John Cow of Johncow.com recently made the following post on the entrecard forums. A simple question that really hits home the difference between the big blogs and the little blogs.
Just out of curiosity – how does a blog with 24 RSS subscribers pass me with 1200 RSS subscribers on the popular list in the Internet Marketing category?
Is there some sneaky trick I haven’t heard off?”
From that post a number of things may be inferred:
John Cow got the 750 credits he is giving away from his readers, not from being on any “above the fold dropper list” or dropping 300 cards a day.
- This is notable because is shows how a top blog makes use of entrecard in a manner most regulars don’t. For those with ZERO internet marketing sense, that point translates into “these are the guys you can sell your credits to. (ie: trade for advertising space or reviews)”. Had he been dropping regularly, he would own 1000’s of credits and upped the prize as the end of the contest got closer. Every regular forum reader knows to put your Entrecard where people can find it easily.
John Cow either never looked closely at how Entrecard works, or only logged in occasionally to approve a few advertisers.
- My second day dropping I was curious enough to read the fine print on why the price of my ad changed even though I had no visitors. I mistakenly thought it had to do with supply and demand, not cards dropped on me. This ignorance of the system amuses me, because John could simply make one post and have his legion of fans fanbois sign up for Entrecard and make him #1 overnight. Does Johncow.com believe ranking #1 for your category at Entrecard as something worth pushing for? That’s the money making question for Graham.
Entrecard allowed a small time blogger to compete with the big boys.
- And they noticed…
UPDATE: John Cow Responds.
Total Web Review: The more I drop my card, the more people look at my site? You mean click over to drop their card and move on.
Turnip of Power: Entrecard is a way to get your blog noticed online by other bloggers. If you just try to become popular with your fellow entrecard users, you’re kind of missing the point I believe.
Phirate: same goes to you. Are you trying to build up an internal ‘popularity’ contest, where everyone just keeps dropping till they get too expensive for ‘non-power user’ to advertise on?
I hardly drop a card, unless I am reading a blog and see the widget. I’ve hardly advertised on other blogs because I don’t need it. Instead, I keep giving away the credits I have accumulated on my blog, 750 at a time, so the ‘normal’ users here can afford a spot on a ridiculously overpriced blog.
Why would you waste nearly 300 credits on a blog with 24 rss subscribers when you can get on JohnChow, who has 15,000 rss subscribers for 260?!
Perhaps Entrecard isn’t growing into what I thought it would become. Nearly getting forced to drop your cards on other blogs (with a extremely high bounce rate) doesn’t make me feel welcome and I will have to reconsider using entrecard.”
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20 users commented in " Forum Post Shows Top Sites Not in Touch "
**********Nearly getting forced to drop your cards on other blogs
you aren’t forced, but it is certainly a network where returning the favor will benefit you in more ways than one. I guess John Cow doesnt know what mutualism is.
Because in his world, the “I visit your site and you visit my site” plan doesn’t work. He has too many readers to even make it possible.
I guess he’s so important that a few more readers lost doesn’t matter? I’m not an SEO/Internet Marketing person, so I’m exactly the kind of person that he should want to convert to a reader. Right? I’m more likely to click on ads and convert to money for him (am I on track with this?). Does he think that he’s so important that EC should just highlight his card prominently just because?
Honestly, I’ve got no interest in what he’s selling, but there is a market in EC that may have been converted into more readers for this guy.
Look, I would never have stopped by to comment if you weren’t a member of EC, so now you’ve hooked me. See what he’s missing?
I hate snobs. *sigh*
Now why did we know people we’re gonna play the ‘John Cow must think he’s too good for us’ angle in all the responses to us quitting entrecard.
We’re sorry for giving away all our earned credits.
We’re sorry for logging in to approve all the advertisers.
We’re sorry if we were silly enough to think people would join entrecard to get traffic in the first place, and that we didn’t consider it to become a place to hang out, drop cards and get a warm and fuzzy feeling, occasionally accusing a blog that’s bigger than your own to be a snob for expressing their opinions.
I’m sorry I didn’t drop it earlier and buy a pony, about as much use in Tokyo as EC…
Here is why I think Cow has his head up his ass. First, part of his success is due to parodying John Chow… not from being creative, unique, inspiring or original.
Secondly, those “26k rss readers” on problogger blogs see the problogger as someone to BEAT whereas all the non-probloggers who meet at Entrecard form a bond of mutual friendship and respect.
So while I say this in jest, those “26 rss readers” hold a great more deal value than those 26k rss readers because all it takes is TWO to form a killer joint venture that can, if done well, outdo ANY problogger…
The probloggers, unfortunately, are not friendly and don’t know how to genuinely share in a way that benefits the community without always tying in some secret super gain for themselves in the end… they NEVER help you escape, they just help you become more dependent on them.
And most of their 26k rss readers are there just to stay in the loop so the other readers dont get a jump on them when something big comes around… but those 26 rss readers are not jealous and are there because they actually LIKE you and WANT to read you.
A PROBLOGGER IS NOTHING MORE THAN A LOSER WHO JUST FORGOT HIS ROOTS… PERIOD.
If any disagree with me, let him be heard.
Thanks for standing in, Turnip.
Sam
Is that one of those fanboi’s you were talking about Turnip?
Remember getting emails from him..
Paul or Sam? Pauls the one who posted on your blog bragging about how he informed the entrecard community that someone stole your theme. He follows you around the internet like a lost little puppy.
Sam likes controversy. He’s been here before, though not quite so vocally. He also runs a football pool for entrecard users.
Thanks for replying to our second comment.
I take that to mean I hadn’t properly addressed your first comment? As I stated in both my article and my comments here, that I don’t expect you or corporations for that matter, to have time to click 300 cards a day. It would be much more cost effective for you to buy 10,000 credits for whatever price, and then use them for either advertising or contests. Bottom line is entrecard will give you 100-200 readers a day easy. For johncow.com that number might be insignificant. For Saprym.com, that is a huge number. I see no reason for you to say you are sorry. We both tried entrecard as an experiment. You made a business decision. I disagree and expressed my opinion because you raised it in the forums. I don’t put down your site or your readers. I read your site often. I only question those who think they are helping you by attacking those they imagine are your enemy.
Thanks for replying to our first comment.
Bottom line is that we weren’t in it for the traffic. Otherwise we would have used our credits to advertise instead of giving them away all the time.
Our point is simple; people are working too hard, putting the bar higher and higher. Not just for themselves but also their community members. Because the system lets this happen, a distorted vision is created of the value of adspace on a particular blog.
I agree, the value of that ad space is distorted, if you calculate it based upon how many hours it takes to click to earn that many credits. Once people can buy credits, it becomes even more distorted. I can buy a lot more advertising for $30 than one day on a blog. That’s why I never buy advertising unless it is for 2-10 credits. My blog gets most of it’s readers because of the community. You can just as easily argue that the effort I put into the community isn’t worth the return on investment either. Luckily, I enjoy it as a hobby. I see the current system only benefiting small blogs, and doing nothing for big websites. Big websites have the option to buy ads on entrecard itself if they want to reach that market.
This conversation is ok for the fact that, just like football and soccer, it keeps otherwise dangerous people entertained and off the streets (especially me!) but it’s still kind of academic.
Because we must be imagining that the average user is a super-duper-duper retard as opposed to just a super duper retard to think that they don’t realize there’s like 8 million other more effective ways to advertise either with CASH or with 26,000 RSS readers at their beckon-call.
So who are we trying to impress when we attempt to expound academically about the quality of Entrecard traffic.
HOW ABOUT THIS….
Most of all y’all are BLOGGERS who just happen to get wind of this idea called “monetizing your site” – but I’m an MARKETER who just happened to tack a blog onto his operations.
So, I don’t even NEED to monetize my site (although I do a little) because… I have a PLAN… as a marketer, I have a PLAN. Everyone get out your notebooks and write down, “HAVE A PLAN”
And the plan is really simple, so simple that it will make any more conversations like this obsolete… and it goes like this…
1. Get yourself known as an AUTHORITY by giving QUALITY, friendly, genuine HELP…
2. Invite People to Sign Up To your readership (and dont do it weekly, do it in a fun or unique way that suggests you might be more fun or unique down the road)
3. Have a high quality product or service waiting in the wings; and
4. INTRODUCE YOUR SALES FUNNEL.
Then, instead of discussing ENTRECARD as generally “Good or Bad?” proposition, it can be discussed as “WILL THIS HELP FURTHER MY AIMS?”, proposition.
And, in my humble experience, having as many TENTACLES as possible into all the various fish barrels on the web is very, very useful.
Now, you have to know how many tentacles you can spare. And if you have 8 and are using all 8, then your decision is whether or not tentacle 8 is better off in Entrecard or something else because if it’s not in use, then it’s not getting you anything.
So unless you have a BETTER PLAN, stick your tentacle in Entrecard and shut your pieholes until you come up with something BETTER.
Otherwise, go teach at a university.
Sam
10 Simple Ways to Squeeze the Most Out of Your Entrecard Traffic
Thanks Sam, I think that’s twice this year already that you reminded me some arguments are best saved for a court of law or university classroom. You may have a plan, but your site still needs a good wordpress theme. As for your points, I’m still working on #1, #2 will probably come in February., #3 and #4 will come when I write “The Rise and Fall of Entrecard” and sell the E-book here.
I hope you’re not serious about the e-book, Turnip. If you are, it might be best if we collaborate because I’m almost finished with Chapter 6. lol
I’m only pissed at John Cow because he pulled the plug just after approving my ad. I missed being on his site by … that much.
It’s his decision.
A sad one. But he’s made his case.
I think the uproar in the community shows just how much more important entrecard users than people who subscribe to an RSS feed and never bother to look at whatever is “fed” to them.
[...] and, more to the point, abuses. A couple of interesting comment threads have developed over at Turnip Of Power about one top blogger, John Cow, who has pulled the Entrecard widget off his blog and of course, [...]
[...] Entrecard Top Sites not in Touch – What is Entrecard really about? [...]
John is just plain arrogant. He got initially got traffic riding on the coattails of the Big Chow by choosing the name he chose rather than etching out his own fame and that traffic has gone to his head. I blogged about one guest post he did at Chow’s … the url is listed here as my website. Today I dropped by to find that he’s left for Australia on vacation and says “With limited Internet access, a nearly empty drafts section and a lazy attitude, we won’t be around much and you boys and girls will be asked to entertain yourselves for a little while.” As if he’s so entertaining that his absence will be a hardship. Get over yourself John Cow.
Reading this months later, I still wonder about one thing. Paul lives in Japan, and yet he doesn’t know they eat horsemeat there. He’d make a nice bit of money selling that pony to a butcher.
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