EntreCard exploded onto the blogging scene at the end of year and gained a huge presence on thousands of blogs. The site was marketed very strongly at some blog conferences and many popular bloggers added the Entrecard widget to their blogs and encouraged other bloggers do so as well.
I tried Entrecard myself for a few months but the longer I used it the more I realised how flawed and ineffective it is. Recently I have given some feedback to bloggers on their design and the first thing I always say to them is ‘Lose the Entrecard widget’. There are still thousands of bloggers using Entrecard so I thought it was about time I explained why bloggers are wasting their time with this service.
5 Reasons why you shouldn’t use Entrecard
Too many spammers
The community has a lot of spammers on it. Since joining up I’ve received a few dozen messages asking if I was interested in clicking on someones card on a regular basis if they did the same. I don’t think there’s any need for a message system in a site like this as it encourages a certain element to abuse it.
Credit system is seriously flawed
I spoke about this in April in my post EntreCard is going downhill. Put bluntly, the credit system is seriously flawed and incredibly easy for people to manipulate. They give credits for dropping business cards on other blogs which means that bloggers with time on their hands can drop hundreds of business cards a day. Card drops also account for the advertising price of a blog which means that many blogs are overpriced by a huge amount. When I stopped using the Entrecard widget it cost 16 times more credits to advertise on blogs which had less than 10% of the subscribers and traffic BloggingTips has.
What this means is that people who don’t spend hours dropping cards will get a very poor return as the value of the credits they earn will be worthless because the credits they accumulate by placing the widget on their blog will not be enough to advertise their blog anywhere else. So to be able to compete with other blogs you might have to be accept that you have to drop a lot of cards. Are you willing to spend countless hours dropping cards or would you prefer to actually write some posts on your blog?
Traffic is not always targeted
If most of your blogs traffic comes from search engines or from links and referrals on other sites then the majority of your traffic will be targeted ie. the people who visit your site are actually interested in your blogs main subject. Targeted traffic is an important aspect which I hope all of you understand. Untargeted traffic is basically internet users who have no real interest in your website. For example, if your blog focuses on affordable sports cars, would you spend a few hundred dollars advertising on a blog about pregnancy?? Of course you wouldn’t, as you would get little return for your money.
When you place an Entrecard widget on your blog you are sending away traffic which was targeted although the traffic which is returned may not be (think about it, how many of your daily readers do you actually think comes from Entrecard?). One big reason for this is the difficullty in actually buying an ad spot on a good blog. It seems that any decent blog has it’s ad spot queued for weeks.
Adds clutter to your blogs design
The Entrecard widget is a classic example of Blog clutter ie. something which clutters up your design but offers no real value to readers.
Poor return
Entrecard was marketed as a business card tool which bloggers could use to promote their blogs but when you strip it down it is essentially a hyped up glorified banner exchange. And like any good banner exchange, those who display banners only get credit for a certain percentage of the impressions they display. With Entrecard you get 50% of the credits it costs other people to advertise on your blog.
What does this mean? Well, it means that even if Entrecard managed to stop people abusing their system and the cost of advertising on a blog was priced fairly, you would still only get 50% of a return at most. So if it costs Blog A 100 credits to advertise on Blog B and vice versa, both blogs would have to display the other blogs ad for 2 days in order to display their own banner for 1 day. However, there are so many people abusing this system that I doubt honest users are getting a 25% return.
Overview
In my opinion Entrecard is one of the best examples of blog clutter. It’s so easy to copy and paste the code onto your blog and display the widget however you should really think about the benefits you get from doing so. Put simply, Entrecard is a flawed system which is being abused by many people and you will send many more traffic than you will get in return.
I did Entrecard for a couple of months, but didn't find it to provide a good return for the time it required. After analyzing my second month's statistics and doing a redesign, I decided not to put the widget back on my redesigned site.
If your readers are interested, they can see my stats and conclusions at http://www.strategicmarketsegmentation.com/blog/i…
>Too many spammers
Hadn't got single spam message. I feel ignored.
>Credit system is seriously flawed
Flawed but it actually works. Straight 125×125 banner exchanges are terrible comparing to Entrecard (I am gathering data on them lately).
>Traffic is not always targeted
Drop and advertise on blogs in your niche to get targeted traffic. It may be not much for established blogs, but for beginners like me every visitor counts.
>Adds clutter to your blogs design
I've seen worse. Much worse.
>Poor return
I think pay for ads is down to 25% already.
Overall I think better of Entrecard after checking out some other widget/exchange options. It may be far from good but it actually works, grows at brings me some visitors. Plenty of other things can't offer some or even any of that.
I just recently dropped it from my blog. Aside from the reasons you stated, one of the reasons I decided to drop it was I was simply tired of having to approve ads. The number of low quality blogs in the systems means a high number of blogs that I simply don't want to advertise on mine. I would not accept those blogs advertising on mine if they were paying me why would I approve them for free? I think Entrecard has reached its peak.
> Flawed but it actually works. Straight 125×125 banner exchanges are terrible comparing to Entrecard (I am gathering data on them lately).
I disagree. If you exchange a banner ad with a site with similar traffic then you should expect a similar return. Compare this with entrecard where you get a 50% return on your credits.
> I think pay for ads is down to 25% already.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. Can you clarify this statement
>I disagree. If you exchange a banner ad with a site with similar traffic then you should expect a similar return.
For direct exchange – maybe. But those take time and communication to organize (I hadnt' yet made a single one even after few attempts with interested fellow bloggers). Main point of widgets/exchanges is to get some return with minimal manual work in my opinion.
But automated exchange systems have CTR of about 0.05-0.1%. Which in human words means you get nothing. Entrecard is decent comparing to that.
>> I think pay for ads is down to 25% already.
>I’m not sure what you mean by that. Can you clarify this statement
I get 25% of credits spend for Entrecard advertising in my blog. Someone pays 16 credits, I get 4, rest are burned.
I actually put up entrecard on my blog as an experiment to see first hand its performance. I've invested a lot of time dropping cards on my niche, and even make it to the second row in my niche's front page. Traffic was good at a few hundreds unique per day, then I just stopped dropping cards altogether. In just a few days, I can see there's no more traffic from entrecard. Which generally means that most of them are dropping cards just to gain credit.
No doubt there are a few that stick with the blog, in fact continue to become a loyal reader. But with respect to the time spent, it is just not worth it.
Automated banner exchanges are very untargeted, hence the low click thru rates. They are quite awful and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Entrecard is only a little better.
What I'm trying to get across is that the visitors you get through entrecard rarely stay. Most traffic from entrecard is from other entrecard users who are dropping their business card and have no genuine interest in your blog. Therefore the traffic is untargeted.
Too many people using entrecard look at their traffic stats go up a little and think that they are getting a good deal. You need to think about the traffic which you are also sending away.
>What I’m trying to get across is that the visitors you get through entrecard rarely stay.
Most visitors rarely stay.
There is no traffic source that gives 100% of already loyal readers that are eager to subscribe and worship your blog. You have a shot at converting any visitor, no matter where he came from. Some are easier to convert, some aren't.
>Most traffic from entrecard is from other entrecard users who are dropping their business card and have no genuine interest in your blog. Therefore the traffic is untargeted.
Heavily depends on how you nake your drops. I only drop on blogs I read as I said above so I have close to none unrelated drops on me. I think it is actually intended by design usage of Entrecard that was forgotten by glorigying mass-droping and getting to top.
>Too many people using entrecard look at their traffic stats go up a little and think that they are getting a good deal.
I don't see much traffic from Entrecard but I see readers that I connected with through it.
> Most visitors rarely stay
I think you are misintepreting what I am trying to say
:)
There is a huge difference between targeted and untargeted traffic.
For example, search engine traffic is usually targeted. If someone is searching for help with how to place adsense on a blog then they might come across the article I wrote about it on BloggingTips. This is targeted traffic because the visitor is interested in the page subject.
Contrast this to me placing an ad on a joke website. Most of the visitors would not be interested on something related to adsense or wordpress so if they came to the site via an entrecard ad they would probably leave right away.
Now if you don't see the difference between these two types of traffic, targeted and untargeted, then you will never make good money on the internet.
Advertisements and landing pages have a high conversion whereas untargeted traffic does not. This is how webmasters are able to make money with little traffic ie. if their traffic is targeted and they are selling the right product on their site they can make much more than a site which is getting most of it's traffic from an unrelated website.
Another example. Last year one of the BloggingTips authors wrote an article about football on about.com. It annoyed a lot of people and was listed on the popular website fark. Someone on that site commented that she was writing at BloggingTips too so many of them came here to spam her posts. The result was I got more than 10,000 extra visitors that day. 2 days later traffic went back to normal and the rss feed count never went up. The reason : the traffic was untargeted.
Now contrast this with the paid review I got at JohnChow last March/April. The traffic was less than the total I received from Fark however it was targeted. The result, average traffic jumped up instantly and has never went below the previous level and the number of subscribers jumped a few hundred.
This highlights the big difference between targeted and untargeted traffic. It doesn't matter how much traffic Entrecard brings if people are simply dropping their cards and leaving. All it does is artifically inflate your traffic total.
>This highlights the big difference between targeted and untargeted traffic. It doesn’t matter how much traffic Entrecard brings if people are simply dropping their cards and leaving. All it does is artifically inflate your traffic total.
My point (it doesn't seem to reach either
) :
1. People who mindlessly drop hundreds of cards daily get plenty but untargeted traffic.
2. People who drop consciously on blogs that they are interested in attract small traffic but of visitors with similar interests. Which is targeted.
Entrecard is a tool. Result depends on how you use it.
And other reason being, it makes the page to load slow…
I will remove it soon…
I've been considering dropping EntreCard. The traffic isn't what is used to be. I still get the occassional burst but it doesn't happen often. Nowadays I think of it more as site branding and getting my logo out there for people to see. I'm not expecting people to click to me. As for abuse, I only approve and apply to sites that I know. Most of these people are blog friends anyway. Like I said it gets my logo out there on their sites.
But it may be getting dropped soon.
Everything that made to the net have their +ve & -ve effect.
Its up to the user to use it correctly and ethically.
For me, entrecard is good for traffic ranking and in the same time motivate me to blog frequently.
Just my Opinion.
Thanks.
How can you use it correctly and ethically and still get positive results. As I mentioned, because of people actively turbo dropping business cards, blogs with less than 100 subscribers cost 16 times more to advertise than on BloggingTips which had 2000+ at the time. This meant that I had to have an advertisement on my blog for 32 days to have my ad 1 day on theirs….mmm no thanks!!!
The system rewards those who abuse the system. Aslo, do you really think it’s good for traffic ranking. How many of those people who visit your blog via entrecard stay around and read your blog. How many do you think drop their card and just leave. As I said, it all comes down to targeted traffic.
You just don't know how to work it. Some people teach about getting traffic and increasing subscribers but can't see the value of having the ability to message site owners who will be able to visit you, and check you out if they want.
Surely, some "guru" can find a way to use that kind of system? I think the main strength of EC is the ability to communicate, some abuse it, but it can be helpful if you have a good agenda in mind.
Good job using Entrecard for this linkbait article, btw.
Great post!
I've benefited immensely using Entrecard. Sure a lot of the traffic is "drive by" but more and more is sticking over time. My comments are slowly but surely increasing and the average visit time is also increasing. Quite frankly blog content wins out every time, no matter the method people use to drive traffic. I actually get messages from people using Entrecard asking me when my next post will be published and people wishing I posted every day rather than about every other day.
Automated banner exchanges are very untargeted, hence the low click thru rates. They are quite awful and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. Entrecard is only a little better.
T think entrecard have a great value for a new blog, but for established blog, entrecard is not to useful. Great article anyway… Thanks for share it.
Anyhow, maybe it's a matter of one's goals behind their blogging endeavor as to whether Entrecard is valuable tool or a waste of time and space.
Personally, I've had a great time since doing the Entrecard Shuffle. I've even mastered the Entrecard 300-step, but the vast majority are dropped on blogs I've come to know and enjoy since signing on. I've "met" a wide variety of artists of all sorts on Entrecard and I truly enjoy visiting their blogs. Since most artists do not post every single day (otherwise art basically doesn't happen) dropping 300 cards can be done rather expeditiously.
My traffic has increased a LOT since joining. The bounce rate is high, but so are the number of returning visitors, which I can surmise because of the number of comments, and the frequency of individual commentators, has increased by a large factor.
I guess it works for those of us in smaller niches. I imagine if one's blog is all about making money on-line and/or exists solely for the purpose of affiliation, then Entrecard is definitely NOT the way to go. But it has certainly broadened my horizons and I cannot believe that is a bad thing, or even a waste of my time.
As for the arguments over the Entrecard economy … frankly, it goes over my head. I even majored in business, but that was well over a quarter century ago and more than a few brain cells have gone bye-bye. But I found myself in 2nd place in my category (Fashion) in about three weeks, so I must intuitively be doing something right. I get disappointed when I see the value of advertising on my space drop to 512 (especially when my 3rd place neighbor's was commanding 4096!!!!) but I remind myself that it really ain't money. Besides, the going rate of the two Project Wonderful spots on my blog is currently at $.30/day each which is more than most of what I see out there. And that is money I could actually take to my bank. That wouldn't be my reality if it wasn't for Entrecard.
Like so many things, it's different strokes for different folks. There is no broad stroke that applies to the majority anywhere.
(BTW … we are only getting 25% of the credits "paid" to display an advertiser's card.)
I also don't like entrecard. My experience with it is that visitors from it are of very low quality. It's like Digg's traffic. It drives a flood of low converting (if at all) traffic.
Entrecard gets on my nerves sometimes, but it is useful. For my blog/site – I do pretty good traffic, issue is "bodybuilders' are not exactly into using the Alexa toolbar, seriously. I was doing an easy XX,XXX uniques a month, and had an abhorrent Alexa due to the market I was targeting. Wiht a week of the EC widget my Alexa went to an acceptable for the niche [not good] level.
I am not a chain dropper, well I guess maybe I am, but I have a lot of free time and read most of the blogs – and as we see comment as well http://www.bloggingtips.com/wp-includes/images/sm…
Using the credits for advertising is a massive waste most times, and I personally don't even allow advertising on my widget
it's not like that Entrecard Is a bad thing to use for every blogger..It's among the top things by which any beginner can start of blogging with good amount of readers…I myself needed such type of system which can help me place the first step in the blogging world..Entrecard really helped me in doing so..
Entrecard is a great way for beginners to get traffic to their blogs. It is also a good way for beginners to meet other bloggers, get advice, tips, etc to help them increase the quality of their blog.
Uh… EC isn't that bad… I am wondering why there's so much hate in this article.
I am using EC now and getting decent amount of traffic. However, my main traffic source relies on backlinks, blogcatalog and affiliate links.