People who want cheap ads are damaging Entrecard

I just cleared my queue and it filled up again within seconds!

Thanks for commenting Ollie, sorry to hear you're still being flooded with ad requests.

I think there could be many reasons and not just that there are those running after cheap ads. I have submitted request to newbies at EC, not only because of the attractive prices but I scan and drop requests at blogs that interest me throughout the network.

I find it extremely hard to stick to just sites within my category. I also have received a few rejects, mainly from sites that are of the same genre so I look for blogs that might be opened to accepting cards from inexperienced bloggers.

Oh, PureHouseMusic is an awesome blog, I came across it before reading this article...Wanted to request an Ad, but in the end I just decided against it.

I also encountered that on my first day. Since then, all the ads that I were bombarded with have run their course, and things are back to normal.

I wasn't discouraged from Entrecard because of that initial flood. As far as I'm concerned, it showed me that there were people that were actively interested in my blog - even if it was just for cheap ad space. If anything, it motivated me to stay.

I'm not really against the whole "vultures for cheap ads" concept. And I don't really think it's damaging entrecard all that much. It's a natural part of the economy - if it was really that bad, entrecard wouldn't have lasted the first week.

Sure, it might be annoying for some people, but it's a tactic that drives up traffic. And that's the main goal of Entrecard anyway.

~ Wogan

I do look at the Most Recent tab sometimes to check out the newbies and advertise on them, but I mostly only do so on the sites that're more or less relevant. I think a lot of people don't even bother to check out the sites before advertising.

I kind of see your point, but think it is a bit more complicated than you make it out to be. I've often heard people advise checking the Most Recent tab frequently and snatching up as many of the brand newbie 2ec priced ads you possibly can. And from an advertisers' perspective this makes a lot of sense-- I have had ads I placed for 2ec that drew more visitors than the 200+ ec ad I placed on John Cow.

I think that folks who try to limit themselves strictly to taking ads from others in the same niche may be shooting themselves in the foot. My niche is a pretty small one on Entrecard and if I only advertised on other blogs in the Books category I would be very limited in where I could place my ad. But I blog about books of all kinds and place my ad very broadly-- the readers of the cooking sites may well like my cookbook reviews, for example, the business blog audience may reall go for my reviews of books about business, politics or current events.

Sorry that your friend felt spammed. But please don't ask me to only advertise in my own niche.

Thanks Sadie! Basically I don't advertise on my site so having any ads on there is an issue for me. that's why i'm keen to only keep ones that are relevant to my users and not have a bunch of random ones just for the sake of it...
But that's just me!

Thanks everyone for your comments!

Sadie and Alan - I don't think that sites shouldn't advertise outside their category. The problem is more what Lis says, i.e. people who don't even look at the site before advertising.

People seem to be quite careful with which ads they accept and reject - but some are not so careful with which ads they place. "Snatching up as many of the brand newbie 2ec priced ads you possibly can" may produce results in some cases, but what if the sites you advertise on are unethical or badly written? Doesn't that also reflect badly on your own site for placing an ad with them?

Wogan, I guess it's all down to a matter of opinion - it may annoy some but not others. I have placed a couple of cheap ads where I looked at the site first and thought it might be a good place to advertise. 10 days later my ad still hadn't been approved. In the end I cancelled it - the site had a full ad queue almost immediately and they may very well have moved on.

I guess it's fair to say that there are other reasons why someone might move on... but doesn't it seem a bit selfish for sites to flood newbies with ad requests when this causes some people to leave? Remember that when the ads are cheap, the site doesn't get a lot of credits from the ads placed with them, so it's not exactly a huge benefit to them - although it may help them to find other sites.

Personally I would rather choose my ads carefully than grab ads for being cheap, regardless of whether I stay in my category or not.

I was probably one of the blogs who submitted an ad to the PureHouseMusic blog that you mentioned. However, I had only been on Entrecard for about a day myself and when you are first starting out, other new blogs are the only ones you have enough EC to advertise on. I was bombarded with ad requests as well, all of them were blogs that had been on Entrecard a lot longer than I had too but that's all part of the system I guess, better than no ads at all.

Hi StuffGuy, thanks for the comment. That's a very good point - and I do think that new users should (somehow) get priority for the cheaper ads.

I thought the whole point of getting more credits was so you could afford a few ads on the bigger sites, not hundreds of ads on the newest sites. But everyone spends their credits differently.

Come to think of it, a lot of the big sites get flooded with requests too! Maybe the ad queue needs refining somehow?

@Ben-- "big sites get slammed too"

My own experience was that I got slammed with requests as a brand newbie. Interest in placing ads with me really tapered off when I was kind of mid range (20--120) and I actually asked a few friends to place ads with me to keep my spot full. When I got to where my spot was going for over 150, I always have takers and have to remember to let my friends know when the slot will be open cuz they complain I'm always booked up and they can't get an ad with me....

as always, my .02, fwiw and your mileage may vary

Thanks for the comment Alan - that makes a lot of sense. Sites are both ends of the advertising price range get inundated with ad requests. This is not a huge surprise really - Entrecard highlights both the new sites and the "best" sites. This is more than can be said for some other blogging networks, where only the biggest names thrive (or so it seems).

I think we need to have more ways to find the "in the middle" sites. "Lowest wait" is one solution to this, but how many people are using it? If the sites in the middle are getting zero ads for an extended period of time, maybe that page needs to be pushed a bit more to people who place a lot of ads?

A longer ad queue would just result in longer wait times, although in theory it might help the situation a little. More sites join Entrecard, more ads are placed, perhaps the ad queue could be longer. Maybe as a user preference?

Definitely a problem!

When I signed up too I was like wow everyone loves me. Then I realized I was getting 1 credit a day. That is why I have a 70%+ rejection rate.

They are just trying to get cheap ads because they know once an account has been around a while it will cost quite a bit more.

Would also be cool if the ad queue didn't fill up so fast. Still love the service but you have to be careful when you signup. If you "SELL OUT" first day you're missing out on LOTS of credits; even 1 more day can make a difference.

I'm not complaining as I am giving spots to forum members but I see your point and well felt the need to write this comment :D

I try to use the lowest wait blogs, especially because of the demand for ad space which means I'm advertising other blogs but none are advertising mine (due to wait times of several days in most ad spots). The problem with the lowest wait blogs is that a lot of them have no wait times because they are unattended. I think a 'fastest response time' list would be better.

Hello Bloggeries, thanks for the comment. Thanks for accepting my ad, I presume you did so because I'm a forum member? :)

You could disable ads for the first couple of days, although I'm not sure if this would make a difference to whether people drop their cards or accept an ad from you. Not sure about that.

StuffGuy, thanks for commenting again. "Fastest response time" might help, certainly. I sent a link to this blog entry to Entrecard HQ - I wonder if they'll consider any of these ideas? Hope so! :)

I joined Entrecard a week ago, and have not been hit with any newbie flood. I receive perhaps one to three requests a day, although I've had many people drop cards on my site.

Hi Tip Diva, thanks for stopping by. I'm not sure how you avoided the flood of requests - maybe the people dropping cards pushed your site off the bottom of your category pretty quickly? Maybe you signed up at the same time as several others... or maybe you signed up when many people weren't online, or just weren't using Entrecard. There are definitely busy and quiet times throughout the day, so that might be something to do with it. Either way, it's pretty quick to get people to your site: drop your card on them! :)

Yeah, I did disable my ads for a moment after I registered with EC, as it was unfair to accept low paying ads for the whole first 8 days, while you're still figuring out how the system works.

I felt like my naivety was taken advantage on at that time..But hey..I love the system so much..the best thus far..

Thanks for the comment, Black Zedd. That seems like a sensible option when your ad price is very low. I love Entrecard too - it's helped a lot of people find my blog!

Every new comer experienced that I guess.

Thanks for the comment Jam. It doesn't seem to bother everyone, but it's interesting to hear what people have to say about it. :)

I have read blog posts that recommend placing as many ads as possible on the "cheaper" newer sites to increase exposure.

Entrecard became very popular too attracting an influx of newcomers who can only advertise on the cheaper sites at first.

It is also much quicker to use the Most Recent list than searching through categories - this may be another reason they are popular.

I try to help out newcomers - gives them some extra points to work with - I had never considered it in your terms - maybe I should desist from doing it.

Thanks for commenting, Sueblimey. Opinion seems to be split on this subject (as you can see from the earlier comments).

When ads are very cheap, site owners will get very little from them. The site owner gets back 25% of the credits paid for the ad, so if you pay 8 credits for an ad, the site owner only gets 2 credits. If you drop your card on the site instead, they'd get one credit and you'd get one credit instead - no advertising required. Entrecard isn't just about free advertising - it's also about dropping cards.

I don't think that advertising for the lowest price should be outlawed, but I do think it would be good to have some sort of limit - i.e. how many ads from the Most Recent tab you can place in one day, or one week.

There appears to be a new "Nearby" section on the Campaign tab - it's not working at the time of writing, but this may provide another way to find sites to advertise on.

I'm quite new to entrecard. At the moment, my ad queue still contains a number of ads that paid only two credits.

I am up to over 50 credits a day to advertise on, however, I decided not to cancel any ads.
The 0.00% of approved requests declined figure is more important to me than the few extra credits I might get.

I advertise on a lot of new blogs, there is a good chance to reach a unique audience.
I understand the new entrecarder is getting short changed, so I make sure that I subscribe to the RSS, and comment in all blogs where my ads experienced any degree of success.

good reason for raising this matter. this happen to me when i register new blog with entrecard.

Tam - that's fair enough. I have started advertising on some new blogs too, not because I don't have enough credits for the more expensive ads, but because the expensive ads don't guarantee any clicks. I've been quite disappointed with some ads that generated hardly any clicks but I paid a lot for the ad.

Thanks for the comments.

WOW! I'm more confused about Entrecard now than I was. Should we stay within category or does it not matter??? Is it about traffic building, or not. My blog is about anything under the sun, but I still like reading other blogs about computers, cars, cooking, etc...
Work is not what I want out of owning a blog.
*Runs off totally lost on which way to turn*

Hi Chilly, thanks for the comment. It can actually be better to go outside your category as that gives you more sites to advertise on. Having had some time to reflect on this post, I think the main issue with Entrecard at the moment is the price of ads. They're meant to be doing something about that soon, but not sure when it'll happen.