What's Your Take On EntreCard?

Yesterday I received an email from the [new] folks over at EntreCard, filling me in on yet another change to the system. I have to confess that since I started a new job in February, I haven't had much time to spend in the blogosphere, and the time I do have is devoted to trying to create quality content posts and to visiting and catching up on my favorite blogs. EntreCard continues to play a role in my blog visits, as I find it a handy form of bookmarking and keeping track of who's "dropped in" to visit me. I've noticed that some of my favorite blogs have dropped out of the EntreCard system with each new set of changes and disputes, and I'm wondering how the loyal users think about EntreCard today. Leave a comment to let me know if you're still using EntreCard, how you use it, and what other tools (e.g., BlogExplosion) you're using to drive traffic to your own blog and to find interesting new blogs to read.



Hi everyone,
We hope that you have been pleased with Entrecard’s progress. The management team has been working hard to improve Entrecard and we thank you for your patience.
We have noticed that the total number of Entrecard credits in the system has grown rapidly. This has been due to the fact that more credits are being created than credits are leaving the system. If this inflation continues, Entrecard credits will be worth less and less. To ensure a stable credit economy and reduce the outstanding credits, Entrecard will no longer give Entrecard credits to the person receiving a drop. In other words, instead of awarding 2 credits for each drop (one to the dropper and one to the blog site owner), only 1 credit will be given to the dropper. This change will be effective September 1, 2009 and will last until further notice.

We have explored many other options to deflate the credit economy and we have found this route to be the easiest and fairest way to resolve the problem for the time being. While this may seem like a set back, it has its advantages. In the long run, the prices to advertise on blogs will decline making advertising more affordable.

While we recognize your concerns, please understand that it is one of our goals to have a healthy Entrecard credit economy. This is a huge change we're making and we will continue to monitor the credit economy. We will continue to make changes as necessary to accommodate a healthy Entrecard economy. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Cindy Ung
Director of Business Development
Entrecard.com

Dear EntreCard,

I truly don't have time to worry about the EntreCard "economy" (isn't the real economy stressful enough??!!). Hope things work out for you.

All the best,
Roxy

EntreCard Warning

Attention EntreCarders... paid ads have been activated on EntreCard, and apparently the default setting is "throw it onto my web site, even if I have not approved it." I had rejected all of the paid ads on all of my sites, but happened to drop by one of my own sites more than once, only to discover that EntreCard was featuring "Raging Rev" on every other visit (the 50% maximum). I have since adjusted my "advert settings" to "allow paid ads only if explicitly approved" and think I've solved the problems, but be sure to check your own settings and let me know if you see something here that doesn't fit my profile. I'm not planning to accept any of the paid ads, so if you "advertise" your blog on one of my EntreCard widgets, you should be getting 100% of the visibility/traffic you've come to expect from the Roxy empire.

Meanwhile, BlogExplosion seems to be back in business, with lots and lots of new blogs appearing on the site and even competing in Battle of the Blogs. Give it a try by clicking on the link in this post or on the BlogExplosion banner at the top of the page below the header.

New Stuff in Roxy's Sidebar

My loyal Roxiticus Desperate Housewives readers, particularly those who come in via BlogExplosion's Battle of the Blogs or EntreCard, may have noticed some new stuff in Roxy's sidebar. After admiring the top commenters widget on Mariuca and LadyJava's Lounge, I've added the widget to my sidebar here to provide a little motivation for all of you to leave me some comment love. I'll be quick to confess that I'm not ready for a top commenters contest, or even to be as amazingly prompt as Mariuca and LJ in responding to their comments, but I'm taking it one step at a time.

Roxy's Best Of...is Up and Running on EntreCard

My shiny new EntreCard is up and running on Roxy's Best Of...and the ads are currently cheap (4EC!!) for my first visitors/advertisers. Please "drop" on by Roxy's Best Of...and get in while the gettin' is good!

I guess I should also take a moment, now that Roxy's EntreCard price is up to 128 EC, to encourage you all to contact me if you'd like to start your own Roxy's Best Of... blog as part of the Roxy WordPress MU (multi-user) Community. I've got New Jersey pretty well covered, and Matt Urdan over at MTMD has signed up for Michigan and North Carolina, but if you'd like to write about the best your hometown has to offer, do "drop in" to Roxy's Best Of and fill out the contact form to participate. Spammers need not apply.

Thanks!

It's EntreCard Saturday....and Buddy's Fitness News is My EntreFind!

A couple weeks ago, I was honored when The Mom With Brownies chose me as her "Entre-Find." I thought EntreCard Saturday was a pretty cool idea, though I'm nowhere near diligent enough to post one every week. So here's my first, and we'll hope it's not my last, contribution to EntreCard Saturday. Enjoy!

Whether you're visiting via BlogExplosion, SocialSpark, or EntreCard, I'd like to let all of my visitors know about Buddy's Fitness News. I'm not entirely clear how I stumbled upon Buddy's blog, but I decided to "advertise" my EntreCard on Buddy's widget and the results were amazing...for a price of 256EC, I got 144 click-throughs, and many of Buddy's fans stayed on to read and came back to Roxiticus Desperate Housewives again and again. Buddy, pictured at left accepting not one but two Arte y Pico awards and bestowing one upon this humble blog during his acceptance speech, is a very talented dog... an expert with PhotoShop, Buddy is supporting his mom's new job by picking up the slack to provide all of us with interesting blog posts to read while his mom's away at work.

If you have an Entre-Find that you'd like to share with the rest of us, just click the widget at the top of this post and it will take you right over to The Mom With Brownies, where you'll find the details on EntreCard Saturday. But maybe you'll want to leave me a comment here first, so Roxy can get in before the secret gets out and the EntreCard price goes up!

It's Not Me, It's....Amazon?? Plus, a Warm Fuzzy Feeling from an Anonymous Commenter!

Tuesday morning update: It is apparently me...and Amazon! You can see me, but I can't see myself...or, more accurately, I can't see any portion of my blog that has anything to do with Amazon, particularly images/ad serving...including, most importantly, EntreCard. So I am sad to say that I'm not likely to be on anyone's top EntreCard droppers list this month. However, since all of you have been kind enough to visit me in my time of technological despair, I will get to work on an interesting post for this afternoon...it might actually be post #400, but not coinciding with a milestone visitor, unless we can count 16,904 as a milestone? I should also let Amazon know that their revenues are likely to be down for the quarter, as I can't even reach www.amazon.com through my browser to make my daily Golden Snitch purchase.

In the meantime, here's where I started whinging last night, ending with a happy story about my Anonymous Visitor:

Is anyone else out there having oodles of problems with the Internet?

I was hoping to drop a bunch of EntreCards tonight after the girls go to bed, but the 100+ degree heat here in the Roxiticus Valley seems to have caused a bit of an Internet brownout. I can't see my own EntreCard widget, so I started visiting some of my EntreCard buddies...no luck. EntreCard seems to have vanished. At the same time, my Sitemeter implies that plenty of visitors are still coming in to Roxiticus Desperate Housewives via EntreCard.

I noticed that my Golden Snitch (Amazon) and Alexa Rank (owned by Amazon) widgets have also vanished from my blog's sidebar, no matter which computer in the house I try to use. And here I had started to think my notebook had been cozying up to Mariuca's computer, which required a full restore over the weekend after my good blogosphere buddy spent 48 hours disconnected from us.

As I Googled my way around the blogosphere, I learned that Amazon.com had a huge outage on Friday, and that their troubles appear to have continued today (Monday). Anyone else having problems, or should I just blame Comcast for my continued Internet issues? Talk to me, friends! And thanks for listening.

And, since you read all the way to the bottom of this post, allow me to share with you the warm, fuzzy feeling that I got from an Anonymous Visitor, who left the following comment on an old Kona Friday post: "Love KONA, the crack of all coffee. I had my first sip in Kona.. and brough back as much as i could.. only to find that trader joes carries it. I have to say i have enjoyed you blog. as a Mendham HS graduate from 1988, ill be returning to mendham soon. soo keep up with the great mendham focused commentary."

Thanks, Anonymous, for making Roxy smile on a Monday night in Mendham!

Quick as You Can Say EntreCard!

Quick as you can say EntreCard, I just linked my three other EntreCard blogs to my primary Roxiticus Desperate Housewives account. It was really easy to do, now all I have to do is hit "switch" and I can drop any of my four EntreCards at your blog. If you're visiting from BlogExplosion or Social Spark and you don't have an EntreCard or know what it is, please hit this link to review my EntreCard Refresher Course before reading any further.

If you're already an EntreCard dropper with a hint of addiction, scroll down or click here to learn about the Exciting News from EntreCard, announced today!

Monday Night Update: I just did the coolest thing. By "switching" to each of my four blogs in the EntreCard dashboard, while refreshing the screen of the blog I was on each time I switched, I just dropped all four of my EntreCards at South Jersey Fun. I'm off to try it again on Berryvox, Michigan Rafter, LadyJava, and Mariuca!

Exciting News from EntreCard

This morning I received a good news e-mail from the EntreCard team. If you're visiting from BlogExplosion or Social Spark and you don't have an EntreCard or know what it is, please hit this link to review my EntreCard Refresher Course before reading any further.

Now, here's the scoop: EntreCard just made a ton of huge updates to the site, and we're letting you know about all of the changes here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives first!

ADD MULTIPLE BLOGS TO YOUR ACCOUNT

I have had four blogs going with EntreCard for a couple of months, but Roxiticus Desperate Housewives is the only one that gets my consistent EntreCard dropping attention. Finally, today EntreCard rolled out a feature that gives us the ability to add more than one blog to an account. Starting today (Monday, May 19th), I can add all four of my blogs to Entrecard simply by going to my Dashboard and clicking "Linked Blogs" in Dashboard navigation. I'll be able to choose whether to link my main account with my other existing EntreCard accounts, or to register a new blog (yes, I've got a few more) with Entrecard, and automatically link it to my account.

With the new system, I'll be able to switch from one blog to another, and drop or advertise as either one, from the very top right of my Entrecard screen. When I'm "dropping" in from the beach, I can switch to my Bay Head Blog EntreCard. Where my email address is displayed there will be a link to "switch" to another one of my EntreCard accounts. This will make it so much easier for me to drop multiple cards on all of the members of the Red Hot Drops!

And there's a contest going on at EntreCard: add just one more blog to your account, and you're automatically entered to win 15,000 credits!






ENTRECARD OFFICIAL EBOOK

EntreCard has created a free e-book for everyone to download. If you're new to Entrecard, and wondering what to do first, this e-book will guide you along the way. And if you're an intermediate or advanced user, it's packed full of strategies you can use to get the absolute most from the EntreCard service. I'm going to download it right away and use it to update my EntreCard Refresher Course.


BLOG POST CONTEST - WIN 2,000 CREDITS!

EntreCard is also holding a contest to help spread the word on the "add new blog" feature and new E-Book, so anyone who posts on their blog, mentions EntreCard's new "add a blog" feature, and posts a link to the new ebook on their blog wins 2000 credits. Just leave a comment on this blog post with the link for EntreCard to see. Credits will be paid to all winners on June 25th

MULTI BLOG CONTEST - WIN 15,000 CREDITS!

EntreCard is giving away 15,000 credits to people who add new blogs to their accounts. EntreCard will randomly select one winner in each of the following classes:

• 2-5 blogs in account
• 5-10 blogs in account
• 10-15 blogs in account
• 15-20 blogs in account
• 20-25 blogs in account

EntreCard is giving away a total of 75,000 credits, as there will be one 15,000 credit winner for each class. All you have to do is use the new feature to add Entrecard to your other blogs, or simply link your other blogs together using the "switch" button in the top right of the site. Winners will be picked on June 25th.

NEW HOMEPAGE

If you haven't been around EntreCard in a while, then you haven't seen their new homepage. It automatically posts links to YOUR posts, every time you update your blog. You can also use it to see in real time what Entrecarders are talking about on their blog!

NEW CAMPAIGN PAGE TABS

On your "Campaign" page, EntreCard has added simple quick jump tabs to the campaign page, to easily see the newest, cheapest, and more at just the click of a button. The "Search" tab on the end of the campaign navigation will bring you to the browser that you are currently familiar with.

TOP DROPPERS RSS FEED

The people who visit your blog more frequently than any other members are known as your top droppers. We just created an RSS feed, found on your "Statistics" page, that will allow you to subscribe.

The new EntreCard E-Book and all these new features are designed to help you get MORE traffic, MORE exposure, and MORE value for your blog and your time. Don't forget to enter the EntreCard contests by adding other blogs to your account, and posting a link to the new E-Book!

The Dog Ate My EntreCard

So I've been marveling for a couple days about how my blogosphere buddies Michigan Rafter and Mariuca, to name a pair, find the time to "drop" 300 EntreCards per day. My profile at EntreCard says I have a hint of addiction with only 100 or so drops per day...I just can't find the time, and have blamed this on my slow-loading intermittent Comcastic Internet service.

Anyway, just as I was ready to take on the Red Hot Drops' challenge of 300 drops per day, tonight there's been an outage at EntreCard, and the poor tech guy in charge despairs, "We're currently performing some database maintenance to resolve performance issues, we anticipate this will complete by 11PM Boston time. Update: we're running a little late, estimated 20, no 40 minutes. Update 2: sorry everyone, I'm still waiting for a database operation to complete, it is, unfortunately, not something that can be cancelled while it's running. The how-badly-was-I-wrong-counter is now at:1hr51minutes, level of shame: excruciating."

The Red Hot Drops EntreCard Club BlogRoll is Now Closed

Mariuca (a.k.a. Genie Princess) and Lady Java have formed the Red Hot Drops EntreCard Club and the membership drive is now closed...but you can still click anywhere on the Red Hot Drops EntreCard Club Blogroll below to start visiting the wonderful sites who made it into the 99 spots in the Red Hot Drops. Do come and visit us NOW!

An EntreCard Refresher Course

(Subtitle: Huzzah, Tricia Got an EntreCard!!)

One of my very favorite bloggers, Tricia, just got started on EntreCard and was kind enough to give me the heads-up to let me be her FIRST! If you head over to Tricia's Musings, you'll see me, Bree, smiling at the world from Tricia's EntreCard!!

Since Tricia has been my mentor on most things blogosphere, I was surprised that she was seeking my advice on EntreCard, and thought many of you could use an Introduction to EntreCard, or an EntreCard Refresher Course. So here goes.

If you're looking for more traffic for your blog, EntreCard will help your traffic explode. You can sign up with any or all of your blogs (I have three so far), and (hint, hint, BlogExplosion members) you don't have to wait for anyone's "approval." You'll need a separate e-mail address for each blog you'd like to register with EntreCard, and it does get a little hectic to keep up on EntreCard requests and drops and advertising for several blogs.

To sign up for EntreCard, just click on any of the EntreCard text links in this post or on the yellow "Get One" in my EntreCard widget in the sidebar to your right. You can sign up and get started with the EntreCard quick tour.

Once you've got your widget up and running on your blog, you'll want to earn credits and start to "advertise" on Other People's Blogs. To earn credits, make sure you are signed in and go to Other People's Blogs to "drop" your card...you can start with mine. There are lots of "strategies" for how to do it quickly, but I just start with a favorite blog and "daisy chain" from there. Click the "drop" button underneath the widget (it should change from drop to "Thanks!" or "Go! Go!"), then click again on the widget and it should take you to the next site. The better organized bloggers choose blogs that fit nicely with their own to advertise on their EntreCard widgets, so you may find several books/writing, cooking, making money online or cute furry animal sites all in a row. You can only "drop" once per day on each widget, 300 drops per day per blogger (unless you have 2 EntreCards, then you can do 600 drops per day per IP address) so if you see a familiar widget it probably doesn't pay to go there again in the same day, at least not for EntreCard purposes.

You can use EntreCard at the same time as BlogExplosion. So if you’re surfing Other People's Blogs (OPB) on BlogExplosion or voting on a Battle of the Blogs, watch for the EntreCard widget and “drop” your EntreCard there, then click on the widget to open the next blog in a new window, while continuing whatever you were doing in BlogExplosion. You’ll earn one credit each time you drop, so you can turn around and use it for your own advertising.

Once you've earned a bunch of credits, it's time to "Campaign" and place your advertising on other people's EntreCard widgets. Do watch for bargains (64 credits or less for your favorites, and under “Campaign” you can browse by cheapest and get some new blogs for 8 credits), as I haven’t found the click-through rate on most blogs corresponds well with the high credits paid (I’ve paid 128 credits for a hot site, only to find that I get 18 click-throughs). I’m sure you’ll discover your own strategies for “dropping” as you go along.

Once you get the basics down, you'll want to pretty up your EntreCard square...after all, it is your Blogosphere Business Card and more people will click on it if it is more attractive than the basic orange stripey offered by EntreCard default. If you have my level of graphic design talent, you'll want to reach out to the EntreCard Design Shop by Matt Urdan...because life's too short to "drop" with an ugly EntreCard.

If you've listened to me in my exhortations to Join SocialSpark! and you're an EntreCard member, follow this link to the post on my site that helps with the BenSpark Social Cardsters Blogroll. The idea is to add the Social Cardster logo attached/under your EntreCard widget and link it to Ben’s (actually his name is Drew, but who am I to talk about nom de plumes?) Social Cardsters blogroll. I finallly got it right on my own widget and have provided a couple of info links for newbies like me on how to link an image.

That's all the tips I have for now. You'll find that EntreCard is a very helpful and friendly community interested in helping you become a more effective blogger and marketer of your blog. Many resources and tools are available on the site to help you take your blogging to the next level.

Enjoy EntreCard, it’s another great way of wandering around the blogosphere.

Life's Too Short to "Drop" with an Ugly EntreCard...

It all started with the BreeSquare. My friend Matt Urdan over at Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta. made himself a brand new EntreCard Square (bottom right) a couple weeks back and I was envious. As one of the nicest bloggers in the blogosphere, Matt couldn't leave me with my boring orange stripey, so he made me the BreeSquare for use on my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blog. When he learned about my newest blogs, Roxiticus Best Blogs and Bay Head Blog, these gorgeous Entrecard squares just showed up in my e-mail over the weekend.

Matt's EntreCard Square designs are fun, creative, and personalized. If you're looking to replace your generic black or orange-stripe EntreCard, or if you're looking to update your current square with a new one, leave Matt the Michigan Rafter a comment on Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta. He'll create a square you'll love, and he'll work for food (see his FOHBOH social network)...or EntreCard credits.

If you haven't tried EntreCard, and you're looking for more traffic for your blog, EntreCard will help your traffic explode. If you're a BlogExplosion user (and if you're not, click BlogExplosion here or in my sidebar to register), you can surf other people's blogs (OPB), or vote on a Battle of the Blogs and drop your EntreCard at the same time. You can sign up with any or all of your blogs (three of those squares are for my blogs), and you don't have to wait for anyone's "approval." EntreCard is a very helpful and friendly community interested in helping you become a more effective blogger and marketer of your blog. Many resources and tools are available on the site to help you take your blogging to the next level. But don't take my word for it, visit EntreCard now and take the quick tour. If you're serious about blogging, it will be the best five minutes you've ever spent.

Then you'll be ready to reach out to the EntreCard Design Shop by Matt Urdan...because life's too short to "drop" with an ugly EntreCard.

Social Cardsters: A Night Out On The Card

As there are many bloggers who have joined the new SocialSpark and who also use Entrecard, Ben Spark (no relation to Social Spark) is compiling a blog roll of all people who are using both services.

If you visit Ben's blog, you can copy the blog roll and add it to your blog and pull the SocialCardsters image to add under the Entrecard widget on your blog, just like I did (see my sidebar). It looks like this:

For those of you who would like to drop 300 EntreCards every day and get a look at Other People's Blogs (OPB) by the Social Cardsters who take their blogging very seriously, clicking your way down the Social Cardsters blog roll takes you there. You can use this blogroll and linky to visit each member of this blogroll, drop your Entrecard and stop by to comment on their latest posts. Several Social Cardsters, including Social Cardster Blogroll Master Ben Spark have committed to dropping on the top 300 people each day. This blogroll is set up to be random so it will be a fair drop each day. If you would like your blog to be listed you must be a member of Social Spark and have an Entrecard widget on your blog.

I am, of course, going to slowly make my way down the blog roll and add the best blogs to my Roxiticus Best Blogs site.

Ah, and one more helpful hint from Junior Tech here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives. Since I just use the basic Blogger software to upload pictures to my blog and to add widgets to my sidebar, I didn't know how to create a link from an image to a URL, and linking your Social Cardster gidgie to Ben Spark's Social Cardster blog roll is part of the Social Cardster deal, so I went here and learned a cool trick, and you can, too.

Check Out My New EntreCard...and Those Other Desperate Housewives

Check out my new EntreCard, courtesy of my friend Matt over at Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta. I expressed envy at his flashy new eCard vs. my standard issue orange stripy and he tossed aside all of his important work to make the hot little number on your left. He also took the time to measure how much he's worth in bed....less than me, but not an insignificant number of EntreCard credits, and I believe Matt has decided to take to his bed until further notice.

For those of you who haven't signed up with EntreCard yet, I highly recommend it. Similar (yet different) to BlogExplosion, EntreCard drives traffic to your blog and exposes you to Other People's Blogs (OPB). The people over at Entrecard are calling it "your business card 2.0." I call it fun. It's a 125x125 image like the BreeSquare here which represents you and your blog. Its part advertisement, part business card. It comes with a widget you place on your blog (see my sidebar on the right), so that others can "drop" their Entrecard for you. You can also use Entrecard to promote your blog and launch free advertising campaigns.

BlogExplosion members should also note that you can use both services at the same time..."drop" your EntreCard while surfing or voting on a Battle of the Blogs on BlogExplosion and double up on your incoming blog traffic. It's easy to sign up for EntreCard...just click here or on the yellow "Get One" you see under the Blog of the Day widget.

Conversely, if you're visiting here thanks to EntreCard, sign up for BlogExplosion...although I'm not sure anyone is alive over at BlogExplosion's customer service department. I have tried to add several blogs to my BlogExplosion account and they've been languishing while awaiting admin approval for months now.

Now, on to those Other Desperate Housewives on Wisteria Lane:

The ABC Desperate Housewives web site isn't giving much up:

Desperate Housewives will return to ABC with a new episode, Sunday April 20th at 9:00pm EDT. Quick preview of the new post-strike episode, “In Buddy’s Eyes”: Gaby struggles with the reality of having a blind husband, Lynette is surprised when someone from her past shows up at Scavo pizzeria, and Bree and Katherine join forces to plan the Founders Day Ball.
Katherine is unable to keep her secrets, Susan's cousin reveals more than expected, and a surprise wedding has its share of secrets.

EntreCard

I just joined EntreCard...you'll see the EntreCard Blog of the Day in my sidebar. EntreCard does two things for me.

1. EntreCard drives traffic to my blog
2. EntreCard is fun -- it gives me a whole new set of blogs to read and enjoy. While I have my favorites on BlogExplosion, it starts to feel "same old, same old" and the EntreCard experience is refreshing....and addicting.

Oh, and a note to our visitors from BlogExplosion -- the two are totally compatible. You can "drop" your EntreCard while surfing via BlogExplosion, voting for me in Battle of the Blogs, or zooming in on a Blog Rocket. More bang for the buck!