Daniel Felice

Goodbye Entrecard?

// January 19th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // The Internet

I am thinking of removing the Entrecard widget on this blog as it is not doing much in way of traffic these days. When the blog was new it was a great way to bring in some traffic, but now I think the blog is doing well enough to survive on its own.

I get a handful of hits per week from Entrecard, and those users do visit the blog from Entrecard just drop their card and move on to the next site anyway – so the traffic isn’t traffic that is going to keep on coming back.

I think Entrecard is great for new blogs and for bloggers who want to bring in easy traffic. In the early days most of my traffic was from Entrecard but now as the blog has gathered a bit of pace and is doing well in the search engines I reckon only about 5% of my monthly hits actually come from via Entrecard.

It takes a bit of work to drop cards and get credits so you can advertise on other blogs, and this does not always convert into hits. When I do campaign I might get a small increase in traffic for that day but then the next day I am back to normal.

I rather good traffic – people who read my content and want to come back. Entrecard users just come here to drop their card so they can increase their credits, so my content isn’t really being read.

I think I’ll remove the widget sometime this week!

Entrecard Creates Misleading Hits

// July 24th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Project Blogger

I originally signed up to Entrecard when I first went live with this blog as I had heard alot about it and it seemed like a good idea to promote my new site. For those of you who don’t know what Entrecard is, check out my earlier post here.

The concept it very good, and it does create some good hits to the blog and every now and then I come across a good blog that I add to my favourites and will revisit every now and then. Every day I would say about 30% of my hits arrive from an Entrecard drop.

While it is good to see the site getting hits, I have noticed that most of the users who drop their Entrecard only visit the blog to do just that. The more drops you make, the more credits you accumulate and therefore can advertise on other blogs.

Going through my statistics, those hits received from Entrecard are only on the blog for a few seconds, they drop their card, and then leave to keep on making quick drops without reading any of the content on the site. I have heard this complaint from many Entrecard users.

I find that my statistics improve dramatically when I have my Entrecard advertised on a popular blog, but barely any of these users remain on the blog for more than 30 seconds.

While this does provide 30% of my hits, I cannot seem to think that I should not be counting these hits as genuine. I rather receive 30% less hits and have my audience read my content, rather than just visit the page in order to drop their card and then leave again – just so they can have enough points to advertise their own blog.

Entrecard creates misleading statistics as you think you are getting solid results, but the hits are only coming from users who want one thing and one thing only – points.

I am not sure whether I will keep Entrecard or not at the moment. From those 30% of users, if only 1 or 2 return then I guess it is worth it. But that doesn’t seem to be happening very often. When the blog was new I relied on those hits and dropping my own Entrecard, but now I have a following I am less reliant on it.

Do you use Entrecard? Are Entrecard users being used?

The Journey So Far

// April 4th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Project Blogger

Over the past two days I have continued to research the best way of going about trying to make this blog successful. There are alot of other blogs all over the internet that try to explain the best way of getting hits and making money – and most of them contradict each other.

I guess it depends on your own personal experience that determines whether you make it or don’t.

The past two days I have signed up to the following advertising and affiliate services

• Entrecard: At Entrecard you create your “business card for the internet”. It uses its own currency so you can “buy” advertising space on other blogs. You earn the currency by “dropping” your card on other blogs that use Entrecard. This is a good way of promoting your blog and earning some currency so you can advertise your blog on other popular blogs. The most popular blogs cost more to advertising on, so you have to “drop” you card at as many blogs as you can to earn enough currency to purchase advertising space.
• Bidvertiser: Similar to Google Adsense, Bidvertiser is a affiliate program that pays you for every click. The goal is to let advertisers bid on how much they are willing to pay to advertise on your site and you get paid per click on each ad. It is very easy to setup and they pay you via paypal or check with only a minimum of $10 in your account. The downside is that it does look alot like Google and you cannot run both on the same site. Monetize your Website or Blog with BidVertiser
• DealDotCom: This is a two-tier affiliate program that earns you cash whenever someone clicks on your advert, signs up to DealDotCom and purchases a product. Whenever you refer someone to DealDotCom via your affiliate link, you get paid 35% of DealDotCom’s profit for every item that they buy. If someone you referred to DealDotCom refers someone else, you get paid 15% of DealDotCom’s profit every time they buy something forever.
• Kontera ContentLink: ContentLink is contextually relevant keyword that is discovered on a web page from within Kontera´s network of publishers, and is automatically turned into a link to the most relevant ad from among Kontera´s advertisers.  With ContentLink publishers generate incremental revenue while advertisers reach their most targeted audience on a Cost-Per-Click basis. It is fairly easy to sign  up and once your site is approved, it takes a few seconds to add the HTML to your page. Once you have the tags, wait 24 hours and you’ll see the link within your own pages.

I have signed up to Google Adsense, but am still waiting for approval. I will post more on Google Adsense when I hear back from them, which is hopefully soon.

The above services are currently installed on my blog. I am yet to see any results, but that is due to the fact I have low hits. Now I have the advertising and affiliates in place, the next step is to try to drive some traffic to the site, but that won’t come until I have some content that is worth reading about. I am relying on people visiting this blog to see how my journey of creating something from nothing is working out.