This week saw the most significant change in the Entrecard community to date. They altered the ad rate formula from counting drops as part of the equation to only counting demand for your ad space. The new systems seems to have kicked up a lot of dust.  Once all that settles, it appears to be a far superior method for calculating cost.

In a comment on the Entrecard forums, Phirate (the programmer behind Entrecard) states this:

The new system is simply better overall. You can still work hard and get your ad price to increase, but now the work you do on your blog counts just as much as the work you do on Entrecard - the value reflects not just the number of drops you’re likely to get, but the buyers assessment of how much your blog can help them as well. [Source: Entrecard Forums]

I would have to agree. When this whole change was implemented, I had 8 ads in my queue and my price was 512 ECs. Since the change I have had two people purchase ads on my site and today my price hovers at 128 ECs. When I look at Problogger’s ad space, I see his cost at 8,192 ECs. I see this as fair. At one point, my ad space cost more than Probloggers. This concern caused John Cow to stop Entrecard and irked other bloggers as well. Why not do it this way?

How Does it Work?

The new ad systems works well, giving users a way to earn currency and an actual marketplace dictated by peers. The economy will beat down smaller site’s ad prices and bolster ad costs on popular blogs. The new ad pricing post on Entrecard details the changes in a better way than I could.

To calculate your price at any given moment, just start at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, if you have 5 people approved and stacked in the “On your widget” column of the dashboard, and 5 people waiting for approval, you would calculate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, or 2 to the power of 10, which eqauls 1024 credits. And then in 24 hours, when an ad has completed running, their price would go down to 512. If no one bought an ad that day, tomorrow it would go down to 256. And then if someone bought an ad for 256, the price would go back up to 512. [Source: Entrecard Blog Post]

I know this change turned a lot of people off to Entrecard. It’s still the great service it was before, but now it’s based in reality. I’m not going to pay a premium price for an ad spot simply because the owner of the site spent an hour each day dropping cards. That shouldn’t even factor into the equation. I for one am glad it’s been changed.

It was a shock at first. I must admit seeing ad prices into the stratosphere really tipped me off to the change. Now that it’s here — what do you think? Do you like it? Have you dropped Entrecard?

Weekly Explosions

It’s been another hectic week. I did manage to post twice this week. I am truly engaged by the amount of money blogs are selling for these days. The John Cow site sold the other day for 50K. He accomplished that in a meer 9 months or so. It was a truly unique site though. I tipped my hat to the sale earlier this week.

The other post focused on death and what should be done with our online lives. I think a lot of times we talk about our reputation online for career purposes, but we often times leave out the part about after we die. I don’t know much about what happens after death, but I’m fairly certain I can’t take Twitter with me. There has to be some way to help our loved ones out in that troubling times. It’s why I wrote the post. I’ll start talking about flowers and sunshine again soon. Promise.

Other’s Explosions

For those who know Arnold, his site ChalkisCheap has gone down forever. He hosted the recipro-drops community. We dropped on each other’s sites daily. His site was hacked and he decided he didn’t want to bring it back up again. I was sorry to see him go.

Yimto keyed me in on a new RSS day. The idea is to write about, tweet, and otherwise barrage your readers with information about RSS on May 1st — the official RSS day. Dailyblogtips.com came up with the idea and they’re asking everyone to help them get the word out. So here I am telling you. It’s like Arbor day without the trees.

This week saw two new articles: Creating Stop Signs for Site Traffic and Keep Your Mouth Shut. They both brought in a lot of traffic, and created some exciting conversations among readers. I enjoyed reading and hearing everyone’s opinion on the Keep Your Mouth Shut article.

From the discussion, it’s safe to say most believe a blog should not veer too far off course. It could lead to ostracizing our readers. However, some feel it may be too stringent a rule. A rule that’s better left to those with large subscription rates and established blogs. I don’t think the topics dead by any means. I’m sure to revisit this topic from a different angle soon.

Others Writing about Jason Boom

I did receive some nice reviews this week. In particular, a blog entitled Small Fish Big Money did a write-up about my site. I’ll be returning the favor in the coming week, so be sure to look for a new Powder Keg Review.

My site also appeared in the Entrecard blog this week. The writer, Bruce Hollingdrake, wrote about my site in regards to his idea of simplicity and balance. I was grateful to have made the cut.

Upcoming Explosions

Now that my throat has cleared of any viral blockage, I’m fairly certain I’ll get a new podcast up this week. I also will be revisiting the stop signs series to include two new sites. I enjoyed doing the first installment, and believe its a valuable perspective for any site owner to read.

The site will also have another Powder Keg Review and maybe one other post in the coming week. I would love to hear what you want to read about, so if you have post ideas or any other comments regarding blogging and writing please let me know in the comments.

Other’s Explosions

Gyutae Park was accused of vote rigging on Sphinn this week. He’s been offering multiple ways to enter his huge contest, and a recent way was to sphinn an article of his. The article received hall of fame status on the site, but was pulled by an editor.

Si Philps is doing a podcast easter egg contest. You could win a Flickr pro account or one year web hosting. It’s worth a shot, right?

Jeff at Buzzmyblog did another installment of his Ask a Pro series. This one received remarks by Zac Johnson, Maki (DoshDosh), Shoemoney, and Darren Rowse. It’s a good read for sure.

For those who don’t know, today marks the end of the college basketball regular season, and the beginning of the tournament of all tournaments — the NCAA tourney. I’m hyped to say the least.

As many of you know, this week I’ve been down with the flu. I’m feeling better and hoping to get back up to form with more posts this coming week. I did post a few entries this week, and saw some success from them.

I now have 78 subscribers via RSS and my daily uniques have stayed steady.

Early in the week, I published my first guest post on BenBarden.com. I wrote it to give new users to BlogCatalog an idea of how to use the service. I really like some of the new features on the BlogCatalog site. I may go into more detail about those here. I think they’re relavent to many of my readers.

Contests, Contests, and More Contests

We randomly chose Rina, the author of AzrinaAznan.com as our February $100 prize winner. She a blog post about the contest, landing her 25 easy contest entries (entries 852-876) and the winning entry was 875. You still have time to enter the March contest for your chance to win $100. You can subscribe, comment, and post on your blog about the contest to enter.

It seems to be a week full of amazing contests. Winning the Web is hosting the Craziest Internet Marketing Contest with prizes well over $9,000 and growing everyday! You can win some seriously awesome prizes. Go check it out…

If you’re looking for another contest to enter, then you can head on over to Feed Flare, where you’ll find some downright awesome prizes. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) subscription, posting about the contest, and verifying your entry is all it takes to enter. They’re giving away $500 as the top prize. Now that’s a prize! I’m even offering a small banner ad as a prize. Be sure to check it out for your chance to win.

Other’s Explosions

I don’t have much for this week, but I think for any Selection Sunday post we need a tourney. BloggerNoob’s blogger tourney entertains and delights. Everyone should take a peak to see who’s dancing.

Listen to Episode 2 of the Boombox Podcast

This podcast was recorded last Friday, so some references may seem a little dated. I do seem to ramble quite a bit in it, but whatever, I had fun. There’s also something fun going on in this one. You’ll have to listen all the way through to get the benefit of it, but it should be worth it to many of you.

Topics discussed:

1. Two Slate articles that talk about different fraudulent enterprises.
2. What happens when a blog dies?
3. And organizing our blog schedules.

This week has showed me the power of social media sites like StumbleUpon. Sure I knew my site could receive tremendous exposure through stumbling, but I didn’t realize how quickly it could happen, and just how quickly it could dissipate. My recent article Ten Reasons to Write Well Not Good received a lot of exposure on StumbleUpon in a short amount of time. It was like one of those summer rains — soaking the site, then soon the sun was back out drying up the traffic.

I’m not complaining about StumbleUpon traffic. I received quality stats during that flash flood. My bouncerate was extremely low. I’m happy with the overall effect. I want to know how to sustain it. Does StumbleUpon traffic stop by a thumbs down? Does anyone have an article?

Happenings this Week

This week I wrote the previously mentioned article, which received the most hits of the week. I also wrote the two part series on How to Podcast with Audacity and Wordpress. I tried to name this article with a more SEO friendly title to see if it brought more organic traffic. So far its brought three visitors, who stayed over ten minutes a piece on the site. I’d say it pays to target your titles with specific keywords.

New Milestone! I’m not a RSS jockey, but I’ve been riding a fairly strong horse upward these past few weeks. I’ve surpassed 70 subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed, now’s your chance. It’s free.

Site Tweaks: I did add an ad above the Spottt widget. I think this ad relates to what a lot of my surfers have interest — making money with their blog. It’s Darren Rowse’s Six Figure Blogging course. You might want to check it out.

I’ve also added a Digg This button to each individual post page, below the article itself. I hope this encourages everyone to Digg their favorite Jason Boom posts from the past and in the future.

Guest Post I have been writing a guest post for a neighboring blog. I’ll update everyone next week when I’ve finished that post. It’s taking longer than expected.

Upcoming Explosions

This week should see the second episode of the Boombox podcast early in the week. I’ll also be writing about site traffic, nurturing killer ideas, and another top ten list. I’ll have a Powder Keg review thrown in there too, for those who enjoy the series.

Other’s Explosions

I’m really enjoying Stephan Miller’s blog of the same name. He discusses his adventures in making money online, his blog, and other ideas for productivity. He has a clear, distinct voice that carries his articles along swiftly. His recent article entitled Spread Your Feed details some finer details of an RSS feed, which I hadn’t even considered. This is why I love his blog. It’s taking things I know, and showing me them from a different angle. Good work, Stephan.

Andrew Pavelski is back this week with a new successful blogging article. His look at John Chow seems like a natural step for this new series. I can’t wait to see what next week brings. Andrew also had extremely well thought out posts during this week. Everyone should be reading his blog.

I also enjoyed The Blog Entrepeneur’s posts this week. His writing has definitely made me want to elevate my own posting style. Just take a look at this rant on Make Money Online blogs or this one about developing blogs that stand apart from the masses.