Entrecard, a waste of my time
Written by Nico on December 7, 2008 – 9:06 am -
Looking at different methods to bring traffic to this very new blog, I decided to give Entrecard a try. I was very hesitant in using this method because it is very much like the numerous traffic-swap programs out there. Been there, done that, didn’t like it!
You basically put an ad button on your site and visitors who are also signed up with Entrecard can click it to earn points. I can in turn visit their sites and click to earn points for myself. The earned points can be spend on displaying your ad button on other peoples websites.
The great thing about this method of advertising is that it doesn’t cost you a dime, which is great for people just starting out blogging. The downside is that you’ll have to do a lot of clicking to earn enough points to put your ad up on other sites. Also, when not clicking, the other users of the system will not notice you and will not visit your site.
So, if you click a lot, you get a lot of visitors. Great, if you have the time to visit all these blogs to click the button. But be aware of the type of traffic you get in return: they are other Entrecard members, only visiting your site to click the button. Most of them probably don’t even read a single word on your blog. They are the click-n-run visitors.
You might wonder how Entrecard got so popular. I’ll tell you: it’s all in the marketing! With a few big names, like Darren Rowse and John Chow, promoting your service, things can start snowballing pretty fast. Shame on you, both of you! Although it looks like they are both not using the service anymore.
If I don’t like this method of getting traffic, why am I using it? First of all, I believe in trying out things for myself before writing a review about it. Sure, I could just browse the web to see what everyone is saying, but that wouldn’t make a very objective review. I also think that this service can potentially bring me some visitors that might decide to hang around or subscribe to my rss feed. Since they are all bloggers, it is very targeted traffic I’m getting for this blog. The only question that remains is whether or not they actually read my posts.
So, to summarize: if you measure your blogs success in visitor numbers only and have time to spare to visit 350 blogs a day, just to click the Entrecard button, go ahead! If you are more interested in growing your blogs community, I’d say there are better ways to spend your time.
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Tags: Entrecard, traffic generation
Posted in Start Blogging, blogging tools, traffic | 10 Comments »
December 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I just recently removed the EC widget from my blog it was becoming more of a pain than a benefit.
Also, all it attracts are card hoppers, who only stay long enough to click on it, makes for a high bounce rate as well.
Good luck with yours.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Don’t forget you also get 25 credits every time you post on your blog, which goes towards buying ads.
I don’t bother visiting blogs just to drop, it’s not worth it. I only drop if I happen to see a widget somewhere I’m visiting anyway.
This means I can’t buy many ads, but the few I buy gain me a few visitors.
Spending approx 15ec on ads brings 1 visitor.
Dropping on approx 4 sites brings 1 visitor.
December 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot of dropping myself. But I’m going to leave it on here for a while, for reviews sake!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I totally agree. The high bounce rate reduces your Adsense earnings. I stick around as there are a few people out there who actually read your posts.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Leon, I figured there would be a few that actually do read the pages they visit. I do to, and that’s whats keeping me from doing 300 drops a day. Oh, that and my crappy internet connection, which has a 5GB a month data limit. Do some serious dropping and you will use double that amount, easy.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:22 am
if you don’t want to waste time in dropping EC card, I encourage you to join or switch to Adgitize. It’s like EC but the big difference is that it Pays! yes,,,you read it right!..see my PayPal proof of payment at http://www.blogdemanila.com/adgitize-pays-real-money/
December 8th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Eric, thanks for your comment. I will have a closer look at that program!
December 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I agree, EC is helpful to those who are just starting out but most visitors just visit our blog for the drop points. I try to visit as many blogs as I can, enough to earn me the amount of points that could buy me an ad, but I just can’t cos I end up reading the entries.
And it takes a lot of my time. I have a lot of time to spend since I’m currently unemployed but I also have other websites to work on to earn. 
December 19th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I started using EC about 2 months ago but I’m not on it that much. I see maybe 1 to 2 visitors every other day but nothing dramatic.
You will need a lot of time to go around dropping cards and such. Anyways.. that’s how I found this blog!
February 7th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I was an early adopter of EntreCard when it first came out. The bloom was off the rose with it pretty quickly though. Traffic from it got my Adsense account smart priced quickly. The traffic was low quality traffic useless for clicking ads or attracting long term readers. I dumped it after a few month trial and I’ve heard nothing good about it since.