Comparing Entrecard, CMF and Adgitize for Blog Advertising

Blogs aren't much use without readers, but how can one gain readership? Advertise! The three major players in blog advertising are Entrecard, CMF Ads, and Adgitize. How do they compare in what they offer and what they deliver?

I maintain several blogs and I advertise through all of these networks. I do have a clear favorite, but I'll try to give some basic comparisons before I reveal my bias. This will not cover all of the complex rules and strategies that define these sites, but rather will try to compare the core of how they work for bloggers as promotional tools.

Overview

Entrecard (EC) is the oldest of the three, and the largest. They claim almost 50,000 blogs in their system, and they have just opened up a new division for regular web sites. The way it works is that you must have a 125x125 pixel banner for your blog. This goes into a widget. Every EC blog must have a widget. EC has its own currency called credits. You earn credits by clicking on, called dropping on, the widget in other blogs in the EC network. When others buy ads on your blog you also get a portion of the credits that the ad cost. The more bloggers who want to advertise on your blog, the higher the price of an ad will go. You are allowed to drop on up to 300 other blogs a day, per blog of your own in the system. Ads cost anywhere from 4 to 2048 credits. An average price is 128 or 256 credits. (Prices grow geometrically: 4, 8, 16, 32, etc).

CMF Ads spun off of Entrecard as a result of some unpopular changes at EC. It also uses 125x125 pixel banners. CMF costs are calculated in US money, and you can receive a payout in actual cash, but there is a 50% tax if you do that to encourage you to keep your money in the system, and to cover administration costs. You can set the price to advertise on your blog. These are for 30-day blocks of time. Prices range from a penny to $1.00. You can also buy "spikes" which buy you 25 clicks from other members for a dime. CMF has just introduced (February 2010) network ads where for $10 your ad will be displayed across the blogs of the 650 in their network.

Adgitize runs on quite a different model. They have over 10,000 publishers in their network, and have revealed that about half of them are active. (EC boasts 5 times as many, but there is no way to gauge how many are active). The number of advertisers on any day is revealed and seems to vary between 170-200 each day. It uses 125x125 and also three other sizes of banners. You can choose which size you wish to display, and which you wish to use. Members may choose whether to be an advertiser or a publisher, or both. If you are a publisher you can display up to 10 banners from the Adgitize network on your blog. Publishers can earn money by clicking on up to 100 other blogs in the network each day. To be an advertiser you must pay real money. You can buy ads for a week, two weeks, or a month. By the month is most economical, at $14. However, you have the ability to earn back the money you pay in, and actually make a profit. To do this you also click on other ads, but because you have paid money in, you can earn as much with 50 clicks as a publisher does with 100. You are awarded points for the number of pageviews you receive, the number of ad views, writing a post each day, and for advertising. The amount of money you earn each day is a percentage of your points compared to the number of points generated in the system each day.

Funding the site

EC is funded by the purchase of ads which , but run across the system 15% of the time. CMF is funded by those who choose to buy network ads, and by the 50% tax to cash out. Adgitize is funded by the purchase price of ads.

The amount of traffic you can expect from the three networks varies considerably

Entrecard has had quite a few ups and downs this past year with many changes in their system. My most popular blog now receives about 32 hits a day through EC. But the number of other blogs you drop on will directly affect how many drops you receive in return. Of course, the number of blogs you advertise on will affect this as well.

I get very few hits through CMF. Except for the relatively new "spikes" there is no incentive to click on banners.

Adgitize definitely stimulates the most traffic. Any advertiser can expect to gain 70-100 hits per day because of the high incentive for both publishers and advertisers to click other banners. This will not vary because all ads are displayed throughout the system (although any member has the option to block ads for particular that they may not wish to promote).

Each site has at least one strength

Entrecard has volumes of potential. If you spend time dropping on others and buying ads you can build your reputation. With a wide variety of represented interests you can find readers for almost any type of blog.

CMF will give you a good amount of exposure for almost no work at all. Many bloggers belong to more than one of these networks, so if you have a banner with CMF, a lot of the Entrecard users will see it, and you can build brand recognition.

Adgitize will bring you actual traffic. You do need to take the time to do some clicking in order to earn back your investment, but you are rewarded with people who will actually look at your blog since they choose which banners to click on.

Their weaknesses are

Entrecard treats members with no respect. They change things without warning, and apparently without giving any thought to how members may react. There have been at least two major waves of people leaving in the past year. When there was a lot of dissent on the forum as to some of these changes, they simply closed the forum, angering even more people.

CMF was begun in direct revolt to some of ECs policies. Their big weakness is the low amount of traffic it actually stimulates. The "spikes" are their most recent effort to solve part of this problem.

Here's where I begin to reveal my bias. Adgitize really doesn't have a major weakness. The worst I can say about them is that their server has crashed twice in the past year. But each time the owner has more than compensated members for lost time.

What is the owners' attitude toward users?

Entrecard was purchased this past year by ZipRunner, Inc. The new owners are slightly more responsive to members than the original owner and developer, but don't expect much interaction with the administration. Blogs that are breaking rules aren't dealt with, changes are implemented without warning and apparently with little thought as to the effect they will have.

CMF owners are much more interactive with members. They participate regularly in the forum and will comment on the blogs of people who blog about them. There sometimes seems to be some residual bitterness towards Entrecard, and they get testy when someone suggests that they are operating somewhat like the big EC. The recent introduction of network ads was done without much warning, but they have been open to tweaking it to better serve all users.

Adgitize is hands-down best in this area. Any complaints are handled swiftly. Because the model was well thought out before the site was launched, and it is self supporting (because payouts are always a percentage of income), huge changes haven't been needed. The one big change of the past year was a price increase. This was well-explained ahead of time, but a number of advertisers left as a result. After re-thinking it, the owner rolled the price back, and advertisers returned.

Conclusion

Any of these schemes will increase your bounce rate. But there is always that tension between wanting visitors who stay longer and the need to find new readers. If you want people to find your blog and begin to identify with it, you have to get your writing in front of a lot of people. Many people, myself included, use all three of these networks to help build readership.

Sign up at these links:

Adgitize

CMF

Entrecard