Entrecard is up for sale as indicated on the Entrecard blog and sitepoint.com. I remember reading an Entrecard blog where a member posted this question.
Guttu Asks – “If Google wants to buy Entrecard will you sell it?”
Graham’s response – “Will not sell. My vision for Entrecard is so massive that it will take perhaps my entire professional life to achieve what I have set out to achieve with Entrecard.”
Can you say flip-flop? Read more here
What I find amazing is how Graham (Owner) is crying publicly about his losses, maxed out credit card and losing a multi-million dollar deal in the 11th hour. Why would any buyer want to purchase this online slumping community? And the price is much exaggerated to say the least. This community has suffered through broken promises, lack of support, downtime and the immaturity of its owner.
Graham seems to be for himself as stated by a post written by one of his moderators:
Ben Barden – “In all honesty I feel pretty let down by this. None of the mods knew anything about this before everyone else did, nor were we asked for views. We don’t know if a new owner would keep the current mods on board or not. The timing of this couldn’t be worse – we just signed up three new moderators. What message does it send to them?
Graham, you DO have a team. You have people who do the support work. I really thought you were going to come back and engage the community – the last week has been very productive with some great discussions.
I have a better idea. Throw the reins over to me for a month and see how things are running when you get back. No sale necessary.”
Graham’s response to Ben: “Ben, it’s not about the team. It’s about my credit card being maxed out and me about to be homeless with very very few options.”
I feel for Ben as he’s been on the front-line during the fall of Entrecard while Graham hides in a closet. Buyer beware! Do your research before thinking of purchasing this community web site.
A selfish act of a business owner.
More flip-flopping:
Graham – “keep in mind guys and gals, I’m only “exploring the possibility” -its still a long shot it will actually happen.”
And for all of those who depend on Entrecard as your main source of traffic, I feel bad that this has happened, because you all have worked too hard!
Yes I read this in the a.m., I am a little bit surprised but not much. As far as the flip-flopping, it happens for various reasons and I am sure it has to all of us at one time or the other. No matter what, I hope all goes well.
I saw the sitepoint ad. It is nothing more than an invitation to a spammer purchase that includes a fee for users, and dumping paid ads into the widgets. I am removing my code within the next 60 minutes, and simply take the last of the traffic it sends me. Maybe I can sell off my credits at fire sale prices? I am going to post right now…
Fool – It’s true we all flip flop once in a while, but Graham makes a habit of it. If you look through thee blogs and community posts he is an artist of flip flopping. I do wish it well, but it has lost a lot of muscle.
It’s fire sale!!! Smart move by removing that code. Your site will load faster as well. :)
Your journalistic integrity suffers with this article. It does not reach the standards you have previously set for being impartial and unbiased. The article you cite is irrelevant. And the quotes you use are un-cited. You sound angry and spiteful. I was, likewise, angry at YOUR flip-flop (when you removed the EC widget from your blog after it sent you so much traffic). The conclusion you’ve reached is unsubstantiated (ie. “Selfish act of a business owner. What goes around comes around.”). And in light of all this, I laugh at your “warning”. For a site that (used to) keep up with with the latest in internet technology (before you became sensationalistic, started stealing your articles from Digg, started Digging your own articles, and became soooo greedy for site traffic), you have apparently failed to recognize the genius behind the technology. Shame on you!
My-my! you come here to bash on false information. I steal articles? I think your confused with what opinions and commentary mean, lol, shame on you for not getting it.
The quotes are un-cited? I provided a link so you can read them yourself, but I doubt you read anything up to this point.
Traffic from EC? Would you like to gain access to Google Analytics? Since losing interest back in April my site traffic has Tripled because I now have more time to market, promote with established social networks.
You need to remove what maybe obstructing your views.
To tell you the truth, I don’t like the owner of EC very much, but I do love the community there. I hope he sells this and run off with his money to pay for his credit card debt. I’ve seen no improvement in EC in the past 5 months.
You gotta give him credit for starting entrecard though. I’ll give it some times. Either he sell it and the new owner will make it better or he improves the service. If it stays like this any longer, a lot of people will say bye bye, me included.
I never said it was a bad idea. I have included that the vision and concept were excellent, but it lacks leadership and value as the owner let this site tank.
The community is the best asset. I have read many outstanding blogs and have met wonderful people.
You can’t have a person that lacks maturity run a start-up like EC.
WOOOW slug feast.
@Mindrec one of the benefits of having your own blog is you can say and do anything you want we’re bloggers not reasearchers;)
As Far as Ben with Entrecard I reached out to him a few times invited him to look at and maybe post his profile,on http://bloganese.com .I even went back and signed up to comment> I submitted his blog to all kinds of sites.He has one of those lame blogs that you have to go thru Ft Knox to comment anyway I even wished him a Happy Birthday I didn’t hear JACK.
So when people think they’re a HOTSHOT they better wake up
Oh and WE all need to work together,the ones that have attitudes and just think of themselves 24/7 are weeding themselves out quick. Today I noticed Stumbled killed one of my accts and I laughed the whole thing was doing stuff for other people.I have another one and I don’t need any friends on there.I will contact a few real people and Frank you one of them.
That dude hit you with an Indictment ;)
That was some funny stuff Keep Surfing
Keep Blogging See you at the finish line………..
John,
Nice comment, but I think you maybe talking about Graham the owner and not Ben the moderator :)
Thanks bro!
Damn I hate to double dip but no actually the times I had talked to Graham he always treated me fine.
I just thought that other dude would be open to some kind of friendship I used to look up to people and when I stuck my hand out he spit on it.
When someone goes out of their way for you many times and you don’t have enough sense and respect to at least respond your a snob ass JERK..Twitter and places like that are full of them.
Example I’m like 4 or 5 for do follow on Google’s front page and have been for a few weeks. Do you know out of the people on that page and I should name names but I reached out to MOST and MOST if not all blew me off.
In fact except Andy Beard all of them did to be honest.
NO response nothing NOW it’s exciting to watch them
FIZZLE with the SIZZLE SEEYA
PS hard working dedicated bloggers have nothing to worry about.
Thanks for clarifying John. I was not aware of your hand being pushed away.
Heaven forbid you would just correct my typo! In the future, feel free to catch my typos, I am not a censorship stickler!
And my site does load faster now! :-) No one is jumping too fast on my 10k for $10 EC offer though… Methinks others are reading the EC blog and reassessing their position on EC purchases. Good money after bad maybe?
And who is this Mindrec? An EC shill in disguise?
I tried to motivate, it failed. The community IS the only thing they have going! And I will miss them. Hopefully they will find me on SU.
Their Alexa is skewed 30,575? Oh puhlesee… That is just the drive of the membership, nothing in the way of uniques, and their PR is skewed for the same reason, it is the widget that draws the pseudo PR. Those widgets are drawing the one-ways, and that is bogus. I have seen too many 5’s with real, hand placed one-ways. Besides, PR is a hoax, and if someone buys on that premise, they will regret it down the road when Google algorithms dump the PR scheme, and rework it to be more relevant. Their Technorati authority is misleading, 2,101? For what? And a 509 in the top 1k is just a scam. Everyone knows that the top 1k is skewed, and the top 100 is personal technorati staff clique picks… Yahoo says they have 9,546 in, how is that possible when the other stats don’t reflect that? It should be much higher to match the other stats.
Tis a shell, with no real guts. And the impressions claim? Sure, that is true, but impressions to who in the end? The same EC users that see them daily?
Great comment as usual and your right about the stat claim. EC has fallen off in a big way, but many users or members will just tell you that Alexa is inaccurate as the defense to the argument. The evidence is not only from a web information company, but the lack of participation from its members is the true sign of a site falling off.
“And who is this Mindrec?” Probably a new member that just doesn’t get it or a staff member trying to save the last ounce of blood. It would have been nice if the person read the blog and not just skim through it.
Here’s an unbiased (but negative post) about EC.
http://mindrec.org/mindrec/2008/09/20/unwelcome-at-entrecard/
The quote by Ben isn’t linked. Yes, I’ve read the linked page (the link doesn’t go to the article, it goes to page 4 of the blog). And stealing articles and then adding commentary still doesn’t cut it in my book.
I stand by my previous observations about THIS blog.
Point blank your still not getting it and making assumptions that are not true. No run back to the place you rely on the most poser!
BTW blog needs work….
The blog is updated to the newest versions of everything, it has all the latest technologies, and there are no dead links, glaring grammatical errors, or superfluous ads or money making schemes. It conveys the tone I’m after: Simplicity. And it provides original content (more than I can say about your blog).
You sound like your hurting for attention my friend. Everything is going to be alright. You will eventually crack that 200k barrier :)
Original, again you aren’t reading…
My main point was about THIS article. Notice it hasn’t been Digged. What does that say about the quality of this PARTICULAR article? I’ve read plenty of posts by Entrecard users who feel cheated by Graham. And I’ve written a few myself. This article stacks up with the worst of them. The Entrecard community is tired of them (perhaps readers, in general). In particular, it stinks of sensationalism. And I’ve noticed that many of your previous articles have started to sound this way, too (the Montauk Monster, for instance). I think your blog is going downhill because of your focus on numbers. And your articles hardly have anything to do with new technology anymore. Take this the way I intend it (without slinging more mud): I see it as a constructive criticism… and a warning TO YOU.
I am allowing you to voice your opinion and I notice that your blog will not allow thumbs down, now how pathetic is that. Are you scared of bad press like what your doing here?
My numbers are off the chart. I guess someone enjoys the food I am serving, but not you, sorry can’t please everyone.
Now again please try to take this as a kind gesture. If you don’t like the food I serve than don’t keep coming in the front door.
Not dugged you mean? I am not a Digg fan, I love SU. Please check the reviews. NEXT!
Peace my friend.
“your blog will not allow thumbs down”
I don’t even know what that means.
“how pathetic is that”
More mud slinging. Not directed at me, personally. Followed with innuendo / question rather than a direct assault.
“Are you scared of bad press…”
But “…like what your doing here?” and “My numbers are off the chart.” confirms my assessment of your “focus on numbers” (and your fear of “bad press”… c’mon)!
I also notice you’ve changed some of your wording in the article. I don’t know how honest that is. But it’s probably a good idea in this case. Keep up the good work. NEXT!
It takes a man who admits he is wrong and I was and you pointed that out, but you seem to be the one that can do no wrong. Have a great weekend, we are done. :)
I am curious as to why Mindrec doesn’t address my stats in my comment. They are solid fact, at least either agree, or disagree. The numbers don’t lie, and neither does the source they come from… Again Mindrec…
If Yahoo says their are 9,546 links in, then why do the other stats not reflect that? Why are the other stats higher than the Yahoo one.
The Yahoo bot actually dispatches faster, and more frequently than the Googlebot. In fact, the googlebot can take up to 2 days to return in some instances.
Yahoo indexes cold, hard, provable links. No slant, no sway, no agenda. Just the actual existence of the raw link…. Not the widget link! That is not hard, that is a soft java link, and denied measurement by the yahoo bot.
Why and how does Google claim a PR5 to a site that hasn’t even broken the 10k mark in hard links?
PR5 is the half way point to perfection. So under 10k is half way to the top??????? Huh?????? What?????
Alexa is being pumped by repeat, repeats! And that will hurt them soon enough. Alexa does algorithm changes frequently, they don’t hide them, and they don’t care who knows, because Alexa is not a popularity gauge, they are that rubber strip on the road that counts how many cars run over it, and if I stop at that strip, go forward, then back up, then go forward, then back up, then go forward, then back up….
Guess what? The results have just been skewed… Alexa has stated time and time again they are narrowing down on repeat, repeats, and will get it perfected, and EC’s ranking will roll up well above 200k because of it!
Technorati is a joke, who cares about the top 1k, that is hand edited at times, BY TECHNORATI’S OWN ADMISSION, as well as the top 100 being hand picked. BY TECHNORATI’S OWN ADMISSION! ergo, that stat is dead.
Where is this powerhouse traffic generator?
Where?
I called it back on July 15th…
http://www.linkbackproject.com/2008/07/15/review-auto-surf/
In reference to Entrecard….
“You can’t become dependent on it. Its growth is not that fast, it is kinda new compared to others, and once the network has been saturated with you, you will start to depend on it for traffic, and you will find the quality of your motivation shrink. This is good as part of a daily regime of traffic generation, but not a singular source.”
Why not argue the cold, hard stats with me? Check my site, that is what I do, I am a laymans Alexa, that spans out to cover the entire spectrum of traffic generation. Why not debate facts, numbers, stats, instead of you and TJ talking about each others blog. This post is on EC, and its sale, I am saying the sale is a clip, because the stats are inflated. I will give Graham $500 for his domain name, gut the site, and forward the traffic to mine. That is what it is worth in the reality of numbers!
Gentlemen, Gentlemen, it’s about EC failing not you guys…I read about the sale on sitepoint yesterday, and thought to myself, he’s selling the thing for a few hundred grand? But, the community is not as responsive as it once was, it is not as active, all the big players left a long time ago…I still have the widget on my site, but, it isn’t my main source of traffic.
Entrecard for Free Advertising. Is this the same person who started something like miilion dollar and wiki? Lots of bloggers (and some top one) last year opined that the so called wiki is the greatest invention since the slice bread. VCs are lining up. Hollywood is ready for a movie. Hmm! what happened to that site? It will be nice to check it out in Alexa
Interesting article and comments, stumbled.
Thing is I assumed the guy would flip flop as soon as I saw he listed it on sitepoint. Seemed to fit the MO well, and it has.
he he. That’s me asking the question. I am still confused about the truth behind the news. Is it really for sale?
we could all see this happening .. all hype and no direction. I got crap from some of the users when i said entrecard credits were worth nothing more than drop advertising which to some is good .. now they are absolutely worthless .. anyway i would say all the best to them but i think if you treat your peeps the way they do they deserve what they get .. i sent in suggestions etc. and got no thanks just attitude .. good sign of a sinking ship .. and for ben to say he didn’t know lol .. please !