BasBasBas.com

Tag: entrecard

  • Entrecard Credit Giveaway (Yet Another Reason to Sign Up to Twitter)

    amfufu.com by @RuthsCreations has won the Giveaway! So long Entrecard!

    I announced earlier that I’ll be leaving Entrecard in my 8 Reasons to Quit Entrecard post. The day has come and my final ad has run. I’m leaving now. I have however 1100+ credits left, that I’ll be GIVING AWAY to visitors of this blog.

    For the next 24 hours every EC user that Tweets me (http://twitter.com/spartz) a link to their profile gets a chance to win a share! (keep reading!)

    Since I want everyone to have an equal chance and don’t want to give away 100 credits to people (since that’s really nothin), I will do it as follows…

    I’ll divide the total number of participants by 7 and pick that number of winners via random.org. I previously suggested to give every seventh person a share, but since this can be monitored, I decided to make it more random. So tweet me now (!) using this format:

    @Spartz I am joining your Entrecard Giveaway (http://doiop.com/EC). The link to my profile is: http://is.gd/c9sQ

    You can use a link shortener for your profile URL at is.gd – but this is not a rule. 😉

    Just follow these simple rules. I highly value people who follow instructions, because it shows that they care and that they’re paying attention. Any entry not according to instructions will not be counted.

    I guess this adds one more reason to the list of reasons to use Twitter. 😉

    BasBasBas.com is about my life as a Dutch student living in Istanbul. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul and travels in the region. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.

  • So long, and thanks for all the drops! (8 Reasons to Quit Entrecard)

    I am leaving Entrecard. For a while now, I’ve been thinking about it and recent events have made the decision all the more easier. I’ve turned off advertising on my blog. When my last ad finishes, on the 16th, the widget goes. Until that time I’m still returning drops.

    Entrecard is a social network for bloggers who can drop by each others’ blogs and earn credits in return. With these credits, they can advertise on each others blogs. A nice system, but in the end it’s not worth it for me.

    8 Reasons to Quit Entrecard

    If you’re a blogger using Entrecard, don’t take any of the following points personal. If any of them insult you, please keep reading on until the end of this article.

    1. Poorly invested time. Unless you’re on a very fast connection, it’s going to take you a considerable amount of time per day to get the best out of Entrecard. To get the best out of it, 300 drops per day is a must and its results are spectacular then. However, your time is better invested in discovering and commenting on relevant blogs, using Twitter and more actively engaging the blogosphere, because…
    2. Entrecard traffic has low value. Much of the traffic generated through Entrecard just inflates your statistics and increases your bounce rate. Many people just “drop and run”, as it’s dubbed in the Entrecard community. In the end, the traffic has more value than that of most social bookmarking services, but is for the most part still of low value.
    3. Bad quality blogs. I’ve had it with low quality blogs. There are too many of them. Poorly written content, grammar and spelling mistakes all over the place, lots of sponsored posts, bad designs. Stay away from me.
    4. Non-interesting blogs. I suppose making a blog about your cats is fun, and I’m sure it’s fun for many others to read it, but I’m simply not your target group. You don’t need me on your blog and I don’t want to be there to be honest. There are many other types of blogs I am not interested in that I had to visit because of returning ‘drops’.
    5. I don’t care about your ‘hubby‘. Dear Stay/Work At Home Mom (SAHM/WAHM) bloggers, please erase this word out of your vocabulary. If I see it one more time I will puke. Never thought this word would end up on my own blog. Refering to your spouse like this in every one of your blog posts is like two ugly people making out right in front of me. My stomach cannot help but revolt. Sorry. I guess Entrecard has brought me to your blog, but I doubt you really want someone like me there.
    6. Linkback building obsession. My God, is there an immense obsession with getting linked back on Entrecard. It’s good to get links back to your blog, because it helps to build your status in search engines. Google Bombs are proof of this. Entrecard is a BAD place to build your linkback. Firstly, you want to get linked back from blogs and sites that are relevant to your site. I don’t need topdropper links back to my page from blogs about cars.
      Secondly, I don’t want to give “link juice” out to unrelated blogs. It’s unfair to the related, relevant or highly interesting blogs that I link to. More about this on SeoBlogr. I read a better article about it recently, found it via Entrecard, but forgot to bookmark it. Doh! 🙁 So stop caring about your Google PageRank (PR) people, I have zero PR and I get a LOT of search engine traffic. Start worrying about writing good content, writing some linkbait and having high keyword density (but not too high or you’ll get flagged as spam 😉 ).
    7. The captain is drunk. I’ve put a lot of energy into the community on the Entrecard ship and we’ve sailed far and become friends, but the captain has been making poor choices and I suspect he’s incapable of taking this censorship much further. I love the community on board, but I’m getting off before we hit an iceberg. Graham, the owner of Entrecard, is childish and yesterday banned one of Entrecard’s top users. As you can see in the comments, many people are outraged. I think this was the final proof of Graham’s immaturity and incapacity to make the right decisions at the right time. Although Turnip‘s tweet wasn’t a great show of maturity either. 😉 While Graham is saying the negative publicity is only good for Entrecard, his poor leadership is not and new and current members will soon realize that.

      8. (more…)

  • September Topdroppers!

    For those of you that are not familiar with Entrecard, click here.

    Ok, time to do a roundup of this month’s topdroppers. With the moving abroad and the travelling, it’s been tough to always drop back, so an extra thank you!

    Topdropper: Wonderful Pic Collection (you get 500 ECs!)

    Second place: iWalk,U2? (you get 300 ECs!)

    Third place: Juliana’s Site (you get 200 ECs!)

    I think most of you are aware of the 12.5% tax introduced by Entrecard for the credit transfers. I won’t deduct that, I’ll pay for it myself! Keep dropping and earn credits!

    Other topdroppers:

    Picturing of Life – My Imaginary Travels – Beyond Taiwan – From a Yellow House in England – Zen Tricks – Iconz World – WebFrap

    Go check out my Entrecard page and leave a recommendation/review!

  • Changes

    The last few days my blog has gone through a few changes, mostly because I haven’t been able to come up with good content, so I figured I’d invest my energy differently. Why am I not able to come up with good content? I’ve had a stomach or intestinal flu for about 3 or 4 weeks now and since I’m going to Bulgaria this weekend, I wanted to be better so I decided to actually go to the doctor. The campus doctor’s consult was free of charge, and after describing my stool in detail to the medical student of my age (very weird, not to mention awkward) who then translated it for the doctor, I was prescribed some medicine. I don’t know what’s in this medicine, but woah, my mind’s completely unfocused! I’m curious as to what the medicine actually is (besides very, very cheap compared to Holland!), but in this state I keep forgetting to Google/Wikipedia it once I get to a computer. Nice.

    Anyway, for this reason I’ve been unable to come up with intelligible stories, hence the lack of updates. I’m doing well though, I feel I’m getting better and my classes have started and they’re interesting! Oh, and tomorrow I can finally apply for my residence permit!

    Okay… so what have I changed/updated on my website? And why?

    • I got FeedSmith and transferred my RSS feeds to FeedBurner after reading an article at Rockfuse about messing up your RSS feeds 😉 .  I did this so that I could track my feed subscribers better. I was quite surprised when I found out I had about 36 subscribers, instead of the 15 I expected. I proudly put up my feedreader count at the right and an option for people to subscribe by email. Thanks to you all for subscribing!
    • I put my Entrecard widget to the left sidebar because it loads before the rest of the page. It’s really important to have your widget in the part of the page that loads the fastest, because many droppers just want to drop as fast as possible and it earns you credits to advertise!
    • This freed up space for an “above the fold” banner at the top right side of my page! It’s still rather cheap, so go place your ad now!
    • I put in a cool weather widget so you can see the weather I’m having here!
    • I removed my MyBlogLog widget after reading an alarming post about the type of information they’re releasing (accessible to everyone!) about your blog. Not cool!
    • I added a contact form, which can be reached by navigating to the bottom of the page and finding the contact link.
    • I put the link for announcing my Entrecard topdroppers reward closer to the ‘drop’ button. In case people miss when they click, they’ll see the reward system (and hopefully keep dropping here). Also, they’re more likely to notice the rewarding if they’re just here for a fast drop.
    • I also put the PayPal donation button under the Email subscriber form, because I think people with their attention focused on that part of the page are also more likely to donate. Not that I really expect anyone to donate, but who knows. 😉 A button can’t hurt.
    • That’s about it. I also uploaded a new header image that you’ll see when you visit category pages.
    More Istanbul (and Bulgaria!) adventures very soon! Right here.

  • Entrecard Topdroppers get EC’s!!

    For those of you that are not familiar with Entrecard, click here.

    For all the visitors from Entrecard, I have a special deal for you which I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Add my blog to your daily dropping rounds and get credits! At the end of the month, I will spend 1000 credits on the top 3 droppers.

    Number one gets 500 credits.
    Number two gets 300 credits.
    Number three gets 200 credits.

    So get to dropping on my Entrecard widget and please try to participate on my blog. I have SezWho installed, so it’s yet another way to earn credits… Oh and if you drop, I follow! 🙂

    Happy dropping!

  • Some “Thank You”s go out to…

    This month’s EC top droppers. These are the people who stopped by my blog the most to “drop” a card at the widget at the top right. Since a drop’s always well-appreciated, I make sure to drop back, but another sign of thanks is presenting the top droppers of this month publicly. 🙂

    1) Wonderful Pic Collection – About 2 funny pictures per day are posted on this site. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

    2) iWalk, U2? – A travel blog & travel guide. Well-written and well-designed.

    2) Travel Asia – An Asian travel blog.

    2) From A Yellow House In England – The blog of an American ex-pat who lives in the English countryside.

    5) Chuvaness… Chakanesss… Eclavu… – One of the most popular ex-pat sites on Entrecard. This blog’s written by a ‘Pinay dreamer’.

    6) What a bald guy told me about technology! – A personal ‘technology’ blog about gadgets and software.

    6) Search Engine Panel – A blog by a Toronto Search Engine Optimization expert.

    6) Sonnie’s Porch – An Assistant Vice President’s take on life, from the Phillipines.

    6) PragueConnection – Travel stories from a guy based in Prague.

    6) The Traveling Pants – A blog covering a family’s travels, but often relating it to some historical background.

    As you notice, many people tied. Would like to be in this list? Start dropping.

    To all droppers: thanks a lot. 🙂

  • EntreCard my way

    EC LogoWhile using EntreCard, I’m doing a couple of things to add even more value to my actions or drops. Since it’s rainy and grey outside (can’t wait to go to Turkey), it’s a perfect day to write about it.

    Firstly, I’ll explain what EntreCard is. Secondly, I’ll go through some of the basics for all the readers who are not members yet. Thirdly, I’ll explain what I do in the form of some tips and pointers, so hopefully the whole EntreCard experience will become better for all of us. 🙂

    I find it extraordinarily hard to explain what EntreCard actually is. It’s a blogging community, it’s an advertising system, it’s a way to network with other blogs… On the main page Entrecard talks about themselves as “your businesscard 2.0”. The most essential thing about Entrecard is surfing to other community members’ blogs and “dropping” a card on their Entrecard widget (see top right sidebar). By dropping cards, you earn credits, which you then can spend to advertise on sites that are on Entrecard.

    Entrecard partnered with SezWho, a comment tracking system, so that it can give you credits every time you comment on another person’s blog. Great way to stimulate community-forming on members’ blogs! So as you’re going through your daily dropping, be sure to leave comments! Maybe you get tons of comments nowadays and they don’t mean much to you, but remember that time when one or two comments did matter. Comment on other blogs and experience the gratitude and reciprocation.

    Something else I do regarding comments on my own blog is I generally give them 5 stars through SezWho. What can I say? I love every one of them. This helps people to build their rep on the net.

    If you like a certain post on someone’s site, or like the whole overall site… Stumble it! Digg it! Whatever you use… Just do it! Write a Tweet about it, it doesn’t matter. When using Entrecard, many people are so wrapped up in it, that they forget to give a “thumbs up” for content they like. Start Stumbling content you like of other Entrecard users and you’ll notice that the next time people you stumbled visit your blog, they might leave a stumble before leaving.

    If you place an ad on a site… Stumble or Digg the site! Either when you apply for it, or on the day it’s actually running. Increase your chances of visitors in any way you can.

    Reciprocate drops. Check your inbox and reciprocate. That’s the easiest way to get a basic reader community on your site via Entrecard.

    Put some statistics on your website. I generally check for three things:

    • Number of subscribers to the site.
    • FEEDJIT. Since my blog’s about Istanbul, Turkey, it helps me to assess where most people’s visitors are from. I find that Europeans are generally more interested in my site than people from Indonesia or the Philippines.
    • BlogCatalog. It allows me to see how often the blog gets visitors. It shows the names of BlogCatalog community members and shows how long ago they visited the site. It gives me an indication of the traffic the site gets.

    When none of these are present, I can be a bit wary about spending my EC credits, but not always of course. A lot of Entrecard is about experimenting! After all, it’s just credits you’re spending, so spend away.

    Monitor your EC statistics, award your top ten droppers publically (giving an incentive for others to drop on your site regularly), and make friends! Because EC offers such a friendly environment, if you’re the least bit active, it’s impossible not to make friends. 😉
    If you liked this post, consider subscribing by RSS or email.

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