The Ten Rules of EntreCard dropping

Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,580 views

The whole idea of EntreCard is NOT to amass EntreCard credits. If you manage to amass 1 000 000 EC, you will still not be a millionaire. You will still be broke in real life.

The REAL idea behind the EntreCard community is to PROMOTE your blog. You want to increase your traffic and enlarge your community of regular readers. You do not want to become an EC millionaire. Spend your credits, because it’s just funny money. Dump it regularly on advertising, EVEN IF that advertising is not particularly effective. Keep spending it in different places until you find where it works best.

Before EntreCard came along, there were others. Many others. The first blogging community (or social network) that I joined was MyBlogLog. Then blogcatalog. Then BlogRush. StumbleUpon. Digg. Reddit. FaceBook.

BlogRush came along just before EntreCard and it promised huge amounts of additional traffic. For each time your BlogRush widget displayed, your latest blog post would be displayed somewhere on someone else’s BlogRush widget along with 4 other headlines.

BlogRush failed miserably, because nobody clicked on the stories syndicated throughout the BlogRush network.

Where BlogRush failed EntreCard saw a way to succeed.

Instead of promoting a single blog post, EC promotes the entire blog via a graphic advert, instead of a text RSS feed headline.

EC’s original idea was that it would drive traffic via adverts placed on third party blogs.

However that idea has not succeeded very well. Most adverts placed on the EC blog network result in a very dismal amount of traffic. Many of the adverts that I place result in ZERO clicks. I suspect this is because of the small size of the EC adverts. EC widget ads measure only 125 x 125 pixels. Many bloggers like this format because it does not clutter up their blog. However, REAL banner adverts that actually get clicked are MASSIVE and right at the top, like the 900 x 160 pixels top banner advert that I display throughout the AAA network, including this blog.

But EC does generate lots of traffic! It’s just not generated where its inventors expected it to be generated. EC’s traffic comes from YOUR DROPS on other people’s blogs.

An EC ethic arose out of nowhere that if you drop on someone, generally they will drop back on you. Some prefer to state this explicitly by belonging to an EC clique such as “U DROP I FOLLOW”, but generally more and more EC members are adopting this drop style even if they don’t announce it. I follow this method. I return drops directly out of my drops inbox. I don’t always manage to drop on everyone who dropped on me, but I try to pick up people I missed later.

This being the case, the only way possible to get the MOST out of EC is to drop the maximum EVERYDAY. If you drop less than 300 entrecards a day, you are going to receive sub optimal results.

Here are my suggestions for the most effective EntreCard dropping strategy:

The Ten Rules of EntreCard dropping

1. Never drop on those who don’t drop on you

If you drop on someone, and they never or seldom return your drop, you are wasting a precious drop on them. Rather find someone else who will always or frequently return your drop.

2. Always drop the maximum of 300 a day

If you drop less, you are guaranteed to receive less traffic than what you could have.

3. Drop as early as you can.

The EC drop count is reset to zero every day at midnight EDT (GMT-4) / EST (GMT-5). As soon as it is reset, start your fresh drops, because then others have the whole day to drop back on you, whereas if you start later, they may have finished dropping by the time you drop on them. Drop on them FIRST, if you can, and then your drop will be seen and returned.

4. Drop first on your 10 top droppers

Your top droppers are your most loyal droppers. Show them the same courtesy back or you might lose them to others who appreciate their loyalty. Find ways to reward those who drop on you regularly.

5. Drop on more than 300 blogs

If you go through your inbox regularly, you will soon notice that you receive drops from more than 300 other bloggers. Since you can only drop on 300 blogs a day, it is impossible to recipro drop on everyone every day. You may even have more than 600 different bloggers who drop on you regularly. The way to handle this is to create lists of 300 blogs each and take turns cycling through them.

6. Do not become set in your ways

If you only ever return drops on the same 300 blogs every single day, guess how many EC readers you will have? If you’re lucky, about 300. What if you want a lot more than 300 readers? What if you want 3000 or 30 000 or 300 000 or even 3 000 000 EC readers? How do you use the EntreCard network to expand your reach?

By dropping on new people every day.

With the introduction of the new EntreBar, EntreCard has made it easier to seek out the far corners of their network and reach new bloggers. Reserve about 50 drops a day for those uncharted waters. Always be thinking of getting new blood into your blog. Keep things fresh, keep things vibrant.

7. Combine dropping with advertising on EC blogs

As I mentioned above, advertising on EC blogs generally does not result in as many visits as dropping does, however, it still does bring some extra traffic on average and since it makes absolutely no sense to hoard EC credits, you might as well spend them each week on new blogs to increase your fame.

If you drop the maximum amount each day, you will get in excess of 400 EC a day, roughly 3000 EC a week. Spend it each week on adverts. Blow your EC! Go on, blow it! You’ll get more again tomorrow, I promise you.

Actually, that’s all I can come up with now. The 10 rules of EntreCard dropping only has seven rules so far. But maybe you can supply the other 3? Come on, dazzle me with your insights. Tell me what else I am missing.

Tags: EntreBar, EntreCard
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