Down On Our Luck

I haven’t done a top 10 post in a while, but I didn’t want my blog to turn into a link farm. It seemed that the only posts I was writing during February were “Top 10 Droppers” posts. I know, I should get off my butt and write more; give me credit here, I’m improving at that. Top 10 posts will be random from now on and some observations about my traffic and Entrecard follow the list.

First things first, here’s the list:

I have been pretty active dropping at Entrecard over the last month and a half; my traffic is pretty bouncy, but sometimes bouncy traffic is better than none. In a previous post I had mentioned this concern, but I have also figured out that the key to being successful is to start out dropping heavy to get onto lists and into “Inboxes”, make sure you at least reciprocate on your inbox every day to keep them coming back. Then make sure you update your content. After seeing your blog so often the droppers that show up in your inbox will start to stick around a little and leave comments. The key to getting these bloggers to stick is to make sure you have fresh content for them to poke around on. I know when I visit a blog that I see in my Inbox every day I can tell when they have updated their content almost right away; if I see a new post I’ll at least take a scan over it to see what it is. If it intrigues me, I’ll keep reading and possibly comment. Other Entrecarders do the same thing, my bounce rate goes down by almost 2-3 percentage points when I have a new post here and at One Million Pet Pics.

My point here is, don’t complain about how bouncy the Entrecard traffic is, write something or change something on your blog to make droppers take notice and stick around.

Feel free to let others know what you think.

I love Entrecard, it has brought me both good and bad traffic. Definitely more good than bad. I think it is the best way to bring a blog back from the dead or launch a new one. Reading other blogs also gives me ideas for my own posts and in some ways it gives me a swift kick in the rear to start working on my own content.

About a week and a half ago I launched One Million Pet Pics and I’ve been trying to drop 300 cards for this blog and that one every day; I was successful up until yesterday when I realized that everything else was being neglected. I would like to continue dropping 300 cards a day, but until I come up with a strategy for days when I have other necessary things on my plate, I’m going to have to start with 100 for each blog in the AM and then if I have time in the evening I’ll finish up.

It’s seems that I almost always have the same cards in my Inbox every morning so what I’m going to start doing is making some bookmark folders for those blogs that I find there and start speed dropping when I don’t have time to go through the chain dropping routine. If you’re wondering, I don’t stop and read everything when I’m chain dropping, but I definitely pay attention, comment and make note of things when I chain drop. I would like to continue chain dropping the way I have been at least twice a week. This way I can discover new sites and pay attention to what’s going on around the web.

I don’t want to become a credit hog that pays no attention to what everyone else is saying.

Sorry I’m late this week everyone. I know most visitors here aren’t just sitting idly by waiting for my 10 top droppers list, but I have my reasons for waiting this week. I had too many link lists on my front page for a period there, so I wanted to get some more posts in before posting my top 10 list again. I can’t say the second reason has to do with lack of time to post, but on Thursday I was busy with other business. So, here it is for the week and I’ll be back to post more later.

1. Wild Clips Comedy - 26
   
2. CK Marketing - 26
3. ahkong.net - Deimos Tel`Arin’s domain - Gamer, Blogger, Philosopher - 24
4. Ez DIY Electricity - Residential Electrical Wiring Projects Made Easy - 23
5. EZ Money Online - 22
6. Juliana’s Lair - 21
7. joanjoyce - 21
8. Photography by KML - 20
9. Rambling On - 19
10. Sense to Save - 19

Want to be listed here next week? Bust into my top 10 droppers list and I’ll make sure of it.

As you may know, I am always interested in ways to increase my online income, but the trick is these things can’t take too much time out of my busy days. I have found Vikingblogger.com as a great way to stay on top of blogging information as well as a way to learn a few tricks and tips.

Vikingblogger is holding a contest to give away a total of 20,000 Entrecard credits. If you choose not to use them, you could always sell them for cash on eBay or directly through your blog. I’m not even sure what I would do with this many credits, but I guess I can figure that out if I win the contest. To enter, you need to blog about his contest and subscribe to his RSS feed.

As promised, I am showing the top 10 droppers on my blog as of this morning. If you’d like to see your blog here, make sure to stop by every day and drop. I also make sure I drop on those that have dropped on me first.

1. CK Marketing
2. Wild Clips Comedy
3. Juliana’s Lair
4. ahkong.net - Deimos Tel`Arin domain - Gamer, Blogger, Philosopher
5. Ez DIY Electricity - Residential Electrical Wiring Projects Made Easy
6. My Library
7. A Journey of Dreams
8. The Realtor
9. joanjoyce
10. Rambling On

Thank you all for visiting as much as you do.

Brenda

Here are the top 10 droppers on Down On Our Luck for the week of 2/14/2008. If you’re an Entrecard member, take the time to drop some cards on them.

1. Wild Clips Comedy
2. CK Marketing
3. Ohio Real Estate
4. Juliana’s Lair
5. A Journey of Dreams
6. my sense and sensibility, including my ‘non-senses’
7. ahkong.net - Cyberspace of Deimos Tel`Arin - PC Gamer, Philosopher, Salesman
8. Ez DIY Electricity - Residential Electrical Wiring Projects Made Easy
9. Reality is Over Rated
10. Eastcoastlife

If you’d like to be listed here next week, make sure you visit me every day and try to make it into my top 10. When at all possible, I drop on those that have dropped cards here first.

Until next time,

Brenda