The Entrecarder

Entrecard lists the 30 blogs in its community with the highest Ad Price on the Popular page. Being recognized on the Popular page usually entails receiving additional visitors from the Entrecard community as there is a presumed credibility or worth that attends being ranked as a top blog. And while there is some controversy about the use of Ad Prices to determine the rankings, many Entrecarders seek to make it to the Popular page, for a variety of reasons. I decided to take a closer look at the 30 blogs that were listed on the Popular page as of 6AM Friday, April 4, 2008.

I've specified the time and date due to the fact that there is usually some change each day in the rankings and as such the following table should be viewed as an example and not the current rankings:

Rank	Image	URL	Location	Ad Price	Alexa Rank
1		Internet Business Guide	Brazil	838	56277
2		Dot Com Mogul	United States	808	106708
3		Monkey Fables and Tales	United States	734	115317
4		CK Marketing	United Kingdom	684	46173
5		Ahkong.net	Malaysia	675	40360
6		Personal Finance Management Guide	United States	650	101883
7		Chalk is Cheap	South Africa	642	86144
8		Fantasy Baseball	United States	636	113231
9		SiteHoppin'	United States	622	17237
10		Saphrym	United States	607	44508
11		Josh's Unconventional Marketing Blog	United States	599	142692
12		Turnip of Power	United States	598	54941
13		Joan Joyce	Philippines	590	60211
14		Reward Rebel	United Kingdom	585	70773
15		Sense to Save	United States	584	84300
16		Media Morgue	United States	582	85265
17		Pandora's Casket	United States	575	177709
18		Lee Doyle	United Kingdom	574	76543
19		Blissful Weddings	Philippines	571	104363
20		Diet Pulpit	United States	567	142397
21		Geek Mom Mashup	United States	560	98375
22		artconstellation	United States	558	79359
23		New York Nitty-Gritty	United States	550	112546
24		Momma Muse	United States	544	92322
25		Bloody Computer!	United Kingdom	538	162477
26		malinesky	Philippines	534	115358
27		Biyahilo	Philippines	520	104945
28		My Absent Mind	Canada	515	138488
29		Hulag	Philippines	509	69630
30		Wild Clips Comedy	United States	498	83347

So, what does one do to make it onto the Popular page? I can't say that I have the answer for you, but my analysis did turn up some interesting tidbits:

1) 29 of the 30 sites have their Entrecard widget placed above the fold, and usually up high and easy to find. The exception was My Absent Mind.

2) SiteHoppin' has the lowest Alexa rank (17237), Pandora's Casket the highest (177709), and the average ranking is 92796. The 7 sites with the lowest Alexa rankings all are in the top 13 positions on this Popular page.

3) 13 of the 30 joined Entrecard in 2007, 15 joined in January 08, and the remaining two joined in February 08. Diet Pulpit takes the honor as the newest Entrecarder on this Popular page.

4) 16 of the 30 are located in the United States, 5 each are from the United Kingdom and the Philippines, with South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia, and Canada rounding out the group with one each.

5) 3 blogs each from the Personal Diary and Self-Improvement categories, with Making Money Online, Computers & Internet, Parenting and Family, Humor, and Entertainment each claiming two blogs on the list.

6) 9 bloggers on the list are "Drop Masters", 15 "Takes Dropping Very Very Seriously", and one (JoshWhitford) ranks as a "Dedicated Dropper." 6 of the top 13 listed are Drop Masters.

7) Only 13 of the 30 had feedburner info available and Sense to Save had the highest number of subscribers at 525, with Dot Com Mogul in 2nd place with 471 readers, and Hulag in 3rd with 193.

8) 6 of these 30 were also listed on the Top Advertisers page, all 6 of which ranked in the top 13 on the Popular page.

9) 16 of these 30 blogs were on one of the 3 Reciprocative Dropping lists, with only a few being listed on 2 of the 3 lists and none showing up on all three. Lee Doyle's U Drop I Follow list contains 6, as does Arnold's Recipro Group. Ahkong's Reciprocative Dropping Guild contains 10 of these Popular page blogs, including 6 of the top 13 on this example page.

10) 13 of these 30 sites are included on Powerdropping.com's list.

11) 9 of the 30 blogs are hosted with a blogspot.com address, although only 2 of the top 15 are hosted by Blogger.

Making Sense of the Numbers:
1) Widget Placement: If someone has to work to find your Entrecard widget to drop on, odds are you might not get dropped on as often. It's likely that each of these top blogs are committed to the Entrecard community and as such are willing to give their Entrecard widget premium placement.

2) An improved Alexa ranking is one of the most referenced benefits of participating in the Entrecard community. I'll leave it to others to cross-reference the sites with Google Page Ranks, Technorati rankings, etc.

3) Learning the ropes takes time and it's not too surprising that over 90% of the top 30 have been members of the Entrecard community for at least 2 months, with 50% having joined at least 3 months ago. Is it possible to make the Popular page in a month or less? I think so...if you know what you are doing.

4) Anyone who has been around Entrecard for long can't fail to see the Philippines connection and the many fine blogs that are created from authors located there. However, the numbers seem to indicate that it doesn't really matter where in the English speaking world you are located, at least as far as making the Popular page goes.

5) I wasn't surprised by the distribution of blogs into the various categories, although I did expect that the Making Money Online group would have a greater presence on the Popular page. What I infer from this is that being the Top 3 in your category is a necessary stepping stone to the Popular page, especially considering that all 30 blogs listed were in the Top 3 of their respective categories. Just as being on the Popular page generates visits due to rank, so does being in the Top 3 of category. The popular get more popular. (Note: We're not really talking about popularity here, but Ad Price.)

6) Whatever Josh Whitford is doing is working, as he is the only blogger on the list that isn't a Drop Master or drops Very Very Seriously. The numbers show that most of your top bloggers on this Popular page are dropping 300 cards a day, day in and day out.

7) Number of readers doesn't correlate well with placement on the Popular page. In fact, it can work against a blogger to have lots of readers from within the Entrecard community if it means that those readers don't visit and drop a card.

8) Does it pay to advertise? The bloggers on the Popular page who were also listed on the Top Advertisers page were ALL near the top of the Popular page. You might not make the Popular page as a result of advertising alone, but if you combine dropping 300 cards a day with buying loads of ads, YOU HAVE THE FORMULA FOR ENTRECARD SUCCESS!

9) While many of the 30 bloggers on this Popular page participate in Reciprocative Dropping, it can be very challenging to track 200-400 cards passing through your Drops Inbox each day. And when you factor out the 3 recipro group leaders (Lee, Deimos, and Arnold) you find that only a couple of other Popular pagers are using Reciprocative Dropping as their main strategy.

10) There is no question in my mind that being included on Powerdropping's list, as well as SiteHoppin's, Hulag's, and the other lists out there that Entrecarders frequent to launch their daily card dropping, is a great way to boost your numbers. I have an Entrecard account that is essentially dormant and from which I rarely drop any cards. It is included on Powerdropping.com's list and gets 40-70 drops a day without me having to do a thing.

11) Maybe having a free blog at Blogger isn't the kiss of death that some would have us believe?

No one activity guarantees making the Popular page, even card dropping. However, having one's widget above the fold and easy to find, dropping 300 cards a day on selected Entrecarders who are most likely to return a drop, and advertising as much as your budget allows (yes, spend real money to buy Entrecard Credits...that's what some of the Big Guys are doing), just might land you on the Popular page. Be sure to take a screenshot!

EDIT - As of the April 7 implementation of the new Ad Pricing system, there doesn't appear to be a Popular page anymore. The rankings still exist for Top 3 of each category, based on the number of card drops received. There is a listing of the 15 most "popular" Entrecarders on the Browser page of the Category page.