The Entrecard Experiment
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We love experimenting with all kinds of things that make a healthy blog. It appears that its common knowledge, to some, that Entrecard is just what the doctor ordered. As you might remember, we dropped Graham’s baby after a little while, simply because we saw no added value in the service, and because the whole concept seemed to be spinning out of control – turning into a high school popularity contest within the EC clique. A lot of people have been telling us off for removing the Entrecard widget when we did, commenting about how our Alexa rank; “FREAKIN tanked” and what idiots we were for doing so.
Whatever, here’s the deal; we just checked if we could still login to our account, which we did, and we’ve grabbed and implemented the Entrecard code back into the sidebar. We’ll be leaving it there for a month to see how much exactly this will influence a blogs statistics. The current count is 1557 RSS subscribers and an Alexa rank of 18,669. We’ll check again on the 22nd of April to see the changes. Seems like a fair amount of time.
We’ll go about the whole EC process as we did before – little to no card dropping, giving away our buildup credits for free, and pretty much accept anyone that wants to advertise on here via the system. Now who thinks the widget will have a noticeable positive effect on the stats in a months time? We’re curious to see the results. Slightly concerned because of the recent outbreak of Milk Allergy and Lactose Intolerance within the Entrecard community (e.g some biased EC users stopped reading us) since we dropped it, but with its recent growth in members, the odds should be even again.
Anyway, thanks for having us back Graham. (Unless you just forgot to ban/delete our account when we left).
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to your blog without much hassle. Dropping and receiving dropped cards can simply be icing on the cake. To my friend who’s recently opened up a blog, I suggest that you become a member now. It will work to your advantage. So, if John Cow hasreinstatedhis Entrecard, why wouldn’t you? It’s a great tool and I tell you, you will meet cool people there as well. Watch the Entrecard Experiment by John Cow and see what happens. He will stay with it until April 22nd and decide then if the outcome
and trust me… It will increase your traffic and blog popularity… Visit my Entrecard details to see how it looks EC, and if you try now… Don’t forget to make some attractive 125*125 image. Related Articles: Mxyz PTC | Start Using EntrecardJohn Cow | The Entrecard Experiment
Talking to some legit (lol) hacker friends of mine. They affirm its possible to be tracked by your ip, however its very easy to fake an ip. Meanwhile, Cow land blasted the Langdon, only to come swimming back to Entercard and repost the widget.”The Entrecard Experiment,” 03.22.2008, here’s why. When John Cow dropped the Entrecard widget as well as giving the readers their humble opinion, they ‘FREAKIN tanked’ in their Alexa ranking. To save face, they didn’t give much of an apology to Langdon, but said “Thanks for having us back.”
everyone is ‘tanking’ on alexa not sure what is happening but even teh big guys have dropped tremendously – entrecard – will definitely increase your alexa but the bounce rate and avg time of actual user on the blog, I do not know the stats will change for that – I still think entrecard is not good healthy traffic
Iantrepreneur’s last blog post..By: Judge
Yep, I already applied to advertise on your blog! hope you accept!
Actually, EntreCard is a much better bet than BlogRush…
investorblogger’s last blog post..Open letter to PayPerPost: Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!
I just requested an advertisement here also – looking forward to seeing that run! Good luck on your experiment, but I agree with your initial analysis and am guessing you won’t see much of a difference in Alexa or RSS subscribers. How about IZEA Rank? Do you track that?
Nice to see you testing things Cow
I have added my Advert for approval
I’m also still in “e-testing mode”
Looking forward to your “new” results, buddy.
Marcus Hochstadt’s last blog post..Think And Grow Big
I was thinking of getting an EC but from some other blogs I read, it would be pointless. It’ll be nice to see how well it works for you.
Jarel’s last blog post..Drop it at Drop.io and Much More
My guess is the only stat you’ll see change dramatically is your bounce rate. I can’t wait to see the results come April 22nd.
Bryan’s last blog post..Marketing Contest Gone Wild!
I have read it was pointless also. Keep working your blog cow.
[...] to Google Latest Content The Entrecard Experiment – 6 hours ago We love experimenting with all kinds of things that make a healthy blog. It appears [...]
Oh Man! Your post is only a few hours (or should I say minutes?) old and your Ad queue is already full
I should it know before 
I don’t know if getting back Entrecard will be of real value to you, but it sure will be of value to those lucky ones who arrived on time to get their sites advertised on yours for next to nothing.
Anyhow, regardless of how much can this benefit you, I think it is a good way to give something back to the community. good luck with it!
Anthony
I have basically DROPPED Entrecard after realizing the horrible things it causes. I still have the widget on my blog, but I don’t drop much cards anymore. I range from only 10-30cards a day rather than those crazy 300 drops a day. I have realized that because of Entrecard, Alexa is not going to be worth as much anymore since it’s just HYPE that makes a site rank high.
-MIke
Mike Huang’s last blog post..Battle Credit Card Companies And Win!
[...] out this one http://www.johncow.com/the-entrecard-experiment/ Looks like they’ll do a little experiment [...]
Oh, an experiment… this could be interesting…
Melo’s last blog post..Sending And Receiving Entrecard Credits
I’ll be honest, I may drop mine soon. Had enough of it tbh.
Rhys Wynne’s last blog post..Maundy Thursday Crossroads For This Blog
I have found some interesting sites through EC of which I have dropped there rss feed onto my netvibes page. As the days go on I am discovering more and more sites that are just as usefull as a chocolate fire guard. Not sure how much longer I’ll keep it
1) I think you might get a slight bump in Alexa, but given you are high already, I don’t know how high it will be. Assuming your card price gets to where John Chow is, that will be about 100 Entrecard users a day dropping on your site. My guess is that some percentage of those are already visiting your site. That would mean maybe 50-80 unique visitors per day. I don’t know what that would work out to as a percentage, but it at least provides a context for how much traffic you are talking about.
2) I’d do a contest at the end of the month to give away the credits. At least do a summary post and give the credits to someone who comments. Might as well get some value from them.
3) I have no idea why Entrecard would increase your RSS subscribers. The whole point of the system would make subscribing to RSS redundant to visiting.
Gary’s last blog post..The Great Ocean Road
[...] Cow is picking up Entrecard for a month again to prove that (most of) its traffic is worthless. Preaching to the choir here. [...]
I would be surprised if it moved your Alexa much but only because you already have the traffic. For small sites the Entrecard effect is real. Still, it can’t be a bad thing to bring new readers like myself to your blog. Good luck with the experiment.
weak!weak! who cares if your alexa TANKED…… dude, they wont click your ads, just hit and run.. but your alexa will look great … weak!…weak!…
-Paul’s last blog post..PhotoHunt Metal
I don;t know why but I would really rather blog rush for myself. I think it is much easier and better looking for my blog. It depends on the type of person who uses the particular program.
eBay Business’s last blog post..Reviews and Guides on eBay Help to Drive Traffic and Increase Hits to Your Items for Sale
This experiment is like this…
We’ll buy a brand new vacuum cleaner
We’ll leave it in the box for a month.
We’ll see what the carpet looks like in the end.
Entrecard is like a lot of things, you get out what you put in.
As it seems this experiment involves visiting 0 Entrecard blogs and dropping 0 cards, I would not be surprised at all if it doesn’t work out for you.
The vaccuum cleaner is not necessary useless, it just only works if you take it out of the box.
Tam’s last blog post..My diary is dead, now a niche blog instead.
Sounds like an interesting proposition. I didn’t consider the implications on an Alexa rank and things of that nature. I will definitely be waiting to see how this revival turns out
Jim’s last blog post..The Best Gold Stock Investments for 2008
Should be interesting. I dropped out of Entrecard because you really don’t get anywhere unless you are a serial dropper. If that is how you are thinking you will bank a bunch of credits…from others serial dropping on you, good luck, they will stop coming once they realize you’re not dropping back. It took a lot of time away from my business and wasn’t worth the bounce rate. Entrecard is basically a “back scratching” community.
nice news on my mail delivery today. free advertising here again. hope you stay for good.
evilwoobie’s last blog post..What’s With the Number Three?
Experiment, sounds cool, Mooo
However I look forward to advertise on your entrecard (or exit card?)
Cheers…
[...] John Cow is back on the Entrecard bandwagon … at least for a month. After previously abandoning the system, he’s giving it another go to see if it improves his subscriber numbers and Alexa rank. If you can squeeze in an Entrecard ad before the month is up, it’s sure to be a good deal. [...]
Mark’s last blog post..Easter! I thought it was Christmas
Hey John Mooo. Just dropped a card on your EC Widget, and count one more RSS subscriber (duh.. what’s one RSS subscription anyway with already 1526 subscribers – not making any dent at all). But glad the prodigal son came back. A newbie blogger like me is hoping to learn from a problogger like you. Good luck on your stats dude.
bloggista’s last blog post..Footprints in the Sand
I look forward to seeing the results of your trials with this.
I think Entrecard traffic is garbage for the most part, but I hadn’t considered that the junk traffic may enhance your Alexa rank.
It still boils down to making money and you ain’t gonna make a dime off Ecard users.
Chicago’s last blog post..What Will HGH Do For You? One Man’s Story of HGH Use
There is no doubt that you should have an entrecard. Don’t base anything on Alexa though, Alexa is way of in many cases.
The best thing about Entrecard is when you’re really darn lonely and you want some comments to come your way, posting anything EC related (especially bashing it) will create a huge bump in your comments section
It’s a tight community with ardent supporters, that’s the phenomenon more than the alexa ranking bump.
Entrepreneur’s last blog post..Singapore’s “THE Independent Traveller” Launches Maiden Issue
Cow EC is great. You are the top COW on the block.
To be honest, the site that really benefits from the “alexa bump” is EntreCard.com itself. With all those iframes to the site loading whenever a widget loads, their alexa jumps through the roof.
I’ve always wondered what kind of difference it would make if the widgets were taken off high traffic sites like ProBlogger and Chow (plus any other < 10k sites using it).
Simon’s last blog post..theBigGive passes 3,000 projects
I’m willing to bet that you’ll see a sizable increase between now and April 22. EC could very well ask it’s people or supporters to frequent your site to give it an “inflated” traffic response that appears to be coming as a result of you having the EC Widget. I’m not saying they will or would, I am saying it is a possibility. As an Investigator I always look at what ways things can be done and how things can be manipulated into appearing that they were natural. Let’s see if the results are long lasting.
PublicRecordsGuy’s last blog post..Jayci Yaeger Petition | For What It’s Worth
Thanks giving me some new ideas to mess around with.
Keep going.
Schubsta’s last blog post..THA GURU ALL THE WAY
EC always sounds to me like yet another piece of internet noise. If I actually had an account I’d probably be plugging away… Or not. Good question. I think I’ll stick with StumbleUpon and suchlike for now.
Luke’s last blog post..On Not Being Perfect
Hey Moo,
I like the experiment but like someone mentioned above, it really depends on how many cards you drop as well to be successful. One example I used with my readers is the fact that if you develop a “dropping” relationship with someone and they frequent your blog daily, chances are they will eventually look at your content. If it is good and useful stuff, then you just got yourself another reader.
Young Online Millionaire’s last blog post..Day 3: 30 Days to Blogging Success
I am testing out EC in building traffic for my blog as well. However, it is more of a widget that I use to encourage participation from my readers.
Wayne Liew’s last blog post..8 Types of RSS Subscribers Explained [Part 1]
Hmm, Doing Experiment is always good. I can see the average alexa rank/traffic dropping down there in stats.
EC may prove you to be the energy drink.
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
[...] From looking at the stats above I’m not convinced that the quality and quantity of traffic is really warranting the space on my website. I know I’m not alone in questioning this system, John Cow has written some interesting articles on dropping Entrecard and conducting an Entrecard experiment. [...]
Entrecard increases bounce rate to most of the Entrecard users ,but why it this happen,it is because most of us just drop and bounce.On the other hand,i suggest that try to interact with the most frequent droppers to your site such as thank you message to them and build up some rapport or invite them to your blog to join some campaign or subscribed as reader or so on.Ultimately,you are not only will receive credits but a constant traffics and reduce bounce rate
Felex Tan’s last blog post..How to reduce Entrecard’s high bounce rate ??
So, it’s well past the 22nd April… whats the verdict?
-Pauls last blog post..Geez, thanks Jerry Yang