How to use EntreCard effectively / The 10 rules of EntreCard dropping
Posted on September 10th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,413 views
This is a revised and updated version of a post I made previously about how to devise an effective dropping strategy for EntreCard.
Amassing EC credits
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 real millionaire. You will still be broke in real life. 
The real goal of EntreCard
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. So spend your credits on advertising. Dump it regularly on advertising, even if that advertising, at times, is not particularly effective. Keep spending it in different places until you find where it works best.
Those who came before
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 via a text RSS feed headline, EC promotes the entire blog via a 125 pixel square graphic advert.
Where the EC traffic comes from
EC’s original idea was that it would drive traffic mainly via adverts placed on third party blogs.
However, as it has turned out, that is not the only way EC drives traffic to blogs. Sometimes adverts placed on an EC blog results in a very small amount of traffic. EC also generates lots of traffic via your drops on other EntreCarders’ blogs.
An EC ethic
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, and the more I follow it, the better it works for me.
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.
How I drop
I return drops from two lists I compile from cards in my inbox:
The first list contains those blogs I always drop on every day. This list includes my top droppers – that is everyone in my top 10 drop list and others who frequently drop on me, plus other blogs I include at my discretion. Currently I have about 45 blogs in this list. I intend restricting it to at most 100.
The second list comprises everyone else who has ever dropped on me. It’s getting longer and longer and it contains many more than 300 blogs, so obviously I cannot drop on everyone on the second list everyday. Instead I remember where I left off the previous day and start from there the next day. Currently I have over 1200 blogs in my second list, so it takes me roughly 4 days to go through the entire list before I start back at the beginning again.
Once I’ve gone through it once, I add to it any newcomers who have dropped on me. In this way, the list grows all the time. I also prune my lists to remove those who never drop back on me and those who drop out of EntreCard.
This method of mine, combined with regular advertising, has resulted in a lot of additional traffic to my blog. I also fairly regularly receive more than 300 drops back per day now. I saw results using this strategy within 7 days of starting it, and as time goes by it seems to be gaining more and more momentum for me.
The Ten Rules of EntreCard dropping
Here are my suggestions for the most effective EntreCard dropping strategy:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: EntreCard
Filed under Entre Card | 7 Comments »
My EntreCard Code of Ethics
Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,348 views
You might be sick of hearing me on this subject, but I’m writing this post to clarify matters for all the great members of the EntreCard community who keep on stopping by my blog and dropping their cards.
I wanna say to you all, that I appreciate it. I see you there, dropping your cards, and I’m always wracking my brains to come up with new ways to make your effort worth its while.
Today, what I came up with was a section on my blogroll dedicated to my Top Five Droppers. I will update this section EVERY DAY if there is a change.
But even if you haven’t made my Top Five list (yet), I’d like you to know the following, which I have decided to call:
My EntreCard Code of Ethics
- If you drop your card on me, I will return it, either the same day or the next humanly possible moment, which would probably be the next day.
- I will also add you to my list of drop sites and continue dropping on you until you are pushed off the list to make space for those who have more recently dropped on me. In other words, if you keep dropping, at least from time to time, you will always get dropped back on and probably more times than you dropped on me.
- I will attempt to get to know your blogs and write a comment if I have anything constructive to contribute.
- If you write a particularly good piece, I will stumble your post.
- On a daily basis, if you make my Top 10 droppers, you are guaranteed to get a drop back in the next drop period.
- On a daily basis, if you make my Top 5 droppers, you will appear in my blogroll.
- Every Monday, whoever is in my Top 10 droppers list will all get advertised on, no matter how much it costs me.
- If you advertise on this site, you will likely get at least 30 genuine clicks back, going by my dashboard stats. If you get ZERO clicks back, I will refund you your FULL purchase price. I have yet to see this blog giving zero clicks back and I never click on my own ads.
That’s all for now. What goes in YOUR EntreCard Code of Ethics?
Tags: Code of Ethics, EntreCard
Filed under Entre Card | 4 Comments »
What EntreCard sorely lacks
Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,089 views
As a recently Born Again regular all out EC dropper, I’ve hit a few snags that I would like EntreCard to put right as soon as I’ve finished typing this up.
Basically, using the existing EC reporting tools, I cannot easily figure out who all has ever dropped on me, how often and when the last time they did it. I don’t know how many UNIQUE EC droppers my blog has ever had.
What we get on the EC dashboard is the ability to see who dropped on us on a daily basis. That means that if X dropped on me today and yesterday and the day before, X’s card appears 3 times, under each day.
This is no good for compiling drop lists because I need a UNIQUE list of droppers, and I want to be able to order it in a number of different ways.
Some sorting examples:
- Order by most drops of all time
- Order by most recent drop
- Order by most drops in the Last X days
I also want to see a list of folks I dropped on who have NEVER returned my drops. Or who have not returned my drops in the Last X days.
I want to see a list of all those who frequently return my drops.
I want to see a list of people who drop on me and I have never returned their drops. Or not returned them in the Last X days.
I want to be able to dream up new criteria and create totally customised reports on the fly.
I want an API that I can plug into and by using my own home grown combination of HTML, PHP, CSS and javascript, create my own fully customised EC front end to total reporting heaven, but I don’t have any EntreCard API to hook into.
I want pie charts, histograms, pretty graphs to let me SEE the BIG PICTURE.
I want all of this NOW.
Let me know when it’s ready. I’m going on break now. When I get back, I expect to see RESULTS!
Tags: custom reports, EntreCard, EntreCard reports, EntreCard stats, graphs
Filed under Entre Card | No Comments »
The Ten Rules of EntreCard dropping
Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,571 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
Filed under blogs, Entre Card | 15 Comments »
Rewarding my Top 10 EntreCard droppers
Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,431 views
I’d like to thank and reward my Top 10 EntreCard droppers this week, by listing them here and linking to their web sites.
Plus, as a bonus, I have decided that from now on, I will purchase advertising with everyone appearing in my Top 10 droppers list on Monday each week, no matter how much it costs me.
Tonight I spent 3200 EC on all 10 top droppers, who are:
Septagon Studios Inc News Blog (31)
7daybuzz (23)
Hello Mother, Hello Father (22)
What about Brazil? (21)
Word Scrawl (19)
Proud2parent (18)
Zental Floss (14)
Authority Directory (13)
The Truth of Credit (12)
The Future is Entertaining (11)
The number in brackets is the number of times they dropped on me during the past month.
Thank you all of you and I hope you will continue to be loyal readers of this blog.
Tags: EntreCard, Top 10 droppers
Filed under blogs, Entre Card | 2 Comments »
