Entrecard blog traffic - the way to go?
Everyone loves a good traffic. What good is a blog without traffic?
Much has been said about blog traffic lately and how Google has launched its attacked on selling text links and also the most recent one where they go for those who were paid to blog. Well, they are Google and they can do whatever they like. They do not like paid posts as they will affect the relevance and quality of their search results. Like it or not, we still depend on them to make money online somehow. And their action or rather reaction to the poor response to their warnings is definitely going to affect blog traffic of those who were slapped.It may be wise (or not so wise depends on how you perceive the importance of Google) to look for ways to increase traffic that are not so dependent on Google search. In my humble opinion, BlogRush failed to deliver the traffic after all the rush as far as I am concern. The traffic generated were insignificant but I do say that their dashboard reports are quite impressive. Blogging Zoom performs better and the results are quite immediate. But it is still dependent on Google. Blogging Zoom drives traffic from among its members and readers and the more popular your post is, the higher chance of getting more traffic. Riding on their expertise with respect to SEO, Blogging Zoom will also help to get your post rank higher in Google search and will direct more residual traffic over the long term. One way or another, Google still comes into the picture.
I would like to dedicate this post to Entrecard, the new way of traffic generation. Traditional business cards works wonders in the bricks and mortar businesses world and it is a must to have, but does it work in the online business? Entrecard is a platform for bloggers to exchange e-business cards. You can design your own e-business card or use their ready made templates. You display your e-business card widget on your blog and other bloggers can introduce themselves by dropping their cards using the widget on your blog. You can do the same to other bloggers by visiting their blogs and drop your card. Since the community is still not that large, you will see immediate results. Bloggers will be dropping their cards the moment your widget is up. I got my first card within an hour or so, and within the next few hours, I have got 20 cards. When you introduce yourself , your card will show up in the blog owner’s inbox. Curiosity side of our human nature will make him click on the link to see who dropped the card. So within the few hours of setting up my widget, I have 20 visitors to my blog. Just imagine the amount of traffic your blog will have when the community grows bigger. But the visitors may or may not read your blog posts. To make them stay longer, make sure that your blog has interesting posts to entice them to stay and read.
Every time you drop your card into someone’s else widget, you will be awarded one credit and the person you drop will also be awarded a credit point. You can use your accumulated points to buy ads in other people’s blog. Your ad will be displayed on their widget for a day. The cost of the advertisement depends on how popular their widget is (ie the number of cards that they received). Each ad will be displayed for only a day and you will have to queue up for your turn if there are more than one ad waiting to be displayed.
This is a fun way of generating traffic to your blog and does not depend on Google. Even if Google slaps your Pagerank, the traffic generated this way will not be affected. But there is some set back though. The widget does not work properly in Internet Explorer. So if anyone using IE, he will not be able to drop a card. This is a major set back and if not rectified, the service will not gain popularity. I spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out how to drop a card because I was using IE. Many would have given up in such circumstances and spend the time doing something more fruitful. The widget works fine with Firefox (see the sample of the widget at the top right hand corner of this blog)
If you have used this service, I would like to hear your comments and feedback.
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This sounds pretty interesting, and it’s the first I’ve heard of it. How long has this service been around? How many people use it?
The concept sounds pretty interesting, though. I’ll give it a try later this weekend
Even though there is a set back, i think every small blogger should try it. Probably they will fix this error soon. Sounds really interesting thanks! By the way, you are still using PayPerPost disclosure, did Google punish you too? One more question; we are using the same theme, how did you manage to insert Solobis banner just below My Blog Log widget ? I could not manage it
Thanks in advance!
Jason,
Yes, Entrecard is interesting alright. It is fun to to drop your card at other people’s blog. It is quite new but not mentioned anywhere when they started. From their list, I think there are about 200 users as at now.
Mert Erkal,
Hope they fix the error soon too. On your questions, I use PayPerPost disclosure on my other blog which I set up specifically for PayPerPost. The blog is less than 90 days old so PayPerPost rejected my application. I am not sure whether I was punished by Google because of the disclosure but I think it happened. The PageRank for that blog stays at zero not matter what I did to make it rank higher. Guess it is a Google slap
On your second question, to insert the banner, you go to your Presentation, and then Theme Editor and click on l-sidebar.php. You copy the code from your Solobis account and paste it right below your MyBlogLog code. But before you do this, you have to upload your Solobis banner image to your hosting account and point your image source to that the folder in which you have stored the image.
Well, so far it is doing nothing for my traffic. Neither is Blogrush, although it is delivering a few more.
I get my traffic from StumbleUpon, Blogging Zoom, Sk*rt, and other sites.
We have resolved the IE7 error, our apologies for that, it was an P3P privacy thing that was incompatible with a piece of our architecture - didn’t realise until it was too late. It took quite a bit of work to get it sorted.
As far as using IE… why? FireFox is a better browser and overtaking IE. Or use Flock a Mozilla based browser built for those that that do a lot of social stuff. I still have IE installed but only for testing purposes. I posted a review of Flock on Blogging Zoom (username: lenzjo) if you’re interested.
EntreCard has done fine by me so far, I’ve had 172 new visitors in the last 4 days. It takes a while dropping cards and reading posts, commenting etc. but if I can keep up the 40 new visitors a day then for now its worth it until search traffic builds up.
I’m really enjoying the whole Entrecard thing.
Not only am I getting some great exposure for my blog but I’m also checking out some new and really interesting sites and people.
Only thing is…. I’m supposed to be working!
i jsut install the widget..
i found it fun!!!
Today installed the widget and got few hits. I’m kinda excited on EntreCard
http://richbeaver.com/marketing/entrecard-free-advertising-for-bloggers/
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I love entrecard. I’ve received so much traffic and quality readers. It has helped my site exponentially.
i know that this is a nice idea but the thing is that THIS TRAFFIC IS USELESS….. most of the people want to make more credits by dropping cards like mad dogs….they come to your site and start searching for the entrecard widget….they don’t see the site they just want credit….THEY DROP CARD AND LEAVE….. they DO NOTHING AT THE SITE…..some sites are reporting 100% BOUNCE RATE….i am getting around 60% bounce rate on my new blog :Best Pics and Wallpapers