Entrecard - the widget that actually sends traffic

by Patrick Altoft on December 3, 2007

Entrecard has been causing quite a stir recently and I’ve been testing it out over the weekend.

Entrecard

My first impression was that the system looked quite complicated, that isn’t a bad thing but it does mean you need to spend some time on it if you want to extract maximum value and use the network to your advantage. Luckily the site is easy to use and looks nice otherwise I would probably have ignored it.

The system is basically a way to network with other bloggers by exchanging 125×125 banner ads. You can see the widget in my sidebar or in the screen shot below:

Entrecard

Entrecard uses Amazon S3 to host the widget so they are able to scale without worrying about hosting costs and the widget won’t slow your site down when you get on Digg.

How it works

1. Advertising - the system lets you buy ads on other blogs using credits. You can advertise on blogs such as BlogStorm, John Chow, ProBlogger and over 100 others.

2. Networking - to earn credits you visit other blogs that have the widget installed and drop them your Entrecard. This means you click on the “Drop Yours” button and the blogger gets an email with a link to your site.

3. Accepting cards - you also receive a credit when somebody drops their card on your site (feel free to drop your card on BlogStorm).

Traffic

So far Entrecard has sent 68 visitors plus the visitors who clicked on my link in the email notifying them about my card. This probably ads up to another 50 or so visitors. The great thing is that all the visitors are bloggers so the traffic is hugely targeted.

I will be posting again about traffic in a week or two. Has anybody else had good results?

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Published in: Marketing

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Nick 03/12/2007 at 5:44 pm: Had 93 visits from entrecard in the last week and over 300 from a post which was stumbled from an entrecard visitor.
Not bad as the blog isn’t fully active at the moment!
2 steve 03/12/2007 at 5:56 pm: Entrecard is awesome! I’m now up to 400 unique hits in the first 20 days of using Entrecard.

Here’s the post I wrote about it:
heavilytrafficked.com/my-entrecard-results-traffic

Next big thing anyone?
3 Fraser Edwards 04/12/2007 at 12:31 pm: Thanks for making me aware of this. I’ll give it a try!
4 Collin LaHay 04/12/2007 at 10:40 pm: I like it a lot. I was skeptical at first, but it is sending a decent amount of new readers.
5 Netvestor 04/12/2007 at 11:34 pm: Just installed it on my blog, looking forward to results!
6 insomnia cures guy 05/12/2007 at 3:43 am: I just stumbled on this and installed on my blog so I can’t speak to any traffic as of yet. I just wanted to add that I do think the concept is very worthwhile and since most visitors will come from fellow bloggers the traffic will be hugely targeted.
7 Matt Packer 05/12/2007 at 4:22 am: Since I signed up with Entrecard about an hour ago I’ve had 20 clicks, according to their stat information, which is pretty spot on with what my server says..

Not too bad if it keeps on like this..

Thanks for the tips!
8 Vladimir 05/12/2007 at 2:47 pm: If you run a wordpress blog you might be interested in my entrecard plugin released today
9 Jeff B 12/12/2007 at 4:51 am: I am up to 44 visitors in 3 days. Interesting concept will need to track it and see how it all turns out. So far some of the traffic is in looking for the widget and adds theres and jumps off the site. I have had a few make a comment on a post or two.

Thanks for the post.