A Cure for Entrecard Withdrawl

Who said: "There ain't no cure for the Entrecard Blues"?

Two days ago, I was visiting a few of my favorite blogs and catching up with the authors. As I read Some Assembly Required's Day 1015 post, I was surprised to learn that Entrecard has decided to call it quits. The site is gone. 

Wanting to learn more, I did a quick Google seach and found 4 posts confirming this:

• Farewell Entrecard, RIP
• The Spirit of Entrecard
• Life After Entrecard
• Entrecard Blues

I was surprised that there were not more posts.

My Entrecard Experience
Like other neophyte bloggers, I was trying to attract traffic. I discovered Entrecard and joined the network around the summer of 2008. For nearly two years, I tried to remain active. I dropped on many blogs, trying to hit the 300 a day level. I posted articles about my top droppers and worte posts about Entrecard. I participated in the Entrecard Market and sold "Blog Roll entries" for EC credits.

However, my tenure with Entrecard was shortlived. When I learned that Entrecard began promoting EC currency Online Blackjack, I realized that remaining part of the network could jeopordize my struggling blogging career. Fearing that Google would remove my Blogger blogs and ban me from Adsense, I quickly removed all Entrecard widgets and ceased being a member. That was in March 2010.

At the time, I was lucky because other networks were available. I quickly became more involved in Adgitize and CMF Ads and enjoyed the interaction with the site owners and many of the fellow blogging members there.

Unfortunately, both of those networks closed by the end of 2011.

Growing My Blogs
Since I was not going back to Entrecard, I decided to devote my efforts to the growth of my website and my blogs. Now after 9 months, I believe that I have acheived some modest success.

Site	Daily Visitors (last month)	Highest Daily Visitor Count	Repeat Visitors
Ask the Blogster	7-16	209	10.2%
Lottery Power Picks News	23-728	728	7.78%
John Lottery's Bimonthly	22-47	2,470	12.37%
The Traveling Fundraiser	0-62	62	25.75%
Lottery Power Picks Website	1,601-2,101	8,137	93.0%

What I learned is that timely content drives the visitors. For example,

• although my lottery blogs and website do not generate large numbers of daily visitors, when the Mega Millions jackpot reached the $600 million level, everyone was interested in searching for information about Mega Millions. Having previously written a variety of blog posts and creating analytic tools, my sites provided the people with the information they were looking for.
• The Traveling Fundraiser provides a summary of President Obama's weekly schedule. Since this information is available on most of the large blogs, few people visit my site. But, when I wrote about the Jay-Z champagne tower last week, I was only one of the few with pictures of this. My traffic shot up to 209 visitors in one day.
• Similarily, certain Ask the Blogster posts increased bursts of short term traffic (Steve Jobs, the Government shutdown for two).

While much of my visitor count is relatively low, I am thrilled with their performances because all traffic is organic, and none of it is derived from paid search or clicking networks.

My Advice - Stay Focused and Timely
Regardless of the type of blog you write, my advice for maintaining and growing your visitor base is to write posts that deal with current topics. For example, popular posts on Dave Lucas blog include: Kate Middleton Topless, Beyonce, Wang Jiayun, etc.  These receive a large number of pageviews. 

Many of you write personal diary type blogs. On the surface, these may not attract a broad range of visitors. However, if you can tie in current topics (sports, spring flowers, politics) that are in top searchs, you will occasionally receive a boost in traffic. When that happens, your exposure will be broadened and your visitor base will expand.

Don't Give Up
Although not having consistant daily visitor counts, do not give up. Writing on a regular schedule without a large visitor base can be frustrating, but you will eventually succeed. It takes time to find the right formula that works for your blog, but when a post attracts a large number of readers, you will feel overjoyed and your enthusium will be envigorated.

Lastly
Keep visiting the blogs that you have enjoyed.  Although I do not visit on a daily basis, I love to read:

• John Sealander Some Assembly Required
• Dickster's Random Thoughts
• My Quality Day
• Dave Lucas
• Orient Lodge
• Ben Barden - Quick Blot Tips

Unfortunately, I rarely leave comments, so the authors do not know that I visit. And likewise, I do not know if those authors visit any of my sites. However, I visit because I enjoy their articles and not because I expect their return traffic.  As I become more comfortable in the blogging world, I realize that daily traffic is not as important as having valuable content.

Cheers,

JL .............