Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Entrecard Teams up with OIO Publisher

OIO Publisher, a plugin that allows bloggers and website owners to sell ads on their site with little or no cost (normally $47, but $30 with coupon "entrecard") has now partnered with Entrecard, to allow users of the system to purchase advertisements, reviews, text links, inline ads, RSS inserted ads, monthly 125x125 ads, and more.
Entrecard and OIO Publisher Join Forces

You can find the post here or the direct purchase link (not ours!) here.

The new version, 2.0, allows more bloggers, using either Blogger or WordPress (must have a hosting account) to use the tool.  It does much more than simply help you sell ads - you are able to track the number of clicks, click through rate, number of clicks, impressions, plus other features.

In the near future (within 2 days), you will be able to browse their Marketplace to find sites that are using the tool and Entrecard.

What this means for bloggers:
  • You will be able to purchase advertising on other blogs.
  • You will be able to earn Entrecards through both the Entrecard system, selling ads through the widget.
  • It will be easier to earn Entrecards and cash through the system, as $1 is roughly equal to 166 credits.
  • Advertisers are more likely to continue advertising on your site, with the reports that they are given.
  • It is easier to manage ads with the plugin.
  • Google doesn't (as far as most people know) penalize sites selling links, banners, etc. through OIO, as tracking links are used instead.
Other Details:
- Entrecard makes a small commission on each sale, so this helps support the rollout of new Entrecard features.
- 12.5% of the Entrecards you spend go back to Entrecard to maintain inflation, sell back to members, etc.  As far as I know, no fees beyond what PayPal takes will go to Entrecard.

My Thoughts:
This is a great addition to Entrecard, although many people will need to implement it before you can use it to its full advantage.  However, I believe that purchasing ads on blogs through the Entrecard widget will become less of value, until the new marketplace/credit trade-in system is put in place.  For example, if a blog costs 512 credits/day to advertise on with the Entrecard widget, but only 166/day with OIO Publisher/private ad sales, wouldn't you want to go with OIO Publisher?

There have been quite a number of people commenting on the price of the plugin.  In a sense, it is high for someone who doesn't have much money they may never see again, but on the other hand, the price is the same as a 3-year domain, or 3 months of website hosting, not an extremely high price.  Set the price at ~2,500 for a month, and you'll (theoretically) make the fee back within two sales.

Secondly, another issue that I see is with the decrease in prices and high availability of credits for sale - over 300,000 on the "Buy Credits" page - wouldn't this create higher inflation - something that everyone wanted to prevent before?

You can check out the full details of the money-saving offer or go directly to the OIO Publisher website (Entrecard affiliate link).

Note: Spend a few moments to vote on the Entrecard blog about the recent changes in the sidebar - length before a blog is removed with no updates, daily number of drops, etc.

1 comment:

Paul Eilers said...

My wife has switched from Project Wondeful to OIO Publisher.