EntreCard is up for sale
The popular banner exchange service EntreCard is now up for sale at SitePoint. The owner Graham Langdon has put a minium bid of $100,000 and a reserve of just under a million dollars.
He claims that the ad network is serviing 80 million impressions per month, 3 million clicks pre month and is growing at 16%. He also claims the site is making $2,000 a month however there is no revenue or traffic evidence to back any of this up. I’m not disputing these figures but I also think that he won’t make a sale until he backs them up. More importantly, his asking price is absurdly high. You all know that I’m not a fan of the EntreCard service but anyone who pays 1 million dollars for this site needs their head examined.
As usual, the high price is being justified by the potential the site has and I agree that this site does have potential. However, it will be very difficult for anyone to get a return on such a high purchase. He has suggested a few methods as to how the new owner could make money from the site (why isn’t he implementing them then??) but I don’t think that this site is a money maker. Although the site has many members, very few of those members have an advertising budget to spend on the site. From an advertisers point of view the members here are the low end of the market. This isn’t an insult to those who use EntreCard, it’s just that the people who use the service are less likely to actually pay for advertising that other bloggers.
Although I’m not a fan of the service, I do think that the site does have potential and a company with some financial backing could make a return as the site has a large memberbase. To do so though I think the owner has to drastically reduce his reserve price of high $xxx,xxx and be more up front with traffic and revenue evidence.
Hopefully the site is sold as I’d like to see the service go in a different direction and clean up the way things currently work. In my opinion we do need more blogger services such as this but until now, no one has got things right.
Link : EntreCard Sitepoint Auction
David | September 26th, 2008 at 12:24 pm #
You forgot to mention that this is the second service he has sold. The first one being the Million Dollar Wiki which was heavily promoted, and then sold at its height of popularity. I have a feeling the sale has more to do with Entrecard starting its descent and so he wants to cash out now.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | September 26th, 2008 at 12:36 pm #
yeah I saw a commenter saying that but I didn’t know enough about the previous transfer to be able to comment on it (although I hated that site and couldn’t believe the number of people who paid to get on it).
Someones even questioning the $2000 hes claiming it makes a month, it could be closer to $1,000. And he wants one million for it!!
JonathanDavis | September 26th, 2008 at 2:32 pm #
Yeah, there’s no way EntreCard is pulling in $2k a month right now. Maybe it will someday, but it’s a risky investment to say the least.
Rarst | September 26th, 2008 at 2:53 pm #
On sale - whatever happens… Worst case - it dies and it’s not much grief.
>In my opinion we do need more blogger services such as this but until now, no one has got things right.
Too true. I start to wonder is it even possible to get widget/traffic service right.
Sly from SlyVisions dot Com | September 26th, 2008 at 5:18 pm #
Minimum bid of $100,000? Oh man. That’s a LOT of money in my opinion.
nhuong | September 26th, 2008 at 5:28 pm #
I don’t think anyone is going to buy it at such a high price but you never know.
I hope ec gets a new owner. I like the members there, we need better management, we deserve it since we stuck with it for so long.
actually we don’t deserve anything, but the owner is messing up big time. asking for suggestions and never implementing anything.
Turnip | September 26th, 2008 at 6:40 pm #
“The commenter” as you put it, is none other than mike huang, known internet scam artist who was repeatedly banned from Entrecard. Entrecard does have income, as anyone who actually uses the site knows. 16 ads @ $50 each would account for $800 a month. Inaddition it runs some affiliate ads, a $25 a day front page ad, and sell credits for a percentage of the profit. I’d put the current profit closer to $1000 a month.
The ideas floated there are nonsense. That is why he doesn’t implement them. Plenty of real ideas have been floated through the forums, but unfortunately Graham rarely pokes his head into his own forums to read them.
Entrecard is run by an idea guy, not a blogger, not a coder, not a guy who follows through. He got lucky by hiring a coder who was down to earth and knew how to put all the rambling ideas together. As you see by the response to the sale, EC has a strong community, and that in itself shows it has value. Improve the product, and you might be able to multiple that community by 100. Allow Graham to keep running it as he has, and those numbers will shrink.
Ife | September 27th, 2008 at 6:48 am #
If he feels he can get run the site - let him sell it. But I think the price is high, he’s not forcing anybody though.
I think somepeople are just being mischievious about Entrecard - the site has got potentials - though its been known for what I call ‘junk’ traffics but they still come anyway.
If somebody with a better idea an buy it off - so be it.
Capish
Free Ads | September 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm #
Entrecard for Free Advertising. Is this the same person who started something like miilion dollar and wiki? Lots of bloggers (and some top one) last year opined that the so called wiki is the greatest invention since the slice bread. VCs are lining up. Hollywood is ready for a movie. Hmm! what happened to that site? It will be nice to check it out in Alexa
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | September 27th, 2008 at 7:33 pm #
The owner has just left a message saying ’site not for sale anymore’ and nothing else.
Andre Thomas | September 28th, 2008 at 3:44 am #
Just under a million bucks for a website that disputably makes $2000 a month.
He’s gotta be joking!
Rarst | September 28th, 2008 at 4:26 am #
@Andre Thomas
He had a point that Entrecard is not monetized at all. Most exchanges take a cut from ads to sell and that’s their profit. Entrecard is not doing that.
Tinh | October 5th, 2008 at 8:35 pm #
When I access this sitepoint today, the description said that “site not for sale anymore”????
Steve | October 9th, 2008 at 4:11 pm #
Sorry this is off topic but who is this mike huang? I have seen this name around some of my blogs what dose he do that is a scam?
Thanks