Update: Entrecard, Hacked?

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I got this response from a certain Matt, EC Support Manager who is also the blog owner of http://ragingrev.com/ one of the blogs I regularly visit everyday (I didn't know that the owner is the EC support manager.) I yet have to receive Entrecard's official reply to my query under Ticket ID: IRE-716363 regarding the issue.

Here is Matt's comment on my post.

From: "RevOxley"

To: richard_alc05@yahoo.com

RevOxley has left a new comment on your post "ENTRECARD, HACKED??":

hi,

I have deleted all of the blogs in question...thanks for pointing this stuff out to us here at EC...if you see anymore don't hesistate to let us know.




Thanks

Matt EC Support Manager

I am glad they took out the accounts already from the Entrecard roll. I guess I won't be seeing those spam badges anymore. The old entries of those badges, however, are still in my drops inbox. I still need to be careful not to click on them. Those who have them too in their drops inboxes must also exercise care so we can deny the spammer his expected free revenue from us.

Ted Murphy's Quick Response To My Post On Entrecard and His CPC ad!

Less than an hour after I posted my "Guess Who I Saw In My Entrecard Drop Inbox?", I received a comment from the big man himself! -A great honor for me!

Here's what Ted has to say!

"For the record I am not a member of entrecard.

It seems like someone is using our CPC ads inside of the entrecard system to generate clicks. We will figure out who and deal with them accordingly."

I didn't think Ted or IZEA would really have anything to do with it. Ted's stature and commanding figure in the industry as a dyed in the blood blogger and as an outstanding social network advertising pioneer and innovator is incomparable.

I am glad he will go down to the bottom of this issue! My best regards to Ted. I sure hope you will catch the culprit.


By the way, I re-checked my EC drop inbox and saw both banners still in my March 1, 2009 inbox. So, if the Entrecard administrators are just as concerned, they can go to my inbox and trace who the hack is!

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GUESS WHO I SAW IN MY ENTRECARD DROP INBOX - TED MURPHY OF IZEA!

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I usually do my daily round of entrecard droppings by browsing through all ec droppers from my own drop inbox - but guess what I saw today! - Ted Murphy's banner plus another banner from Sea World Adventure Parks.

Ted Murphy is the head honcho of IZEA, Pay per Post, and Social Sparks, of which I am a member, and for which I have written some of my most recent posts. I know for a fact that Ted's IZEA is running a campaign for Sea World via CPC ads that gives a payout of $0.11 per click among members of Social Sparks who subscribe to this affiliate opportunity.

Image via CrunchBase

I was bewildered by what I was seeing! The head honcho of IZEA has an entrecard account? I didn't suspect anything was wrong at first. I went on and clicked the banner - and what cameout was Ted's IZEA campaign page for Sea World entitled Manta Mania 3. The very same campaign page the html of which is required to be pasted on the blog of any one who subscribes to the cpc ad campaign! There was another banner by Sea World. I saw the SeaWorld banner yesterday but I couldn't find an entrecard box on its site so I just ignored it. Today was different. I saw Ted's banner side by side with the Sea World Dolphin Bubbles banner!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing! As I continued my ec drops, I backtracked to my past day's drop pages and lo and behold, I saw the two banners two times more! I sensed now that something is really amiss! Why? Well, everyday, I religiously do my daily drops and scan my drops inbox regularly.... but I swear those two banners were not there together yesterday! How can they both be there now?!?!

I shrugged it off for a while and continued to finish my 300 max daily ec drops.

Since the other day, I wanted to write about my own Entrecard experiences to guide new EC members in another social network community I belong to. In preparation for the post, I went back to my dashboard to check on Ted's banner in my inbox again. I was thinking then that if it was true that Ted is an EC member, it is a big compliment to the whole EC community and so I must include it in my post! Ted using EC for his ads? Unbelievable indeed, and I thought this will be a scoop!

But hey, another surprize hit me again!

The two banners I saw earlier today totally disappeared from my inbox! Amazing!

Cheap trick? Cheap shot? Well, this is really, really a cheap shot and utterly unethical! But by who? Ted Murphy hacking in to Entrecard's system via html pages pasted by EC members on their blogs? By EC administrators wanting to use the EC network for a few cents worth of ad clicks? Or, by an accomplished hack who is also a member of both Entrecard and Social Sparks?

Whoever it is who did this is a pretty good hack, what he has done is so unpardonably demeaning to every honest blogger, and reflects the pigsty level of this hack's moral values.( I just have this to say to whoever did this - Earn your keeps the honest way!)

If there are other EC members who encountered the same experience I have, please do drop me a comment or two. It will be good to find out how extensive this hack's operation has been.

IZEA/KMART CAMPAIGN - A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Highly criticized, sometimes maligned, Izea's K Mart Shopping Spree Campaign turned out to be a huge marketing success and set new standards against which social media specialists worldwide will now have to gauge their own campaigns.

Izea's success can be attributed to the fact that it was done by bloggers for other bloggers...and, the key world for this successful campaign came in a five-letter word - TRUST!

Consumers tend to believe more what other consumers say about a product than what corporate advertising peddle to them. The sponsored bloggers who participated in Izea's K Mart campaign were K Mart shoppers themselves and what they wrote about just naturally spread like wildfire among other bloggers thus, giving K Mart an unprecedented exposure and increased patronage. Watch the slide below (Izea/K Mart Case Study) if you don't believe what I mean. See what some of the participating bloggers in this campaign had written. Review the metrics yourself. Then, you'll know what I mean.

The Izea/K Mart campaign definitely attracted more shoppers to patronize K Mart outlets but much more than that, the campaign made the shoppers become more aware of K Mart's other special offers like the 'Lay Away Plan' and "Gift Ideas Under $25" which otherwise they would not have paid much attention to.

With this campaign, Izea has again proven itself to be a force to reckon with when it comes to social media marketing! Take a closer look at Izea's Social Media Case Study and you'll know the metrics of the campaign serves as proof to this contention!

IZEA Kmart Social Media Marketing Campaign Casestudy

View more presentations from Ted Murphy. (tags: media social)

Social Media Case Study

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