Bloggers of a Feather Tend to Flock Together
I don’t know about you, but every time one of my readers wants to write something on my site, be it a comment or a guest post, I’m glad. And if any of my readers would express the wish to advertise in my sidebar for free, I’d accept that happily (probably for the first 4-5 requesters only, in order not to scare away the other readers). I would consider that an honour, a sign of appreciation of my blog.
These being said, a few days ago I started to play with Entrecard, to see what’s this all about. I played for about 30 minutes, jumping from blog to blog, dropping cards, then I got back to more serious things. After a while, I noticed in my inbox a message that somebody wants to advertise on my Entrecard. I accepted that, and then I started to place requests for advertising on other blogs. I was shocked to see that there were people who rejected my ad, because they didn’t find it appropriate for their blog. Maybe they cared so much for their readers that they wanted to put only the best in front of their eyes. Maybe.
Then I noticed that for each blog page on Entrecard, there is a message saying:
37.33% of advert requests rejected
Higher percentages suggest a more discerning site owner, applicants should check their advert is likely to fit with the blog topic and format.
The percentage is different for each blog. Never mind the percentage. Don’t you smell some smart manipulation from Entrecard’s side? Are people flocking towards such affirmations, in their wish to appear more discerning, or more sophisticated, or wiser? Yes, it seems that humans and birds have the same origin, and our ancestral need to flock comes to the surface every time a bait is shown to us.
What do you think? Is Entrecard manipulating bloggers with that statement?
By the way, there was one blogger who wrote me a thank you message after I booked an advertising spot on his blog.
jayne d'Arcy says...
I spent a few weeks with Entrecard and had a couple problems with it. The first being that there were too many “monetized blogs” for my taste and they all expected to advertise with me. The second problem was the many times my ad was refused with an “inappropriate” refusal. I was VERY careful to apply only to sites that were similar to mine. Lastly, I wound up spending way too much time looking for sites to advertise on and dropping cards. So, I quit. My logs in those few weeks showed that I did have an increase in traffic, but average time spent on my site was less than 15 seconds. Doesn’t work for me.
Simonne says...
Hey, Jayne, I surely share your feelings. Entrecard is not for me, either. I still have it on my blog, because there are a few people who booked advertising and I don’t want to let them down. But I haven’t seen the big benefit of this program.
Lee says...
It depends on the site. I have rejected ads for not being appropriate. I don’t want to link to any blog willy nilly. That advertising spot is a sign of approval in some way. If the blog in question is not related to mine or not relevant in my opinion I would reject it. I don’t want my readers to think I sent them to a site they would not be interested in.
Bes says...
Jayne & Simonne, I personally do not think that a rejection rate signifies the quality of a blog. Among other things, the focus should be on the success rate and not the rejection rate, unless the rejection rate is the main focus of the business, which I do not think it is in this case.
I also agree with Lee that rejecting sites that are probably not good for the readers, or sites that may at least confuse readers. I think for Simonne’s situation, since I do not know much details about it, the good thing would have been to be notified in detail why a site is rejected, and also an opportunity to let the other person know which elements were critical in finalizing the rejection decision. However, simply rejecting for the sake of rejecting does create an aura of superiority where someone prides on being so powerful because of rejecting so many “losers”, which in this case is not a good mentality in my view.
Simonne says...
Lee, you are certainly right to reject blogs which you consider as being inappropriate. I can understand that. What I didn’t like, was Entrecard’s statement that a bigger rejection rate shows that the blogger is more discerning, which, as Bes said, is not necessarily true.