This means that publisher ads will run for 50% to 100% of the impressions of the website they buy an ad on instead of 100% percent of the days impressions currently.  They will use up to 75% of the third party ad revenues to buy back credits from publishers and will delete those credits from the system.  The Entrecard team hopes that this will also address Entrecard’s inflation problem: Since there was no way to retire credits from the system (and credits can be earned by activity without needing actual money to purchase them), the number of credits circling around Entrecard’s publishers is over 44 million and growing steadily, decreasing the value of the credits held by publishers.

Will these changes solve Entrecard’s problems?

I personally feel that this move is too little too late.  A lot of the publishers that were frustrated with no way to monetize the credits earned from the Entrecard system have already moved to other ad networks.  Although they can now earn actual money through Entrecard, the earnings will probably be smaller than that offered by other networks as paid ads will only have 50% of their impressions.  The are also other issues with the changes that Entrecard is undergoing:

• Entrecard now requires their widget to be present above the fold on publisher blogs.  Currently most publishers install Entrecard below the fold reserving the better positions for more lucrative advertising opportunities.  This also helps increase average visit time while droppers look for the Entrecard widget to drop on.  Since many other CPM based ad networks insist on being above the fold, Entrecard will have to compete for space with them and may lose out.
• The price at which credits can be sold back to the network has not been mentioned.  Since the money available to buy back credits depends on Entrecard’s third party ad revenues, either the number of credits that can be sold back daily will have to be capped, or the price will change to reflect the demand of redemptions.  Either way, I expect that the new system will be very confusing and frustrating to most publishers. 
• Although, publishers will have the option to reject third party advertisements, they will have to pay a credit penalty for each rejected ad.  Considering that most other ad networks allow publishers to control the ads being displayed on this website, this condition may put off some publishers.
• If the Entrecard economy really does experience deflation because of the deletion of credits from the system, many publishers will be tempted to hoard credits until their value increases, decreasing the credits being sold back to the system.

We will have to wait for further announcements to completely understand the changes that Entrecard will undergo and how these changes will affect it’s user base.  However, for publishers wanting to jump ship, there are some alternatives out there already.   Update:  There seems to have been a lot of negative feedback against some of the policy changes and Entrecard has made some updates to their proposed changes.  Read about them here.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes proposed to the Entrecard system.  Will these changes satisfy users or will there be a huge decrease in the publishers that have installed Entrecard on their system?  Also, stay tuned for an upcoming post on alternative ad networks.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

 

WidgetBucks is a CPC (& CPM) ad netowork that is about a year old and growing fast.  They claim to provide better eCPM rates, more interesting and interactive ads and better integration into your website than what Google Adsense provides.  Some of their upcoming ad formats show in their video look really cool and seem definitely a lot more attractive than those provided by competing ad networks.  Some research on the internet also shows that users have found Widgetbucks more profitable than Adsense although some people do feel that it might be a scam.  However, considering the amount of media attention Widgetbucks has been getting recently, I doubt they could be a scam (besides, many publishers have been receiving regular payments).

The signup and setup process was a breeze.  The website is easy to use the signup form asks some basic questions about your blog and its niche and then you have to wait for approval which for me took less than a day.  Frankly, I was surprised as currently by blog is very new and has small visitor count (though growing steadily).  I have had difficulty getting into other ad networks because of my smaller blog size so I guess Widgetbucks is a good option for new and small blogs.  They also have no problem with coexisting with any other ad network on your website.

I am testing out several CPC & CPM ad networks on my website on a rotational basis.  This includes

• CMF Ads
• Adgetize
• Project Wonderful
• Google Adsense

I hope to gather enough data in a couple of months to post a comprehensive comparative analysis of my experience and earnings with these ad networks.  I hope that Widgetbucks will live up to its promise and deliver great results.

Have you tried WidgetBucks yet?  Money earner or scam, post your comments here.

Disclaimer: The Widgetbucks links contain my referral id.  This will give me a small bonus if you sign up from my link without affecting your earnings in any way.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

CMF Ads has a great forum.  The community is very close and I have used the forums a few times to get help on topics both CMF related and otherwise.  Also, this is a great way to improve your visibility within the CMF Ads website if you are still waiting for your first advertiser.  If you are an advertiser, it is also a great place to meet publishers who share the same interests as you so that you can find the right websites to advertise on.

While you are posting on the forums, you might as well advertise your blogs for free by adding them in your signature.  There was some confusion while I was trying to add a signature so I thought I would post a short tutorial here.

Firstly, you need to have posted 10 messages on the forum before signatures will be enabled for you.  Once you get involved in a discussion, this should take no time at all so get cracking.  Once you have 10 messages, it takes about an hour for your signature page to be enabled (thanks Ben).

Signature Link

 

After the short wait, log into the forum, click on the User CP link on the left.  You will see a new link ‘Edit Signature’.  Click this to goto the edit signature screen.  

Some guidelines for the signature: Everything except text and links will get stripped out however affiliate links are not allowed. Formatting options include Bold, Italic & UnderlineLinks to blogs are ok.  (Thanks Turnip & Jane).  

 

 

 

Edit Signature

Enter your signature here and click ‘Save Signature’.  You will be shown a signature preview.

Preview Signature

Thats it.  All new forum posts should now show your signature.  Post a new message to check this.

Check if your signature shows up properly

I hope you found this guide helpful.  Do let me know if you find any errors.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

CMF Overview

CMF Ads is a new advertising network that I have just come across.  They only started at the end of January and have grown quite well since then.  Ive decided to test them out on RecipeMobile first and then use them on my other websites.  They are great for smaller blogs as:

• They let publishers keep 100% of your credits
• Instead of cashing in your credits, you can choose to buy more ads.  This helps avoid transaction fees and helps market your blog or website without paying money out of your pocket.
• Unlike Entrecard, you can manage multiple websites from a single account and so share all your advertising credits to spend them efficiently.
• If you have more ads playing on your blog than you have advertising space, the ads automatically rotate while still giving you the same number of credits per month.  Therefore, even if you have set your ad price at $1/month/ad, your actual earnings will be more if multiple advertisers place their ads on your website.  This also avoids advertisers having to wait in line to advertise on your website (unlike Entrecard).
• Also unlike Entrecard, all credits are bought by real money so the economy is stable.

Overall, its an interesting network that has a lot of potential.  Here are the steps to go about deplyoing it on your blog.

CMF Registration

CMF requires you to register on their forum to install their ad widget on your blog

Register at the CMF Forum

Goto CMF Forums and click on the register link.  The registration form is relatively short and asks only the basic information.
Once you have registered goto your control panel.  You will see a welcome message and another saying that you don’t have any sites in the blog directory.  Click on Add Blog (Publisher).

Add your blog

Under the New Publisher screen, enter your site name, URL and a good descripition (Pay attention to this as it will help attract advertisers), the appropriate site category and the Ad price.  

Enter your blog's details

I would suggest putting a low price for your first few ads as advertisers coming from CMF primarily rely on your advert stats in your CMF profile and you need to run some ads to build these statistics.  Running some ads at a low price initially helps to increase your advertising value which in turn helps to market your site better on CMF.  CMF suggests you do not price ads at more than 5 credits as that is the default rate for most members.  Lets try to generate some interest by placing ads at 4 credits.  

Now you have to wait for your site to be approved by the CMF Ads team.  In my case,  the CMF team got back to me within an hour with an approval.  That too on a Saturday night!  Its good to know that their support responds so quickly.

CMF Deployment

Once you are approved, goto your CMF control panel.  You will see your approved website there.  Under the approved blog, click on the Get Widget link.  You will reach a page with multiple size options with widgets. 

Choose Widget Type

Click on the size you want and it takes you to a page where you are provided with code to add the appropriate widget to your  website with customized code.

Widget Code

Imp:  Each website will have its own unique code so make sure you copy the appropriate code for your website incase you have submitted multiple websites to CMF.  

Advertise Link Code

Also, some of the widget sizes do not have an advertising link.  If you want advertisers to be able to link to your CMF profile from your website, copy the Advertise Link code included on the widget code page and paste it somewhere on your website.

If you have a self-hosted wordpress blog like Recipemobile, CMF has a handy plugin that can make installation and maintainence of the widget easy.  CMF does not include a link to it from the Get Widgets page, but you can get it here.  Update:  The widget is listed on the Get Widgets page now, above your site id.

Configure the CMF plugin

Download the CMF-Ads-Widget, unzip and upload to your wp-content->plugins folder.  Goto the plugins tab and activate the plugin from there.  Now goto the Apperance-Widgets tab and you can add the CMF widget from there.  Click on the edit tab and enter your CMF site id (if you do not know your site id, goto the CMF control panel, click Get Widgets and you will see your id near the bottom of the page) and choose Ad style.  I would recommend clicking the ‘Show Advertise with CMF link’ checkbox so that advertisers coming find an easy link to advertise with you. 

If you are including the Advertise with CMF link somewhere else on your website (on the Advertising info page for example), leave this unchecked. Save the changes.

The CMF ad on RecipeMobile

Thats it, check your website to see that the widget is displayed correctly.  Also, your CMF control panel status should show the Widget as enabled (If not, click Reset Widget and wait for some time).

Check if the widget is active

To get the most out of CMF, you should participate in the forums to increase your visibility before you get your first ad.  Here is a short guide on how to add your blog to your forum signature at CMF Ads.

Update: My first CMF ad has been approved for Recipe Mobile.  Thats great as now the CMF website can start collecting statistics which will help attract more advertisers to my website.  I have also added this blog to CMF now but am still awaiting advertiser interest.

Note: Please let me know if you find any errors.  If you find it useful, please twitter or stumble it.  Thanks!

Do you use CMF ads on your blog?  How has your experience been?  What are some comparable/better ad networks?  I would love to hear your views.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.