Entrecard, Where to?

I guess this is a pretty stale news by now but I still would like to talk about the recent Entrecard and its economy makeover.

On 29th September, I received an email from Entrecard. Apparently it is having an overhaul of its economy and redefining the value of its credits as well as setting some rules on what is allowed and what is not when it comes to credit transfers. Here's a quote from the email I received from Entrecard management:

1. Buy credits for less: Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. You can buy them here: http://entrecard.com/r/buy_credits
   
2. More pricing increments: Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps. The new price points can be found on the Advertising page in the wiki, here: http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising
   
3. Members are not allowed to sell credits: This goes for ebay sales, posts in the Marketing forum, and posts on other forums. If you have references on your site to the sale of credits, please remove them immediately, as it is now against our terms.
4. Credit transfer limits: Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week. Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.
5. Transfer tax: From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).
6. Blogs cannot be unlinked: Once you link a blog, it's there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.
7. No more coupons: You are no longer allowed to send coupons.
8. Shop closed: Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice. Please do not request a seller token until the shop returns. When it comes back, it will be bigger and better. We'll communicate more details nearer the time.

I don't see eye to eye to this new rules set by Entrecard, many original Entrecard users are not happy either when many changes were made in regards to its economy several months ago. I would like to respond to each points presented above (the number corresponds to the number of the points found in the email sent by Entrecard):

1. Buy credits for less (1000 for $6)? I think the Entrecard management has been oblivious to the fact that 10,000 EC were selling as low as $1. No doubt we can buy from Entrecard but their price IS not low.
2. No comment here, just that publisher would be earning very little EC from now on.
3. Nice, so now there is total monopoly when it comes to sales of EC. However, I think some users would ignore the warning and continue to sell EC from underground.
4. I actually welcome this new rule. From now on there will be less worthless contest offering thousands of EC which does not worth much anyway!
   
5. Entrecard gets EC each time an advertiser buys ad from a publisher, they also impose tax on EC transfer. The EC will go directly into their account to be resold for $6 every 1000EC. Perhaps this is enough to pay for server fee?
6. No comment, maybe it is the logical rule to impose?
7. Many people will be affected when coupons are no longer allowed, people who run contests and other people who offer EC for visitors who participate in their events.
8. Shops are closed, many interesting items will also be pulled. Gone are the days when 1000EC can be sold for $10 and when 7000EC could buy you a year of Linux hosting. Wonder when the shops are opened again, will it be as good as it were.

Entrecard has been on the decline for quite some time now (I hope I don't get into trouble with the management for saying this) but I guess necessary steps are undertaken to help revive its glory. However, with the gigantic amount of EC still floating in the market, I think it will take quite a long time before the economy is steadied and Entrecard Credits will be a valuable commodity again.

Don't worry Entrecard, I have been with you for 9 months now. I hope to still be around to see you regain your glory, hopefully sooner rather than later :)

What do you think about the recent Entrecard makeover? Has it affected you? How? What is the ideal way to run Entrecard and regulate the use and value of its credits?

Coming up next: BobbyT will be discussing about Entrecard's partnership with OIO Publisher :)

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