BloggersWalk

Entrecard is a great tool for bloggers. While I knew of it since long ago, I only decided to try it out yesterday, as you can see from my Entrecard widget on the side. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically like a little business card for your blog, and you go around blogs with the Entrecard widget on it, dropping your card in that blog. Every card you drop and card dropped on you equals one credit, which can be used for various purposes, such as for money and contest prizes. However, if your blog is relatively new like this one, it might be a wiser choice to save up on your credits and spend big on advertisements.

On the side, if you see a 125×125 ad that is not BloggersWalk ad, it is someone advertising on this site using their Entrecard Credits (EC). So basically, with your ECs, you can advertise on any of the blogs listed on Entrecard, assuming that the blog owner approves your advertisement.

So, you’re probably thinking, “I knew all that stuff. Why should I read more?” Well, if you’ve got more than enough ECs, then I guess you don’t have to read any further. However, if you’re just earning your ECs by dropping 300 a day and getting a few drops, reading more couldn’t hurt. Content may be king, but without effective advertising, what good could it be? Anyways, so, how do you use your cards effectively?

Don’t always advertise in your category!
This might seem a bit weird, but usually, those who are pioneers are those who win. Usually the sheep, or the ones following, don’t. What does this mean? So, if you run a blog about making money online, the perfect category to advertise would be the “Make Money Online” category. However, looking at the categories avaliable on Entrecard, Internet Marketing, Computers and Internet, Web Development, and a couple others could also work. Now, I’m not saying you should completely ignore your category as an ad on John Chow would be cool. Still, advertising at different categories could prove to benefit you as you could expose yourself to those “untapped” visitors as opposed to the John Chow visitors that already believe that JC is the best and probably won’t even give you a good look.

What days are the most effective?
You know how the stores are full during the Holiday season? With websites, it’s pretty much the same. You’ll have a specific day when there will be a lot of visitors. Also, these statistics are pretty consistent. So what do you do? Although not guaranteed, I believe that if you kindly asked a blogger about the blog’s traffic stats, they should give it to you. Of course, you would also have to express your desire to advertise. With these statistics in your hand, there should be a couple obvious days when the hits are quite high. Find the right day, PLAN AHEAD, and make sure that you get your ad in. Due to the nature of Entrecard, the blog owner may accept yours later, thus, resulting in a wrong day, in my opinion, it’s worth a shot. Especially with the bigger blogs, you’ve got a great chance.

Make your ads catchy!
You know the saying, “Sex sells”? Well, the concept is similar. Make your 125×125 advertisements catchy! A few days ago, I was talking to this blogger who was running an MMO blog and he said that he was using a banner that showed a monthly income of $4000+ USD. However, he doesn’t earn that much in reality, but with the help of those numbers, he does receive a lot more visitors. Making your ads catchy is a basic, but not many people utilize it. My ads could also get a lot better! You need something “viral”, something that will get people to WANT TO click! Sounds simple, but it isn’t.

Don’t forget, ECs can be converted to money too!
If you think there isn’t a great place to advertise, don’t force it! Remember? EC can be converted into real cash! Simply convert it and if you want to advertise in a site that does not have the Entrecard widget, just personally get in touch with that blogger to see if there is any ad space opening.

Analyze the incoming traffic!
Analyzing where your traffic is coming from is so important. This should be an obvious thing, but unfortunately, not many people do it all the time. With whatever stat recording program you have, see where the traffic is coming from. See which blog that you advertised at is working right. Entrecard is cheap and since you get 24 hours at one site, you should easily be able to test quite a few sites. If one works well, try that blog out again. Impressive again? Well, you know which one to stick with then!

These are probably simple tips and may or may not be beneficial to you. However, after a day of a lot of reading about Entrecard and lurking around in their forums, these are just a few tips I thought would work for me. Have you tried any of these? Think some of these might not work?

Feel free to drop a comment as we can’t always be perfect!