How to use EntreCard effectively / The 10 rules of EntreCard dropping

Written on September 24th, 2008 by Richard Catto

This is a guest post by Richard Catto of Cape Town news. The opinions expressed in this article are mine and not necessarily those held by EntreCard.

Amassing EC credits
The whole idea of EntreCard is not to amass EntreCard credits. If you manage to amass 1 000 000 EC, you will still not be a real millionaire. You will still be broke in real life.

The real goal of EntreCard
The real idea behind the EntreCard community is to PROMOTE your blog.

You want to increase your traffic and enlarge your community of regular readers. You do not want to become an EC millionaire. So spend your credits on advertising. Dump it regularly on advertising, even if that advertising, at times, is not particularly effective. Keep spending it in different places until you find where it works best.

Those who came before
Before EntreCard came along, there were others. Many others. The first blogging community (or social network) that I joined was MyBlogLog. Then blogcatalog. Then BlogRush. StumbleUpon. Digg. Reddit. FaceBook.

BlogRush came along just before EntreCard and it promised huge amounts of additional traffic. For each time your BlogRush widget displayed, your latest blog post would be displayed somewhere on someone else’s BlogRush widget along with 4 other headlines.

BlogRush failed miserably, because nobody clicked on the stories syndicated throughout the BlogRush network.

Where BlogRush failed, EntreCard saw a way to succeed.

Instead of promoting a single blog post via a text RSS feed headline, EC promotes the entire blog via a 125 pixel square graphic advert.

Where the EC traffic comes from
EC’s original idea was that it would drive traffic mainly via adverts placed on third party blogs.

However, as it has turned out, that is not the only way EC drives traffic to blogs. Sometimes adverts placed on an EC blog results in a very small amount of traffic. EC also generates lots of traffic via your drops on other EntreCarders’ blogs.

An EC ethic
An EC ethic arose out of nowhere that if you drop on someone, generally they will drop back on you. Some prefer to state this explicitly by belonging to an EC clique such as “U DROP I FOLLOW”, but generally more and more EC members are adopting this drop style even if they don’t announce it. I follow this method, and the more I follow it, the better it works for me.

The only way possible to get the most out of EC is to drop the maximum everyday. If you drop less than 300 entrecards a day, you are going to receive sub optimal results.

How I drop
I return drops from two lists I compile from cards in my inbox:

The first list contains those blogs I always drop on every day. This list includes my top droppers – that is everyone in my top 10 drop list and others who frequently drop on me, plus other blogs I include at my discretion. Currently I have about 45 blogs in this list. I intend restricting it to at most 100.

The second list comprises everyone else who has ever dropped on me. It’s getting longer and longer and it contains many more than 300 blogs, so obviously I cannot drop on everyone on the second list everyday. Instead I remember where I left off the previous day and start from there the next day. Currently I have over 1200 blogs in my second list, so it takes me roughly 4 days to go through the entire list before I start back at the beginning again.

Once I’ve gone through it once, I add to it any newcomers who have dropped on me. In this way, the list grows all the time. I also prune my lists to remove those who never drop back on me and those who drop out of EntreCard.

This method of mine, combined with regular advertising, has resulted in a lot of additional traffic to my blog. I also fairly regularly receive more than 300 drops back per day now. I saw results using this strategy within 7 days of starting it, and as time goes by it seems to be gaining more and more momentum for me.

The Ten Rules of EntreCard dropping
Here are my suggestions for the most effective EntreCard dropping strategy:

1. Never drop on those who don’t drop on you

If you drop on someone, and they never or seldom return your drop, you are wasting a precious drop on them. Rather find someone else who will always or frequently return your drop.

2. Always drop the maximum of 300 a day

If you drop less, you are guaranteed to receive less traffic than what you could have.

3. Drop as early as you can.

The EC drop count is reset to zero every day at midnight EDT (GMT-4) / EST (GMT-5). As soon as it is reset, start your fresh drops, because then others have the whole day to drop back on you, whereas if you start later, they may have finished dropping by the time you drop on them.

Drop on them first, if you can, and then your drop will be seen and returned.

4. Drop first on your top 10 droppers

Your top droppers are your most loyal droppers. Show them the same courtesy back or you might lose them to others who appreciate their loyalty.

5. Find ways to reward those who drop on you regularly.

If you reward those who drop on you regularly you will not only encourage those you reward to drop on you, but you will inspire others to start dropping on you regularly.

Some EntreCarders reward others by posting an article listing their top droppers and linking to their blogs. Others dole out EC credit bonuses. You can also add them to a special section of your blogroll. A simple thank you message sent via EntreCard also works wonders.

6. Find those who reward drop loyalty and drop on them everyday

This will get you more back links, more traffic and more regular readers.

7. Drop on more than 300 blogs every week

If you go through your inbox regularly, you will soon notice that you receive drops from more than 300 other bloggers. Since you can only drop on 300 blogs a day, it is impossible to drop back on everyone every day. You may even have more than 1000 different bloggers who drop on you regularly. The way to handle this is to add them to a long list and work your way methodically through it before cycling back to the beginning again.

8. Do not become set in your ways

If you only ever return drops on the same 300 blogs every single day, guess how many EC readers you will have? If you’re lucky, about 300. What if you want a lot more than 300 readers? What if you want 3000 or 30 000 or even 300 000 EC readers? How do you use the EntreCard network to expand your reach?

By dropping on new people every day.

As I go through my two lists, I will occasionally detour to drop on new blogs I come across. If they drop back, they will get added to one of my lists when I refresh them at the end of each drop cycle.

9. Use the EntreBar

With the introduction of the new EntreBar toolbar for Firefox web browser, EntreCard has made it easier to seek out the far corners of their network and reach new bloggers. Reserve about 50 drops a day for those uncharted waters. Always be thinking of getting new blood into your blog. Keep things fresh, keep things vibrant.

10. Combine dropping with regular advertising on EC blogs

As I mentioned above, advertising on EC blogs sometimes does not result in as many visits as dropping does. However, it still does bring extra traffic and new droppers, so advertise! It makes absolutely no sense to hoard EC credits, you might as well spend them each week on new blogs to increase your fame.

If you drop the maximum amount each day, you will soon get in excess of 500 EC a day, or over 3500 EC a week. Plus additional revenue from those advertising with you. Spend it each week on adverts. Blow your EC! Go on, blow it! You’ll get more again tomorrow, I promise you.

I hope this article will inspire you to get the most out of EntreCard. Your comments and questions are welcome and I will endeavour to answer as many as possible.

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