It seems every blog that runs EntreCard has a list of tips to gain more EntreCardcredits. So it would be like flogging a dead horse for me to do a post on EntreCard tips.

 That is why this post is on getting the most out of the time you invest into EntreCard. For those of you who do not know, EntreCard is a way of attracting traffic to your blog. It works like the business cards of the past. For more information on EntreCard and why you should look into it read my post here.

1. Use a RSS reader and subscribe to the feed for your card drops. This allows you to view all your card drops at the end of the day and return the favor by dropping cards on those sites. Doing this all at one time saves you more time then checking randomly through out the day and returning the card drops.
2. Use the Favorites feature in EntreCard to single out places where you want to advertise. This way when you go to do an ad campaign you can look to see if the blogs you want to advertise on are available.
3. Set a time limit for how much time you’ll spend card dropping and browsing sites. I set this at around one hour. This gives me ample time to send thank you notes to both those who have bought ads from and those who I have bought ads from. Now you could just use a form letter and copy and paste which would save you more time. But I prefer the personal touch.
4. Lets face it there are going to be some sites you’ll want to frequent every day. You can do this by subscribing to their feeds. Or what I do is book mark them in FireFox and put them all in the same folder. Then I can click on that folder and have FireFox open all the sites in individual tabs. As I drop my card and or leave my comments on the new post I close the tab. Again I do this with in the time limit I have set for EntreCard that day.
5. Start your ad campaigns and approve the ads purchased for site first thing in the day. I have noticed that price to advertise on my blog will always be cheaper first thing in the morning. This rings true for other blogs as well. I know it is tempting to approve ad requests all day. But if you do them all at one time it will end up- costing you less time.

 EntreCard is a great system and has brought my blog a lot of traffic and many RSS subscribers. The only draw back is it does cost a bit of your time. I hope these five tips will help you save a bit of time while using EntreCard. Time to me is my most valuable commodity. I never seem to have enough and I can’t replace what I have used of it. If you have some EntreCard time saving suggestions please leave them in the comments.

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 Well it seems from my posts on EntreCard, here and here. Most EntreCard users and users in general have not had much luck with BlogRush.

 Now it should be noted that unlike EntreCard, once you install the BlogRush code there is nothing more you have to do. With EntreCard, some user action is required. You have to place ads, approve ads, and drop a few cards at least. How ever the pay back from EntreCard is far greater. I have been receiving over 100 unique visitor’s from EntreCard a day now. That far out weighs the seven to ten I have been getting from Blog Rush. However I am not going to drop the ugly bulky BlogRush widget just yet. I have however moved it beneath the fold (a less prominent spot according to people who research ad placements).

 Eventually I will migrate the Blog Rush widget completely off the Tenacious Creations site. I am okay with spending 30 to 45 minutes a day promoting my blog with EntreCard. Yes it is more time than I would have to spend with Blog Rush (with Blog Rush I wouldn’t have to spend any) but I don’t look at it as unproductive time. Not only am I promoting my site but I am finding other interesting sites. Or at the very least interesting content. Plus I get the warm fuzzy feeling of participating in a Blogging community.

 I should also mention that I have become sort of an EntreCard evangelist. There are a few sites that I have found with BlogRush that I frequent that do not have EntreCard yet. I took it upon myself to drop them a note to try EntreCard. I hope they do, and if so it would be great if they could drop me a note here. I will be more than happy to write a recommendation of their sites for EntreCard.

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 Every now and again while viewing my site I get distracted by a head line in the BlogRush Ad. The head line catches my eye and I am off I go to read the post on that site. But today it seemed every post I went to had another headline that caught my eye. I do enjoy reading blogs but this wasn’t the most productive part of my day.

 But I did notice something common to virtually every blog I visited with in that hour. They were all running this thing called Entrecard. Now there is a real good chance that I have seen these on other sites and never really noticed them. But today I did notice them and decided I would check into it..

Well Entrecard is yet another one of those web 2.0 social whatchama call its. It is based on the premise of business cards, your create one (mine is the image at the top of the page) or use one of their (boring and lame) designs. Then you install their widget on your site (I installed mine beneath the fold in the left column). When another Entrecard user comes to your site they simple click on the widget to drop their business card. This action earns them and you an Entrecard credit.

 Now you’ll also notice that in the Entrecard widget another Entrecard users business card is displayed. They paid X number of Entrecard credits (at the time of this writing it costs 7 credits for an ad on my site) to have their card displayed in that widget for 24 hours.

 So does it work? Well when you first sign up you are barraged with people trying to buy ad space on your site. Mainly because when you first sign up it only costs 2 Entrecard credits to buy 24 hours worth of ad time. You have the option to choose which ads you wish to accept and you do get half the credits the advertiser paid to advertise on your site. But be warned there are lots of vultures out there waiting to prey on new sign ups. The price it costs to advertise on your site depends on how many people click the business card and how many people drop their cards on your site. The good news is in the span of a few short hours your price per ad will go up.

 So right in the beginning you do experience a bit of a traffic surge as people are checking out your site to see if they want to put an ad there. You will also get a deluge of e-mails from Entrecard telling you someone wants to advertise on your site. I figured this would die down after I filled the 10 ad spots (you presell your ads for nine days in advance).

 Well I am happy to report that the traffic did not really slow down. I think one of the main reasons for this is because I went to other sites running Entrecard to drop my “card”. When you drop your card Entrecard displays your card in the dashboard of the users who site you dropped it at. Now lets face it we are all curious as to who reads our blogs so naturally you go and check theirs. So far my Entrecard experience has been positive. From this I recommend giving them a try.

 However be warned I do not think you can be passive with Entrecard and still keep good traffic coming from it. Plus I have not yet bought any ads and cannot comment on there performance. But I will keep you updated. I still feel that best way to get traffic for the lazy blogger is to use Blog Rush.

 If you do decided to give Entrecard a try let me know and I will stop by and drop my card.

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