Having spent some serious moments with entrecard in the past few weeks, I have learned lessons and I have observed and also devised ways in getting as much drop backs as I could. Since I got returns on what I have invested, I would like to share them to anyone who is interested in getting as much drop backs as they could too, just like me.


The graph shows that this blog has many times garnered very good drop back rates reaching as high as 367 cards... I loved those days!
I have to admit that I slowed down lately and got so little returns in the past few days but the graph here still shows that I had many 300 and more returns in certain days. I would like to note that the "Satistics" portion of entrecard is a very helpful tool in analysing the entrecard activities that one blogger and EC member has. However, I have to warn you, reader, that the statistics seems to be not in "real time" or not as updated to the last minute but it is still very useful.

So here we go, I will show my graphical statistics and the entrecard's explanation of it as well as my additional note and some tips in improving the performance of such graph.

Card Drops
This is the record showing the daily number of cards that were dropped on your blog (or my blog), where the EC widget is directed or pointing when clicked. According to EC explanation, "a good number of drops improves your advertising price, and your position in the Campaign listings."

Indeed, I have observed that the price of my advertising varies or is "slightly" dependent to this card drops TO my site here but of course, the ad price is mainly affected by the demand: the more people advertise on that site, the more expensive the advertising cost becomes. I am very sure you have seen that.

How Did I Improve on This and Get Better Drops Back?


I am a devoted dropper until I got the connection problem.. I am trying to regain my balance though...
1. Dropping as much EC as possible. We have 300 limit daily.
With a good connection (which I really lack for the meantime), this task is so easy to achieve. This is usually our complaints as I read on every EC member's posts about dropping the maximum number of cards which is 300 because it is very time consuming especially if the internet connection is NOT high speed. However, There is still a remedy to normal-speed connection (just like mine). I made dropping as a side-activity and NOT the main activity. What I do, personally, is to make the things I do at home such as read pocketbooks, exercise, do the laundry, etc., while letting the pages of each dropper I had the previous day open. Then I take a pause to drop.

2. Dropping earlier saves the day.
Entrecard's standard time is six (6) hours later than my time zone. I live in Netherlands. I start dropping as soon as 6:01 in the morning strikes. Why? NOT all of the droppers who drop back to our drops do so in the nex day. There are others who drop back the moment the drop is made to their respective sites and they just drop on previous day droppers if they get short of "today's" or the current day's drops. This means that the earlier one starts dropping, the more possibility of getting some drops back. Getting a drop, whether today or tomorrow is always better than not getting any returns at all.

3. I drop back on yesterday's droppers.
Why? To really be able to drop on them all. Yesterday's droppers are already complete as of the current day making the drops even more complete and to be more organized in my dropping back. This means that my dropper will always get a drop back even though I don't do so on the same day.

4. Avoid fast dropping programs/techniques.
Why again? Because most of the people, but obviously NOT all, in those fast dropping groups drop to each other when they too use the service. If you are not listed in that dropping list, no much traffic will flow back to you. That will only be good for you if your aim is only to gain credits but if your aim is like mine which is first traffic and then blog recognition, then fast dropping is absolutely a no no.

5. Entrecard forum rocks.
I remembered being so active in the Community forum of EC few weeks back when my work was still not as heavy as now (year end closing is heavy for accounting professionals) and I got a load of visits to my blog from the active forum members and most of them comment on my posts. Isn't that an amazing thing? I also got one of the moderators in the community remind me of my warning and he/she was able to delete that warning. What can I say more? EC is such a great help for bloggers.

6. Advertise. Advertise and advertise more.
This is up to you what your target audience is. For me, as long as my blog get exposed, I am happy. I am the kind who buy ads in volumes of low-cost advertising. If you can see in the succeeding graphs, some of those ads were as cheap as 8ECs per day but gave me high clicks. For me it is worth it.

I choose to advertise in new blogs, putting a limit of arond 16 or 32 ECs per day to advertise and getting good returns. AT least this way, if I don't get click thoughs from those ads, they are so cheap that I wont regret buying them in the first place. This is to save heart aches compared to the feeling when I buy expensive ads without returns. My main goal is traffic anyway rather than blog recognition.

This is to show how the advertisements affect the drop backs or visits to this site. Take note that I had the highest number of EC visits on the 15th and the same is true in this graph where my advetisement did great.

7. Commenting is a load of benefit to a blogger.
Obviously, there were times when I could not drop back to all of my droppers. I just leave some relevant comments to some of my droppers (sorry to others who were not accomodated but I also visited your page though I was not able to drop nor comment) because I have had more than 300 drops. Commenting will cause a visit back, a drop back, and more likely, a comment back as well. And the good thing of this is the backlink earned when commenting.

8. Be conscious of the traffic maximization technique: Don't drop to a blog owned by the same person.
Personally, I try to avoid dropping on the all the blogs owned by the same person. If possible, I would prefer that the 300 drops I get or all the drops back I get would come from different IP addresses making them a unique visit. I tend to comment to the rest of the blogs I know who come from the same owner and don't drop on them. All the same, they know I was there due to my comment. I choose another blog to drop my card at: owned by another blogger.

9. Choose where to drop, and be wise with that choice!
Obviously, we are not always full of blogs to drop. Sometimes we have only around 200 (or even less or more depending on our actions too) blogs to drop and if we aim to drop 300 cards, we need to have the extra 100 to look from outside. In my case, I can even mentally picture out blogs that usually drop back and blogs where my drop is most likely to be worthy. Just like some blogs such as Orange Inks, Matthias Chronicles and Moms Check Nyo or any of the rest of Liza's blogs (the owner of Moms Check Nyo blog), I am more or less 100% that these bloggers drop back. Thus, over the rest I choose them: I also drop back for some bloggers who dropped their cards on my widget two days ago if I get short really and of course, some are from the most popular blogs because these people usually are heavy droppers.

10. Try to be the most popular in any way.
This does not ONLY mean dropping and being the top three (3) of your category. This (being in top 3 of your category) is of course very avisable, as I was able to be in top three for some days but competition is tight and being there is a big help because new members (just like when I was new) get curious and click your widget. It is a very good free ad space!

I was able to be the Top advertiser for some time in the past week but I have had internet connection disabling me to buy ads in the prior days and I think I am down now. The same is true in my dropping but I am trying to get back to my feet now as my ALexa is staggering.

11. Have patience
Getting in the top of your category, or the top advertiser or anything good at EC takes time. I noticed that it was at least 2-3 weeks getting at the top and it requires full consistency. This means really dropping 300 each day, advertising on at lest 50 blogs each day and things like those.

Still, I am in quest of more knowledge and stuffs. This little thing I know, this is a personal experience and if you read until here, I thank you and wish you good luck in the community... in the entrecard community.