Entrecard Again
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No not another post about Entrecard. I had decided not to post about Entrecard for a while. After all I’ve written several posts and even had a guest post on this subject. I had told myself I would not write any more posts on this subject for a while, but I read a couple of posts that have inspired me.
First is from the Evil Woobie with What Does Entrecard mean to you. This post was in regards to What’ Have You’s post on Entrecard
I’ll let you read both posts to make up your own mind, but the main points of the conversation revolves around whether Entrecard traffic is worthless traffic.Evil Woobie contends that any traffic is not worthless and I agree. The biggest part of blogging is to build a brand and the more eyeballs you can get to see your content the better you are. Now these people may not perform some action to help your blog on every visit, but just the fact that they stop by provides you with that opportunity. This is where Entrecard excels. The system is built on the fact that you must visit other sites to earn credits. Some people will just come to your site to drop their card. I know I’m guilty of just dropping cards without really reading content, but I also tend to scan the blog as I’m waiting for Widgets to load. If one of the articles catches my attention then I read and most of the time even comment on the article if I have something to say. I don’t really think I’m some unique individual in this regard and I see a lot of other entrecard bloggers doing the same thing on this blog. Comments are up since I joined Entrecard and I’ve received quite a few links from other bloggers to various posts.
What Have You suggests that Entrecard is more of a social site instead of a traffic generator type site. I agree and disagree. It does generate traffic as my logs can prove and it is a social type site. Of course some people will have higher rankings in the social aspect of the site. This is true of any social interaction type site. People who have been in the system the longest have higher credits to advertise on their site and they also have more credits in their account which to use for advertisement on other blogs. But this is not always the case.
I know of sites that where members of Entrecard before I joined the system and they have a cheaper price to advertise than I do. Currently its 120 credits to advertise on this blog. Which is normal for this time of the day. My price ranges from between 120 and 140 credits per day. It usually starts out on low end and then increases as the day goes along. This has been happening for days. There must be some correlation between my actions and the price of my advert. There is.
The social aspect of Entrecard also controls the price. not directly, but indirectly. The price is calculated based on the number of times someone visits my site and drops their card. The number of times this happens is a correlation of the number of times I visit other sites and drop my cards on their sites. So that is where my price comes from. I drop cards those people see my card in their inbox and they return the favor and drop their card on me. If I look at my stats in Entrecard the blogs that have the highest price are also the ones who always drop their card on my site just about every day.
So it stands to reason that just like any other social type site. You get out of Entrecard what you put into it. If you are lazy and do not dedicate a little time to Entrecard then you won’t realize the benefits. This is true of StumbleUpon, BloggingZoom, Digg or any of the social type sites. If you are lazy and try to take shortcuts then you won’t get the true benefit of your actions.
Now this is not true of everyone. I would guess that John Chow or Problogger do not need to drop any cards and they get plenty of drops and organic traffic from Entrecard without any interaction on their part. This is because everyone is just trying to get their attention in hopes of a mention from one of those blogs. But that is their position, they rest of use have to work at it.
Blogging is hard work and for you to be successful at it then you are going to have to work a little. Having a successful blog is not just about writing content that others want to read. Writing is only one part of the equation. You also have to get out there and spend time on promotion. This is what I consider Entrecard as a method for me to do. The time I spend on Entrecard not only helps me to promote my blog, it also allows me to interact with other bloggers who I may have never found without this system.
One of the actions a lot of the a-list bloggers recommend as a method to increase readers on a blog is to comment on other blogs. I have combined my commenting time with my Entrecard time. This allows me to kill two birds with one stone. Now I still comment on blogs outside of the Entrecard system, but since I’m already on a blog to drop my card, why not leave a comment at the same time. It would take me just as much time to comment any way and an entrecard drop is just gravy.
So even though I don’t agree with everything about Entrecard and I’m not sure it can maintain this long term, it is a great system for the little bloggers( Which most of us are) to increase traffic and exposure in the blogsphere.
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Comments
Your article is spot on… those who work get rewarded.
I have yet to write about Entrecard, but that’s only because I want to make sure I understand exactly how it works, and can develop a sensible, duticapable system for others.
I think “record keeping” will be the greatest challenge. After all, to get the very most from the system, you have to be able to track each action… and then evaluate the actions against the cost.
I will have my system in place before the first of the year, and it will work for anyone who wants to work for their rewards.
I agree, there are good arguments for both sides, but I like entrecard, they have brought me some regular visitors.
This types of presentation of a valid argument I like. It’s not scoffing at the system without getting the S.O.P., nor is it totally pro-Entrecard. I love this post and it doesn’t annoy me because obviously the writer sees the point of the system and knows how to ride it, but still remains on the lookout for possible loopholes, downsides etc. Nice! You didn’t close your mind to the “psaw!-it’s-just-junk-traffic” mentality and actually touched on the main aspect of taking advantage of the system. Very different from jessie’s take, and the lemming-like, mob-mentality comments on his blog post (”i dont like this”… “yeah me too”.. “me three!” LOL).
Honestly I don’t know if Entrecard will reach a burnout. Really, I’m not blindly promoting it, and I know that the possibility of a situation that no one predicted could arise and the system fails. But I just want myself and everyone to RIDE it while it’s here and while it’s HOT. Wouldn’t benefiting from it now that it’s hot be a lot better than staying on the fence about it and waiting to say “i-told-you-so” when the hype goes down?
Strike while the iron is hot, and mine the gold while it’s abundant. Those who are still not getting into this should just take the advice of those who at least put effort into deciphering the implications of Entrecard usage because right now, the pros outweigh the cons.
Bruce, good review of Entrecard. A week ago, I had no clue that a system like this exists. Now that I am a member, I have found many new blogs and bloggers and interacted with them. So I have to say, while I love the traffic and potential readers it brings to my blog, it is also a social medium for the bloggers
bruce, first off, thanks for your opinion… i truly appreciate it even if it disagrees a bit with my contentions. your presentation of both sides is commendable and your careful analysis of both sides in your own viewpoint without getting emotionally involved is admirable. your site is great… keep your posts coming and i’ll try to drop by every now and then. Merry xmas!