Entrecard, the free blog advertising system has gone up in flames for me. First off, I am writing this blog for pretty much the sole purpose of helping you make money. Entrecard has me visiting tons of other sites in the same niche and other niches, it hasn’t given me one idea! I also have to say, that unlike the vast majority of blogs on Entrecard I update my blog more than once every two weeks, I try for once a day actually. For the amount of time it is worth and the whole cost of my time equation, Entrecard fails. I have been noticing more and more blogs joining up which is good, but ultimately, what good does a free market system do?
Entrecard has not directly made me a penny! Why should I use something that makes me nothing? Sure, it does allow my community to get free advertisements, but for the time being it is not worth it. I will be reciprocating all cards left and such but I will not be going to new blogs, it just isn’t worth it, I’m sorry.
By the way, Entrecard is still trying to monitize themselves, they better hurry up before they run out of cash.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I disagree. Entrecard doesnt directly make you money but it brings you tons of potential long term readers that will in turn make you money.
Several of people who leave comments and have gotten active on our blog have come from entrecard.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Entrecard is such a fluke. Its failing just like BlogRush did. I completely ignore the widget when I see it on other blogs. I may as well give away my credits I’ve collected in the contest I’m holding. Thanks for that idea!
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
January 9th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Eventually more of the people dropping cards will read your blog, leave comments and maybe sign up to your feed, so in the long term you will see an increase in traffic and revenue.
January 9th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Matt, Entrecard does have one strong point that you pointed out, networking. You can not forget that! Thanks for the reminder.
Justin, your welcome and I hope that your contest goes well.
These Entrecard contests seem to have been.
Toni, wow thanks for dropping in, probably by Entrecard. I have gotten interested parties on my blog, I just wish that I could have more metrics of if they came from Entrecard, if they did maybe I would have more faith in it.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:36 am
You need to add google analytics or firestats to your blog.
They both show very plainly who the refering sites are and entrecard and entrecard.s3.amazonaws.com. Combined, those two account for over 50% of the refering sites to my blog at the moment.
Granted, it takes work, but its really no more work than visiting blogs everyday (something you should be doing anyways). In the past two days, I’ve dropped over 600 cards. Granted, I find maybe one or two sites worth visiting again to read regularly for every 20 I visit, but they are sites I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Plus, anything that gets more eyes on my page, is a good thing in my book.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I have Google Analytics, plain and simple it is horrible. Entrecard is reffering 33% of my traffic, but is it really time well spent?
A well designed and informative blog is key to keep readers, especially on drive by social networking such as Entrecard and Stumbleupon.
January 10th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I’ve had tremendous success with Entrecard myself. Made a few friends (surprised even me bec I made none on Mybloglog) and have the same people dropping over and over again- which means there is “stickiness” to this whole thing. Also, the bounce rate is getting lower and lower (finally!)
Don’t even compare this to Myblogrush which gave me nothing, not even 1 extra reader.
Here i have posted the Great Entrecard Giveaway which has given these sites tremendous traffic / readers and I have to say mine as well.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Mybloglog is useless, plain and simple.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
While I like the idea of Entrecard, I think it is really hurting blogs in the end. People are spending more time “dropping their cards” and watching their traffic go up, but this large amount of visitors means nothing. Many of these users are coming simply to drop their own card, not even reading a single post. I’m going to stick with it for a bit, but I’m not sure how long.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I think the vast majority are. I try to comment on blogs I can relate to, which is not every blog but a good portion of them. Traffic is traffic, without user interaction though it can be a lot less meaningful.
I have gotten all these responses with Entrecard, how about that.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I think that with Entrecard, you need to think long term. My blog has been in existance for three weeks. I good amount of my traffic right now is coming from Entrecard. I get comments from regular card droppers and I have found a good amount of sites I enjoy and that I comment on.
I firmly believe in building community to help your blog succeed. Then again, I’ma writer at heart and my degree is in English and not Marketing.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I love your blog by the way, its great. Writing is a past time of mine as well, I am currently taking high level English classes and am working on marketing as well. Then again, I’m only 15.
January 11th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Entrecard DOES NOT BRING ANY READERS!
I dropped my card on the big kids blogs and all I got was a lot of click throughs and no subscriptions, comments or anything.
Entrecard sucks.
Nuff Said.
January 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Your opinion seems warped. Although, niches are hard to market.
January 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I guess I’m trying to see long-term and hope to get members that will hang around. Sadly, although I’ve seen a spike in traffic, the vast majority simply drop their card and are gone in seconds. I’ve discovered many great blogs via Entrecard (including this one) and I make it a point to take a look around, comment, etc. when I drop a card….it would be nice if all Entrecard users did the same.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Well to be honest, I subscribed to your blog after finding it on Entrecard. So it might not be that worthless.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Thanks Julie! I try to comment on blogs that I can relate to, or dare I say, click an interesting entrecard or another ad. I’ve found 75% of entrecard members are just there to drop and be gone.
Thanks for the subscribe esvl!
January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
@sir jorge
sorry to be the one to drop this ball, man, but your blog sucks. maybe thats why you didn’t get any subscribers
January 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Well steve, sorry to be the one to drop this ball, you’re an idiot.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I sense flaming….however, let me say this. Constructive criticism is GREAT. Just saying someones site sucks without reasoning is totally ignorant.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Steve’s site sucks, we all suck, muahahhah.
Do not declare war…because things can get very bad
January 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Haha, do I really need to close this post for comments? Anyways, Entrecard is gaining more steam it seems, will be interesting to see for sure.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I think Entrecard is a good way to bring visibility to your site and hopefully gain a few regular readers that will subscribe to your RSS feed. I didn’t know that the stats were updated at midnight. I also never thought anything about different time zones. I have read many post about Entrecard and no one else has addressed either of those points.
I found some really interesting blogs that I have added to my feed reader. If it weren’t for Entrecard I probably wouldn’t have discovered those blogs.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Quite possibly. However, have you ever just clicked on one site and gone on a clicking spree? I do that sometimes, quite fun and the best way to find new blogs.