Increasing visitors with Entrecard

As it has been a while since I've blogged about Blogrush (which doesn't really seem to work), Blogcatalog (which does) and some of the "scam" sites which are best to avoid, so it is time to take a look at another site which promises an increase in visitors: Entrecard

This is another "social networking" type site, in which you accept adverts for other peoples site, giving you credit to buy your own adverts on their sites. You can also gain credit by visiting other peoples sites and "dropping" your card. This is certainly a fun way to discover other people's blogs.

Does it work? Well, it is hard to tell at this point. I've definitely had an extra fourteen or fifteen visitors via Entrecard over the couple of hours since I've signed up, which is probably more than I've received from Blogrush in total.

It will take a couple of days before my adverts start appearing on other peoples sites, so I'll be interested to see if there is a sustained traffic increase from using this service.

As usual, I'll wait a week (unless spectacular results happen before then) and let you know what sort of a difference it makes.

Are you using Entrecard yourself? Is there a sustained traffic increase from using it? Let us know in the comments!

Update: Well, here we are 24 hours later and the results have been surprising - in that there actually are results! The adverts themselves which are currently running on two other blogs have brought in an extra 15 readers. Clicks from other users on the site has brought a further 32. So that's an extra 47 unique visitors that have come as a result of Entrecard in the last 24 hours.

Blogrush update

Well, a while has passed since my last post on BlogRush. So what has changed? Quite a lot actually. The new BlogRush dashboard is active, some traffic has come my way (although it is still more of a BlogTrickle than a BlogRush), so really I think I'll keep it running as part of my site.

The new dashboard is actually rather nice, and gives plenty of graphs and charts for any statistics freaks that may be reading.

So overall as a free service any additional traffic is a Good Thing, just don't expect to gain hundreds (or even dozens) of additional readers.

BlogRush weekly update

Now that a further week has passed, let's have another look at BlogRush.

Well, there have been a further couple of referrals passed through - which is good. My site has passed their "strict quality criteria" and is not amongst the 10,000 blogs which have been removed. Apparently this should give an increase in traffic, so it seems only fair that as a blog of quality (how about this for a tag line: "Half a page of scribbled lines - a blog of quality") I should give them a bit longer to see if things pick up.

The dashboard still isn't done (aaaargh!) but I'll give them a bit longer and see how the site functions once it's finished.

I'll give it another look in a week and see if things improve.

BlogRush update - still waiting for traffic

I've posted a couple of times about BlogRush, so here is the long awaited status update:

It's Crap.

There, I've said it. For smaller blogs like mine it just doesn't work. Over the past few weeks I've kept an eye on how much traffic BlogRush has sent my way, so here is the total number of people that they have referred to my site:

1

That's right folks, one. The administration BlogRush section still isn't finished which makes tracking what the service is doing difficult. It all makes it impossible to recommend.

In the interest of fairness (or just bloody-mindedness on my part) I'm giving it one more week, and then I'll be removing the link. Reciprocal linking should work both ways, but at the moment I'm sending them more traffic than they're sending me.

I'll update this in one weeks time.

BlogRush updates - Phase 2

Well, it looks like BlogRush is going to be changing. I hadn't realised that BlogRush hasn't been around for very long - in fact, it started around the same time as this blog (around a month ago).

During the two weeks that I've been with BlogRush I've had a grand total of 1 referral from them. Now, that is one visitor that I might not have otherwise had, so it is all for the good I suppose.

BlogRush Phase 2 may shake things up a bit. Some of the more exciting things for me is "Say goodbye to all the non-English blogs, junk blogs, and any low-quality blogs you may have seen from time-to-time in the widget" (hopefully that won't include me!), "Bonus Syndication For All Users, But Weighted Towards Low-Traffic Members" (yay!), "More Categories! (a lot more)". This last one is good, hopefully I'll find a category closer suited to this blog.

A "Random Wibbling" category perhaps?

Blogrush - does it really work?

The fastest and easiest way to drive a flood of targeted readers to your blog... absolutely free!

Sounds pretty good doesn't it? I'm always a bit dubious when it comes to things like this - there is usually a catch somewhere - like ending up providing free advertising for someone but not receiving enough clicks to actually earn from it as an example.

I set up BlogRush on here a couple of days ago, and I've got to admit I've been less than overwhelmed so far. In fact, my whelm is so far under it is in danger of reaching the Earth's molten core. Now, I'm usually a good one for being patient about things. BlogRush are in the process of updating their servers at the moment so I've been unable to check what they are actually doing. Until today. According to their stats I've been serving out pages for them (which I knew), but I've received back a grand total of. . . . .

None. Nothing. Naff all. Not a sausage.

Hardly a flood. Not even a trickle. To be perfectly honest I couldn't even describe it as a drip.

Once the BlogRush dashboard is available (apparently within the next couple of days) I'll be able to find out more about what is happening - but at the moment I can't say too much in favour of the service.

I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and see if it does bring any traffic in. I'm not exactly holding my breath though.