How to use EntreCard to increase website traffic

We've been with EntreCard for nearly 5 months and we can say that our only regret is that we haven't found it sooner.

We currently have 5 blogs there, managing to keep 4 of them in the top 3 of their categories. Of course, they've been knocked off by competition from time to time but they always manage to bounce back.

Presently, EntreCard sends 200-300 droppers or readers for each of our blogs. Some blogs have been getting 500-600 EntreCard visitors per day but we have to be really serious about it.

EntreCard started out as an advertising network for blogs then slowly morphed into a social network.

As an advertising network, it borrows from the concept of surfing and click-exchange networks except that, instead of using a network browser to surf and view blogs, EntreCard widgets are placed on the blogs themselves which we click or drop on.

As a social network, members visit and comment on each others blogs. There is also interaction at the EntreCard Forum.

The EntreCard community has its own lingo. We will try to translate the more popular ones into plain English.

EntreCard or EC widget
This is the script or code we put in our blogs. It usually displays the EC card of a blog who bought an ad with ours or our own if there are no takers.

Right below or beside the EC card is a yellow bar that says "drop."

Business Card
The 125X125 image that represents our blogs in the EntreCard system.

Drop or Dropping
The act of clicking the yellow bar that says "drop."

Power Dropping
Dropping on 300 blogs in 15 minutes.

Reciprocal Dropping
You drop on me and I'll drop on you.

Drop Rank
EntreCard's own fun ranking system, ranging from "just here for the view" newbies to "deadly serious and bordering on psychosis" drop masters :D. Kidding.

Firestormed
Kicked out of the main discussion threads in the forum. There's a thread called Firestorm for hot topics.

First, we join EntreCard here. The menu has the following tabs: Dashboard, Get Code, Campaign, Shop, Blog, Forum, Statistics, and Help.

Second, go to the dashboard and load a blog.

Third, copy the code (menu tab), paste it in in your sidebar and activate the widget.

Fourth, Check "Allow EC users to apply for advertising" and "Accept ads automatically" in your Advert Settings.

Fifth, you are set and ready to earn some EntreCard Credits.

Basically, EntreCard work 2 ways:

1. We visit a blog and click on the EntreCard widget that says "drop."

2. Other bloggers visit our blogs and click on our EC widget that says "drop".

We earn EntreCard credits whenever we drop on somebody and whenever somebody drops on our widgets.

EntreCard Credits or EC credits are the medium of exchange in the EntreCard community.

We can earn credits in 4 ways:
(1) drop on other blogs' EntreCard widget - usually earns us 1 credit;
(2) get other blogs to drop on our widget - also 1 credit;
(3) get other blogs to buy advertisement in our EntreCard widget.
(4) Earn EC credits as incentives from EntreCard. They give 25 ECs for a blog post every 3 days.
(5) We can also BUY EntreCard credits if we need more than we can earn.

EntreCard credits can be used in the following manner:
(1) Buy advertisement on the EntreCard widget of other blogs.
(2) Buy items at the EntrecardShop.
(3) Sponsor contests with EntreCards.
(4) Sell credits for cash.

Advertisements on EntreCard gets shown for 1 day.

If we want to advertise on EntreCard widgets, we can try the "campaign" tab. There we can look through the Category, Popular, New, Cheap, and Random tabs to choose the blog we want to advertise in.

If we mouse over a business card, on the top right corner a number string in white followed by 2 links will appear. The number is computed from the number of visitors over a certain period.

Generally, the higher the number is, the more visitor a site gets. If we want more exposure with our advertisements, we want to advertise with blogs that has lots of daily visitors.

However, there are new blogs that are worth advertising on too, especially if the owner is intent on promoting his or her blog. We can check their drop ranks through the profile link. If it says that the blogger is addicted, serious,or a drop master, it's worth advertising on especially if the price is low.

If we want to advertise on a blog we found while dropping, simply click on the little "E" at the bottom of the EntreCard widget or the black portion to the left-side. It'll take us directly to the profile of that blog.

All our blogs starts with a value of 2 EC credits. Every time somebody buys an ad, the price gets doubled so the next is 4 ECs, then 8 ECs, and so on.

When somebody applies for an advertisement with our blogs, the request appears on the right side of our Dashboard under the Advertisers tab. Once we approve them, they move under the On Your Widget tab.

EntreCard is free so most everybody can benefit from it. However, it is a labor-extensive traffic generation scheme, so it works best for the following:

(1) New blogs and newbie bloggers. The best we had so far were 400 visitors in 1 day without spending a single cent. Some popular bloggers in EntreCard claim 600 visitors. A third of those visitors are uniques or returning visitors.

(2) A blog who has an Alexa rank of more than a million. EntreCard will help bring it down to less than 500,000 in a month if we are active droppers.