Entrecard - Should it stay or should it go?
Make Money Online, Blog June 4th, 2008 
Entrecard, a well known traffic exchange widget, which has generated a big buzz a while back. It actually made me got rid off BlogRush widget at first place. Personally, BlogRush is the the most useless widget, it only brought me few visitors in 4 months before I got rid of it.
As a blogger, generating quality traffic, earning readers’ trust and increasing readership are more important than receiving thousands Entrecard credit with no increase of readership. It’s time to review my traffic sources while I will spend more time on generating organic search engine traffic for my online business.
Has Entrecard drove me the traffic I really need?
In the past few months, I have cumulated more than few thousand points. It’s not very much compare to other well know blogs. I was so exciting to see my credit growing so fast every morning. I visited hundreds blogs, drop my cards on them and earn some small credits on advertising Entrecard. I became addicted Entrecard. In order to earn credits and be able to advertise my 125×125 banner on other blogs, I have to keep dropping my card to pay for the advertisement.
It turns out that I don’t even pay attention on the content of the blogs I dropped my cards. I believe that’s exactly the same behavior when other blogger drop their card on mine. What’s the point to generate that useless traffic and wasting time?
Entrecard don’t even generate the same amount of traffic that one StumbleUpOn thumb up brought me. While I am writing this blog post, I got an email from Entrecard about the new feature. They now allow members to buy credits directly from Entrecard. I believe that member will be allowed to sell their credits on Entrecard later. Many members are already selling their entrecard points out side of Entrecard. I estimate the value of my 4000 entrecard points. It’s about US$38.00.
Entrecard drive me nut!
I know many bloggers have the same questions that I have in my mind. If you can sell your Entrecard points, will you keep dropping your cards and sell them for profit? The reality is this. It may take me an hour (60 minutes) to drop 120 cards and receive 120 drops from other bloggers. That’s equal to 240 Entrecard points. That’s equal to how much money? I don’t even want to count. It’s wasting time!
So what is my conclusion?
I am going to give away all my Entrecard credit on the happiest blog in the world. You can find it at Happy News - Win 4000 entrecard points and free ads on the happiest blog! Once all credits are gone, I will ditch Entrecard forever.
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13 Responses to “Entrecard - Should it stay or should it go?”
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June 4th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Yes, very much sounds like EntreCard should go. Given the description of your usage practice, and other users, sounds like despite the traffic spike it’s actually reducing the value to your blog. Traffic without conversion or even time spent reading the homepage post is pointless.
…but it’s addictive. It’s particularly addictive in the early stages of blogging when numbers are small and you’re looking for encouragement. At that point you look more at raw visitor numbers, without considering the genuine value that they bring.
That’s the problem with the likes of EntreCard, they apparently bring no real value. You’re not going to benefit from EntreCard visitors either with advertising click-through or with engagement with your blog. At least with StumbleUpon, for all the weaknesses in the traffic they bring, there’s genuine benefit in the sites you can find.
I’m becoming increasingly wary of the sites that work to bring volume, because of the lack of value. I see traffic numbers increase only in comparison with average time on a site decrease massively, and bounce rates go up. I’d definitely prefer less visitors who are worth more.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:13 am
do agree with the author. it’s more a race and a game now than helping my blog grow. that traffic is an mirage. people come and leave quickly, and my drop efforts are wasted.
there are other games that i could spend my time for pleasure
June 4th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Entrecard has evolved over time. It is not the same as it was when I first started. The community is small but it is very close. To get the most out of entrecard you need to take part in the community… This was people do not see just a CARD and 1EC… They see a blogger who they want to know more about.
I think it still has A LONG way to evolve and it will be very different in the next 3 months from what it is now. Once they have more than just Adspace to sell and credits can be used for more things I’m sure it will change.
The goal is to get good traffic though… Which it is not amazing for. If 100 people visit but only one reads… is that not better than 0? Maybe that one will stay and subscribe…
I found your site through EC btw
June 4th, 2008 at 10:27 am
You really should wait until the end of June. We are announcing a partnership that is going to increase the quality of your traffic a hundred times over. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
@Robin Cannon:
I have the same reaction to addict to Entrecard. I will see how far I can go with Entrecard. Working on the real long term traffic is the way to grow beyond what we expect. Thank you for stopping by.
@Brian:
Yes. We all have something really important to do to grow with out blog. Playing with widget don’t seem to be very productive.
Thank you for stopping by.
@Lee Doyle:
Thank you for stopping by. I bet you found me from the contest post in the Entrecard forum. That’s my first time ever in my blogging life to start a contest. Other than that, I don’t get a lot of attention from Entrecard.
@Graham Langdon:
I will be interested to see what offer you are talking about. Your site is not even working. Thank you for stopping by!
June 5th, 2008 at 3:43 am
My opinion differ a little bit… If you have any creative stuff to fill up the entrecard space… then ditch entrecard ..and if you planning to leave it blank .. then its better to stick with entrecard … No matter how bad it is … I have found it useful … atleast the “Shop” section where I can get a logo or some design for 500 EC … However, I have also discovered new blogs tooo
… Have a look at this post 
June 5th, 2008 at 5:48 am
I can’t keep up with all these sites: Digg, Twitter, Blogcatalog, stumbleupon, mybloglog, technorati, mixx, entrecard - it’s just too much. You could spend days keeping up with all this. If you are not reading blogs and just dropping your entrecard on sites, that’s a good bet what most others are doing. This translates to Useless!
June 6th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m ready to ditch Entrecard as well. I think that the service has really run its course, and is no longer a vlauable source of good traffic, as it once was. Great post, I think you are right on the money
June 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
@Jim:
In the past few days, I don’t even have a lot of traffic to my site from EntreCard. I don’t know if I did it wrong. I don’t think people are following blog contest that much any more. I have seem few other blog contest out there, but there seem no interests at all. What’s wrong with the that?
I am giving it out anyway regardless how many are doing it.
June 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
[…] The Internet Entrepreneur Diary - Entrecard: Should It Stay or Should It Go? […]
June 9th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I see entrecard now as monetization not traffic driving. With the prices that entrecard credits are getting it is just another way to make money from your blog. Looking forward to this announcement that will increase traffic that Graham is talking about.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:30 am
I was a fan of entrecard a few months ago, seeing traffic stats shoot up was fantastic and I loved bumping into other blogs I otherwise wouldn´t have found.
but recently all I do there was go in to approve ads, and that is it, I really can´t be bothered to spend hours a day dropping to keep traffic from EC up, as soon as you stop, traffic goes down again, so I prefer spending that time on something more productive, like building links that will eventually create organic traffic
June 11th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
@Mirjam:
You are on the right track to build your organic traffic. Focus on the white hat SEO will lead you to the victory.