Entrecard - How To Get a Free Ad on John Chow dot Com
Entrecard is the new venture of Graham Langdon, the creator of the Million Dollar Wiki. Entrecard brings the concept of exchanging business card onto the Net. In this case, the business cards are 125×125 buttons.
How Entrecard Works
Once you sign up for a new Entrecard account, you need to install the Entrecard Widget on your blog. There are three widget sizes to choose from. I’m running the 250×127 wide widget. The widget allows other Entrecard users to drop their card. You get one credit for every card dropped. Additional credits can be earned for dropping your card on other Entrecard blog and by other blogs buying an Entrecard advertising spot from you.
The Entrecard Control Panel
The Entrecard control panel seems overly complicated but it’s really simple once you get use to it. The dashboard shows information about your account, your ads, sites you bought advertising from and sites that wants to buy advertising from you.
Your ad price is based on how many people drop cards on your widget and how many cards you drop. Currently, this blog is the most expensive to buy advertising from. You will need to build up 97 credits before you can purchase a spot on John Chow dot Com. Even if you have that many credits, the wait time is 13 days.
Before everyone gets all excited about getting a 125×125 button on John Chow dot Com for free, there are a few things you should consider. The first is the button only shows for one day. The second is the button is placed below the fold so it wouldn’t get as many clicks as the normal $500 sponsorship buttons. However, this hasn’t stop other bloggers from lining up for an ad spot.
Good Traffic Source for Small Bloggers
Because credits are build by having members drop their card, EntreCard can be a good source of traffic for the small blogger. Your control panel shows the blog that stop by and dropped their card. This in turn encourages you to visit their blogs to drop your card. This does bring up the question about the quality of traffic. Are people visiting your blog to read it or just to drop a card? In the end, it shouldn’t really matter because a visitor is still a visitor and it’s your job to turn them into readers. If your content is good, they’ll come back even if their original purpose was just to drop a card to build credits.
Since its launch at Blog World, Graham has been busy adding new features to Entrecard. There is a now a review function for people to make recommendations and tell what they like and don’t like about your blog. The stats page has been greatly improved and the help guide has been revamped.
The success of Entrecard will be largely based not on its ability to sign up new blogs, but on its ability to sign up the big name blogs. So far, Graham has been doing a good job. Beside this blog, Entrecard is being used by Shoemoney and Problogger.net. If you’ve ever dreamed of getting a free 125×125 ad on the “Big 3″ then you better join Entrecard now.
- Posted in The Net
- 153 comments what's your take?
Entrecard is a nice service, but I think the “entrecards” are visually lacking.
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Reply to this commentWin an iPod touch
http://filelime.com/contest.php
Thanks John. Looks like I’ll be joining that to help raise money for charity!
Reply to this commentYou design your own card I believe.
Reply to this commentYou can OR you don’t have to. But if you don’t you get a crappy text 125×125 pixel ad. If you do design it, well, you get what you design, which is cool…
Reply to this commentDude….1buck ….you owe me 5 words on your 5dollar site…for blogging about your blog and enterign the contest…what’s up??
Reply to this commentOh, I e-mailed you and left a message on the blog post too. You want to e-mail me your desired 5 words?
Reply to this commentI will hook you up right away.
Yea you have to design your own and i can’t design. and i can’t find a pic on the internet thats 125 x 125 that will work for my site.
Reply to this commentJohn Chow has very good timing or I have good timing. I just dropped a card to John’s inbox when he took the screenshot. I am the second one on the inbox list - Michael Talk - http://entrecard.com/details/993
Reply to this commentLoL…
Reply to this commentROFL , it is a good “visual advertising” tho
well done hehehe.
Indeed, entrecard is good for small blogs that want to increase a little their traffic and the readers, since this is mainly used from bloggers it also helps you that bloggers hear about you if you are not popular enough.
Reply to this commentToo bad its not linked
Reply to this commentWell, I guess so
Reply to this commentExactly the reason I made my services available. For a mere $10 you can get a custom designed Entrecard. I could charge more, but I can turn out the designs pretty quick especially if you have an idea but you just don’t know how to create it.
Reply to this commentOh yeah, I’ve seen that, but I though Unique Blog Designs were offering FREE EntreCard 125×125 pixel ads? (sorry, i have a good memory for free stuff…)
Reply to this commentHere’s the post if you want a free design for EntreCard,
Reply to this commentmake sure to go buy a quarter page at http://QuarterWiki.com if this helped you, we need some buyers honestly. :p
http://natewhitehill.com/entrecard-and-unique-blog-designs-team-up/
In the interest of full disclosure, what are you getting of this review, John?
…
Reply to this commentENTRE card is better than the blog rush i join it and it give me quiet
Reply to this commentgood traffic
I’ve been using it and so far I’ve got a decent amount of traffic. For smaller sites it is definitely worth a try. Some sites are reporting decent ROI in the entrecard forum
Reply to this commentTHIS POST ARE EXCELLENT I ALSO SUBSCRIBE AFTER THAT POST TO ENTER CARD BUT PLEASE MORE ABOUT CPM ADNETWORKS OTHER THAN ADSENSE
Reply to this commentAlthough not meant to be one, EntreCard is a better traffic exchange network than the much hyped BlogRush.
Reply to this commentPerhaps the reason that BlogRush has been removed from this site?
Reply to this commentdefinitely, BlogRush sucks period. Get EntreCard, where you can earn fair credits and not be penalized by the man, or whoever calls himself the man there.
Reply to this commentOh, very interesting - I haven’t noticed that. And perhaps that is an indication that I will never click on the BlogRush links cos I didn’t even notice it!
Reply to this commentfirst thing I really notice is that every blog on EntreCard has a “real” blogger behind it, not just some robot or some non-blogger or whatever crap…
Reply to this commentBlogRush isn’t the best idea for traffic. Entrecard hit the nail. The problem now is making the entrecard members stay on our site and read
Reply to this commentAlso, if is a little hard to get a spot on John’s blog as time goes by.
Reply to this commentIt sounds good, I went to the site and watched the explaining video, but I got lost in the middle of that.
Reply to this commentBut If I’m not wrong you can sell credits… that sounds evil.
I hope this service is not for english only websites.
BlogRush was english only and I was disapointed at first, but now I don’t see many of them around the web.
Well you are going to see one less.I’ve decide to dump BlogRush and reclaim that space in my sidebar. I’ve had thousands of impressions and very few actual click throughs to my site.
Reply to this commentI had signed-up like two weeks ago, and never got around to actually inserting the card widget on my blog. I just tweaked it and added it, go drop your card.
Reply to this commentHey, what’s up Missy, it’s good to see you here. LOL…
Reply to this commentI was just checking out EntreCard today. I’ve been seeing it all over the place and I’m going to join already.
Reply to this commentBlogRush = sucks because you got too much human moderation and bs
EntreCard - Automated and more blogger friendly version of BlogRush.
Reply to this commentThanks for the info, I will be joining and trying it out. I have heard good things so far.
Reply to this commentI love Entrecard. It’s the only way I’ll ever get my ad on John’s site for free!
Reply to this commentI’d advertise with you again, but your spot is always full!
Even if it is not full, it is tooooo expensive for me
Reply to this commentThese new ways of free advertising (BlogRush, EntreCard) are just the beginning. I have a feeling 2008 will bring some really innovative techniques.
Now, if I could just think of one first..
Reply to this commentI really like Entrecard, and I agree that it’s great for small bloggers, but your article is a little misleading. You didn’t mention that the owner of the blog you want to advertise on has to approve the ad before it runs. I’ve submitted my ad to be run on both John Cow’s blog and Shoemoney’s blog, and both were denied. So really, it’s not a guaranteed ad spot, but at least it makes it available to those who don’t have the money to pay for an A-list blogger’s ad spot.
Reply to this commentIt seems like a pretty cool concept. Be good to see if it works.
Reply to this commentHey, I see my alternate blog logo there
Bloggin-Ads.
Once I saw that the evil John Chow is running an Entrecard, I quickly tried to get in on the fun, but I missed it by a whole lot. I missed it until the tech team removed all the pending cards and it actually freed a spot. I took advantage of it and now, similar to a few of you, I’m waiting in line.
-Mike
Reply to this commentYeah me too… all i am wondering is, how the hell did John rack up so many credits in like couple days since he signed up? I’ve been with EntreCard since the beginning. Graham must have hooked up john for sure… which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Reply to this commentOk, I join one hour ago and start understanding just by using it.
Reply to this commentIt’s easy and really funny. Go drop your card if you like, hehe
It’s a lot of fun dropping cards, networking and discovering new blogs.
Reply to this commentfor sheezy
Reply to this commentHey Cant Get Rich, I agree with you. I just happened to be on EntreCard when it appeared that ProBlogger.net signed on. It said 1 hour and 2 credits. So of course I jumped on it. But alas, I was rejected by the great Darren Rowse. I would like to know why. While my blog isn’t a powerhouse, I have had some good success at passing SEO techniques and tips on to other beginners.
Oh well. I can only imagine what a day on ProBlogger.net would have done for my blog. I have only rejected one and that was because it was way off subject and when i checked the site there was no content.
Unless your blog is way out there, I will approve so drop by NoviceSEO and drop a card…..
eric aka NoviceSEO
Reply to this commentThis is a great way to network with other bloggers and possibly run ads on some big blogs. I ran an ad here on JC for a day, and I got a significant amount of clicks from JC that I never would have gotten had he not been a part of the program.
Reply to this commentYou manage to get your EntreCard advertised here? Good for you!
Reply to this commentI just tried it today and I already got comments on my articles from members who have already joined.
Reply to this commentIt would be good to get a spot with the big guys but to be honest,it’s best for the small blogger like me who can now be able to network amongst themselves. Already got a few friends there.
eh, how to put a higher rate for the advertising price..mine was 2 credits/day
Reply to this commentI still haven’t figured this out either but I think as long as you advertise a lot and drop lots of card, the numbers seem to go up.
Reply to this commentMaybe Graham can enlighten us on the exact EntreCard Algorithm.
Rates are determined by how many people start advertising and dropping cards on your widget. The more ads you sell and the more dropped cards you get, the higher the cost is to advertise on your widget.
Reply to this commentHmmm… so you basically repeated what I said…
Thanks for the clarification. 
Reply to this commentOh wait a minute, sorry, so if you drop cards, it doesn’t necessarily and directly increase your ad cost, BUT it does indirectly help you since other bloggers will also drop cards on you… :p
Reply to this commentI’m trying to spread the word to a multitude of decor bloggers… I think we might prefer to think of it as an old fashioned “calling card” instead of business card ~ evocative of Victorian days when callers left a card ~ though, entre sounds very French Chic! I sincerely hope that I sharing my enthusiasm will be a catalyst for a flood of new registrars in the Home and Garden genre. SO FUN! Thanks.
PS. Between now and that flood I’m anticipating, sure hope I can figure out how one goes about requesting ad space…
Reply to this commentYeah, I agree, EntreCard is not really a business card but a blogger card. Really only suits bloggers so maybe they should change the motto to, “Blogger Business Card 2.0″ or somethin’
Reply to this commentGetting some good traffic from it myself, looks like it will do big things.
Reply to this commentYup, I’ve got way more traffic already with EntreCard than BlogRush ever did. And you actually get quality traffic from bloggers, not spammers…
Reply to this commentSame. I can’t imagine how many cards John’s inbox have!
Reply to this commenthehe. The price for 1 day’s ad the highest I think.
Reply to this commentTotally AGREE!
Reply to this commentI like it as a small blogger because it helps with networking and such - the underlying idea of a business card.
However, I always wondered what is in it for the “big 3″?
Why do you guys make room for the real estate and will you continue to do so? Is it only for the purpose of this review?
I know you can sell the credits but is it really worth your while?
Regardless, like I said, it’s a great networking tool for the small blogs.
Reply to this commentI love the idea. I wonder what issues will come up once many people start using this.
Reply to this commentI think there are issues already, you can check out some people trying to GAME it already on EntreCard forum here:
http://entrecard.com/forums/1/42/#p=6
But I think they have automated a filtering process already so that is good.
Reply to this commentGreat, cool new thingy, fun too !
Got more traffic and things are looking good !
Thanks !
Joakim
Reply to this commentThis is probably the best free advertising for blogger where other actual “bloggers” come to your site, not just some bs traffic. Well, yes, I’ve become an Entrecard evangelist already, why haven’t you?!?
Reply to this commentI think this video is awesome, it’s like Graham embedded the whole thing in his brain for a year before the interview.
On the side note John, I’ve picked up on the EntreCard way before Shoemoney’s post by the way, it was on your first Blog Expo post here:
http://www.johnchow.com/blog-world-expo-day-1-photos/
I recognized Graham and thought, “Hmmm…he must be promoting some new site…” I didn’t even know it was even his new site yet…
Reply to this commentGod.. i am bored, i am trying to move http://bedzine.com over to a new site but my phpMyAdmin keeps hanging on me so I gotta hang out at JohnChow’s new post… Don’t blame me… :p
Reply to this commentHaha good way to stick your link somewhere on John’s posts
Reply to this commentHey, I never meant to stick anything really, http://bedzine.com is right now down or is moving to a new server anyways…
but then again, you are right, i realized i am stickin’ links. :p
Reply to this commentgreat way to get more traffic. :]
Reply to this commentStop by to drop by.
Reply to this commentHmm… maybe that should be entrecards’ tag line
Reply to this commentoh yeah! great idea…i will have to keep commenting in a this over-worked IT-Tech-Guy fashion…
Reply to this commentYup I think this is a great idea.
Reply to this commentI have gotten over 400 unique hits in 20 days from Entrecard. Here’s the post I wrote about it almost a week ago:
Reply to this commenthttp://heavilytrafficked.com/my-entrecard-results-traffic
Yup, we’ve been getting almost over 30% of traffic on http://OneBuckWiki.com from EntreCard.
The only thing I wish Graham added was the ability to add multiple blogs to one account. I have like 20 blogs and I don’t want to sign up for 20 accounts…
Reply to this commentEntre Card tells you to come and leave a comment Ô.ó
Reply to this commentWell, I’m having fun leaving cards, and I have many new feeds for my reader, cool
I like the EntreCard concept, but I’m a little disconcerted the big guys are already jumping all over it and shutting out exposure to smaller users by denying ads. It looks like what could be a good way for small blogs to get more exposure is simply going to be exploited by the self-proclaimed big dogs to continue a stranglehold over the blogosphere. Too bad.
Reply to this commentWell, that’s what I thought too because Shoemoney kept rejecting my ad although he advertised on 3 of my sites. I keep using it and keep submitting ads though. Why not? Keep trying until they accept or they have to accept you some time, right?
It’s not against the rules, and it’s not spamming either. I didn’t get my 1-day’s worth on Shoemoney!?!
okay, enough rambling….
Reply to this commentI think EntreCard is more addictive than anything… You just want to keep droppin’ cards like you’d comment on John’s blog at some random times during the day.
Reply to this commentYeah, John. Entrecard worked fine for small time blogger like me. I was wondering if any of my visitors read what I’ve posted on my blog? Let alone to leave a comment or two.
As for me, I’ve added a link specially to Entrecard’s members who have read and post a comment on my blog. That’s the least I can do for them - spreading a little Link Loves.
With Entrecard, I’ve the opportunity to meet and read many new awesome posts daily and I made it an habit to leave a comment or two whenever possible.
I know it gonna slow me down, making it (still) cheap to advertise their cards on mine, but it’s well worth it. I got to learn many new stuffs that I’ve not know exist. Fyi, I’ve yet to bid on your JohnChowDotCom for lack of credits because of it but I’ve manage to bid on Joel Comm’s. Just waiting for his esteem approval
Thank you John. At least if this comment pass your moderation, I am more than happy. ecstatic, to be exact! What’s more can I ask from an A-listed blogger?
Greetings and lotta loves from Malaysia.
Reply to this commentp/s So far I’ve never rejected anyone who wanted to advertise on my blog. Contents or no contents, it make no different. I remember when I was a Novice who don’t know the different between HTML and my elbow, a great Blogger from Malaysia, Mr. Peter Chen a Blog*Star on Google AdSense and Blogger forum took me in.
One thing he taught me was to be humble. All of us started from zero, including the great John Chow! One thing is clear, I shall never reject any blogs who wanna advertise their cards on mine.
I don’t wanna be thick-headed just because my contents are more and relevant, I rejected others who wants to advertise on mine. Gee, give me a break!
Yeah, John. Entrecard worked fine for small time blogger like me. I was wondering if any of my visitors read what I’ve posted on my blog? Let alone to leave a comment or two.
As for me, I’ve added a link specially to Entrecard’s members who have read and post a comment on my blog. That’s the least I can do for them - spreading a little Link Loves.
With Entrecard, I’ve the opportunity to meet and read many new awesome posts daily and I made it an habit to leave a comment or two whenever possible.
I know it gonna slow me down, making it (still) cheap to advertise their cards on mine, but it’s well worth it. I got to learn many new stuffs that I’ve not know exist. Fyi, I’ve yet to bid on your JohnChowDotCom for lack of credits because of it but I’ve manage to bid on Joel Comm’s. Just waiting for his esteem approval
Thank you John. At least if this comment pass your moderation, I shall be more than happy. Ecstatic, to be exact! What’s more can I ask from an A-listed blogger?
Greetings and lotta loves from Malaysia.
Reply to this commentAlright! I finally figured out how to dump mysql database from command line! I will have to stop commenting on how great EntreCard is…well it is awesome! “Go get your Entrecard, a 125×125 pixel widget you put on your blog. Drop it on other blogs and earn credits and other bloggers advertise on your blog and you get to advertise on other people’s blog!” Was that good Graham, it came straight out of my mind. You should give out credits to top commentators of this post. lol…
Reply to this commentYou know Graham is selling his MDW, I am strongly against it since it’s part of his “resume” for life. If I was Graham, it’d be nice to say I still own the very first site I created if EntreCard becomes huge.
Maybe he can get some funding from Guy Kawasaki’s Garage?
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/16778
Reply to this commentThanks John for posting. I would just like to say that I’ve only been using Entrecard for a few days and have seen tremendous results as far as traffic goes. The E gets a thumbs up from me!
Reply to this comment2 thumbs up over here!
Reply to this commentIf EntreCard is a good traffic source for small bloggers, imagine what it did to mega bloggers (like JohnChow, Shoemoney, problogger). They are getting even bigger share of the traffic from EntreCard.
Reply to this commentI am waiting for a chance to lay my hands to see your spot not full!!! hahaha!
Reply to this commentJoin the queue please…..it’s more than a mile long!
Reply to this comment
I’m very happy with my EntreCard experience so far. It’s fun, creative and I see results in my traffic and my RSS subscriptions. I’ve got ads approved on some great blogs with thousands of subscribers…for free! How else could I have done that? EntreCard is also very good at building user confidence. They’ve delivered everything they’ve promised so far and then some. I think they use a WYSIWYG marketing strategy - they didn’t promise astronomical traffic, like BlogRush (insert deflating balloon sound here). EntreCard simply promoted what it does - affords you the chance to advertise on other blogs for free. They’re customer service is also fantastic. They’ve got a forum and a feedback form. I’ve used both and have gotten personal responses from EntreCard folks same day, in most cases. What are you waiting for…click over and sign up!
Reply to this commentI started using Entrecard last week and i’ve been impressed with it so far. It’s not just the additional traffic i’ve received it’s the increase in comments and subscribers that have been the most valuable.
Reply to this commentYeah! Hope you give me some valuable traffics
–blog for dream–
Reply to this commentI’m having great success with Entrecard, allowing me to advertise on huge blogs. It’s fabulous, and I love it. I’ve had my ad on the cow’s blog, and had over 50 clicks!
Reply to this commentMy small blog enjoys the success of EntreCard too! However, no luck for me to advertise on the cow’s blog as it is always “spot full”.
Reply to this commentI thought about waiting a little bit before I sign up for it.. an hour after I signed up I’m already getting traffic! I think I just spend 3 hours reading other people site!
Reply to this comment