Entrecard 42, Common Sense 0 – Part 2
Last week I made a post about people who use Entrecard precariously and place their widgets above the fold. I do not agree with this strategy and claimed that it takes up valuable space that could be used to monetize your website. Divablogger took the bait and issued a nicely written response to my argument. The following post is my retort.
Let’s start with the first comment that got my attention:
“placing it somewhere more accessible makes it convenient for people to drop their cards”
I agree completely with you. This statement is actually helping me to prove my point. You see, although I do like Entrecard for its potential to generate a fair amount of traffic to a website, the advertisements on the widgets are still free and cost $0 in real world money. So why would you sacrifice space on your website where you could be making real money in order to promote somebody else’s site who is just using you for your widget? Don’t you feel so….used? You are willingly giving up the potential to sell ad space on your site and make money online for a silly Entrecard point. I’m no economist but I would call this “negative equity”. You are not gaining anything valuable by giving away prime real estate on your blog nor are you being properly compensated for it. If ever in doubt, just repeat this mantra: “What Would John Chow Do?”.
You also stated the following:
“Being in directories (which are strongly promoted by the creators) is like being a part of the daily life of entrecarders who use these directories and are too lazy to create their own.”
I’m not entirely sure what you meant by that statement. Firstly, of course directories will be promoted by their creators! I promote all kinds of things that I make; this started in kindergarten when I made my first hand print on paint then had my parents hang it on their refrigerator. It’s just plain simple to understand. Secondly, although Entrecard is a fantastic avenue to reach a wide readership and gain an audience, I don’t necessarily want to be in a directory of lazy people. “Dress for success”, as they say. I would rather have proactive Entrecarders and Bloggers like my sponsor JasonBoom that participate and support my site. He is obviously working hard at promoting his brand and blog and is not a “lazy” blogger. If you take away all of the lazy bloggers, I believe that the web would be filled with content that is of much higher in quality than what is available today.
I guess we could go around and around in this argument. You believe that placing your Entrecard widget, which gives away a free link and takes away space for paid advertisers “above the fold” is the smarter and better thing to do. I believe that placing the free link widget that still brings me traffic “below the fold”, thus saving more prominent spaces for paid advertisers is the smarter thing to do. The point I was trying to make is a financial one, where as you were making a point about quantity of traffic. In the end it is just a question of “quality versus quantity”. I would much rather have 1000 daily visitors who found my site through other quality “non-lazy” blogger’s websites. These visitors would probably read multiple posts and pages per visit, leave comments, become advertisers, and even help me out by clicking and following my affiliate links. It seems to me that you, on the other hand, would be satisfied with 1000 daily visitors who get to your site, click the widget and leave. I’m in this for the quality, but if that’s the kind of visitor that you want going to your site, then I hope your strategy works out for you. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
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evilwoobie
You missed the point entirely
“Being in directories (which are strongly promoted by the creators) is like being a part of the daily life of entrecarders who use these directories and are too lazy to create their own.” Well, I know the meaning was vague, but it’s not negative, i assure you.
POINT: the directories are popular and used by most, and you could be a part of those lists if you’d be so kind enough to place the widget above the fold.
I understand that you’d rather give all your ad spaces to people who will pay you. Money is your priority. Look, the “paid advertisers” you keep mentioning are the same bloggers who are networking and building relationships in Entrecard. It might surprise you just how many quality blogs and aggressive entrepreneurs are in Entre, and if you’re nice to them by letting them advertise on your most prominent spot, they might even think of advertising on your PAID spots.
Anyway, don’t shake it ’til you’ve tried it. I’m not debating with you because you’re obviously misguided. And thanks for commenting on my new blog.
My suggestion is that, try putting yours above the fold for a few weeks or so, and when the lists-people come to visit you, they might bookmark you. You will notice that the same people you write off as “non-quality” traffic are the same ones who will comment more often, joke around with you on your posts, click your ads and affiliate links … and SUBSCRIBE. Really.
Nick
Evilwoobie,
Just to get a few things straight (and this is for the record): I never said there weren’t quality blogs on Entrecard. I’m on Entrecard, therefore I support it and use it.
Secondly, I was never arguing about the quality of the people on Entrecard – you were the first to mention the word “lazy”.
Lastly, I was merely making a controversial post about the widget placement of some blogs. I believe it’s smarter to have it below the fold for the reasons I mentioned in the post and you believe it’s smarter to have above the fold for the reasons that you mentioned. Both are valid and I just wanted to know more about your reasoning.
Colin King
Common sense tells me there are basically two types of blogger on EC. Those like ProBlogger and John Chow and those that have just started a new blog.
The former have the traffic that attracts paying advertisers and they give us the possibility to advertise for free on their blog (if you can get in
.
The latter are trying to build up their traffic. Sure they can try to make money, but that should not be their priority, a stable flow of traffic is.
Seeing as getting that traffic is a priority then above the fold is the place for the Ecard. If a card is there, I can drop mine and then have a look at the blog. I may like it, subscribe and become a regular and probably network with you.
If I have to search for the card, then the blog itself becomes “invisible”, I’ve wasted time looking for the card, slightly irritating. That does not encourage me to stick around and read the blog. So for the few cents maybe a $1 you made that day you’ve lost a long term visitor and contact.
As a young blog, if I wanted to make money, then PPP or similar until traffic could warrant having real advertisers.
From an advertisers point of view, would I pay 50c-$1 a day on a new blog that has 100-200 pageviews a day? No way, maybe 10c a day.
As a new blog SE traffic takes a while to build up, so you try things like EC and Social traffic. Social traffic does not like pages plastered with ads, unless you are a known blogger, so again I would have only 1 maybe two ads, so that Stumblers give a thumbs up and allow the content to pull them into the site.
Heck, I’m averaging around 300-350 visitors a day (had a SU spike of a 1000 a couple of weeks back) and the closest to an ad on my site is the ScratchBack which helps to network with other bloggers.
Just my 2c worth
evilwoobie
You got stuck with the lazy thing, and completely missed my point, which is that some people volunteered to create lists of entrecard users with above the fold placements so that others won’t have to. The lazy thing is a sarcasm, im sorry that you missed it, but I think you get my point now.
@CK
Yeah i agree. New blogs want exposure. Older blogs have already converted heir traffic into money and don’t need exposure.
@learnhow
Entrecard bloggers ARE targeted traffic. and I dont just mean a few, i mean ALL. New blogs wanting to learn more about moneymaking and stuff. Looking around your blog, it’s a moneymaking blog, so i’m wondering why the hell you’re making it very difficult for these bloggers to find the entre widget, which is a traffic magnet. Don’t you need that traffic?
CK is right. People zero in on the widget before looking around for anything that they might like, then stay or leave. While it’s hard to guess the exact demographics of each visitor, the convenience of dropping their cards will at least ensure that they will come back.
Nick
Colin & evilwoobie,
You both bring up some good points. I suppose that I will concede a point that Entrecard does have the potential to build up traffic rather quickly.
However, I did notice that when I had my widget higher up on the site, the average EC visitor stayed for only 15 seconds.
That is why I decided to move it lower on the page. I did so for 2 main reasons:
1- people would hopefully read content as they clicked on my widget
2- it allowed me to create a spot for advertisers.
@evilwoobie, I don’t think that I’m making it too difficult to find my card. I’ve been to sites that have so many widgets on the sidebar that it really takes me a while to find. I have a limited amount of widgets and I feel that the EC widget is displayed with some prominence.
@colin: I agree that a lot of blog types can benefit from above the fold placement. Lifestyle blogs, automotive, music, etc. can benefit from an above the fold placement but I will say that as a principle, if you want to monetize your blog and it is listed in the “make money online” category that you should really apply monetization strategies from day 1. Maybe it’s just me being stubborn, but I will stick to my guns on this one.
This is a good discussion and I’ve learned a lot from you two; your perspectives have helped me to gain an insight into other people’s views of EC. Thanks!