Entrecard Resources

A new Entrecard account popped up recently that is entitled Entrecard FAQs. The author must fancy himself to be a clever fellow as the FAQ doesn't stand for Frequently Asked Questions, but Forum Admin Quotes.

The site isn't fancy and is limited by the Blogger driven labels versus the more user-friendly tags & categories. Still, there are a number of quotes from Entrecard Admin PhiRate that address key rules and concepts central to the Entrecard community. Not to be confused with a real FAQ section, Entrecard FAQs is mostly relevant to the Intermediate Entrecarder, not the brand noobie.

The site has not been endorsed or shunned by Entrecard as of this writing and does contain a small disclaimer in the header that it is not an official Entrecard publication. The quotes appear to be completely lifted from the Entrecard Forums and contain a link to the specific thread being quoted. Not all of the Admin quotes are included and it's entirely possible that key quotes are missing or policy changes have rendered some of the quoted passages moot. Regardless, this is a useful resource for Entrecarders and worth a few minutes perusal.

I don't have the experience to evaluate whether or not what has occurred in the Entrecard community is typical of other communities or not. What I can say is that I find it interesting that individual Entrecarders have been willing to share with others info and tips that improve the functionality of Entrecard.

Turnip of Power was the first one that I noticed with his list of card drop bookmarks. He regularly updates his list and those who are striving to be Drop Masters will save hours of time by taking advantage of Turnip's goodwill gesture. Others have followed suit with lists of links posted on their sites, some that should come with a warning label in that dropping cards too quickly will result in penalties being assessed.

Ben Barden highlighted a method of reciprocal card dropping that targets another approach to utilizing Entrecard. An assist can be given to Cecilia of You Should Own for discovering the tiny link that opens the expanded Inbox. (I'm still waiting for the official explanation as to why Entrecard didn't let us know about it.)

Entrecash.com and Entrecredits.com opened up the door for commercing in Entrecard credits, and again it was Turnip who introduced the paypal widget that is now seen on 5 different sites where one can purchase ECs. (In case you don't know, I started a site called the EntreBank where I was going to lend ECs and have since converted it to Black Market ECs where one can find a comprehensive list of EC vendors and their prices.)

Daily Tech Impressions has created a toolbar for Entrecard, Linkfog has a fun Entreball page where one can buy numbers and possible win the EC pot, there are several sites where one can have their contest listed, and I've got an Entrepoll site (that is feeling very neglected at the moment) where one can take part in Entrecard related surveys.

My bottom line is that if you are an Entrecarder and haven't perused the Blogging Resources Category or wandered through the Promotions Forum you are likely missing out on opportunities to improve your Entrecard experience.

Many Entrecarders participate in order to quickly build their traffic and readership numbers.

There...I said it. I described the elephant in the Entreroom.

And I recognize it's not all about getting more money. There are a number of reasons why bloggers want bigger numbers. But it's hard to ignore that a large segment of the Entrecard community is thinking about how to improve their numbers. Most of the contests are designed to increase readership, comments, links, etc. The Entrecard Shop is full of offers that one can purchase that will result in getting Dropped on, Recommended, Favorited, Stumbled, Dugg, Linked, Commented, Reviewed, Subscribed, and more. Folks, it's just business.

Is this a bad thing?

Not necessarily...but that darn elephant is still standing there.

Is it "selling out" to buy reviews, etc.? Does it make your blog less "real"?

I guess it depends.

So, let's say you're ok with buying all of the above mentioned services, in the name of building up your blogging for money business. Can you do it and look the elephant in the eye or do you have to look the other way to ease your conscience? Is it easier to hold a contest or "pay" people with Entrecard credits than it is to pay them with cold hard cash...even though it has been shown that ECs are convertible to cash? Are you willing to pay someone $1 to subscribe to your email feed and leave you a comment? Is it worth $100 to boost your subscriber base by 100, even if they might not ever read your feed?

To some people the answer is an easy "Yes."

Case in Point: Our resident 13 year old blogger, Mark (Blogging Brainiac), has a promotion going wherein he is "giving away" 100 ECs to the first 70 bloggers who subscribe to his blog. That's roughly 60 cents to $1 depending on the black market rate for ECs. It appears that he is willing to spend $42 to $70 to increase his readership numbers. In essence he is buying numbers.

I decided to help him...25 times. I've got 20 active Entrecard accounts and another 5 that I'm getting ready to launch. This young man wanted numbers and by golly I delivered...'cuz I'm riding the elephant!

Is that too blunt? Do you think Mark will balk at paying me the ECs because I gave him what he wanted...just not in the form he expected? Was he paying for numbers or was he buying fans? If it's the latter then I'm sure I've disappointed him. But if he's able to look at the elephant then he should just send me 2500 credits with a big THANK YOU.

So there you have it. You might be asking why I chose Entrecard Resources for this post, as it just as easily could have gone in The Entrecarder. The answer is that for those of you who can look the elephant in the eye and not blink, I have a resource to offer you: 25 email subscriptions, 25 places to advertise, 25 possible text links...and so on. Efficiency. Economies of scale. Volume discounts.

Whoa, Dumbo! Who wants to take the elephant for a ride?

In addition to the four official Entrecard Forums, there are several other places where Entrecarders get together to exchange ideas and information:

1) Fawnzy.Com - There are few recent posts in this forum.

2) Blog Catalog Groups:
a) Entrecard Group
b) Entrecard
c) Entrecards
d) Entrecard-2

3) DotSauce's Forum

4) Other Forums, not exclusively for Entrecarders:
a) Bloggeries Blog Forum
b) Blogger Forum
c) Authority Blogger
d) Blog Mastermind
e) The Blog Experiment
f) Bloggst
g) Performancing
h) Digital Point
i) Blog Chews