I had some relaxed time this morning, and I decided to check out my Drops Inbox in Entrecard. There aren't that many, so I clicked on one, and sort of just follow the flow, reading a few posts, dropping my card, clicking on the featured blog, repeat the process. I went on and on with each one until it reached full circle everytime (I was even surprised when it did). Only now did I realized how powerful that was.
For one, each view registers as an impression on the blog, which can help in generating some effect on traffic and (maybe) revenues. Second, and more importantly, it gets your blog discovered. I had a couple of blogs I discovered this way that I asked my friends to take a look at also. Of course, content is still a very important ingredient, but this service is such a big help in getting your blog's head above the water in an ocean filled of other blogpages.
The nice thing with Entrecard's model is that each click you make on an ad also benefits you by giving you and the blog you visited 1 ec credit that can be used to purchase ads on other blogsites. The benefit for the "clicker" is real by providing him the means to participate in the system.
For those not familiar with Entrecard, in a capsule, it's a site that gathers together bloggers. Each blogger earns ec credits, which is the "currency" of the system, every time you make a post on your blog or "drop" your ec card on another blog. You can use these credits to purchase ads for your blog to be featuerd in another blog for 24 hours. The key feature of the system is that a widget of Entrecard is placed on members' blogs to advertise another member's ad and allow other members to "drop" their card (click your widget), which will earn ec credits for both of you. Everytime you drop your Entrecard on another blog, the blogger will get notified of your presence in his Entrecard account dashboard, where your blog will be listed as one of those that visited his blog. He can then return the favor to you by making a visit to your site.
As in any system, there would be supporters and detractors alike. The supporters speak of new traffic into their blog, that translates into increased activity (comment, rss subscriptions, etc.). While the detractors would point out that most of this traffic are actually people just mindlessly clicking from one blog to another, gathering e credits, as well as those that are merely returning the favor and not really interested in your blog. I admit that such a scenario is very likely, but for a newbie blogger that needs all the exposure he can get, it won't hurt to get some help from a free service like Entrecard, in exchange for an hour or two checking out other blogs, dropping my card along the way. It should also be noted that not every blog I check will interest me, so in that case I move on pretty quickly. Content is still an important factor even in this system that at first glance seems to merely be an online version of scratching each other's backs.
That's my take on Entrecard! Go give it a try! Wouldn't mind hearing your comments on it too, whether we are in agreement or not.
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