Entrecard Impressions
Entrecard is the newest fad to hit the Internet. I first read about it at Scribbles and Words. Jay wrote that if I didn’t have Entrecard, I should. (“Hmph. Who does he think he is!”)
Well, I have Entrecard now, and thanks to Jay, I know what to do with it. Sorta.
I’ve been seeing the strategy mentioned all over the past week or two. You can read about how to use Entrecard, reasons why you should use it, reviews, and interviews with the owners. Darren Rowse of Problogger promotes it as cheap, effective advertising and John Chow seems to like it too, among others. He’s also running a contest for free credits.
The strategy of Entrecard involves creating a small banner ad to promote your blog or business. You earn credits by running about the high-speed connection lines to drop your card on other people’s sites. Dropping a card means that the blog owner sees your card and potentially clicks through to read more, hire you or link to your site.
The credits you collect by dropping cards pays off. You can use credits to buy advertising space on a blog of your choice (if they accept you, that is.) Your banner ad displays on the blog until your turn is over and the ad is replaced by someone else’s.
Here are my first impressions of Entrecard:
I feel silly as hell spending time running about and dropping my card on sites, like I’m standing on the street corner handing out pamphlets and peddling my wares. I feel cheap. I don’t feel professional or that the action of indiscriminately dropping cards to earn credits makes business sense. It’s like saying, “Here, have my flyer. I don’t care that you don’t want it and I don’t want your business. I just want your credits. Thanks!”
An enormous amount of banner ads are either generic offerings from Entrecard’s plain selection or ugly as hell. People, if you’re going to advertise and market, make your ads appealing to encourage people to click through. Don’t use low resolution, blurry images or smeared colors. These are a huge turn-off to me.
More importantly, make ads appealing so that I want to post them on my site. Why should I post up a green creature with orange hair and a scribbled background on my blog? It’s ugly, it detracts from my blog image, and it brings down the look of my site.
Most ads are unclear. They have no text or stupid text or completely irrelevant text. The number one rule of copywriting is to never be clever. Be clear. What are you offering or selling? Why should I click your ad? A banner ad that says, “Don’t Press Here” or has no words at all means nothing to me. It’s wasted space.
The jury’s still out on what I want to do with Entrecard. Yes, I love new gadgets and toys to play with, but is this just a lower-level form of cheap advertising? Will it be effective? That all remains to be seen.
If anyone has experience with Entrecard, feel free to let us know how it’s worked for you so far. Oh, and while you’re here, go ahead. Drop your card.
21 Responses to “Entrecard Impressions”
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I think you know what this is. You “feel cheap”? There’s a very good reason for that.
Eschew this foolishness.
Hehehe… I love when you use that tone of grandeur.
Two points to make:
I’ve discovered that Entrecard provides small and new blogs with traffic they may find substantial when those numbers are small. It can be a good way to build up a reader base and attract attention.
(Note: not without a good card. There are some really butt-ugly useless cards out there.)
You can use Entrecard to advertise on larger blogs that you may not have had the chance to do so – for free. Problogger and John Chow have Entrecard, for example. Build up enough credits, and you get a square.
On the same line of thought, Problogger and John Chow have Entrecard. However – are they using it? Or are they just using it to let people work hard to advertise? Darren hasn’t dropped his card on me yet…
Okey dokey
Go ahead, pass out those pamphlets. After all, it’s only your integrity at stake
Gaaahhh! No! Don’t say that!!
Well, think about why you react that way..
Your first impression was right – it’s hucksterism.
Moreover, you aren’t a small or beginning blog. You have rank, visitors, visibility – why would you want to dirty your hands in this muck? Not that I could imagine why anyone but the most desperate would..
Just my opinion, of course. Everyone else may think it’s the bee’s knees.
Oh, one final thought. This is, of course, yet another pyramid marketing scheme.
Has there ever been a pm scheme that wasn’t utter b.s?
Hehehe… I shoveled muck for five years out of the simple pleasure of liking clean stalls…
I definitely see it as a new fad that will wear off, or one that suffers the great split – small blogs will use it, big blogs won’t. Most “get readers fast!” techniques usually are just bright new shiny toys that drop off.
It also takes up time, and I don’t like that. I already don’t have enough minutes in my day.
Plus, the traffic it drives is a drop in the barrel for me – however, that drop might be a waterfall for other bloggers.
How about everyone else? What success rate is Entrecard giving you?
I think it’s a great way for new blogs to get exposure. Even for existing blogs, it’s a way to put your blog in front of a new audience. I have had a lot of traffic from Entrecard and even though some of it is drop-and-run stuff, I know of several people in my niche who now subscribe to my blog and newsletter.
I feel silly as hell too. It seems the second you stop dropping, you fall to the wayside. I still get about 50-100 drops a day, but those people are just running past as they scoop their credits up. I did meet a few cool people in the beginning and some of them are regular readers but spending hours dropping cards to remain in the upper echelons is horribly unproductive. However, they seem to be constantly updating and improving the features of the site, and it’s still young, so the true benefits are yet to be seen. In the mean time, if I come across a site with one, I’ll drop my card…in hopes 50,000 runners aren’t flying by after me to cover my mark…
I heard about this at the BlogWorld Expo in October. After hearing about it, seeing others do it, and considering it myself…I have come to the same conclusion as you – just seems silly and cheap.
@ Sharon – Yes, I can see how it’s potentially a good thing for newer blogs, but then it does require that the blogger go around and drop a bunch of cards without caring where just to get credits so as to advertise on the blog of choice. It kind of makes me feel dirty to be used like that…
And then, even when it’s not dirty, it’s not very useful – I had a bunch of cards dropped by other writers, and ones that I know well. They know me too. So we exchanged cards, of course, and happily each boosted our credit account. We were, in essence, using each other. Kind of not cool, if you think about it, no?
I think those who go after letting the people who should know (like graphic designers for writers or vice versa) might be in a better situation.
@ Jay and Chad – I’m actually glad to hear you guys feel silly too. I’ll give it another week or so and see how it goes. The amount of traffic I’m getting is inconsequential, really.
The trend among the “A-List” bloggers these days is to drop EntreCard from their sidebars. The traffic from the chain droppers and the ugly ad designs are the main problems.
But as someone once commented: traffic is good. Even if they’re just “dropping by”. You may still get a chance to convert them.
I’m from the camp that I want to control my brand image 100% … and I’m not comfortable having someone else’s designs on my blog.
However, I’m building my brand to sell my products, and that’s not what every other blogger is doing. I could see it being useful for other bloggers who aren’t brand-building, though, in the same way bloggers who don’t sell their own products use Adsense.
PS, Rudy – The A-List is likely dropping ads fot this exact reason, but just because the A-list does something doesn’t matter – see here for why: http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-a-list/ … but since you put “A-List” in quotes, I’d imagine we’re on the same page
I’m with Dave and Rudy on this one. I don’t like a lot of the images other people choose for things like this. Many of them are downright fugly.
Entrecard has given me a boost in traffic but the bouncerate is almost 100%. It could be good if you have pay-per-impression advertising but beyond that there doesn’t seem to be much point. Still, I’ve only had mine a week and I’m enjoying the ‘game’ aspect and discovering some new interesting sites. Much like blogrush I’ll hold out to see how things go and ditch it when it’s too tedious or eats too much server/load time.
The only thing that hasn’t had me ditch it is that the A-listers haven’t dropped it yet. I’m not a sheep, I don’t follow the herd and do what they do, but I do observe like hell and seriously think over why they do or don’t do things and how doing something might affect me.
I like to be an informed seat-of-the-pants flier.
@ Rebecca – Yes, I do see Entrecard as just another game. Also, Blogrush didn’t even win me over for 1 hour. I think these gadgety types of affairs make blogs look cheap, honestly.
Hm. Well. I’ll give it a week or so, I think. But so far, I’m really not impressed and I’m really leaning towards Tony’s way of thinking.
Tony Lawrence seems biased from the start. I’d like to address a few things.
1.) Entrecard is NOT an MLM or Pyramid scheme. Members get NO referral commission or reward of any kind for promoting it and signing up other members. There is absolutely no pyramid or multi-level to speak of. Everyone in the system is treated exactly the same.
2.)Plenty of high quality blogs, such as ProBlogger and JohnChow have the widget on them. They’ve had the widget for months and are quite happy with it.
3.) Not everyone chain drops and zips from one to the next quickly. It’s way too black and white to assume that all the traffic you get is chain dropping traffic. It actually runs the whole gamut. Some of the traffic will stay, read a post or two, leave a comment, and move on. Some will just read a post. Some will just scan the blog quickly to see if anything interests them. Some will just drop a card and move on.
4.) Cheap and silly: ProBlogger doesn’t feel its cheap and silly, and he’s the number 17 blog in the world according to Technorati. We’ve had discussions about this. In fact, it promotes the community by offering a small space on your blog. Entrecard a very community oriented social network, and if that’s cheap and silly, then I would say the whole concept of blogging itself, or of facebook, is cheap and silly.
5.)Finally, the core service that Entrecard offers is NOT a traffic exchange, but in fact a social network. Take a look at mybloglog or blogcatalog, these services have been around for years. They have not worn off. We offer all the same social networking as these sites: forums, message systems, favorites, profiles, and more. We have a news feed to see what you’re favorite bloggers are up to, including what they’re selling in the shop, who they’re buying ads on, what they’re saying in the forum, and more to keep you well connected. But, suffice it to say that this is the only social network that also allows you to advertise for a day on nearly 4000 blogs and reach their audiences.
I suppose I am a bit biased in favor of the service, but what I have stated above is all truth and fact. It is not a pyramid scheme, it is a social network. Cheap and silly is a matter of opinion. Feel free to simply deny any bloggers who’s card doesn’t fit with your theme.
Hi Graham, and thank you for coming over to comment. I appreciate your involvement and the chance to discuss the system, because I do think it could be a good one with a few revisions.
I agree that there isn’t a pyramid scheme, but I do have to say that avid users of the system see their credit cost for advertising go up quickly, which puts them at the top of the list – however, they’re tiny blogs with little exposure for people to advertise. It’s a little misleading, to say the least.
A-listers like Problogger and John Chow really don’t do anything with Entrecard beyond using it to promote themselves with credit giveaways. Their ad slots are always full and people can’t queue in to advertise, they don’t advertise on other people’s blogs (as far as I can see – and they really don’t have to, between you and me), so they simply put up the widget and let people go crazy trying to get a spot.
For chain-dropping, I’ll quote the comment I left at Rudy’s blog:
“Since I wrote that quick review of my experience with Entrecard, I’ve dropped all activity there. I’m not dropping cards, I’m not accepting new ads, I’m not doing a thing. I’m getting hit up left, right and center by Entrecarders with blogs so bad that it isn’t worth my trouble checking them out. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a filter for crap quality, because it means I don’t even check my inbox to see who dropped a card anymore. (My apologies to all the good sites dropping cards that I haven’t visited.)
The whole system is cheap. I feel used by bloggers, and I don’t feel that dropping a card makes me feel professional or businesslike. It’s not worthy of my attention or time. I don’t even see the worth of busting my ass to use the system to earn credits for the “honor†of a 24-hour ad on a big-name site. I’d rather save my integrity and pay for a premium spot.
I’m still getting hits to my site through it, despite the lack of activity. I can also see the potential value for very small blogs or those starting out, but there comes a point when these cheap tactics are better left behind.”
Chain dropping is the norm, Graham, not the exception, I’m afraid.
The sense of cheap and silly does not come from Entrecard itself. That feeling of cheapness comes from the high level of abuse from chain-droppers and credit grabbers. As I’ve mentioned, I feel there is good potential, but not until the abuse is addressed.
Also, it’s impossible to use Problogger as an example of someone who doesn’t feel it’s cheap and silly – Darren Rowse has no need to go trot about the blogosphere dropping cards to pick up credits to advertise on his blog. He’s number 17 for a reason and was in that position before Entrecard came along.
I am surprised to hear that Entrecard isn’t considered a traffic exchange program, because that’s commonly what people seem to be using it for – to gain traffic through advertising. I haven’t really seen anyone using the other services you’ve mentioned and my experience has been one of “There’s Jamie’s blog! Let’s grab a credit from him!” Some bloggers, of course, are very respectful. Many are not.
It is the only network that allows you to advertise affordably on other blogs, yes. I’ll grant you that – despite the good blogs being all queued up and full that there probably isn’t a hope in hell of ever advertising there to begin with.
I’ll stress again, Graham – the system is a good one with good potential, I believe. But there must be a way to curb the abuse going on or change the rules a bit so that we’re not being exploited just for the credits we offer.
As for advertising, I deny almost all cards – it’s incredible to see how many people don’t put the attention into creating a good virtual business card or who don’t pay attention to the relevancy of advertising on our blog.
I do hope to hear your comments, Graham. Discussion between the people who use services and the people who offer them is productive and often leads to better things. I may be taking a hard stance, but that may only be because I had high hopes and feel disappointed.
Well, I read Graham’s and was about to reply, but James said everything I would have..
Except: it IS a pyramid scheme. And frankly, that’s the benefit for people like Darren: he’ll get the most benefit from this type of promotion because he is at the top of the pyramid.
I’d also make some argument that Darren isn’t any paragon of good taste: he’s promoted plenty of utter crap in the past and I’m sure he’ll do so again. I don’t think he’s doing it out of raw avarice; I suspect rather that he just reports on the wide range of things bloggers of all types will use, from the picky to the indiscriminate.
And IMNSHO, Entrecard falls into the indiscriminate camp.