Million Dollar Portfolio

One of the blogs I frequent (there are many) wrote a post yesterday saying they were dropping entrecard because they still thought the system was unfair. I don’t think I totally disagree but as with any reward system there are going to be those individuals that take advantage of it. He also notes the traffic isn’t as good.

I’ve talked about this before but it bears mentioning again. A blog is only as good as the content it provides and the traffic it produces. Bloggers talk about the “long tail” effect of blogging which relates to how your content is found organically by readers. Posts that you have written years and months before may still be pulling in Diggs, Stumbles, and hits long after they have been written. The reason why is because of how people search for information with the various search engines. Making searches in and of themselves is an art.

Countless times my wife has asked me to search something for her because she can’t seem to get the right site or find the right item she is looking for. A lot of this has to do with how results are worded and grouped and can take time to filter through properly.

So is Entrecard traffic just rubbish? If anyone else is like me, they use Entrecard to discover new sites and blogs and yes, to earn credits to hopefully advertise on those sites they think are going to produce a fair amount of traffic. 4000 credits may seem expensive to someone who’s blog is only getting 32 credits a day for advertisements but factor in the user base and drop rate and you can see how someone like John Chow would rack up credits very quickly.

There are 13114 registered blogs or sites on Entrecard. That’s just a little over half of John Chow’s RSS community. Now, let’s assume every single one of these 13k Entrecard users is also a JC subscriber. One of the things they are going to do, probably every day, is click on that card. I know I do and I’ve had JC advertise on my blog on several occasions. Obviously he doesn’t care about “quality” traffic, whatever that is. And he shouldn’t because quality is relative. What one person feels is quality traffic may not be the same to someone else.

For young blogs, all traffic is important. Getting the most exposure possible is more important than if someone clicks on your google ad or not. I think too often, we aren’t looking at the big picture in terms of how advertising systems, affiliate programs and readership will affect us in the long run. I could be dropping 300 cards a day but I don’t. I’d rather be more organic about it. Of the blogs I read each day, I drop my card on them. That lets them know I visited and if I can afford it, I’ll advertise on the site if it’s appropriate. For new blogs, I usually skim through the content on the first page and often it will be interesting enough that I’ll become an RSS subscriber. Not always, but often.

There’s also a drawback to having your blog be so expensive. It filters out the average joe and alienates part of the community…but that’s part of becomming successful blogging. As you gain popularity, there are going to be haters. The more popular you are, the more haters there are going to be. Just look at Bill Gates. He’s one of the most hated people on the internet because it’s somehow a cool thing to do. Regardless of the fact he donates billions each year to charity, the haters just say he’s buying his way into hearts and homes. I just think they are jealous of his success.

Entrecard is a unique and interesting way to tie the blogging community together and to discover new blogs and sites you never knew existed. Is it affordable for everyone? Well, considering its a free system and the popularity of some blogs is going to outweigh those smaller blogs…it can seem unfair and unaffordable. Show me a perfect system and I’ll show you the man behind the curtain operating the gizmos that make it seem that way. So, you may never earn enough credits to advertise on John Chow dot com by dropping them on others or getting advertisers on your own blog, but then again there are so many “Entrecard Credit” contests going on, it isn’t as hard as it seems.

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Blow away your Google competition
Internet+12 months=Millionaire