I normally write about tips on web traffic, advertising, seo, etc. This blog will be more of a rant and a little bit of a rave, but hopefully educational.

I recently wrote a blog on running Multiple Campaigns and received many comments, all positive. However, in my last 7 days I have reviewed many blog sites on Entrecard and many of them run contests to gain traffic. If you’re depending on one niche for all your traffic needs, you will fall short eventually. You need to be unique, add value for your visitors, and most importantly establish your own fan base from multiple channels.

Yes, a little rave. My traffic has gone up over 400% with only 29% of that traffic coming from Entrecard. The good thing is, I utilize other alternatives and they’re working well.
My traffic ranking according to Alexa is at 141,033 from 12 million back on January 23rd 2008. This is a significant improvement in only 6 weeks, but it was not easy.

There are quality blogs on Entrecard and I will name a few in a moment. I enjoy reading these blogs daily and at times will leave a comment. You can say I am a fan and I like the niche they have created.

I can give away 5000 credits for this and that, but for what? One or two days of steady traffic, no thank you. I am not going to a site for Entrecard credits if I have to drop, comment, and register for this or that to win 100 EC’s or a 1000 EC’s. I have to embrace and enjoy what you write, not what you’re giving away. The likelihood of me coming back to a site that only offers contests is slim to none.

I noticed that a few sites are encouraging members to add their link to get more Entrecard members to drop cards on them. There are now 3 new sites that are creating what I call a link wall. This is not bad, if everyone plays by the rules, but that’s not the case. I have dropped 300+ cards per day for 30 days straight and I receive about 60% drop backs. This is not bad, but could be better.

I am not close to being done! The worst form of traffic is temporary traffic. It really does no good as your overall traffic average for the month will not improve drastically. If you have 4 good traffic spikes out of 30 days you’re not making any gains. Those traffic spikes usually have a high bounce rate percentage. I call this drop and run.

Conclusion:

If you’re going to run a contest follow these two important suggestions.

1. Be creative, unique, and make it fun.

2. The life of the contest should be at least one week in duration. You may have visitors who like your niche, and may return again. This is called a fan.

Blogs that rule:

Joe Tech: Great content, informative and technology driven.

Soul-To-Soul: A sketch art master. I am the groupie of this blogger!

Turnip of Power: A great mixer of articles on internet marketing, computer games, etc.

Ben Barden: Ben provides web tips and so much more. I am a fan!

There are more and I will include them in our next “MBR” on April 2, 2008.

Monthly Blog Review Series II

Contests are great, don’t get me wrong. I think there’s too much on Entrecard that simply are regurgitated. It’s important to be more creative, and unique to increase your traffic potential. It’s the same old contests, 200 EC’s if you link to my site, 200 EC’s for joining this or that. It’s getting tired folks, and I know a lot of you agree.

I am very much into analytics from many different channels. I have written blogs on a few adverts based on my test results.

In the last week I tried a different approach and I am not taking full credit for, but I added a twist. I use a title that is unique and creates curiosity without spilling the entire campaign in the title. You may have seen such posts in the Entrecard Forums, “No contest, no disco, just traffic”. The average post received up to 8 replies, and those who were giving out EC’s for comments, subscribing or linking, have received no more than 2 replies on average. Are you getting the point?

Be creative, and reciprocate at all times. Take the initiative to drive traffic. I know there’s a ton of blogs on how to be a successful blogger and have a traffic driven blog site.

One site really hits a home run on originality. The site I am speaking of is Linkfog.com. They’re running the all new Entreball drawing based on the Powerball Lottery. It runs twice per week. For more information visit the site today or click here.

Now let’s all drop, stumble, and not fall!

This is our first, but not last Entrecard Incentive Rewards.

It takes approximately 5 minutes to gain 15 credits (3 sites per minute or 1 every 20 seconds) on a fast connection, if the site is not tremendously slow in loading, and Entrecard is not having issues. It takes only 1 minute to add a quality comment on an interesting blog.

How does it work? 3 easy incentives!

1. Comment on any of our blogs daily and earn 5 Entrecard credits (Minimum of 15 words, One entry per day)
2. Drop an Entrecard on me and I will drop one on you (I have dropped 300 cards per day for the last 7 days!)
3. The best comment of the day will earn an additional 20 Entrecard credits!

The best comment daily will be entered into our weekly grand prize. The weekly winner will receive another 300 EC’s Plus a link on our Blogroll for one Month!

2/13 - 2/19 : Winner announced on 2/20

Good luck and have fun!