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.
Written: Jun 28, 2008
Tags: entrecard, internet marketing, Web Development
The Webloglearner
June 28, 2008 @ 5:10 am | Reply
That was quick huh! I am actually the one who asked this question.
The following are my exact words:
“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!
What made me asked this is the fct the my Alexa is trying to plummet up from 9,xxx,xxx to 185,xxx on a weekly stat and currently, for my 3-month record, I am on 911,xxx (not the terrosris stuff) place. Since quantity-wise, i am making it through but I want to convert this to quality.
Since i am a 3-week old member of Entrecard, i want to do things right and i wanted to consult the “experts”, “pioneers” and the “veterans” in the community thus, the question popped. I have to admit that one of the very good answers I got was yours. But generally, all those contributions have made me make some plans in the future.
I am not saying that i am getting zero from entrecard. As mentioned above, i can consider it “much” as a return although i cannot discount my hard work as well. But the truth is, we are human beings and are insatiable and if we are given something we like, we even like it more and ask for more, right? I also got constant readers from EC too and good interaction…
Thus, i want to convert this quantity of traffic that I get. In fact, with Entrecards, I got more additional ideas in my blogs through comments. But i want more…more and more. I mean, if we can maximize the service to our own good, why NOT?
Rogue, The Webloglearner
Dennis Edell
June 28, 2008 @ 10:08 pm | Reply
I found out pretty early on, that it is much more effective to concentrate on the AMAZING and seemingly endless networking aspects of EC then any pittance of traffic…that’s just a bonus for me.
The Webloglearner
June 29, 2008 @ 10:11 pm | Reply
@ Dennis, that thing I cannot do. The links are impossible to be established by me. Why? I need a custom domain. In fact I bought last June first week. It did not function. I bought again another two days ago…im still hoping it would function. How can I link to others or request exchange links or even buy links when I dont know what url to use?
Gary R. Hess
June 29, 2008 @ 11:19 pm | Reply
Alright, one thing at a time
1. You bought a domain, but can’t figure out how to connect it to your blog? Or what problem are you having with it exactly?
2. Link exchanges aren’t needed; neither is requesting links from anyone. Just make quality content, submit your blog to site directories, rss directories, and get your stuff stumbled and social bookmarked. Continue building a social community.
If you must, just submit your blogspot url and once your get your domain figured out just place a link to the new blog stating it has moved or if possible place a 301 on the blogspot (not sure if that is possible).
Dennis Edell
June 30, 2008 @ 6:14 am |
I’d like the answer to #1 also, that part really confused me.
I need to disagree a bit though…linking strategies are of utmost importance for good search engine rankings…however that’s off-topic from what I originally meant.
Sorry for any confusion but by “networking” I merely meant getting yourself out there using Entrecard.
Find others in your niche, subscibe to feeds, comment on posts, get to know other bloggers as best as you can….this has done amazing things for me so far.
The Webloglearner
June 30, 2008 @ 12:34 pm |
Yes, I already bought two domains to be specific. this is the problem with blogger. They advertise that if you bought a domain from them, it is automatically configured in the blogspot. However, all I got was 404 all the time and i was lost. I made a second try buying another from them. Maybe this time it is less trouble. But now it is been days and it is not up yet. Blogger advised to wait for up to 3 days. It’s been more than three days (for both domins).
Why I don’t worry about linking by now is because it would be a waste. Better to try the effort when the domain is finalized making it a single work only, advantageous to both me and those who would exchange links with me.
I have submitted to some directories already. this domain issue is really stopping me!
Of course I see link exchange as good thing. I even posted about it in my google PR topic/post/blog entry.
Jason
July 5, 2008 @ 11:11 pm | Reply
Like most things i’m finding that EC is working better for me if i’m paying more attention to who i let on my site. I check all sites before letting them advertise and make sure that they a real people, with real blogs. This means to me that i get real traffic back.
bleuken
July 12, 2008 @ 6:16 pm | Reply
I have a new blog site and EC really helps me starting to have new few readers. I’m not a constant EC dropper but I believe in its power on increasing your traffic and eventually your avid readers. Good point here mate!
The Webloglearner
June 30, 2008 @ 12:35 pm | Reply
yes, it is importnt. i explained my reason in previous comment why… because of domain probs casued by blogger.