For my Saturday Saved- The Best for Last featured post this week, I deemed it best to republish my previous post 
My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part I). It was first published on September 6, 2008 when all my 3 blogs climbed up to Top 75 Popular blogs at Entrecard. Lainy’s Musings took center stage when it stole the No. 2 spot for a few hours, LOL! The post was to also heed the call by fellow EntreCarders to write something about how I was doing my crazy drops.
Here it is:
My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part I)
Our Journey to Forever and Kuerdas (please try to swing by those blogs). It gave me more than 300 hits a day and more than the hits, I came across wonderful blogs and made friends with beautiful people. I couldn’t have done it if not for Entrecard.When we see an EC widget, we would usually click “drop” on impulse. That’s how it is for novice. But let me emphasize here that every cards dropped counts. We need to be sure if the blogs we have just dropped our cards on would return our drops. It’s OK to drop on friends no matter what rankings they have at Entrecard. They would always reciprocate because they are friends!
DROP FROM THE POPULAR BLOGS
You may ask me, WHAT RANKINGS? In case you still don’t know it, I’ve slowly learned that every blog is ranked at Entrecard. ALL blogs are ranked according to POPULARITY. There are 52 categories and each blog is ranked according to popularity in each categories.
The rankings are the following:
- Deeply committed – Deadly serious. A drop master!
- Takes dropping Very Very Seriously
- Consistent, regular dropper
- Casual and relaxed
- Just here for the view
Here’s how you can get to know your blog’s rank:
- Go to the CAMPAIGN TAB in your Dashboard
-
Choose POPULAR
-
Select ALL CATEGORIES
-
Order should be by MOST POPULAR
-
Choose NO MAXIMUM for Maximum Price.
- Choose 24 rows per page (Top 120 Popular blogs will show on the first page).
YOUR 125 X 125 ENTRECARD WIDGET PLAYS A VITAL ROLE
Out of more than 15, 000 Entrecard members, it will now be very easy to recognize the Popular blogs if you get yourself familiarized with their avatars. Once you see them anywhere, you will get to know they are those blogs who have been doing crazy drops, day in and day out! I know these blogs even when my eyes are closed, haha! Now, I would dissuade anyone from changing avatars every now and then. You wouldn’t want to lose your regular droppers, right?
COLOR CODING
One thing important to know is the COLOR CODING at Entrecard. These are as follows:
- Gold = Featured
- Rose = Favorite
- Blue = Ad purchased
- Green = Dropped
- Dark = Recently rejected
- Black= Not yet dropped
I want you to take careful notice of these colors if you drop from the POPULAR BLOGS. If you have made a drop on a particular blog, the color will turn to GREEN, so there’s no need to go to the site. That would save you ample time. If the color is black, and you want to drop on that site, that’s the time you can visit the site and drop your card.
HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR DROP INBOX?
Very important. The drop inbox will help you keep track who made drops on your blog everyday. If you have made drops from the Popular Blogs category, you will know from who among them have returned your drops.
It should be noted here that most of the popular blogs get more than 300 drops daily. That’s way over the 300 limit. It only means that NOT all the drops they get they could return immediately. The TIP here is to keep coming back.
MAKE YOUR PRESENCE FELT.
DROP.
READ.
If you think the topic is engaging, you can take part by commenting.
In my case, once I see new EC widgets that made drops on me, I don’t usually return the drops made. If I am that bad, I am sorry. But please understand that I need to prioritize those blogs who have been frequenting my blogs and keeps dropping those cards. I can’t miss returning their drops in favor of a new one which I am not even sure if they could still come back. After a couple of days of persistent dropping, that’s when you will be included in my favorites.
I do not know if blogs in the Popular category have been doing the same technique as I do. You can well ask them, too. These techniques worked well across my three (3) blogs: Lainy’s Musings, Our Journey to Forever and Kuerdas. I will be doing the sharing of techniques in parts since it wouldn’t be possible to do it in one shot.
I will be very glad if this post could help you understand Entrecard more. If you have a better way of doing your drops, please feel free to share it in my comment section.
*NOTE: Kuerdas was deleted from EntreCard after a few months of publishing the post.
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General Santos Time
Wow thanks for the info Lainy i never knew this. I am going to have to check this out. Great job my friend.
.-= Bill´s last blog ..Top FCC Commenter and EC dropper for August =-.
Lainy,
A well thought through article that you have written.
However, EntreCard is on the decline. Much of its decline is due to the bewildering changes that the previous owner did to undermine his creation.
And now to add more insult, the present owner has brought on EConomics. EC members face a recessionary dilemma with the latest revision on credits earned. Kind of stupid when I wonder why I should be advertising some other Blogger’s EC widgy and not earn a point for it when its mouse clicked.
With the new ruling, all that it takes to earn one EC point, there’s no need to be displaying EC widgies at my Blog. EC could save half their server expenses and bandwidth by hosting EVERYONE’S EC gravatar at their domain and members just go clicking on the widgets like there’s no tomorrow.
But back to the issue about Popularity. Here again, with EntreCard losing its very own credibility, EC Popularity rankings wouldn’t carry much weight.
Kind of silly that EntreCard, before and now, takes whatever they think they’re worth so seriously when in the first instance it’s a FREEBIE!!!
It’s like me giving someone a free service and then after giving it, I tell the guy to kiss my ass! That aptly describes EntreCard.
This is a very good and valuable tips for EC members, especially to the newbies like me.
Based on my own experience, after I joined EC last week of June 2009, I was also groping in the dark on how to drop cards and to whom. My drop rank then was casual and relaxed.
But one month after I joined or last week of July, my blog got to the No. 10 of the most popular blogs in all categories for 2 days. That’s the time when I stopped dropping 300 cards a day, knowing fully well that popularity is fleeting in EC community and I don’t want my blog to be dependent on click and run traffic.
Now my 130 day-old Business Sphere blog hovers from No. 15 to 25 of the most popular blogs in EC, and I’m content with that. My aim is to slide it to only No. 50 in popularity to lower my high bounce rate, now at 72% because of click and run traffic.
Thanks for posting such awesome article like this, always well-written, well-presented, and entertaining to read, which only you can do with your inimitable fluent writing style.
From your No. 1 fan and follower, LOL!
Eli
Business Sphere
.-= Eli´s last blog ..Your Blog Image – Look Like A Thousand, Not A Million! =-.
Great post, thanks so much for sharing how you do your drops. I’ve always wondered what strategies other EC members use. I’ve changed mine several times since I started and although I may not be at the top of the charts, I’ve climbed up quite a ways since I started. I have been thinking about making some changes and your post gave me some great insight
.-= ann´s last blog ..Home invasion =-.
Hi, Te laine. wow, uu nga no. galing galing. di na kase ako nakakapag drop like before. sensya na. ngayon naman naaadik ako sa Adgitize. Anyway, un nga, ung iba drop and run lang. kaya di ko natatapos ung 300 clicks kase nagbabasa pa muna ako, eh di naman keri ng time ko kaya un di na ko nakakapag drop back.
kaya gawa ko na lang, naglagay na lang ako ng RSS widget sa sidebar ko, prang acknowledgements nalang din sa mga avid droppers ko. diba, may linky love sila sa blog ko hehehe. mga 60 hits ko per day galing kay Buraot entredropper, kaso na ban na din ata sya ni entrecard. hmm.. so bawal mag-share ng experiences with EC?
That was before and this now comes to mind when I read this post and the comments following it. I always dropped first from my inbox, wanting to return the favor…that seems pointless now. Since they don’t get anything with my drop what favor am I returning? None it seems.
I used the toolbar to hit 10 at a time in categories I liked, sometimes hitting new blogs and sometimes popular blogs. Thought how excited I was as a newbie when people dropped, read, commented it would be a good way to spread the knowledge of blog to them and perhaps establish a new relationship. That newbie thing didn’t work out very well, frankly. Most days I hit those blogs where my advert is and drop and leave comment to thank them for placing advert. Always invite them to visit, though most don’t; or if they do they don’t leave a comment so I’m unaware they’ve been there. I don’t just leave my thank you comment which is unrelated to their blog post, I read their blog post and comment on it and add my thank you. I often hit all the blogs in my que to advertise on my page to drop. Sometimes I hit all those blogs in my pending que, thinking if I drop multiple times on them, and they get points for that, they would be more inclined to visit my blog, maybe read it and comment, return the drop, and approve the ad. That process does seem worthwhile about 60% of the time, other times I cancel the ad when it’s apparent the ec’s are frozen waiting to be approved, they’ve not return the drops etc.
The popular thing needs to be redone in my opinion. I visit, drop and when there’s a new blog post make a comment on a couple specific blogs in my category, travel. Several are typically ahead of my blog in the popular numbers. I managed to move past them for about a week, but that was temporary. What bothers me frankly about this is. My blog is current, I return every comment, and 85% of all drops…even if not that day (the following or 2 days if I run into 300 too soon). Several of these blogs are most definately not current, have not updated in long time, and yet they are listed as popular. I have stopped commented on blogs that I know don’t return comments, and if I could figure out a way to remember those that don’t return drops (you must have a better memory than me), I would also stop dropping on them. But, that thought varies now with the new policy.
I wish in our inbox, there was an additional drop down that said, blogs you’ve dropped on that haven’t dropped or something along that line. Probably too involved. Though it would be helpful when we’re forced to drop from a widget because the toolbar doesn’t work, or you don’t have the toolbar.
On our stats page it would be nice to have a dated column where we could see the number of drops we made vs the number dropped on us on a given day. The graphs to me are too general.
Thanks for your post, was hoping I might learn a new trick here; but seems our methods aren’t too far apart.
Sandy
.-= sandy´s last blog ..St Louis Botanical Gardens =-.
Lainy, you make some good points.
however if entrecard is to benefit you; you need a plan.
most of my droppers are repeaters, who comment and come by as
well as subscribe. entrecard doesn’t stress the importance of
commenting and or subscribing to the visited blogs, which is a
very important point in gaining pr or regular readers.
entrecard can deliver them, but it’s up to the blogger to
keep them reading and coming back. speaking of which, I see
you drop by all the time, but never comment.
hmmmmm ?
.-= RE – A BadGalSays´s last blog ..Wrong, Wrong, Wrong Damn It =-.
Great info, Lainy! I’m guilty much of the time for not returning drops, but I wasn’t aware of many of the things you pointed out about EC here.
Thanks and so glad once again you stuck it out my very dear friend!
.-= David Funk´s last blog ..Pics From the Oakland A’s vs Seattle Mariners Game! =-.
This is really interesting. Thanks Lainy for giving such helpful tips! I will sure try this!
Thanks for sharing this info. I’m back again in dropping Ec.
Thanks for the wonderful advice Lainy! Please know I try very hard to return every single one but some days are impossible with me being on satellite!!
I am fortunate to have very many wonderful friends such as yourself that are top blogs!!
Please also know that as of today all of the blues are wiped away from my blog!
So no more sadness when you visit okay!!
hugs,
.-= Jackie aka Shinade´s last blog ..Gone Fishing, A Bull Buffalo, And The Redneck Squire =-.
Jackie
Hey Windy! There you are! Thanks as always for providing more salient insights into this post.
I can still vividly recall when you tried to somehow “defend” EC as a free provider of traffic for bloggers.
This was posted in your comment to my Post Some of the Reasons Why More and More Bloggers Are Leaving EntreCard which can be found here: http://www.lainyonline.com/entrecard/some-of-the-reasons-why-more-and-more-people-are-leaving-entrecard
If I may just quote what you said:
This is an excellent write, Lainy-belle.
Here are some of my thoughts to add:
For whatever it is worth, EntreCard is FREE. And I believe that being FREE is the crux of the problem.
If EntreCard was a pay by membership service,I believe that EntreCard will be able to do far better service for its members, be more in control and eradicate some of the salient problems that continue to dog EntreCard.
When a service if provided for FREE, most peeps in like manner freely vent their grouses about what is lacking in EntreCard rather than what is lacking at their own BLog(s) – and of course, complainants most conveniently fail to remember that EntreCard is free.
Free means that it is free for anyone who decides to use the service or free to leave it.
Fact No.1
When anything is a FREE service, there will always be some negativity simply because it covers a humongous amount of registrants. Varying needs and varying expectations of the FREE service.
Fact No.2
It is next to impossible to police and to cater to every registered member’s expectation. Not even the older and more established Social Networks have done any better compared to EntreCard.
Fact No.3
There is more than meets the eye when EntreCard apparently becomes “slack” when daily drops are made. However, in their vaunted eagerness to have the drops done with total ease and zero discomfort, I keep reading at various BLogs rants and tirades against EntreCard. Perhaps it would be opportune to mention here that EntreCard does not own the telephone Companies, the Internet Service Providers, the bloggers choice of content in the BLog and is never a decision maker on the blogger’s choice of internet bandwidth.
Fact No.4
As with all Social Networks, there is the TOS, and that is meant for sanity to prevail in order for the FREE service to function. How EntreCard manages their TOS against an erring EntreCard member is their management prerogative. Unless of course, it is a paid service, EntreCard will have to divest themselves of autocracy.
Fact No.5
I personally dislike using EntreCard’s drop process BUT until today, is there anything else out there that does drives Blog traffic better than EntreCard does?
Which I replied:
Thanks so much Windy for a very comprehensive and elaborative input. I so much appreciate it. I have actually reserved the points you’ve mentioned in my next post RE: Some of the Reasons Why I am Sticking with EntreCard.
Since EntreCard is FREE and we have actually gained from its free service, anyone is free to leave as they please. But I figure they can’t help venting out their reasons for their departure.
I must admit despite EntreCard’s downsides, It’s very hard to come up with yet another system which could equal EntreCard’s accomplishments thus far. We have the owner Graham Langdon to commend for that.
Which you retorted back:
Hi Lainy-belle,
You said: “….anyone is free to leave as they please. But I figure they can’t help venting out their reasons for their departure.”
This old man says: What these whiners are doing may be compared to having been given a free car ride to their destination.
When (s)he alights from the car, the first thing that is said to the first contact made, is that:
- the car they rode in was without air conditioning,
- no music, only the droning of an engine badly in need of maintenance.
- it had a “klanking” sound from the engine and definitely some nuts were loose,
- the seats were soggy and there was an awful stench inside the car,{(s)he won’t admit it was from her/his stink fart}
- the wheel almost fell off whenever the driver made a turn,
- the ride was wobbly because the tyres were not balanced,
- the brakes hardly worked at mandatory stop signs,
- smoke crept out from under the car’s bonnet
- it’s a miracle that (s)he is still blogging….
and it was a sheer waste of time riding with EntreCard.
And I was totally speechless! I couldn’t anymore find the words to disprove your point. LOL!
Lainy,
You have the memory power of two elephants.
Ok, to get to back to the issue about EntreCard.
I am NOT defending EntreCard. It has its benefits. It has its benefits as long as the owners don’t befuddled the aim of what EntreCard is meant to do.
Trouble started when the creator cum owner of EntreCard started to have financial dreams about his creation.
That is where the service started to sour and I mean really sour.
The same is happening now with the second owner of EntreCard.
By quoting what I commented at a previous Post here, you are not comparing apples to apples. What I commented then does not debunk what I now comment at this Post.
It is a fact that EC has lost credibility.
It is a fact that the new owners have added more insult to what they provide as a FREE service by making it sound it has “economic” value, when it does NOT.
My previous Comment does not contradict my latest Comment here. It was a comment about people who rant about the service that they took advantage of in good times and could not leave EC without screaming their heads off.
Your Post here is of a totally different issue. It isn’t about ex-EC members ranting. It’s about how to gain on EntreCard by way of gaining on their rank ratings.
And I commented that it serves little purpose when EC’s credibility is faltering.
@ BILL
You are most welcome, my friend!
Have a great weekend over there!
Thank you, Atty, Eli. Coming from you, I am taking that as a huge compliment.
Yes, I am aware that you are the fast-rising star at EntreCard. For a 131-day old blog, you have accomplished so much.
Drop and run, which most bloggers do, immensely affects the bounce rate of our respective blogs. I remember EC wanting to address the issue in June 2009. But it’s merely “words”. There was never concrete action. The intention to take action against the bounce rates was posted at the EC blog with the link http://entrecard.com/blog/?p=1225
Thank you for unselfishly sharing your experiences with us, Atty. The gesture is truly appreciated especially for enlightening me about Adgitize. I certainly owe you one
You are correct, Dear. Commenting isn’t given much emphasis by EntreCard because most do “drop and run”. I myself is guilty as charged. But then again, it’s all up to the blogger how to keep a fellow blogger engaged to a certain post and to keep them coming back. If a particular blogger doesn’t find our posts interesting enough to leave a comment, that is fine. But of course, we would love people reading our stuffs and knowing their thoughts on the matter.
Yes, I haven’t been commenting of late. I said Goodbye to blogging a month ago and I just came back. I still have to keep up with all the blogging chores like commenting and stuffs. However, I have quite a number of blogs which I have been regularly commenting on, I just have to include your blog in the list.
Thanks for your thoughts and for bearing with me.
Thank you, Sandy for sharing your experiences. I truly appreciate your thoughts. You’ve made a great point. I would also love to have that graph which shows the no. of drops made by an EntreCarder.
I commend your efforts at reaching out to bloggers by commenting. I wish I have so much time in my hands so that I could do it, too. Most bloggers are passive though. And they love people to comment on their respective blogs but they don’t do the same for other blogs.
This post was first published a year ago. It was re-published because of the Saturday Saved Meme. Things have changed quite a great deal at EntreCard. If we want to stay and thrive, we have to be more strategic. It would make us much more effective if we could develop a working system because of the tougher measures that’s being implemented by EC. I am not sure for how long I will be around. It depends on how things are going.
Hi Fedhz! I am glad you’re back here again
Hmm, I am still new to Adgitize though I’ve signed up for membership early quarter of this year. It’s a good thing Atty. Eli of Business Sphere was there to explain everything to me. Ngayon medyo maliwanag na sakin how Adgitize works.
I am not too sure if bawal mag-share ng experiences. Ano rin kaya ang dahilan bakit na-ban si Buraot ng EC? Has he asked for reinstatement?
not sure eh. bakit naman kaw ang reason para ma ban sya. ang alam ko lang eh dahil sa entredropper nya. Ayaw ata ng EC na makapag drop ng mabilis, kasi nga ung iba drop and run lang so un.
ako this Aug lang nag advertise sa adgi, pero matagal na kong meron nun, mga january pa ata. ^^
bakit naban ung Kuerdas? di ko na-follow. suri.
Huh? I was asking what was the reason EC banned him, I didn’t say I might be the reason, hehehe!
I never heard about that EntreDropper thing. ‘Yong Power Drop garantisadong bawal yon kaya maba-ban talaga.
Kuerdas was deleted because most of the posted articles were paid posts, LOL!
Pleasure is all mine, Ann. Thanks for dropping by today and for taking part in the conversation. That sure added meat to the subject in question. See you around!
Hi David! Thanks for dropping by, as always! I could always understand if you can’t return the drops. You’re on mobile and it’s just too impossible for you to consistently do it. As I’ve mentioned in the post, even if friends can’t return my drops, it’s ok because they are friends and they would always come by no matter what!
Pleasure is all mine, Jane!
Thanks for the drops, Karen! I hope I am keeping up!
Hi Jackie! You are one great friend, too! I am blessed to have such genuine friends and I am very grateful!
I hope the family could recover soon over the grief that has beset you all.
I visited earlier today, and yes, No sadness. Only smiles!