I’ve had the Entrecard widget on If You Write It for some time now-I go through phases where I think it is a waste of space and phases where I do a lot of dropping and hitting new blogs. I have never been big on using the Entrecard forums or reading the Entrecard blog. I tend to see what other Entrecard blogs have to says as I am dropping cards.
The original idea behind Entrecard seemed to be to allow the average blogger to advertise on high ranked blogs and like minded blogs. So that every one’s goal in the early days was to get an ad on John Chow or Problogger. Failing that as the cost and wait were close to infinite you were supposed to your run ads on blogs like your own. So that a blog about knitting would run ads on other blogs about knitting, and so on.
You you ads with Entrecard credits which you earn, in part, from dropping cards on other blogs. The daily limit was set at 300 and soon there were a lot of people hitting the limit everyday. Now the question has to be, how much does a blog benefit from hundreds of random people stopping by for ten seconds to drop a card? Well, not much.
I have found a few blogs that I like with Entrecard and have started to leave comments on a few of them. I have also put my Entrecard ad on a lot more sites. All of this is kind of fun, in a jeez this taking longer than thought it would, sort of way.
The Perfect Entrecard World would have everyone who drops a card take a few more seconds and Digg, Stumble, Bookmark, Technorati Favorite, and Leave a Comment. Ok, maybe more than a few seconds-but the Technorati Fave would only need to be done once. Of course, there would need to be some limit-I’ve seen plenty of blogs with fifty icons at the end of each post-maybe three or four would be better. Something that a card dropping mad blogger might take an extra minute to do. And Entrecard is trying to improve that whole commenting thing as well.
But really, zipping through sites and dropping cards is pretty much what Entrecard is designed to do. Is this really good blog promotion? I get hits and a few comments and I have found blogs I would never have otherwise seen. I don’t really expect Entrecard users to do anything other drop cards-there are plenty of blogs where that is all I do.
So thanks for stopping by-oh, they’re gone already.
I use blogrush and the few times I get traffic from it it’s pretty terrible.
An aside: People who use wordpress seem to find a following from other wordpress users. Blogger does a horrible, horrible job of promoting its own content.
Most ‘serious’ bloggers have their own domains, but I have never been as serious as I could be.
I used blogrush and found it to be just a total waste of space, that’s when I discovered Entrecard and started uding it.
I totally agree with this. I really like Entrecard and it has given me some traffic but I wonder how many people are just dropping by for less than 5 seconds. I do have a notice for my droppers to vote for me directly underneath my entrecard icon. That way this helps me get ranked higher on some top 100 sites that give me more serious traffic. Thanks for posting this.
I was smiling while reading this post. If you ask entrecarders, this is a common experience. One cannot read and comment on all blogs that one drops on. But I am glad I joined entrecard because I have come to know my favorite blogs. I still discover some good blogs, as I drop.
Just like now, I found your article worth reading, so I stopped and commented.
Most bloggers say that content is King, and I agree because content plays one of the major roles for a dropper to stop and read.
Happy blog hopping.
I’ve found Entrecard to be a disheartening portal into the realm of terrible bloggery. You like to think your words mean something, but some days it feels like all your doing is contributing to the great big blog mess. I only go on Entrecard when I am already tired or when I’ve finished my writing for the day; seeing so much blah has a real dampening effect on any inspiration I feel.
That being said, I have found some excellent blogs. This is one I visit often. The only reason I still use Entrecard is for the 3 in 100 great sites one happens to come across. The 5-second visits I could do without, but at least I have my line cast for the occasional bite.
Rene [if I may call you that]-
Like many EC’ers, I’m experimenting with SezWho. While I’m uncertain of how much things will change [there’s nothing that will get me to read 98% of the “monetizing” blogs. And they probably feel the same way about mine], let’s give EC credit for at least trying to address the problem.
The next few weeks should proving interesting, to say the least. Then again, in ancient China, the wish, “May you live in interesting times” was concidered a curse…
-MR
See? I came back 🙂 While doing the chore of dropping, I tend to leave a few sites open when I find something worth reading and possibly commenting, and then return. Not terribly many I have to say. But there again I’ve found a few gems and made some very good friends along the way, so on balance it has been worth it. I’ve decided to try SezWho too, though I’m not at all sure about the ranking system. I can see how it could be abused.
Yes, I do drop and run but even then, I register the blog and the next day I register it again, and the next day, again, until finally, I am drawn in by a post that appeals to me. This would not happen without Entrecard. Without Entrecard I wouldn’t even know that many of these blogs existed. I have found some great blogs and super bloggers through its services.
I have only joined about 2 weeks ago and will see how it goes in 2 more week. So far i did not find EC particularly useful in terms of traffic but it has allowed me to find a few interestings blogs that I would not have found otherwise…
yes, I do the same also. Drop and run, mostly paying back those who have dropped on me. But I’ve always been pretty good about commenting. Especially if I see an article (or even whole blog) that catches my eye. And to be quite honest, I got very little back until they partnered with Sezwho. And comment on a blog who regularly sees 20 or comments on theirs? Well, forget about getting that back.
So there are advantages and disadvantages.
One of the biggest disadvantage I see (and that no one talks about) is if a blog runs adsense or yahoo, the “high traffic but there just to drop” really crushes the CTR and therefore the earnings.
hello there!
i got your blog from entrecard.
http://www.deariago.blogspot.com