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Saturday, March 28, 2009
Send for Inspiration
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Entrecard
Entrecard have changed their system. It now also involves money.
I am thinking that this is not right for a multi-author community blog like this one, so I am proposing that we drop this feature.
All co-authors, if you agree or disagree, please leave a comment.
I am adding the Entrecard-info below:
"Greetings Entrecarders!
Today I have VERY important news for the entire Entrecard community. In approximately one week, we will be co-launching an Ad Network and a Credit Cashout Service. What this means, immediately to you, is the following:
A real ad network
We will be opening as much as 50% of our ad impressions network-wide to third party advertisers. We will be accepting cash payments to run 125x125 advertisements through our widget network. Ads will be sold as run of network, or targeted by category, for a low CPM rate to be announced. Please plan your daily entrecard ad purchasing accordingly. Whereas before, when you purchased an ad, you were buying a minimum of 100% of the impressions, you are now buying a minimum of 50%. However, the maximum is still 100% of the impressions, because if we have no ads booked for that category, or for the network, for any given day, you will still get all of the impressions.
Exchange your credits for CASH
With the money we make selling as much as 50% of our network impressions, we will purchase your credits from you, and delete them from the system. This means we're going to let you sell credits for cash, right from your dashboard! This has been the single most requested feature since we launched Entrecard. Members have clamored for a way to sell Entrecard credits for cash, but the same problem always arose: where does the money come from to let people sell their credits? How do we use our greatest resource (millions of daily impressions across ~60 niches) to benefit everyone? After much deliberation, the answer became clear. We must open up our ad network, and funnel the proceeds of the entire operation back to you, the members!
The state of the economy
The state of the world's economy is grim. We are in a global recession. People need simple ways to make money now more than ever before. Therefore, it became our imperative to turn Entrecard into a viable way for bloggers to make money. We think we've figured out a great way to do this. By allowing you to cash out your credits, and allowing you to earn credits by selling products and services in our market, advertising on your blog, publishing on your blog, and dropping cards, we're making big moves to help you earn a second income.
In parallel, the Entrecard economy has been in a state of inflation since day one. Every day, more credits are created than are deleted. As of writing this, there are 44 million credits in the Entrecard economy, and we're adding more each day. This is not sustainable, and so it has become clear that we need a more efficient way than advertising taxes to eliminate credits from the economy. The good news is that if this works, we'll be able to lower the advertising tax.
So, by paying you cash for your credits, and then wiping them from the system, we estimate that we can delete as many as 1 to 2 million credits per day. This will immediately shift the economy into DEFLATION, which means your credits will become MORE valuable, instead of less valuable, both in their purchasing power and in their monetary value.
Finally, Entrecard has needed a solid revenue model since day one. We are excited to have settled on a viable revenue model that allows us to make money at the same time as passing on the majority of our revenues back to you. For any given day, we will take 75% of our revenues and pass them on to you by way of cashing out your credits. We will take the remaining 25% for ourselves to grow the business as a solid revenue source.
What if I don't want these ads on my site?
We have always prided ourselves in being a service that offers you complete control over what does and does not appear on your site. Yet, at the same time, we're forced to mitigate this ideal with our decision to launch a more traditional ad network, as a way to make you money, restore the economy to balance, and make some money for ourselves.
We will continue to allow you to reject any ad you wish. However, to reject ads from paying advertisers, you will need to pay a credit fee for each ad you wish to reject. We don't know how much this will be just yet.
New Above-the-fold rule
If this is going to work for everyone, we must also mandate an above-the-fold rule. Thus moving forward, it is necessary for all Entrecard members place their widget above the fold to maintain an active account. The rule won't go into effect until we launch our ad network, which is about a week away, so please plan accordingly and make the necessary changes as soon as possible.
To recap
You can boil this down to the following 4 bullet points:
In a week, we're launching an ad network where anyone can advertise through Entrecard widgets for CPM rates. This can be run of network advertising, or targeted by category. We are making available 50% of our inventory, or approximately 40 million monthly impressions.
With the money we make, we are going to buy credits back from you. You will be allowed to sell credits via your dashboard, and we will devote 75% of daily sales to buying credits back.
The economy will no longer be in a state of inflation, but rather in deflation which means your credits will gradually start becoming more valuable.
For all this to work, we must institute an above-the-fold rule, which goes into effect in a weeks.
We realize these are pretty huge changes, and there are going to be a lot of questions. This is part of the reason we're announcing this a week early, so we can field all the questions, address everyone's concerns, and all get on the same page."
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Universal Anomalies
Did you know the moon has been moving steadily away from us, currently about
3.8 centimetres per year?
I found this to be quite interesting, as in a million years, there will not be any more total lunar eclipses of the sun. What does this mean to you? Nothing. Think about this though, we are currently in the one period of time in Earth's history that the moon appears exactly the same size as the sun, even though the sun is hundreds of times larger. (whew ... long sentence!)
Did you know that as the sun grows older, it will also expand into RED Giant and become large enough to engulf the Earth? Yes, this also means nothing to you, but it could mean something to the auto industry after the next 5000 bail-outs.
Lets say it is not 2009, but 12 million seven. No longer will they have the new 09 models, they 
will have the 00000000000007 models with sunpaint protection, as mandated by the world government. They will no longer have moon roofs either. That will be to far away for any consumer appeal.
This got me to thinking about space time anomalies. If my 0000000000007 car with no moonroof and sunpaint protection is traveling at the speed of light, will my blackberry still be able to load a blog for me to read and comment? ... and at that speed, should I really be texting and driving anyway? I guess it's a good thing I have a 1989 Chevy with a moon roof that has a top speed of 77 mph. Here I was all in a blah blah blah mood, when the universe is perfect for me!!
SPEEDCAT HOLLYDALEMonday, March 9, 2009
A Parents Prayer
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my sanity to keep.
For if some peace I do not find,
I'm pretty sure I'll lose my mind.
I pray I find a little quiet
Far from the daily family riot
May I lie back--not have to think
about what they're stuffing down the sink,
or who they're with, or where they're at
and what they're doing to the cat.
I pray for time all to myself
(did something just fall off a shelf?)
To cuddle in my nice, soft bed
(Oh no, another goldfish--dead!)
Some silent moments for goodness sake
(Did I just hear a window break?)
And that I need not cook or clean--
(well heck, I've got the right to dream)
Yes now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my wits about me keep,
But as I look around I know--
I must have lost them long ago!
~Author Unknown~
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