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EntreCard: the good and the bad

by Mar Matthias Darin

EntreCard seems to be the latest craze among bloggers to drive traffic to their site. It certainly has an appeal. However; there is a darker side to it as well.

First lets cover the good parts. EntreCard works quite well and the admins are very responsive to issues with the system. That is a major plus as far as I am concerned. It lives upto its reputation and does indeed deliver the hits. This is another plus as the internet is over bloated with programs that are, in my opinion, completely worthless. The people I have met are quite outstanding and very nice. I have had the pleasure of reading some very good blogs by very talented people. The advertising mechanism works well also. In one day, I received 95 clicks on my ads. Not bad at all. In fact, I am still very impressed at the level the system operates at and I don't impress easily.

So with all this good, there's got to be a down side and there is. Now onto the bad things about EntreCard.

In order to have any chance in blazes of getting substantial advertising, you have to become a "power dropper" and hit 300 sites a day. Yes, I said you have to visit 300 sites a day. Ouch! That is a lot of time. Quite frankly, time I don't realistically have. Especially, when some of the sites I have visited are so overloaded that it takes my dual-core 4gigs of RAM with a one megabit pipe beast of a machine 30 minutes to completely load the page.

I have found myself not reading the blogs, which was my original intent when I joined, but rather dropping and running. I don't like doing this. There are too many sites that are worth my time to read and I enjoy reading them. Thus, I am forced to choose between advertising or enjoying the content by the many excellent people I have met.

Since my time is limited, I am opting for the latter and am going to spend less time advertising and more time reading. That means it will take me several days to drop on all the people I have visited. I would much rather have a reader and a commenter active on my blog than a hit and run driver. Unlike quite a few blogs with creative owners I have visited, I am not so endowed in my writing skills. I have to work at what I write. That often means several edits to get the things to convey what I want it to. So having a valued readership is far more important to me and I believe this to be true for many blog owners.

To all my EntreCard friends, I will continue dropping, just at a much slower rate. I want to be able to read and appreciate what you have written.

My final analysis of EntreCard is this: The program is excellent. Plain and simple. There is no getting around this fact. The admins are always working to improve it. So EntreCard is definitely worth having and participating in. The concept of a power dropper is something I will not allow myself to succumb to --- I don't like hit and run driving, neither on the streets nor on the internet. I'm here to enjoy my time. Blogging is a hobby for me and I don't like hobbies I can't take time to enjoy.

My advice to any new user of EntreCard is just remember why you joined. If you joined for hit and run tactics, then you are really missing a wealth of richness available to you. If you joined for the experience of meeting other bloggers, getting ideas or meeting excellent people, just keep your time you spend in perspective.

--- written Sunday, May 4, 2008, 3:45 PM

Comments from Wendy

Hello there =)

I've been using entrecard for some time now and its now that I am maximizing its potential. You are right, it has both pros and cons like any other blog traffic sites. I enjoy my time here because i get to interact with a lot of people from half way around the globe! amazing!

Comments from Grandy

I understand the quandry you find yourself in. I can't imagine dropping 300 a day. I also have a full time job. :) I guess, if I had a bunch of ads on my site it would be more important. Oh, and don't knock your writing skills...I come back to read you from time to time. :)

Comments from Sonnie

Good point, In my case, I ask my little girl to do the dropping for me and I'll take care of the reading later, and leave some comments too! :-D

Comments from Mar Matthias Darin

Thank you. Its good to know there are others that enjoy taking their time in reading blogs.