Entrecard: How the Blogger Ad Network Worked and What Happened

Entrecard was a popular blogger advertising network around 2008: you “dropped” your card on other blogs to earn credits, then spent those credits on ad spots on other blogs. This article explains how Entrecard worked, why its card-dropping game was changed in April 2008, our own experience with it at QOT, and what bloggers can use to get traffic today.

Quick answer: Entrecard was a credit-based ad exchange for bloggers, launched in late 2007 by Graham Langdon. In April 2008 it changed its ad pricing so that prices depended only on demand for a blog’s ad spot, not on card drops, to stop people gaming the system. The network is no longer running, so today bloggers grow traffic through search, social sites, email newsletters and real collaboration instead.

How Entrecard worked

Entrecard was a great concept. Bloggers placed an Entrecard widget on their site and could drop their “business card” on other blogs that hosted the widget. Each drop earned credits (EC), and you could spend credits to place your ad in other blogs’ widgets. The aim was to build a social network of bloggers who sent traffic to each other.

The problem was that a blog’s ad price was largely set by how actively cards were dropped. People gamed the system by dropping hundreds of cards a day, prices rocketed, and well-known sites started removing the widget.

Entrecard’s 2008 pricing change: the card-dropping game stops

In April 2008 Entrecard announced a new pricing algorithm. Your ad price was now set solely by demand for your ad spot:

• Every time someone bought, or applied to buy, an ad on your site, your price doubled.
• Every time an ad finished running, your price halved.
• Prices no longer had anything to do with drops.

When the new system went live, ad prices swung up and down wildly while it settled, and some blogs shot up to 16,384 EC per day.

Our experience with Entrecard at QOT

We used to have an Entrecard widget on QOT too, but the drop gaming pushed other blogs’ prices beyond our reach. I could not keep dropping hundreds of cards every day (unless I used Entrecard browsers like Sitehoppin), and I could not earn enough credits to buy an ad on any reasonably busy site. When the new pricing arrived, we put the widget back on our front page to see how it would perform.

Within 5 minutes of activating the widget, our price jumped from 2 EC to 32 EC and ads were lining up. Maybe we had been selling too cheap!

What happened to Entrecard

In September 2008 founder Graham Langdon listed Entrecard for sale, then changed his mind. The network gradually faded as bloggers moved their attention to Twitter, Facebook and search, and Entrecard is no longer running. Many traffic-exchange widgets of that era met the same end, such as the BlogRush widget.

Entrecard alternatives: how to grow blog traffic today

There is no direct replacement for Entrecard, and click or traffic exchanges are a poor idea today because search engines and ad networks value real readers. These work better:

• Google Search Console: see which searches bring readers and fix pages that are close to ranking.
• Pinterest: still a strong traffic source for how-to, food, travel and craft blogs.
• Reddit: share genuinely useful posts in relevant communities, following each community’s rules.
• Email newsletter: build a list so readers come back without depending on any network.
• Guest posts and collaborations: write for, or with, blogs in your niche to reach their readers.

For a longer list, see our guide to sites that drive traffic to your blog.

FAQ

What was Entrecard?

Entrecard was a credit-based advertising exchange for bloggers. You earned credits by dropping your card on other blogs and spent them on ad spots in other blogs’ widgets.

Why did Entrecard change its pricing?

Prices were tied to card drops, so people gamed the system by dropping cards in bulk. From April 2008, prices depended only on demand: they doubled with each ad purchase and halved when an ad finished.

Does Entrecard still work?

No. Entrecard is no longer running, so its widgets and credits no longer do anything.

Are blog traffic exchanges worth using today?

Generally no. Traffic from exchanges rarely turns into loyal readers. Search, Pinterest, communities and email bring more lasting results.