Cleaning Up my Entrecard Favorite

I procrastinate a lot and i have this really old plan to clean up the list of my entrecard favorite which finally have done it -- i removed the ones that are no longer active and replaced my favorite blog that are active in the community because i am going to drop them everyday, i am using the entrecard toolbar now because i noticed that it making my dropping more faster .

I always started with my favorite then reciprocate what is in my inbox which i can't reciprocate to all of you guys but i always priorities the most popular then the rest, if you ask me why? because this are droppers who put an extra effort, please, please, please don't get me wrong with giving priority of dropping but it's my strategy but i am always open to listen to what your point of view guys.

I would like to thank you my top dropper for the month of September, another link love coming your way guys, this is one reason i use my favorite aswell because i want to be one of top dropper -- anyway here they are ad please pay them a visit aswell; they all have dropped 31 days here are TBN.

So, what is your dropping strategy? i wonder if you agree with me prioritizing my recipro dropping. I thought before that reciprocate everyone in my inbox is fine but i noticed that i passed the opportunity of getting free link from other site which very useful for my site...and so i started my favorite list.

Drop, Read and Post - Learn to balance and be an effective blogger

We are all aware that posting a great content is very important, For serious and pro-bloggers it took time and time to research about the topic and even creating the whole content.

In the other hand, Entrecard provides us a very effective system that brings traffic to our blog through dropping. I can say effective, because our Alexa really is gone down fast (Not sure now, that they have new algorithm though) especially, when you drop 300 a day and very active with entrecard. Your post get comments, you get subscribers and you can also discover sites that have the same interest as you and create some great relationship.

You work hard, you get rewarded -- we all knows that! but my question is does dropping 300 a day, eating too much of your time? Do you find it hard to manage to drop back or reciprocate to your droppers and also, you don't have time anymore researching and reading the post of your favorite blog.

I was thinking how hard would it be for those that are working and at the same time have passion blogging and dropping. If you find it hard to drop, post and read try this ways to get the balance and you will become an effective blogger.

• Drop: Multi-task - During night while watching tv, reciprocate everyone in your inbox. then next use powerdropping, is effective because system of dropping saves you so much time blog entrecard is placed above the fold no scrolling needed, you will definitely make it to 300.
  

• Read: Subscribe to your favorite blog using email - Sometimes we religiously reads our favorite bloggers blog for whatever reason it would be (it gives you an idea of what to blog or you take them as your mentor and helps you grow and become an effective blogger) it's all up to you. Subscribing via Email is really handy because you will get the time to read even if your at work (During coffee break) it's your chance to read the new post or your favorite bloggers.

• Post: It is advisable to post everyday - When you just started blogging it is, but when you have been blogging a little while there is an exception, i am not sure if you agree with me but i think it's good to leave it a for at least one to two days not posting for other bloggers to catch up and that way it gives you time to research and prepare for the next post.
  

I would like to add about the post as well that, It is good for your regular dropper because that means it saves them time dropping, they don't need to stop and read your post i know you think that it bets the purpose of blogging but for me it's balancing between your post and blog and your readers and your droppers too! For me i really don't mind visiting a blog that have not updated their post for at least 1 to 2 days but more than that, i start thinking of what's going on especially when the blog owner didn't reciprocate my drop, sometimes i conclude that this blog is dead lol!

So what do you think?

Panic buying in the Entrecard

Entrecard just released the new modification to the pricing system, the most awaited is now unveiled. The advertising prices is now completely changed, the price of your advertising depends with the demand of your ad spot. I can say that it is now showing the real value of your site, When people buy and ad on your site the price gone up, once the one ads finishes you ad price will down halves, It's basically up and down. If you want to advertise on a certain site, just wait until one ads finishes because the ad spot will down half price.

According to Graham:

all blogs start at a base of 2, and prices double for each ad that someone purchases, and halves for each ad that completes.

It's like we are waiting for the price to go down and grab the bargain....Let's go shopping. At the moment people in the entrecard are panic buying, some are saving for a certain blog where they want to advertise.

Here's the calculation:

Star at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, if you have: 5 people approved and 5 people waiting for approval, Calculate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, or 2 to the power of 10, which equals 1024 credits. And then in 24 hours, when an ad has completed running, their price would go down to 512.

"If no one bought an ad that day, tomorrow it would go down to 256. And then if someone bought an ad for 256, the price would go back up to 512"

I think now with this new price modification changed, people are no longer using their credit for a crappy advertisement for two reason:

1. Credits are now limited...especially those bloggers that have more than 3 blogs in one household.
2. Ad Spot are expensive especially the popular sites.

This is a supply and demand....truly marketing.

Positive and Negative Impact? according to Graham's:

Positives:
1.) You can buy an ad on any one, at any time, as long as you have enough credits.
2.) Prices will be more fair. ProBlogger and John Chow won’t hover around 200. They will quickly be bid up to a more respectable price, simply because people are willing to pay more.
3.) You do not need to be drop-intensive to preserve a decent price.

Negatives:
1.) The prices are going to be VERY screwy for a few days. The most expensive person will be 500,000 credits!

This is crazy, i am sure you have notice them already. I am not sure if i am going to like it and if you are going to like it either, at the moment it's mixed emotion.

But Graham forewarned everyone and say's

"once the prices settle down, we’ll all be able to get a handle on exactly how useful and advantageous the new system is. The first few days might be a little crazy though, so be forewarned"

Entrecards have a lot going on ... they have some modifications which it makes us hate them or love 'em...honestly i love some additional features but lets see how this go.

Share your thoughts.

Source and full explanation Visit: Entrecard’s new pricing finally unveiled!

Your Post Don't get Comment, Should we blame dropper?

Do you drop and run? oh! your a bad, bad wolf; but wait, is that where really -- the problem is, if you don't get comments on your blog? This is what i asked to myself awhile ago, i desperately like some comment...i envy those bloggers that have even at least 5 comment i even wonder it their common friends and they commenting each other -- Should i join blog catalog, mybloglog or other social networking?

Why, I don't get comments? maybe, because my post did not interest my visitors? so what should i do? I don't want to play blame game "blame game is not fun" therefore instead of looking of where to blame, i start making a content that will interest my general visitors (We can't please everyone, it's hard to please everyone) but at least 5 comments out of 300 visitors you get is a good start.

If you're going to look at my dashboard, i have improvement (Nothing to brag about) but what i am showing here is that it's possible.Experiment, look at what your visitors and readers like to read, Are your post informative and interact with your readers. Listen to what is happening, what's going on, what's the talk of the town.

This is to share what i have learned, my observation from other bloggers, the one's that i have modeled and have stalked (lol!). I question myself, why i love to read there post? Why i follow them? the solution is quite simple -- the content and we can do that too. I love to grow with my blog as well as with other bloggers. Don't limit your self, open yourself to a more broader horizon or better yet get out from your comfort zone because that is where success comes.

Please add you're do you blame me....i know you have something to say.

• Do you blame me, if you're post doesn't interest me?
• Do you blame me, if you're joke doesn't tickle my bone?
• Do you blame me, if you're news is old?
• Do you blame me, if i don't understand what you're posting?

Let us not assume that those bloggers that have dropped 300 to 600 a day do drop and run, there might be some but we cannot generalize though, but if we start finding the reason our own blog maybe we will see that it's still depend with our effort and how we choose our topic, and if we really don't get comment to that topic try again next time, but this time make it better.

Do you feel the limit? 600ec per ip

Are you happy with the new rules 600ec per ip address with entrecard?

I understand fully the side of Entrecard, they want to eliminate or minimize the abusive use of the system, penalize those people that are spamming the system that's good! but limiting those bloggers that are genuinely using entrecard for traffic and not for financial gain is a torture.

I have two blogs, i religiously drop 300 each blog, i read and comment on every site that "interest" me, i meet a lot good bloggers along the way...i love the traffic that i am getting especially when i am at the top 3 of my category, my husband has 1 blog too! meaning it's 900ec we drop each day using the same ip address which did not pass the new rules.

New Rules Stinks
Spamming is always a problem -- oh! i wish we can just shoot them, there, that kills the problem but we can't maybe in our dream. I find the new rules stinks, it affects the honest droppers, the genuine people that rely and believe in their system to generate traffic.

Money is the root of all evil
Spammers join Entrecard not for traffic but to earn money, they use and abuse Entrecard for financial gain -- maybe if Entrecard will remove the money value of EC that will eliminate the problem, i know it's so easy to say but many will not agree with me because there are some that are genuine droppers that are enjoying the little amount that they earned for selling credits but sometimes we need to sacrifice something isn't it traffic is the main purpose of Entrecard?

Cause and Effect
Cause - Eliminate the cause of the problem; The amount valued on each EC causes spammers to create many dummy blog and entrecard account for financial gain...the result SPAM the system.

Effect - Then, Entrecard thinks of best way to deal with the spammers is to limit the drops per IP to 600ec a day, ouch!

Two head better than one
Okay in this case they might be more that one, but If Entrecard asked for some suggestion before implementing the new rule this might end up a better and good system than 600ec per ip.

We are not sure if this is going to change yet after some bloggers commenting and dis-agree with this new implementation but as per phirate:

We will not be changing this policy, it was a necessary change as the result of a number of users creating large numbers of inactive blogs then dropping 300 for each in order to "earn" credits.

All of us who genuinely use Entrecard to gain traffic and not for financial gain will feel the pain of limitations, not enough freedom to promoting our site.

Options
The only option for those that genuinely use Entrecard for traffic and have more than 2 site in their ip address is to think of which blog do you want to prioritize and sacrifice the other blog, this is big sacrifice if you ask me or alternate the site to promote each day, all we have to do is make an adjustment in our part, forget about this 600ec per ip and move on, big sigh!.

What about you? have you noticed the new rules? do you feel the pain of less freedom? or you just want to move on and see what happens next hoping it will benefit us.

Google Analytic VS Entrecard - Do we have to compare?

Traffic Result is what i am meaning here. Do you compare your Google Analytic traffic result with your Entrecard result?

I am so popular with Entrecard today it's my most successful day so far, i am even at the top 30 Popular Entrecarder; oh! i am so excited to see my Google Analytic and see what it say's -- then your analytic traffic sources overview the result is shocking it's below than what you expected; Sounds familiar?

Why does the Google analytic result is different?
In comparison with entrecard, Google analytic have a very different method of tracking visits to your page.

In Analytics, if a user comes to your site twice within thirty minutes without closing their browser, they'll register as one visit. Other web analytics solutions may treat this behavior as two visits, depending on their definitions.

Entrecard is per card drop.

I myself questioned this, i thought that Google analytic will be way more higher result since they track the whole visit including referring sites, search engine visits etc...but to my surprise it even have lesser than what's expected.

I have not deeply research the comparison about the two, but this explains that we cannot compare the result of our Entrecard result to Google Analytic, they used a very different methods of tracking our visits.

Your input is really important, if you want to add more please do so and start the discussion.

I have problems with my site; but, before i fixed it (Which is a very simple solution, argggh!) i made a lot of additional problem which ended me of changing template. Anyway, to credit my commenter about this topic i decided to post it here aswell so that the rest can follow the discussion.

Comments:
Jude: Google counts both, but if someone has several accounts and you are on all of their drop lists then however many times that person comes and drops they will be counted as only 1 unique visitor and they also lag behind other counters such as sitemeter and get clicky.

Haney: One thing I dont like about Entrecard is that, most visitors are not quality ones. That means most of them just skim through, not bothered to read or comment on what you had posted, and just drop their cards. That's how some can drop 300 cards per day.

Michael Aulia: That is something new to me :| I thought just by looking at the Entrecard traffic source in Analytics, will be equal to the total of Entrecard traffic that you got?

Guys, i am really sorry i lost the link to your site, if you can please give me your URL (Haney and Jude) so i can link to your site. I appreciate your time of commenting on my site and that is all i can do at least.

Dropping, Blogging, Entrecarding

I have notice that there still have many bloggers that are not using entrecard, in one forum i remember one asking how to get more visitors to their site of course i suggest a few sites that really brings traffic to my blog including entrecard because it is truly bringing great traffic. So for those that are not joining entrecard yet! don't be left behind and "Don't just join and expect that traffic will go to your blog" It still need some of your effort.

Also, Their are some complains that people are just visiting the site to drop cards not even reading the post. In my own experience, i do visited blogs and drop at least 200 a day or more and yes i admit that i don't read everyone's posts ... I only read the post of those that interest me and i think this is also the same with the other entrecarder.

"Do not expect that out of 200 bloggers dropping cards on your blog likes your post because it all depend on individuals interests"

I remember my husband ask me why i did not put he's blog under my favorite because it is not my interest. I have favorite many blog site that interests me and i even left some recommendations, I have discovered new sites that have great content and worth of my time reading I even subscribe via RSS and email (Depend how much i like the blog).

I think bloggers are not just dropping card, if you have good content that worth reading then the possibility is very high for them to even subscribe on your blog.

What about you? do you just drop and not reading the post, or are you one of those that are reading the ones that worth of your time?