There was a question raised on Entrecard’s forum that asked:

“Let’s face it. Dropping is the important thing to the majority.

Do you get much internal links from those 300 drops at all? Just curious…”

The truth is, if you just drop and never mind about my articles, why should I mind yours?

Who wish to have higher quality traffic from EC? I am ONE!

Here’s my response:

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I have a few answers that might help.

When you joined EC, what was your purpose? Was it to: 1) Gain readers from the EC community. 2) Gain credits so you could advertise on other blogs. 3) Gain readers from non-ECers. 4) $$$ (can be comments or buys)

Most people would probably say all three. But there lies the problem. They are all mutually exclusive (besides #2 within the EC community).

When you advertise on EC according to the ‘popularity’, # of drops, or price you are advertising to other ECers and hoping for EC readers.

When you advertise according to alexa, compete, or Google Trends you are advertising for non-ECers. When this happens, chances are you won’t receive as many drops. I call this the ‘John Chow’ effect. When an ECer advertises on JohnChow.com they are expecting hundreds of drops. This just doesn’t happen because he isn’t as active in the community as some of the other high priced advertising spots. However, he may provide 70 clicks and 30 drops. Which means the 40 people who didn’t drop were interested in only your ad and not the fact that it was part of the community.

When someone advertises for $$$ or comments, they are hoping for visitors interested in their product or specific blog. This is something else entirely. Instead of solely advertising to the highest price or newest blog, they are restricted to a sole category or categories specific to their blog type. This limits the amount drops if their category is small or inactive.

Of course, sometimes you hit goldmine websites and get #1, #3 and #4, but it is rare. If a website is extremely popular in both EC and non-EC readers they of a much higher quality and will provide benefits you want to keep secret.

Since I didn’t want to completely take over the conversation, I thought I would expand on my response here instead.

Who you drop cards on is a very important part of the equation. Do you drop on your own category, a related category, many different categories, new members, old members, a mixture? Each has its own benefit and disadvantage.

There are several other factors that play a role as well, such as activity level of those you drop on. Are they active enough to even see that you dropped your card on their site? Do they return the drop?

With all things being equal, what category you drop on is important. If you own a web development site, dropping a card on a home improvement blog isn’t going to benefit you as much as another blog in web development. However, dropping on an Internet marketing blog may be just as beneficial. Although, that is not to say someone in the home improvement category wouldn’t find your blog meaningful, they may very well. There is just a lesser chance of that happening.

The disadvantage of staying within only your own category or related categories is the lack of eyes. Not as many Entrecarders will see your site if you drop only within one or two categories. Also, members from other categories may very well be interested in your website. Just because someone writes about vacations in Hawaii doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in web development or comic strips.

The same goes for advertising. Are you advertising on random categories or ones specific to your niche? If it is a random blog, chances are your site will receive clicks from ECers but not necessarily non-ECers. Therefor, advertising within your niche is preferred to those wanting to expand their readership further than Entrecard members.

If your sole point of dropping cards is to gain credits instead of gaining readers, then dropping on semi-popular blogs may be of more use. Blogs within the 128-512 range are, more often than not, not dropping 300 cards per day, but still dropping. This makes your chance of a returned drop more favorable.

To answer the original questions (FINALLY!):
I don’t drop 300 cards per day (although, I use to! For only a week or two though). I have received some quality links through Entrecard. But it isn’t necessarily because I have dropped so many cards. I believe it is more due to the content, in my case contests. A few months ago 1,000 credits was A LOT, thus my contest did fairly well… and I received links from them. I have also received links because of the ‘most droppers in a month’ and links from other blogs that have a ‘latest droppers’ list (although, this is arguable on how important that list is).

As to your second question, some Entrecarders do in fact read the article. For me, I read quite a few. The problem is, the majority of blogs I check daily only blog once or twice weekly, so commenting is limited and only adds to the ‘bounce rate issue’. If an article is interesting, I comment.

I have gotten quite a few comments from Entrecarders and a few RSS subscriptions as well. Nothing major, but every little bit helps. Articles about Entrecard, contests, and humor seem to do the best.

The point is, everyone views Entrecard differently. There are so many different strategies and opportunities within the system it is scary. Get this: there are actually people who even view Entrecard for the blogs and don’t even have a card! Crazy, isn’t it?

I hope this clears up a few things. If not, feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer.

I have been a long time Shoemoney reader, thus commented quite a few on his blog. This morning I received an email from Jeremy:

Dear Gary R. Hess,

Congratulations! You are one of the top 100 commentors on shoemoney.com. I would like to thank you by sending you a free shoemoneyshirt if you are within the continental US.

Please reply to this email with your shirt size and your mailing address.

All responses must me back by July 3rd 2008. Also please feel free to send us a picture of you in your shirt and we will post your picture in the gallery and also give you a free link!

Thanks for all your support and comments with the blog,

Jeremy Schoemaker

Pretty sweet if you ask me! A free shirt? Hell yeah!

I guess all the time I spent reading his articles finally paid off

In the last article I spoke about setting work hours to help productivity. By doing so, we force ourselves to work. But in order for this to be productive we must take notes during our time off.

During my time off, I do the normal leisure: eat, play video games, watch sports and movies. I do not consciously think of what to take notes on. If something pops into my head, I record it/write it down. To do this, I must carry a voice recorder or notepad with me at all time. I use a Olympus VN-4100PC.

The most important time for taking notes isn’t when I am off work. It is when I am working. Part of my job is reading other blogs and seeing what is new in my industry. When I find something interesting, I write it down and I try to expand upon it. Sometimes I relate to the article so much that I have something else to add to the subject. This can result into more articles, ideas, and sometimes I even find advice to help me be more productive.

One particular way to create ideas for future articles is the mind map:

As you can see, each idea is branched off from the main idea. There are many subjects one can write about pancakes and each of those ideas can then be expanded upon, and so forth.

Each idea is another idea. This happens very often and helps one stay active.

Ribbons for Change is a plugin to help raise money or provide services for organizations around the world.

The Ribbons for Change plugin adds a ribbon to the corner of your blog (your choice of which side) using javascript. The ribbon is then linked to the corresponding foundation.

Regular sized ribbons (there are also small versions of each):

Download

ribbons-for-change.zip 0.1

Installation

1. Unzip ribbons-for-change.zip into your plugins folder.
2. Activate plugin within your WP-Admin.
3. Within your WP-Admin go to Settings/Ribbons.
4. Select the ribbon you want to use and click Save.

When I first began working from home I was extremely productive and energized. I worked 18 hours a day and dreamed about what I would work on when I awoke. I had no reason to take breaks or even eat in the dining room or take time to play video games. I was unstoppable. This went on and on, until I finally crashed.

As I looked out the window, I noticed something. I was out of ideas. I had no clue what I would work on next. I felt like I accomplished everything, yet nothing. I went weeks without working on another article or even bothering to write code for a new widget. I couldn’t stand sitting at my desk for more than 10 minutes. I finally hit the invisible wall.

After some time had passed, I said enough is enough. I need to get back to work or everything I had done will go to waste. I changed the way I acted towards work and separated it from leisure time. I decided it was time to set work hours and to stick with it, even if I had ideas that just couldn’t wait.

Soon, article after article was coming out. I was re-energized and yet, somehow I was enjoying work more than ever before. I was productive and satisfied with the way other areas of my life were going as well. I had more time to spend watching movies, playing video games, and most importantly watching baseball.

By forcing myself to stick to a schedule I became more productive. If an idea pops into my head I write it down or use a voice recorder. I just don’t work on the idea right away. I wait until the next time I go to work. I take weekends off and even holidays.

This is how it should be, at least for someone like me.