How To Be Popular And Boost Your Traffic In Entrecard Without Really Trying
Posted by
eli
on 11/03/09• Categorized as Business Advice
I have received e-mails today from three (3) fellow Entrecard members, asking for tips and advice on how to make their blogs popular in Entrecard.
I don’t think I’m an authority on the subject since I consider myself a newbie in Entrecard, having joined only middle of July 2009 or just three-and-a-half months ago,
My blog is No. 6 most popular in Entrecard
Yet, for the 10th time since joining Entrecard, my blog Business Sphere has climbed to No. 6 most popular blog in all categories.
At the outset, traffic in Entrecard is equal to popularity, the higher the popularity, the more the traffic and vice versa. Why? Because in Entrecard popularity is computed based on the total number of visitors or “drops” a blog receives from the other members during the last five days.
Hence, in answer to the request for tips from the three fellow EC users, I’m sharing my “tricks of the trade” on how to be popular and boost traffic in Entrecard—without really trying hard.
Like in any human endeavor, getting popular in Entrecard consists of strategies and tactics, or rules, and here’s mine, as follows:
Rule 1. Be an active Entrecard user
Entrecard is a wonderful blogging community of give-and-take relationships, where the principle of reciprocity is the unwritten rule.
Therefore, to be popular, you have to see and be seen by the other members. This means you have to do some serious job at dropping your cards on carefully selected blogs everyday.
Where to drop your cards? You can choose to:
a). Drop on the blogs from your drop inbox, to reciprocate their visits and their drops. .
b). Drop on the 300 most popular blogs in all categories in the Campaign. These popular users become as such because they are very active and they drop cards daily.
In addition, these most popular blogs receive more visitors compared to other blogs in the community. For example, the Top 30 popular blogs in all categories receive more than 300 visitors daily from EC members. If you look at their drop rank on their profile, these users are usually either: “Deeply committed– Deadly serious. A drop master” or “Takes dropping Very Very Seriously.”
c). Drop on the Top 5 top users of every category. These blogs are also very active, the users drop cards daily, with high traffic and popularity within the EC community.
In my case, I usually drop on the Top 200 blogs in all categories in the Campaign, then on blogs found in my Drop Inbox.
Rule 2. Advertise and Advertise
To become a popular Entrecard member, you should be visible within the community. How do you achieve popularity? By advertising and promotion.
If you drop cards daily and at a maximum, you will be able to accumulate entrecredits (ec), which you can use to advertise on some blogs of your choice.
Where to advertise” It depends on you. There are thousands of blogs in EC to choose from.
But if you want popularity, then the best choice is the Top 300 most popular blogs, to get maximum exposure of your ads for 24 hours. This is because the Top 300 blogs in all categories get a big share of drops and this means more people will get to see your ads. This also results to your one advert getting seen by more than 300 visitors daily and the higher probability of more click-through to your site.
In my case, I use all the credits I could generate daily to buy ads in the popular blogs.
Rule 3. Advertise wisely.
Select the blogs where the widget is strategically located. This means when you advertise in other blogs, you must choose a blog with a widget above the fold or at the top, either on the left or right side of the webpage.
As a rule, I do not place my ad in a blog where the widget is located down below or near the footer. Chances are, the probability that my ad will be seen by the readers is slim, as people will have to scroll down all the content before they find my ad.
This is a waste of entrecredits (ec) and my time in generating them. You should do likewise, unless you have a lot of credits to waste in such kind of low impact advertising.
Rule 4. Put your best foot forward in your ad image
Your ad is your blog’s brand or image. It makes a statement about you, and tell the readers what your blog is all about.
That being so, you must ensure that your ad icon or image must be associated with your blog so that it is easy for the readers and EC users to recognize you blog once they see your ad in others’ widget.
Rule 5. Position your Entrecard widget above the fold or in conspicuous place on your blog.
To be popular in Entrecard it is basic that people can easily find your widget in your blog. Users will be able to advertise and drop their cards on your widget only when they are able to find it easily. Place your widget in a strategic position, preferably above the fold, and not down below or in the footer.
Rule 6. Recognize your Top Droppers. It is only fitting to recognize and acknowledge your top droppers every month, as a sign of goodwill and to give them linky love. Love begets love, in real life and in Entrecard community of bloggers. That’s why many users have “Dropaholic” widget in their blogs.
Rule 7. Utilize the Entrecard Messaging System
Make good use of EC messaging system. Make it a point to express your thanks and appreciation to those placing ads on your blog. This is one best way to get to know other users, make online friends, and earn goodwill within the EC community.
Epilogue
Entrecard is a wonderful blogging community. If use wisely and to the maxiumn, it can boost our visitors and traffic as well as grow our blog. As the Entrecard ad says: “Successful bloggers start with Entrecard.”
the only downside being popular in EC is that your advertisement price will get very high.
I just joined Entrecard and I’m beginning to like their concept of exchange traffic. Your post is very informative specially for us newbies… Hope you can visit my blog Proud To Be Pinoy
I’ve just joined Entrecard and Adgitize. They both seem to have a good system, but what about the bounce rate? Is there a negative impact from the use of this system?
@ Eric, thanks for your comment. You are right in saying that being popular in EC will result to your increase in ad price, making your blog too pricey. But that’s the price of being visible in the community, with many other users visiting your blog and dropping on your widget. For the advertisers, it will result to maximum exposure of their ads, e.g. ad views from the many visitors.
@ Proud to be Pinoy, thanks for dropping by and for leaving a comment.
@ Stefano, thanks for your comment. A bounce rate is usual, even if you are not an EC and Adgitize member. It is inherent in the blogosphere, especially if the visitors to your blog do not see any post worth reading or your post is not of interest to them as they are looking for something else.
The technique is to have a good post that interest your target audience, your blog’s niche. It is the responsibility of any blogger to publish a good post and update it regularly. EC and Adgitize provide traffic and from that alone, the two ad firms are worth it, even if there’s a bounce rate.
Aside from the bounce rate, I can’t see any negative impact from being an EC and Adgitize members. All bloggers need traffic and the 2 systems provide it, in addition to being part of a blogging network.
We originally joined Entrecard (3 months ago) as a method to expose our blog to areas of the globe with high Alexa usage. (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia).
Many of the “popular” Entrecard sites surprisingly have an Alexa Rank ranging from 45k – 60k, but most of this traffic is derived from Adgitize, Entrecard, and CMF Ads. So, although they place their widget “above the fold,” conversions (to your site(s)) are less as opposed to a site with more organic traffic. In addition, the quality of these blogs is very suspect…from posting once every 6 weeks, to rampant grammatical writing errors, or over-simplicity of design.
If we compared a non-Entrecard site with an Alexa Rank of 55k against a similar, “popular” Entrecard in the same niche/category, with an Alexa Rank of say, 52k, it would hardly be fair to count the revenue, page views, and reader involvement (subscriptions, comments, etc.) from the site that was independent from all traffic exchanges.
Our strategy is to “favorite” and advertise on blogs that have a high Alexa ranking (or low, depending how you word it), but are not very active in Entrecard. We can see, due to their minimal Entrecard popularity, their traffic originates by other means.
For many bloggers, you have to ask yourself, is Entrecard keeping my blog on life support?
In closing, Entrecard traffic, although, a consistent source of traffic, comes with a price.
Don’t get caught being the “big fish” in a small pond.
Your Friend,
Source Blogger
(You can find Source Blogger in the Blogging Resources section of Entrecard.)