WTF is an Entrecard?
by in The Lab on Friday, May 9, 2008
Whenever a new “get a bazillion visitors to your blog” system comes along, I get nervous. Well, “nervous” isn’t the right word, more like skeptical. I mean, remember BlogRush? Don’t get me started on that shit.
Anyway, there’s a new player in the market: Entrecard. More external javascript, more advertising click-back equations, more orange.
Calculating the “Price”
It’s all about shameless self-promotion. As usual.
So by “Entrecard” really they mean “Advertisement.” Your card graphic is an ad. Why not just call it that? You go around to other sites that use the Entrecard system and “Drop” your card off. This apparently gets you points which can then be spent on getting your ad to show up in other people’s Entrecard spot.
The goal is for the ad spots to stabilize at the maximum price users are willing to pay for the spot (again, “drops” being the currency here).
Ads waiting on spot Formula Final price 0 2 2ec 1 2 2ec 4 2*2*2*2 16ec 8 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2 256ec 10 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2 1024ec
Overall Usefulness
Eh.
I can see this being another fad system like BlogRush and the ones before it were. It’s primarily for people that don’t really care about mucking up their site with javascript widgets ad nauseam.
While thumbing through the catalog of sites, it seems to be mostly spam blogs.
That’s not to say there’s zero value here. There’s something. I mean, the statistics seem to work pretty well and they’re very responsive. However, I changed my ad/entrecard to an image an hour ago and it still shows up as the default text (that point is rather irrelevant though since I don’t plan on using Entrecard).
I did see it on Problogger, which seems odd to me. Does Darren really need the traffic from this? I’m assuming (read: hoping) he’s getting paid for that placement.
The Experiment
So here’s the experiment. I will not be placing this on my site, but instead on this post. While the post lives on the front page of Vocino.com I will be running a mad crazy Entrecard dropping operation.
We’ll then buy some ads and see how the return on my investment is as per Analytics.
Entrecard traffic also depends on the card you designed. Otherwise, the traffic will just come from the directory (where user search for a place to put their ads) and other people’s inbox.
by the way, care for a link exchange with mine? I’ve added yours btw :)
great points! have a try, and tell us :)
see what people are saying about their burnout with this service – http://leedoyle.com/entrecard-burnout.html
Did I just dropped on another spam blog??
No man!!!
I think some are really good.
It is like a highway, brings u traffic, it is upto you how do u maintain it.
Some are loyal, some just drop and fly!!
LOL! Entrecard is so great. I’m so addicted to it now. I joined a few days ago and I’ve been a 300-card-a-day-dropping-fool! We’ll see how far it goes.
I tried to get onto blog rush but they want you to have a certain amount of comments on your site so I’ll keep looking!
This is not bad for a passive income. Its like a mine of gold.
its supposed to be a good promoting tool
Travis-
I’ve noticed a lot of sites using this, what was the outcome of your experiment?
entrecard is usefull for bumping up alexa ranking. a usefull indicator for advertisers wanting to buy ads on your site
Speaking of shameless self promotion…
Anyway, it does get old pretty quick, but if you need something to kill your boredom for an hour or so, it will fill the requirement fairly well.
Nice post, and I look forward to more.
I think it depends on what category your blog is in and who’s attracted to advertising on your blog. I have a blog on writing. Not making money writing, or making money writing on the internet or making money writing names on people’s faces with Sharpies. It’s about the craft and business of writing. Therefore, I tend to stay in the Literature & Writing category, as far as advertising. I’ve gotten some regular readers and I’ve found some really cool blogs.
Additionally, I don’t allow “make money” ECs on my blog. There are a lot of blogs I don’t allow on mine. I can be mean and discriminatory like that :) I will allow non-writing ECs, if the blog is interesting to me or is a subject I think some of my readers might enjoy.
Do I have the stats of Problogger? No. Probably won’t ever. But EC has been a good environment for me, in general, in promoting my blog. It’s limited, sure, but it’s not a complete waste of time for me either.
Best,
VG