ProBlogger is probably one of the most well known bloggers around our blogging community. In order to place an ad space on this blog, you'll probably need to fork out a couple of hundred dollars. Dispair not my fellow readers and bloggers as there is another way to get your blog to appear on Problogger.

The answer lies is in Entrecard.

The image above is infact a screenshot of ProBlogger's account at Entrecard.

If we take a look at the Price portion right below the 125x125 banner of ProBlogger, it cost about 8192 Entrecard credits just to advertise on ProBlogger's blog for one day. That's about 28 days of daily 300 Entrecard drops in order to earn yourself enough credits just to purchase a single day ad on Problogger's blog.

Perhaps a day of fame by having your blog appear on ProBlogger's blog is well worth all the 8192 credits. In fact my blog also had its very own one day "fame" on ProBlogger's blog at the expense of 2048 credits! Was it worth my 2048 credits? Take a look at the screenshot below:

2048 credits for 82 clicks from ProBlogger's blog to my blog in my opinion is not a profitable Return of Investment considering the fact that ProBlogger has thousands of unique visitors daily. So if you are intending to dump 8192 Entrecard credits for a single day ad at ProBlogger's blog, perhaps you should reconsider. Besides, there are loads of cheap blogs on Entrecard which you could invest your credits and get reasonable clicks in return.

Till my next post, cheers and happy blogging!

Recommended Entrecard related articles:

1. Entrecard.com, the Next Level of Advertising?
2. Entrecard Again? Ramblings of A Tired Blogger
3. Entrecard.com, Back To Basics

I intended to blog about this last night. I started off last night's post with an introduction on Entrecard, thinking that I will eventually fill up the contents (the contents for today) as I write. Instead, I got so engrossed in writing about the past and present of Entrecard that I decided might as well turn what I'm writing into a blog post. Click here to read my "not so well planned" article.

As for today, I'm pretty sure I will be able to produce the intended article without straying away. To prevent and further ramblings for today, I'll skip the introduction and get straight to the gist of "What Kind of Entrecard Dropper Are You?"

1. Power Droppers
Power Droppers are Entrecard members who visit blogs solely for the sake of dropping Entrecards. The only goal that Power Droppers have in mind is to earn 300 Entrecard credits in the shortest amount of time daily. In some ways, we tend to see them as merciless Entrecard members who dont't give a rat's tail about the contents of other blogs. The one and only thing that attracts them is the "Drop" button located on your Entrecard widget.

Resources for Power Droppers:
PowerDropping Dot Com - A list of 300 fastest loading Entrecard blogs. Rankings for blogs in this list are determined by how fast it takes to load.

2. "You Drop I Follow" Droppers
Courtesy is the only word that I can use to describe "You Drop I Follow" Droppers. If you take the effort to drop on blogs that have the "You Drop I Follow" badge on display, rest assured that you'll be getting a visit and an Entrecard drop in reciprocal. Most of "You Drop I Follow" droppers are rather reliable and tend to return you the favour.

List of "You Drop I Follow" Blogs:
LeeDoyle Dot Com - Over at this blog, there's a huge variety of "Your Drop I Follow badges available for you to choose from (if you intend to follow implement this concept) as well as a list of 155 blogs practising the "You Drop I Follow" policy.

3. Socialcardster Droppers
A term coined by Ben Sparks for Entrecard members who are also members of this society called SocialSpark.com. I'm not to sure what benefits you will get for joining the Socialcardster list. Perhaps being called a Socialcardster and having the Socialcardster badge on your blog is something worth joining? Plus you also get a blog link from BenSparks.com to your blog if you become a Socialcardster. Hell yeah!

4. SiteHoppin Droppers
This is a term I've coined for Entrecard members who utilizes the SiteHoppin Firefox Toolbar to drop Entrecards. By selecting the Entrecard tag on the toolbar, only pages listed under the category of Entrecard will appear every time you start hopping. There's a bonus it it for those who use the SiteHoppin Firefox Toolbar to drop Entrecards. Apart from earning Entrecard credits, you will also earn BeerCredits (each hop will give you 1 Beer Credit) which you could use to bring more traffic to your blog!

Resources for DropHopping:
1. Read about the SiteHoppin Firefox Toolbar and get one for yourself today.
2. SiteHoppin.com, Entrecard Wannabe?

5. Casual Droppers
Probably the rarest among Entrecard members. Unlike Power Droppers, Casual Droppers tend to stop, explore and read your blog before actually dropping their Entrecard. Casual Droppers are hard to come by and their loyalty is unquestionable once they start following your blog. A gem among Entrecard members I would say.

There you have it, 5 types of Entrecard Dropper that I could think of. Have you discovered what kind of species erm...I meant type of Dropper are you?

Till my next post, cheers and happy blogging.

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This post is specially written for Entrecard Users. If you ain't heard about Entrecard yet, try reading this article entitled "ENTRECARD, the next level of advertising?"

Let me ask you a question, what comes into your mind first at the mere mention about Entrecard?

Yup, you got that right, the answer is Entrecard credits!

When Entrecard was first introduced, many members went on Entrecard dropping sprees. Most hardcorde members were averaging about 200-300 drops per day in order to earn credits which they could later use to purchase ads on blogs that have the Entrecard widget installed. (At this point, if you're totally lost, I suggest that you really should read my article on Entrecard first.)

Then the reviews on Entrecard.com started to flow in. Top bloggers such as Problogger and JohnChow gave their endorsement or should I say signature of approval to Entrecard. That was the boost Entrecard was waiting for in order to break into the blogging community. The immediate sign was clear as thousands of bloggers started to sign up as member of Entrecard. Such was the popularity of Entrecard that Entrecard credits were being sold in exchange for real cash!

A couple of months later, things start to get a little out of hand. Top spots for all Entrecard listed categories were being monopolized by members who drop Entrecards frequently (in other words Power Droppers). Although it took the folks at Entrecard quite some time to realized the problem at hand, remedial action was taken almost immediately by introducing a new ad pricing system. The new system gave every blog an equal chance to appear on the top spot of respective Entrecard listed categories. Most certainly a welcomed change in my opinion. If you like to read all my views on the new ad pricing system, check out this article entitled "Entrecard.com - Back To Basics"

At present, the Entrecard hype has died down considerably and the flames of excitement reduced to just a flicker. There's been good and bad reviews surfacing lately about Entrecard. These are mostly reviews posted by bloggers who have used Entrecard for the past couple of months. Some bloggers even claimed that the efforts they put into Entrecard dropping is not worth the traffic they get in return. On the contrary, I believe the main objective for Entrecard is to provide a platform for new blogs to showcase themselves. In fact, to receive 30-50 unique visitors per day for a new blog is quite an achievement for any beginner blogger.

Meanwhile, for blogs already experiencing 500-1000 unique visitors per day, why complain about effort and time being wasted on Entrecard dropping? If you find that Entrecard is off no help, just remove the widget and stop being a member! Is there really a need to whine and let the world know that you think Entrecard sucks? Remember, just because Entrecard do not work for you, doesn't mean that the rest of us here share the same sentiment as you do.

Got something to say about Entrecard? Well drop me a comment and let me know what's in your mind. 20 Entrecard credits would be given for each comment made. I know It's not much, but it's something.

Till my next post, cheers and happy blogging!

Most recently, Entrecard has yet again surfaced as the latest topic to blog about among the blogging community. Just when everyone thought that Entrecard.com has become part of a daily routine of dropping Entrecards and advertising on blogs/sites, they decided to come up with a new ad pricing system!

When the announcement and the implementation were introduced on the 7^th of April 2008, advertising prices for most blogs and sites went up the roof, some touching 300,000 Entrecard Credits just to advertise on their blog per day. That created some sort of panic among blog/site owners who were shocked to see that the Entrecard Credit (EC) required to advertise on their blogs have shot up from a couple of hundred EC's to hundreds of thousands EC's.

Imagine the shock experienced by some unsuspecting Entrecard users who log in to their account just to find that the cost to advertise on their blog is about 200,000 EC! With the daily drop limit at 300 cards per day, any interested buyers would have to drop 300 cards daily for the next 2 years before being able advertise in certain blogs/sites.

Entrecard’s blog has an article on how the new ad pricing works. You can read it HERE.

Generally, the idea for the new ad pricing is to engage the quality of a blog/site. If a blog/site has good viewership and provide quality contents, they are the one that deserves to be earning more Entercard credits as compared to others. Why should blog/site belonging to hardcore Entrecard droppers occupy the top spot of a particular category just because they spend more time dropping cards then others? I’m not saying here that hardcore droppers do not serve quality contents from their blog or site. It’s just that using the old system makes it difficult to differentiate between blogs/sites that have quality contents with those that do not.

Honestly, the introduction of the new pricing system is seen as welcome changed for me. The reason being that:

1. The new system automatically eliminates the monopoly of blog/site belonging to “Master” card droppers
2. All blog/site have equal opportunities to earn credits from advertisement.
3. Advertisers are now more selective over which blog/site to advertise on.
4. Discovery of blogs/sites that serve quality contents to readers. I’m expecting many potential pro-bloggers to experienced higher demand for advertising on their blog once their quality contents are discovered by advertisers.
5. Entrecard credits are now seen as a precious commodity due to the exponential ad price calculation.

Apart from what I’ve mentioned above, I’m sure there will be some minor glitches on the pricing system that requires further addressing by the Entrecard team. Never the less, kudos to the team for reeling Entrecard.com back to the original ideals that led to its creation.

Cheers and Happy Blogging!
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As always, a new fad appears and everyone starts rushing over there to find out what they can get out of it. Entrecard.com is of no exception, especially when they offers FREE Advertising for members.

Let’s start with a general idea on how Entrecard works (I got this directly from the HELP section of Entrycard):

Entrecard is the first and only free exchange network for 125x125 ads. Through this revolutionary platform, you can advertise your own 125x125 Entrecard on any blog in the network, for free, for a number of days. You pay for this advertising with Entrecard Credits, that you earn for free by networking (a.k.a. visiting blogs and dropping your card for other bloggers).

That aside, let's begin with the first question that you would probably ask if you're interested with Entrecard.

This is too good to be true, how do I go about it?
1. Signup with Entrecard.com
2. Apart from the usual email and password, you are also required to upload a 125 x 125 banner of site. If you do not have a banner to upload, you can choose from the custom banners that Entrecard offers. Honestly, I would advise you to design your own 125 x 125 banner rather then using the custom banners from Entrecard. If you take a look at the pictures below, you'll get what I mean.
3. Fill in the title of your blog, tagline and provide a brief description of your blog.
4. Next, verify yourself as human and click the Signup Button.

Custom Banners From Entrecard

Bloggerfocus Customized Banner

Now that I’m done with the signup portion, what shall I do next?
1. Log in to your Entrecard.
2. Go to your "Get Code" tab and grab the widget code. Install the widget at a prominent location of your blog.
3. The first thing that probably catches your attention on the "Dashboard" tab is the Advertisers column. Listed there are sites that are waiting for your approval. You can choose to "Approve" or "Decline" each and every Advertiser listed there. You will earn 2 credits(applies to newly registered members) for every ad approval and in return the Advertiser's 125 x 125 banner will appear on your site widget for 1 day.
4. Apart from selling Ads to Advertisers, other registered members in Entrecard can also advertise on your site.
5. The cost of purchasing an Ad space on your site is shown under the "Quickstats" table. Look for the words " X credits to advertise on your blog". Where "X" denominates the value of your site currently.
6. Each ad request that you sell via your approval will be displayed for 1 day. Once an ad has completed its cycle, the next approved ad in queue will take its place.

How do I earn more credits?
Besides earning credits from selling ads to advertisers, you can also earn extra credits from:
1. Dropping your card on other blogs that has the Entrecard wideget installed. (1 credit earned for each drop)
2. Getting a card dropped on your blog by another Entrecard user. (1 credit earned for each drop)

What do you mean by card?
Take a look at the widget you’ve installed on your blog and you’ll find a “Drop” function on it. This is where Entrecard users who visit your site can choose to drop a card by clicking the “Drop” button. You can do the same by dropping a card on other blogs that have this widget installed.

Where can I find users with Entrecard widget installed on their blogs?
All Entrecard members have their sites listed on the “Campaign” tab. Once you’ve registered yourself as a member for Entrecard, you can start earning credits by dropping cards at the sites listed there. Since there are about 6,000 members registered with Entrecard, I am sure you’ll have a jolly good time earning credits.

Why is my precious blog only worth 2 credits?
Entrecard has designed a basic formula for counting the advertising price of your blog. This is how they calculate the advertising value of your blog:
Average number of drops on your card per day over the last 5 days multiplied by 2 To calculate this, we first retrieve the number of drops per day for the last 5 days:

24th : 0 drops
25th : 0 drops
26th : 0 drops
27th : 0 drops
28th : 18 drops

This gives a total over 5 days of 18. We then divide this by 5 to get the average per day of 3.6. We then multiply the final result by 2 to get 7.2, and round it to get the ad price of 7ec.

Remember, the drops that matter are the drops on your card by other people, not the drops you do yourself. The ad price is calculated at various times throughout the day, the price shown here may not exactly match the price currently displayed.

How do I advertise my blog on other sites?
This time you assume the role of the Advertiser. As I’ve mentioned earlier, the credits you earn can be used for purchasing ad space on other sites. The advertising price for each site is calculated from the formula shown earlier. You can choose to advertise your blog on that site if you have sufficient credits to match the advertising price of that site. Never the less, the final decision to Approve or Decline your offer lies in the hand of the site owner

Still not convinced about Entrecard?
Perhaps a message that I received from another Entrecard user might help you decide. Take a look at the screenshot below:
Bloggerfocus Verdict?
A MUST join for all bloggers!

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