When will Entrecard get cleaned up?

I've been using Entrecard for a long time now. The site has certainly gone down hill, but it has brought me a small amount of traffic and I've met people and discovered blogs that I really enjoy. So, I've stuck with it, even though I'm not as active as I once was. However, the Entrecard staff seems to have all but disappeared. Blogs everywhere are breaking the guidelines, and nothing has been done about it.

Let's take a look at the Entrecard Blog Quality Standards...
There are a few guidelines specifically, which blogs are breaking left and right. The web address must be valid, the Entrecard widget must be present, and most importantly, there must be at least 5 posts within the last 3 months.

An inactive blog is not a quality blog. The great thing about blogs is that they are dynamic. But if a blogger doesn't update, then their blog is just another static webpage. I understand that sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, but there are blogs on Entrecard that have not been updated since last year -- I use the 'report this blog' link on Entrecard, but does it fall on deaf ears? The blogs are never removed.

It is apparent that no one on Entrecard staff is actually paying attention to these reports, and they do not care to enforce the rules. Heck, even the official Entrecard blog hasn't been updated in over 5 months. There is even one account in my category which got 110 drops in the past five days, but the link leads to a 404! The webpage doesn't exist anymore, but somehow it is still getting dropped on -- why doesn't the moderation team do anything about this?

So is Entrecard all but defunct? It saddens me to think that EC has been abandoned, but they have had a long history of poor leadership and rotten choices. I enjoy the free advertising and I enjoy reading peoples' blogs, but Entrecard is obviously not everything that it could be, especially as the staff seems to have fled!

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Entrecard and Project Wonderful: Hidden Gems

As you're dropping Entrecards, you may notice that a lot of blogs feature Project Wonderful advertising. Project Wonderful is a pretty neat service, because it allows advertisers to compete for ad space in an 'infinite auction'. It's win-win for advertisers and publishers, because the publishers get a fair price for their ad space, and advertisers can get some good deals. If an ad space is in demand, the price rises. If it isn't in demand, the price falls, and advertisers can even get ad space for free.

When I spot free ad space on blogs, I tend to submit my ad, because why not? Extra exposure is always good. Project Wonderful shows you traffic stats, sortable by geographical region, to help you determine how much you want to bid. And herein lies the great combination of Project Wonderful and Entrecard advertising.

Inside Entrecard, blogs are sorted by how popular they are IN ENTRECARD. There are blogs with Entrecard widgets, that get a lot of traffic. But on Entrecard, they are low in the listings, because not many people drop on them. Entrecard statistics are totally irrelevant outside of the Entrecard community. But, Entrecard allows you to advertise on websites without any monetary cost.

So, the trick is this: As you're dropping, look for the low-EC-cost blogs. Check their traffic via Project Wonderful, if they have PW ads. You could score some fantastic deals, if a blog is not active on Entrecard, but gets good traffic! When you find these 'hidden gems' on Entrecard, add them to your favorites and then you can keep advertising on them, for a low EC price (which also means free, since ECs aren't money).

The reverse is also true: there are high-ranked EC blogs which get virtually no traffic outside of Entrecard and Adgitize. Don't waste your credits on advertising there, because it won't be worth much.

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Entrecard for increasing blog traffic

Using Entrecard on your blog - it's a controversial topic, gaining more controversy by the day it seems. And they like it that way - the Entrecard view is, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Entrecard creator Graham Langdon has said "I’m always amazed how controversy drives record numbers of signups."

Depending on how you use it, Entrecard can be a powerful force of good or bad on your blog. It can drive you a significant amount of new traffic, forge relationships with other bloggers, and give you a load of free advertising. Or, it can be little more than a glorified traffic exchange. It all depends on how you choose to use Entrecard.

Entrecard is great to use on a new blog that doesn't have much 'Google juice' yet. It's discouraging to start up a blog and see that it only gets single- or double-digit hits a day. Feedback like visitors and comments are important to a new blogger, to give them suggestions for improvement and confidence to continue blogging. Entrecard may be just the boost you need for your new blog.

Entrecard is a blog network where you drop your 'Entrecard' - sort of a virtual business card (a 125x125 ad) - on other blogs, using the Entrecard widget. Every Entrecard blog has this widget that you can drop on or advertise on. Dropping on a blog gives you one point, as does receiving a drop.

Advertising is based on powers of two, depending on how many people want to advertise on a blog - it starts out costing 2 credits, then 4 credits, 8, 16, 32, and so on. The multiplication breaks down in the higher numbers, for no apparent reason, but that's not important. Each Entrecard ad runs for 24 hours.

You can see what blogs have dropped on you by viewing your Entrecard Drops Inbox, and it's good etiquette to drop back on the blogs that have dropped on you. If you choose to do this, and only this, then Entrecard is just a traffic exchange. They visit you, you visit them.

However, Entrecard doesn't have to be a traffic exchange. It can be more valuable than that. You can use it to find new readers in your niche, targeting your drops and advertising towards blogs with a similar audience. You can also find new related blogs to read, learn from, and comment on.

Entrecard has recently introduced a cashout system where you can cash out your Entrecard credits at a rate of 1000 credits for $1. Some people have taken advantage of this, but I prefer to put my credits right back into the system for free advertising. For me, credits don't accumulate fast enough to make cashing out worthwhile, and Entrecard is more important to me for the traffic it brings and the advertising it offers.

Despite its bumps and screwups (if you don't know what I'm talking about, Google Turnip of Power, or the Official Entrecard blog - read some comments), I find Entrecard to be a useful service for bloggers, especially new blogs starting out. Depending how active you are on Entrecard (dropping, commenting, advertising), it can bring you between 50 and 200 extra visitors per day. For a new blog, this is an important traffic boost that can give you just the confidence you need to continue blogging.

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