Sometime back I mentioned that I was going to remove the EntreCard widget from my blog, so has it made any difference since removing the widget from Blazing Minds?

Well to put it simply, no!

I think it all boils down to the fact that since Blazing Minds has taken off more than I would have dreamed of and to those Guest Bloggers that have written some pretty amazing Guest Posts, the traffic hasn’t diminished at all and the traffic is still coming in strong from the various sources where Blazing Minds can be found such as the search engines, social networks etc.

So as long as you blog has taken off and is past the infant stage and has good followers, commentators that enjoy reading the blogs posts and those that are willing to either ReTweet your posts or spread them on other social networks, then that is probably the time start reducing widgets that are of no longer of any use on your blog.

Don’t get me wrong, EntreCard has brought to my attention some great blogs which I do still read, via my trusty RSS Reader, but as time has gone by, time is tight and dropping via the EntreCards was not on my list of top priorities.

It’s now down to blogging and keeping my readers interested in the article etc that are posted here on Blazing Minds, so shouts out to my Guest Bloggers, Commentators and those of you who are avid fans of the bizarre world of the Blazing Minds blog

I have been a member of EntreCard for quite a while now, but in their wisdom they have decided to introduce “sponsored” ads!

These will force EntreCard users to display ads on their blogs that they do not want to show and worse still they could be for anything and that is something that I just don’t want.

Recently I was reading the blog of Greg Matthews and he mentioned three choices that EntreCard users now have, these are:

1. Accept the fact that EC are going to advertise on your blog, even advertising sites that you disagree or compete with.

2. Pay $50/year to not be forced to display these ads

3.  Leave Entrecard altogether.

I am personally thinking of leaving EntreCard as I’m not happy with the whole situation of these ads through EC, the point of EC was to drop on other sites to gain credits and get dropped on by other users to get credits.

So let’s see how this goes…  But it doesn’t look promising!

Wow isn’t it amazing how the months seem to fly by at the moment, it onl;y seems like yesterday that we were at the beginning of the month, so without further chatter here is my list of top 10 EntreCard droppers for the month of August:

So there you have it, the top 10 EntreCard droppers! A big thank to the top 10 and also to those that have dropped on my EntreCard

It seems that since EntreCard has been taken over there has been some changes made, first of all was the announcement that the paid ads were going, woo hoo, good news there, now they have just announced that they are to update the way users receive credits, this latest change will affect those that are dropping or been dropped on.

What usually happens is when someone drops on your EntreCard you receive one EC and the dropper also receives one EC, great for both parties then, yes, up until now!

We have noticed that the total number of Entrecard credits in the system has grown rapidly. This has been due to the fact that more credits are being created than credits are leaving the system. If this inflation continues, Entrecard credits will be worth less and less. To ensure a stable credit economy and reduce the outstanding credits, Entrecard will no longer give Entrecard credits to the person receiving a drop. In other words, instead of awarding 2 credits for each drop (one to the dropper and one to the blog site owner), only 1 credit will be given to the dropper. This change will be effective September 1, 2009 and will last until further notice.

So will this affect drops on your EntreCard, maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but it will certainly affect the amount of ECs that you can earn, everytime someone drops on your EntreCard you will NOT get any credits, so from September your EC earnings will half.

I suppose only time will tell, to see how this all goes…

Now I haven’t done one of these lists for a few months, so I thought it would was about time I did one, so here are the Top 10 Droppers on my blog for July:

So there you have it’s last months droppers, many thanks to everyone who has been dropping with EntreCard and to those EntreCard users that have also taken the time to comment on my posts , you know who you are

I had an interesting email in my inbox today! So it seems that Entrecard.com, Inc. has been acquired by Los Angeles based ZipRunner Inc. Here is the email that I received and all EntreCard should also have recieved.

Dear Entrecarders,
It is with great excitement that I announce Entrecard.com, Inc. has
been acquired by Los Angeles based ZipRunner Inc.

ZipRunner has the resources, vision, and dedication to Entrecard that
will allow it to grow in pursuit of the vision I laid out nearly two
years ago.

Moving forward, my relationship to Entrecard will be that of an
adviser, and I will help the good folks at ZipRunner take the whole
project to the next level. Expect a follow up communication from them very soon.

ZipRunner Inc. was chosen out of a number of potential suitors because
of the resources they can dedicate to the project, their exciting
vision for the company’s future, and their understanding of social
media and the blogosphere.

I urge you all to look forward to a bigger, better Entrecard, and I
couldn’t be more proud to bring it to this point before passing the
torch. I’ve heard first hand all the great things that are in store
for the company and it’s members, and needless to say it has me quite
excited.

If you would like to keep in touch with me in the future, your can
find me at my new blog Ontrapranore.com where I look forward to
sharing my stories of entrepreneurship and starting/running internet
companies.

Whether you love or hate the decisions I’ve made for Entrecard in the
past, I always did the best I could to move the company forward given
the resources I had, and I always had the best interest of the members
in mind. Now, with new management and ownership stepping in, I urge
anyone who has left the service to give it another chance, and I urge
those who have been loyal members for days, weeks, months, or years to
look forward to a brighter future, a reliable and stable service, and
great new features and strategic direction.

Signing Off,
Graham Langdon
Founder of Entrecard

So what will this mean to users of EntreCard, well I can just imagine a system coming in where we will have to pay subscriptions to use the service and free users having less access to options than those paying for a service, I may be wrong, but usually this is what happens. Just look at Last.fm when the take over happened there, users outside the UK and USA started getting charged a subscription for the radio services!

Anyway time will tell and it will be interesting to see what happens to EntreCard now that they have been acquired by ZipRunner.

Now many users of the EntreCard system have said that is a long time coming, but according to the latest blog post on the EntreCard blog they are to “take action against bounce rates”

So before I get on to this, I’ll just give you a quick bit of info about bounce rates, a Bounce Rate is when a visitor lands on your blog and then leaves straight away without spending time looking around your blog and EntreCard is a terrible culprit for making you have a high percentage on your bounce rates….

So as mentioned by EntreCard they intend to implement a system that will decide if the dropper is a “drop and run” visitor, this is someone who is only there to drop on your ECard and then zip off to another blog, to get in as many drops as they can in the day without even reading your blog, shame on them! As mentioned in the EntreCard Blog:

Up until now, we’ve always allowed the “drop and run” phenomenon to take place. We figured if someone was interesting to the visitor, they’d stop and read, and it was best to let everyone go at their own pace. But now we are taking a slightly different approach, in an ongoing effort to increase the quality of Entrecard traffic across the board.

My problem with the drop and run phenomenon is that you are spending time writing an interesting post only for someone to stop by, drop on the ECard and bugger off! I write these posts not just for me you know but for others to read and show some interest by posting comments, not visit and say, “ok I’ve dropped, I’m off!”

So what will EntreCard be doing about this, well this is what they have said on their official blog:

Starting soon, “dropping and running” will no longer give you credit. We are developing a proprietary algorithm to determine whether or not you engaged in the blog you visitied in some way. If you did not engage in the blog, you will not get credit. We won’t be disclosing exactly the algorithm we use, so that people can’t game it easily.

So it seems that something is been done, but will this cut the amount of view to a blog showing the EntreCard widget? Probably, but isn’t it better to get a few less visits and gain visitors that actually appreciate your blogging, only time will tell when the new system is finally implemented.