Inspirational Sunday: EntreCard can lead a horse to water…
Monday, 6 October 2008
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”
Old proverb
We tried pinning down the source of this proverb but it seems that a lot of countries has a version of it. In some versions, the horse even became a donkey.
The proverb came to mind because EntreCard will be 1 year old a few months away and we still read the old refrain that EC dropping is not worth the readers we get from the community. ReapMoneyOnline joined EC in January (or February?) of this year and the community or system has never failed to deliver on its promise of visitors to this blog.
Okay, there’s the bounce rate and comments, or lack of them. However, EC only promised to take the horse to the river and it’s up to the RMO team to make it drink. For a FREE service, we did no expect EntreCard to do all the work.
There’s also the issue of minuscule click-through rate on EC widget adverts. We had that too and again old EC promised to have us advertise in other blogs and, indeed, Aya Mae, RMO’s face in EC, began appearing in other blogs. Of course, we have to make a unique 125×125 card so it’ll visually differentiate itself from the white, green, and a host of other cards provided by EC. In addition, we spend time in testing, experimenting, and knowing what blogs to place an advert on.
It’s not easy, it’s hard work, but we’re used to that kind of life. 
The simple truth is, nothing beats EC for newbie bloggers like us and we’ve meet some nice people along the way too.:D
How are everybody faring so far at EntreCard?
No. 1 — October 6th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Amen — you have hit the nail on the head.
Entrecard didn’t promise you a rose garden, just a bit of manure to draw the flies with
Good job!
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No. 2 — October 7th, 2008 at 1:21 am
I am doing okay. It’s sort of like AA. It works if you work it.
I am not a money making blog. But I am very dedicated.
I have gained a lot of new readers and made quite a few friends.
I have recently taken up photography and through EC I have found some fun memes that require you to seek out a certain topic.
That’s good practice for me.
However, EC does take a great deal of time out of my day, and, I was away for 5 months and that killed me with adverts.
But, they are coming back now that I am posting again everyday.
Now if only some would favor me on Technorati and/or join my group that would be even better.
But, we can’t have it all can we?
I hope you have great week!
No. 3 — October 7th, 2008 at 3:27 am
EntreCard can be a good source of potential visitors. The article is great and very informative. Really love reading it again and again. Thanks for posting it
Jhones last blog post..Can Forex Trading Software Really Give You an Advantage
No. 4 — October 7th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I have only been with them for a little while, but I have to say I agree. It has been good for me as far as getting some comments and getting my blog started, but I can’t see myself using it for more than a month or two. But, for being free it is all I can ask for.
Jareds last blog post..Effectively Using NoFollow To Increase PageRank
No. 5 — October 7th, 2008 at 11:09 am
You are exactly right. It has done well for me in spite of some drive by droppers. I also enjoy using it to find good blogs to read. My only complaint is that too many high rated blogs are not updated frequently enough. I’ve stoped reciprocating drops on blogs which haven’t updated in more than two weeks. There are a couple exceptions, but hopefully if enough people did this we would naturally increase the quality of the top rated blogs. It is unfortunate to have to do this because many of those infrequently updated blogs are well written – it’s just boring to see the same stories every single day while dropping on them.
I’m also experimenting with the advertising, and there are many blogs which I won’t advertise on again, but some that have done very well which are worth saving credits for.
@Jared
My theory on that is that I hope to have enough good traffic that having some Entrecard drive by traffic on my blog won’t affect it by that time. We’ll see how that goes.
Pauls last blog post..An easy way to help protect yourself and your family on the Internet
No. 6 — October 9th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Hello everyone!
So nice of you to share your opinions.
Blogs that are not updated more than 2 weeks are one of our gripes too (and we’ve been guilty of it as well
) but we can do something about it by not dropping and not advertising in those blogs. We usually do the latter as we choose blogs with recent posts to advertise in.
When we already feel that EntreCard is more of a chore then it’s time to move on? We admire bloggers like Rowse who simply took off his widget and faded from the system.
No. 7 — October 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 am
Honestly, regular updates don’t bother me that much, I actually prefer it (on my own blog and the ones I read). The reason is that I’d rather wait a week to read something really good and of good quality, than to read seven crappy posts that don’t mean anything.
I don’t believe that quantity of posts is a very good judgment of whether a blog is good or not. The quality of Entrecard blogs will only get better with the quality of the content on those blogs.
Matts last blog post..Plenty of Fish Subject Lines that really SUCK!
No. 8 — October 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
We’re on the same boat. We’d rather read a good post once a week, 2 weeks at the most. And we don’t mind dropping while waiting.
No. 9 — October 31st, 2008 at 11:41 am
I just found it and got started with it. We will see how it all goes.
Gilienas last blog post..Reflection in a Mirror
No. 10 — November 1st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Welcome to the EntreCard system then.
No. 11 — December 4th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Good things come with hard work is an understatement at times. Great proverb here too. Quality over quantity is what has made so many different bloggers so successful…
No. 12 — March 12th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Very nice information. Thanks for this.