Lately, I’ve been using the program Entrecard to drop my “online business card” on over 200 other sites. So far, I have built up quite a bit of Entrecard traffic and think that it definitely has increased my RSS subscriber numbers. I do, however, feel that using Entrecard can prove to be a waste of valuable time. I have used the Power Dropping technique and have bookmarked the fastest loading websites [that display Entrecard] into several folders. For a couple weeks, everyday straight, I dropped my card on over 180 websites. What did I get in return? I definitely had increased the amount of traffic to my website, but was it quality traffic and was using Entrecard worth my time?

Turns out that my Entrecard traffic stayed on my website for an average of 41 seconds — which isn’t bad at all! This shows me that most of my Entrecard traffic probably skimmed around the site a bit, or read through an article, dropped their card and left. At least having them skim the site isn’t bad, and if they did happen to read an article, awesome! If you want Entrecard traffic to stay on your website, there are some guidelines that you should follow. I’ve outlined several great ways to help you increase the efficiency of using Entrecard and building traffic from the widget. Think of what you do when you feel like visiting other sites that have dropped an Entrecard in your inbox. You visit the site and if the blog design, logo, or content jumps out at you, you’ll naturally want to become a new subscriber or at least keep checking up on that site’s progress. It helps to put yourself in the shoes of your visitors, when judging your site!

What can you do to trap Entrecard droppers?

• Advertise on quality blogs — Using your Entrecard credits to advertise on a John Chow or a Problogger website will probably be your best bet for increasing traffic. You’ve got to look at your campaign numbers and average credits spent per click to understand which sites are the best bang for your buck to advertise on. Whatever site is working best for the amount of credits spent, keep advertising there!

• Target certain blogs — There are several blogs that display a “U Drop, I Follow” box next to their Entrecard widget. Target those blogs because they are more likely to be sincere about using Entrecard dropping and will probably take the time to read a few of your website’s articles before clicking the red “X” in the upper right corner of Mozilla (or I guess IE7…). After visiting certain blogs and dropping your Entrecard, do you notice that certain blogs return drops to your site? Chances are that if they return more than one drop, they simply enjoy visiting your site. It is important to keep dropping on these sites to make them remember, subscribe via RSS, or even bookmark your site.

• Write an article about Entrecard — The majority Entrecard droppers enjoy reading articles about Entrecard. Why not write up a nice article about your experiences with Entrecard — then drop a bunch of cards the day when that article is featured. Your bounce rate from Entrecard users will most likely decrease because — A) They use Entrecard — and — B) They want to hear your opinions about it. Chances are good that the droppers will spend more time on your website and actually take the time to read your Entrecard article! If you impress the Entrecard visitors with your article — you’ve just won over more frequent visitors and / or RSS subscribers. Try out this tactic and evaluate the results. If it works out well, consider writing an “Entrecard” series of articles and be sure to link to your other articles within your featured article. Set up a link trap so they are forced to keep reading your interesting content!

• Get a nice looking logo for your site — It seems to be the case that most Entrecarders like to advertise on either popular blogs, or blogs with good graphics and a good Entrecard logo. I would consider my Entrecard logo to be decent, it definitely could be better. If you look around the net, you’ll find sites that will design an Entrecard logo for around $5 bucks. If you can manage to get a quality looking logo out of the deal that helps to brand your website, it is definitely worth the small amount of money. In my article, “The Entrecard Phenomenon,” I teach you how you can make your own Entrecard widget logo.

• Have a catchy website design — Entrecard users love to visit websites with quality designs. If you have just a “blogspot” blog or a boring WordPress template, chances are good that they will stay on your site for less time and your bounce rate for Entrecard traffic will increase. Having a catchy design not only works well for Entrecard traffic, it works well for all visitors. When first-time visitors see a quality design, just the design alone will make them likely to return to your site. First impressions are huge: do your visitors like what they see?

What I’m Going To Do

I don’t see myself giving up the Entrecard widget anytime soon, but I also don’t see myself wasting my time by dropping my card on the 180 fastest loading sites in hopes of increased traffic and RSS readers. If I had a faster internet connection, I’d probably consider dropping my card on 300 sites daily in less than 20 minutes. Due to the fact that my bookmarked sites load at a snail’s pace, this is somewhat of an ineffective tactic.

I definitely hope that visitors continue to drop their “E-cards” on my site and buy advertising on Andrew Pavelski dot com’s Entrecard widget. I will continue to campaign in Entrecard and advertise on other sites, but I will probably not waste as much time dropping Entrecards off on other websites in hopes to build quality traffic. It’s just not worth the time and does not seem to produce many loyal visitors. If you are currently getting good results with Entrecard, keep up the good work and don’t count it out as a traffic possibility! I am not going to pull a John Cow and completely rule Entrecard quite yet. I’m going to do some experiments with trapping Entrecard traffic to see how everything pans out — then, I will re-evaluate and share my experiences with my readers. If you want to know more about the traffic results that a huge Entrecard campaign can yield, check out Alan’s massive entrecard advertising experiment.