What is Entrecard?

01.10.09 at 2:27 pm by Kara_S

Entrecard is a word that I heard on Twitter about a month ago. Someone said that Entrecard increased their blog traffic, so I was curious to know what it is. Who doesn’t want more traffic?

Here’s the blurb from Entrecard…

Entrecard is a free blogging network that truly brings visitors to your blog. By joining our network, you can earn Entrecard credits which allows you to display an ad of your blog on other blog sites within our Network.

How does Entrecard work?

Basically, every blog that participates in Entrecard has a special button in its sidebar. You can see mine under “Blog of the Day” (right underneath my button for Garden Vines and above my Twitter updates).

When an Entrecard member visits my blog, they click on the “Drop” button and leave a “calling card” in my Entrecard inbox. The “calling card” allows me to see who visited so I can visit their blog in return. To drop my “calling card” on another blog, I click their “Drop” button and I earn one Entrecard credit.

After accumulating a couple of credits, I’m able to purchase one day of advertising on someone else’s Entrecard button on their blog. My advertisement exposes my blog to readers I might not otherwise find.

(The thousands of blogs on Entrecard are broken into categories, so it’s fairly easy to find bloggers with similar interests.)

Does Entrecard take work or a lot of time?

I average about 45-50 drops a day, but I also don’t drop every day. Making 45-50 drops takes me about 20-30 minutes. I visit each of the blogs that I “drop” on and read their new posts.

I’ve also created a group in my Google Reader for Entrecard blogs so I can routinely drop on those blogs that I like.

The number of drops is limited to 300 per person per day. Personally, I’ve never achieved that many and really don’t plan to.

Another way to earn credits is to post regularly on your blog. I’m not 100% certain about this but I think each post earns 25 credits. It might be each day that you post that earns credits – so if you post 3 times today, you’d get 25 credits for posting, not 75. I’m not entirely clear on how that works so if someone knows, please tell me in the comments!

For me, the hardest work is finding blogs that I want to advertise on and that I can afford with my credits.

Has Entrecard increased my blog traffic?

Most definitely! I’ve seen a significant increase in traffic over the past week as more people are being exposed to my blog via my drops and the “advertising” I’ve done on other sites.

Since I started about a month ago, my traffic has gone up by at least 30%, possibly more. I’ll have a better idea when January is finished.

If you have Entrecard and I haven’t dropped on you, let me know in the comments so I can visit you!