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Not only has eBlog Templates ported this over to Blogger, we’ve added some great features to really turbo-charge and make this another [...]
On the last day of this month, we will be starting an official “Top Dropper Day.” What is Top Dropper Day? Glad you asked!
On your Entrecard statistics page, if you scroll down, you can see a list of your top droppers. These are the people who visit your site most frequently to drop a card. The Entrecard Top Droppers list looks like this:
Now, on the last day of this month, we are going to make a HUGE push to get as many Entrecarders as possible to give their top droppers some link love. This will include writing a special “thank you” post on your blog and linking to your top droppers. We’re also going to think of one compliment to give each blog. We all work so hard on our blogs, blogging, promoting, dropping, that this will be a nice way to recognize each other’s efforts.
Are you in??
People have been linking to their top droppers for over a year. However, we’ve never made an official push to get EVERYONE to do it. So, you can help us make blogging history with the first ever official “Top Dropper Day.” We’re very serious about this. We are going to make this an embedded part of Entrecard culture, because it’s such a great way to help everyone and recognize the efforts of others. So, right here in the comments section, tell us if you’ll be participating. Not only will stating your participation motivate others to drop on your site every day to try to get that link at the end of the month, it will also re-inforce your being a part of the wonderful and supportive Entrecard community. Finally, we’re going to be taking some of Entrecard’s top droppers in the entire system, and giving them special linkbacks and blog mentions on our Top Dropper Day post! Do you have what it takes to be a Top Dropper?
Ready? Set? Drop!
We’re going to be making a big push for Top Dropper Day to all Entrecard members. So, if you want to improve your chances of getting lots of links at the end of the month from lots of Entrecard members, start dropping! And don’t forget, the best way to drop is using the Entrecard Toolbar for Firefox.
So who’s going to be participating?
***UPDATE***
We’re upping the game even more! We’re going to give out prizes to the bloggers who get the first and second most link backs in other’s “thank you” posts. First prize will be a free one-month ad on the Entrecard.com site - that’s a $250 value! The second place prize will be 25,000 credits - a $125 value! Drop away!
With our recent move to up transfer limits to 25,000 credits per week, we’ve gotten lots of reports from happy Entrecarders who are holding do-it-yourself contests once again. These contests, where Entrecard Credits are given away as prizes, are a great way to increaes your traffic.
How to hold a contest
Step 1: The Prizes
The first step to holding a contest is deciding what you’re going to give away. Do you have a few thousand credits you’re going to offer up as a prize? Are you going to put in the extra effort, and get other people on board and offering up prizes as well? What will you offer the other prize-poolers to make it worth their while? A link back to their blog is a great way to reward them for offering prizes in your contest.
Step 2: How to enter?
Determining how readers will enter your contest is something you should do carefully, and tailor it to meet your own goals. Will you give out one contest entry for each person who leaves a comment? Will you give out extra entries for people who write a blog post about your contest? A google search for “Entrecard Contest” will give you lots of ideas of things other people have done before. Be creative and enthusiastic in your blog post about your contest.
Step 3: Paying the winners
Once the contest is over and the winners have been selected, it’s time to pay them. Make sure to send all other people contributing to your prize pool the profile links of the winners.
All Entrecard Credits are transferred from the profile. So, on anyone’s Entrecard Profile (which you can always get to by clicking the Entrecard logo on their widget on their blog) you will see these options on the side:
Simple click the 4th option down from the top, “Give credits to this site” to transfer the winning credits!
That’s it. Enjoy! Don’t forget to promote your Entrecard contest on Twitter!
There is no better time than today, January 1st, to flesh out your plan to take your blog to the next level this year. As anyone who knows me is well aware, I stress comments second only to great content as the path to success for your blog.
Comments are the life-blood of your blog and the best way to send out a line to any other blogger. But how much thought have you put into what comments you will approve, and what comments you will reject? How do you respond to your comments? What are your goals while leaving comments?
Now I know this idea has been proposed plenty of times, but I want to urge you all to reflect on one simple concept when it comes to comments: Advancing the discussion. So many comments amount to little more than “thanks for the great info” or “I agree” or “wonderful tip, I’ll have to try that”. Essentially, these comments do nothing more than stick a small sign in the ground that says “I was here” and a link back to your blog. That’s all well and great, but if you’re trying to comment as a strategy to draw traffic, you know know that no one is going to have any interest in the link back to your blog unless you’re saying something interesting.
So here are some rules that I’ve borrowed from this article on Venture Hacks, which was summing up this article by Edward Tufte.
First, the rules call for only approving comments that advance the quality of discussion in a civil manner. The focus should be placed on the quality of discussion for the reader. This rule also states that simply agreeing or disagreeing with a post is irrelevant and should not be approved.
Second, the rules call for correcting basic spelling and grammar.
Third, the rules call for comment quality setting the precedent and standard for all future posts.
Fourth, the rules call for not approving comments that are borderline acceptable, if their overall effect lowers the quality of the discussion.
Fifth, the rules call for deleting comments in the future if you are looking back over a post and determine that a certain comment did not advance the discussion.
Sixth, the rules call for thanking commenters and highlighting good comments.
All of this is based on advancing the discussion
In case you haven’t figured it out, this entire comment strategy is based on advancing the discussion. The problem is, for many small bloggers, they may not be getting any comments at all that truly advance the discussion. The strategy doesn’t do much to recommend how to get the first few quality commenters. I submit that you could specifically solicit for quality comments from other bloggers in your niche.
But the bottom line is that this is a strategy to build a more sophisticated blog, and it will require a more sophisticated audience who has a genuine interest in good discourse. If done right, this strategy would attract more sophisticated readers in turn to comment and participate. But a sophisticated blog may or may not be your goal.
Sophistication is a great niche in the blogosphere
So why go through all the trouble to keep the level of dicussion in your comments sophisticated? Why go through all the trouble to leave sophisticated comments on other’s blogs? I mean, after all, leaving sophisticated comments requires a lot of time, energy, and thought.
The answer is simple. You will stand out. Sophistication is a niche in the blogosphere. Many people are craving a sophiticated level of discource and exchange, and are left wondering where to find it. Many bloggers wished that the quality of the comments they received would be higher. So, by playing by these rules, both when leaving comments for others and approving comments on your own blog, you set your personal standard and personal “brand” in the blogosphere as one of sophistication. People craving sophistication will start flocking to your blog to hear what you have to say, and will pay special attention to your comments.
Here at Entrecard, anyone is welcome to comment. We won’t be deleting people’s comments that don’t “advance the discussion.” However, if you are a blogger looking to tap into a very powerful niche, I would suggest you consider going the high road as outlined above. It will certainly make you stand out in a blogosphere that is seeing increasing saturation and competition.
Every day when I go through the user reports, there are always a couple of reports for splogs- or rather, spam blogs. These blogs typically have one post, if that, a ton of ads, and absolutely no content of value.
We delete about five of these per day. I’m sure this number will increase as Entrecard grows, and I wanted to take a moment to really thank everyone out there helping us stay free of this problem. Without you notifying us of the splogs out there, many would slip by undetected. I get a nice bit of satisfaction every time I delete a splog account
So thanks again to everyone out there helping us out, being our eyes and ears, and helping to defend the quality of the Entrecard network.
And of course, Happy New Year!
I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope that everyone has a wonderful (and safe) time!
This year, I the biggest gift I’ve been given, is this:
No, its not the Million Dollar Homepage, it’s everyone’s Entrecard! Look closely… can you spot yours? 1300 people have now given Entrecard their vote of confidence and placed the widget on their blog. I couldn’t be happier. If you’ve been around the site, reading the blog and participating in our forums, you know our commitment to our members. We listen to every suggestion you make, develop the features you want to see, and listen very closely when you think there is a problem with someone or something. It’s a business philosophy I think more companies should adopt!
The Seller Status Contest is still running!
Our contest for seller status is still running. We’re going to choose the winners in a few days, so if you haven’t posted yet, make sure to do it by Dec 27th.
Just to recap to enter our contest to sell things on Entrecard and receive all the credits from the sale, simply:
1.) Decide what you want to sell, how many you want to sell, and what price you want to charge (in credits)
2.) Write a post about it on your blog
3.) Link us to your entry by replying here.
We’re going to choose the six best entries and give them seller status, and let them set up shop right here on Entrecard.
See you soon!
The next blog post I write is going to announce the winners on Dec. 28th, so be sure to check back!
Is a Fast Pass and a Featured Status all we can buy?
NO! You, our faithful Entrecard members, are going to become the sellers. But not all of you. Only six of you, with good things to offer, will be bestowed with seller status.
What will you sell?
We’re going to let the six people with the biggest, best, most creative and most unique things to sell have the seller status. Do you have T-Shirts for your website that you want to cash in for credits? Maybe you would like to sell a review on your blog, or perhaps a full month ad spot. Maybe you’re good ad graphic design and want to sell a card design… or an entire BLOG DESIGN! Who knows! Impress us with your ideas and you will get access to set up shop right here on Entrecard. And yes, you can determine your own price. You receive all the credits as proceeds from a sale in the store.
Here’s how to enter:
Step 1: Write a blog post about our new store, where you’ll be able to buy all all sorts of bells and whistles over the coming months, from Entrecard as well as from Entrecard members. Unlock upgraded statistics, purchase new widget designs, T-Shirts, SWAG, all with credits. The sky is the limit!
Step 2: Include in your post what you will sell through Entrecard, if chosen to receive the coveted “Seller Status”. Include how many credits you will charge for it, and how many are available. For example, you might want to sell 10 Tshirts at 1000 credits a piece, or maybe you will sell 20 Entrecard Re-Designs for 250 credits a piece. Maybe you will sell just one IPhone for 50,000 credits! (we don’t actually expect anyone to sell an Iphone, or anyone to have enough credits to afford one either!)
Step 3: Reply to this post with a link to your post.
Step 4: Six lucky people will be chosen to set up shop on Entrecard. Your listing will include a link to your website, and being one of only six sellers, the exposure will be wonderful!
This is going to get very fun, and very interesting. I hope that we see people selling really great things. Please note that if you choose to sell T-Shirts or hats or things of that nature, you will have to pay the shipping costs to ship your t-shirt to the winner, and if you live in the USA, you may have to ship it outside of the country.
I’m sure there will be a lot of questions, and I’ll be around on the blog to answer all of them.
We want to get the ball rolling with this, so winners will be chosen at our whim when we feel a really good item has been offered for sale. One could be chosen tonight, or perhaps we won’t choose any for five days. Start thinking right away what you’d like to sell, and post as soon as possible!
Let the games begin!
Written on December 20th, 2007 by Graham
To protect the integrity of the recommendation system, and to cut down on spam, we are making a new rule. You cannot ask other people to exchange recommendations with you via our message system. If someone writes a recommendation, it is supposed to be an honest recommendation, written by someone’s existing readers.
So, no messaging others in a plot to exchange recommendations. Credit penalties may be issued if we see people continue to ask for reviews. We are very serious about the integrity of the review system, and attempts to game the review system will be taken just as seriously as attempts to game the credit system.
Finally, we may delete some reviews that we find people have blatantly asked others for via Entrecard.
Thanks for understanding. 99% of the reviews out there are honest, but we find that one enterprising individual (you know who you are) has launched a campaign asking everyone to review them, so they can climb to the top of the review page. Needless to say, this is not its intended use, and we want this to stop.
PLEASE NOTE
Holding contests on your own blog for recommendations is perfectly fine. The reasoning here is that if you hold the contest on your existing blog, it is targeted toward your existing readers who can write honest recommendations. This rule applies specifically to using our message system for review exchanges.
The number of Entrecard widgets running throughout the blogosphere broke through the hundreds today and into the thousands!
It took Entrecard only 1 month and 10 days to hit a thousand running widgets, and with each day that goes by, the number of daily signups continues to grow. But thats not all that continues to grow. As news of our service, which offers free advertising on over a thousand blogs, spreads throughout the blogosphere, our traffic continues to increase:
I’d like to personally thank everyone who has taken the time to give Entrecard a chance, and from the sound of things throughout the blogosphere, you’re all pretty happy with us!
Moving forward, we have planned some really interesting ways to spend your credits, ways to maximize the quality of your traffic, and more features that further enable our growing social network. Implementation of our monetization strategy is just around the corner, and though I can not divulge specifics of it yet, I can say that you will all be able to choose the way in which you would like to participate. We received some really great feedback from everyone, and learned that different people preferred different options. So, instead of forcing one option on everyone, we’re going to let you pick.
In other news, a major feature of the site is going to be released within the next two weeks. Be on the lookout!
My love of marine life has been documented before, but this was no scuba diving adventure, just a relaxing trip to the Mystic Aquarium. I took my special ladyfriend there for her birthday, and it just blew us away. They had a 1700 pound sea lion that eats 100 pounds of fish every day, a bunch of penguins, a thoroughly enthused tour guide, jelly fish, tarantulas, poison dart frogs, an octopus, and just countless other fascinating species of life.
In other news, I am preparing for a move to Boston. I’m actually moving into the “IMoondo House“, where my friends at IMoondo.com are preparing to secure some venture capital in their quest to pionoeer video classifieds. Once in Boston, I will seek venture capital for Entrecard. Yesterday we did more pageviews than techcrunch at least according to Alexa. Our user base is increasing at a steady 5% daily, and I am certain that with some real resources to get gears turning with the design, promotion, and development, Entrecard can become big.
Just wait until you see the next feature we’re releasing! Things are about to get interesting…
Written on December 14th, 2007 by Graham
There seems to be a little bit of confusion surrounding this topic, and I admit, the voice heard in the video doesn’t help the confusion.
The “Entre” in “Entrecard” comes from the word “Entrepreneur” and is pronounced “on-truh”.
It does not come from the French word “Entrée” which would be pronounced “On-tray”.
What does Entre mean?
I think of bloggers as the entrepreneurs of the 21st century. The root of the word entrepreneur means “to undertake”, which is why the word is applied to people who start their own businesses, though it can also be applied to individuals who “undertake” on projects of any sort.
And so we have the Entrecard, for everyone who is undertaking in the largest phenomenon ever to hit the internet: Blogging! (ok, maybe the second largest, next to CPC ads… ahem… Google).
I was hoping the relationship would be pretty clear… business cards, entrepreneurs, entrecard… etc. But, some people out there seem to think that we’re talking about entrées (the kind you eat for dinner).
Hopefully we can close the books on this mystery
Ok, ok, the cat has been out of the bag for some time now. Entrecard doesn’t make any money. This is a problem, because we have hefty expenses like a dedicated server and a best-of-the-best developer :). On top of that we’re growing quickly, and we want to implement a monetization strategy to start paying all our costs, and to make sure we can continue to develop great features.
So, I have been considering many options for how I am going to monetize Entrecard. My number one goal in successfully monetizing, is doing so in a way that we do not offend all of our members. I’ve tossed a lot of ideas around that I’d like to share with you, and get your feedback.
Option 1: Upgrade to “pro” account
One idea was to develop some features, like multiple blog support, enhanced statistics, alerts, and some other bells and whistles, and charge people to upgrade to a “pro” account. All the features you have now would still be free.
Option 2: Sitewide advertising via “Sponsored Inbox”
This would be implemented in conjunction with the “upgrade to pro account” strategy. The idea here is to clear up the right sidebar throughout the Entrecard site, and offer sitewide paid placement for a members card on a rolling basis. These cards would go into a “Sponsored Inbox” that would appear on the right sidebar, and all members would receive five credits for visiting the sponsor each day.
Option 3: Take a slice of the impressions
Our third idea is to sell a fraction of the impressions on the widgets. If we went this route, we would reserve 5% of the impressions served by our widgets and sell them to 3rd party advertisers. The nice thing about this approach is it could be used singularly, meaning we wouldn’t need to put ads on the rest of the site, and we wouldn’t need to charge people for all the fancy features that are in the works.
My question to you, our loyal Entrecard members, is whether or not you would be upset if we displayed independent advertisements 5% of the time on your widgets. The other 95% of the time, the usual “entrecard” would be displayed. The other option, as I mentioned above, is to have some ads throughout the site itself and having an upgrade necessary for some premium features.
What do you all think? I’d like as many opinions as possible, so chime in!
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