An EntreCard Refresher Course

If you're looking for more traffic for your blog, EntreCard will help your traffic explode. You can sign up with any or all of your blogs (I have three so far), and (hint, hint, BlogExplosion members) you don't have to wait for anyone's "approval." You'll need a separate e-mail address for each blog you'd like to register with EntreCard, and it does get a little hectic to keep up on EntreCard requests and drops and advertising for several blogs.

To sign up for EntreCard, just click on any of the EntreCard text links in this post or on the yellow "Get One" in my EntreCard widget in the sidebar to your right. You can sign up and get started with the EntreCard quick tour.

Once you've got your widget up and running on your blog, you'll want to earn credits and start to "advertise" on Other People's Blogs. To earn credits, make sure you are signed in and go to Other People's Blogs to "drop" your card...you can start with mine. There are lots of "strategies" for how to do it quickly, but I just start with a favorite blog and "daisy chain" from there. Click the "drop" button underneath the widget (it should change from drop to "Thanks!" or "Go! Go!"), then click again on the widget and it should take you to the next site. The better organized bloggers choose blogs that fit nicely with their own to advertise on their EntreCard widgets, so you may find several books/writing, cooking, making money online or cute furry animal sites all in a row. You can only "drop" once per day on each widget, 300 drops per day per blogger (unless you have 2 EntreCards, then you can do 600 drops per day per IP address) so if you see a familiar widget it probably doesn't pay to go there again in the same day, at least not for EntreCard purposes.

You can use EntreCard at the same time as BlogExplosion. So if you’re surfing Other People's Blogs (OPB) on BlogExplosion or voting on a Battle of the Blogs, watch for the EntreCard widget and “drop” your EntreCard there, then click on the widget to open the next blog in a new window, while continuing whatever you were doing in BlogExplosion. You’ll earn one credit each time you drop, so you can turn around and use it for your own advertising.

Once you've earned a bunch of credits, it's time to "Campaign" and place your advertising on other people's EntreCard widgets. Do watch for bargains (64 credits or less for your favorites, and under “Campaign” you can browse by cheapest and get some new blogs for 8 credits), as I haven’t found the click-through rate on most blogs corresponds well with the high credits paid (I’ve paid 128 credits for a hot site, only to find that I get 18 click-throughs). I’m sure you’ll discover your own strategies for “dropping” as you go along.

Once you get the basics down, you'll want to pretty up your EntreCard square...after all, it is your Blogosphere Business Card and more people will click on it if it is more attractive than the basic orange stripey offered by EntreCard default. If you have my level of graphic design talent, you'll want to reach out to the EntreCard Design Shop by Matt Urdan...because life's too short to "drop" with an ugly EntreCard.

If you've listened to me in my exhortations to Join SocialSpark! and you're an EntreCard member, follow this link to the post on my site that helps with the BenSpark Social Cardsters Blogroll. The idea is to add the Social Cardster logo attached/under your EntreCard widget and link it to Ben’s (actually his name is Drew, but who am I to talk about nom de plumes?) Social Cardsters blogroll. I finallly got it right on my own widget and have provided a couple of info links for newbies like me on how to link an image.

That's all the tips I have for now. You'll find that EntreCard is a very helpful and friendly community interested in helping you become a more effective blogger and marketer of your blog. Many resources and tools are available on the site to help you take your blogging to the next level.

Enjoy EntreCard, it’s another great way of wandering around the blogosphere.