Does Entrecard bring loyal readers?

[watdawat]

I am knew to entre card and I definitely need the exposure. I got a pretty awesome bounce from stumble upon but it's starting to go down so I need to do something. Time will tell I guess. When you are competing against millions and millions of blogs, any visitors no matter what kind helps.

[techne1]

I started experimenting with Entrecard a couple of weeks ago, and have had mixed results. Before I started with E, I had a bounce rate of about 30-40%, with my daily traffic hovering around 100 (stumbles and diggs not withstanding). Once I started using Entrecard, my daily traffic jumped to around 2-300 unique visitors per day, which means that EC was bringing in between 100-200 new visitors on a daily basis. Unfortunately, my bounce rate jumped to 90% from Entrecard usage.

I don't think that the traffic that came directly from Entrecard is that good quality, in the sense of actually stopping to read something, but the advertising is a different question. Visitors who arrive by clicking one of my ads tend to stick around a bit longer than the 30 seconds the droppers do, and this I like. Pre E stats had my average visitor staying a little over a minute and a half each, some as long as 10 minutes! Helluva change to go from that to 30 seconds!

To me, the real value then, is in the advertising network, and the traffic I get from there.

[watdawat]

Originally Posted by techne1

To me, the real value then, is in the advertising network, and the traffic I get from there.

Please explain further what you mean by traffic from ad network.

[techne1]

Originally Posted by watdawat

Please explain further what you mean by traffic from ad network.

Just that I get good traffic from buying ads from other Entrecarders. To my mind, anybody who takes the deliberate action of clicking my ad is more likely to actually be interested in my site/blog than someone who is just power dropping. While it is true that there are some who power drop by clicking ads, I don't think that they are in the majority, so the ads bring in better quality traffic.

Hope that clears things up for you :-)

Cheers, Marc

[WhoJayBe]

Yup, my bounce rate from Entrecard is OVER 90%!!! Honestly, my latest post should be read from ALL Entrecard users, it's titled "If You didn't have Entrecard, your blog would have No visitors."

[EverythingEverywhere]

I have been harsh on Entercard in the past (read their forums) but I do find some value in it.

It is great for launching a new site. It is great for getting exposure to other bloggers. You will get some readers, but only a fraction of the total traffic it generates.

The bigger your blog grows, the less sense it makes to spend time dropping cards.

If I were launching a new blog, I'd drop 300 cards for maybe 2 weeks, then start winding that down and shifting my time to other traffic building efforts. If you don't, you are just exposing yourself to the same people over and over. Most of that can be achieved in the first two weeks you are in the system.

[watdawat]

Originally Posted by EverythingEverywhere

If I were launching a new blog, I'd drop 300 cards for maybe 2 weeks, then start winding that down and shifting my time to other traffic building efforts. If you don't, you are just exposing yourself to the same people over and over. Most of that can be achieved in the first two weeks you are in the system.

Very good advice

[blooksllc]

1) 90% of entrecard traffic is junk - but how much does that matter? if 9% is decent and 1% is good, you're already ahead. Last time I checked, bandwidth is so close to free that you shouldn't spend time thinking about it.

2) It is an easy way to find and contact others in your niche. It is still small enough that the categories are relevant.

3) When they open up a 125x125 button advertising network - then they're really going to be worth something to me.

4) If you've got tacoda or some other cookie tracking advertising, those 90% bounce rates should sound like little cash registers.

On net, I'm pleased with the experience so far.

[EverythingEverywhere]

Originally Posted by blooksllc

1) 90% of entrecard traffic is junk - but how much does that matter? if 9% is decent and 1% is good, you're already ahead. Last time I checked, bandwidth is so close to free that you shouldn't spend time thinking about it.

Except it isn't free. You have to waste time every day dropping cards. Time is more valuable than bandwidth.

[EverythingEverywhere]

I should be very clear...

I have gotten readers from Entrecard. It is for that reason I don't take the widget off of my site. It will also give you a slight Alexa bump by having it on your site.

However, my main complaint is the reward for the cost of dropping cards.

Some of the top valued sites on EC are basically addicted to dropping. If they stopped dropping, all their traffic would disappear because they don't have content to justify the numbers they have.

I now only drop when I encounter a site via normal reading or stumbling which has a widget. I average about 10-20 per day.