Interpreting Entrecard Statistics – July 2008
Posted by Linda in Internet Marketing, Marketing Research, tags: Entrecard, marketing researchOne form of marketing research is keeping records of your marketing efforts and their results. On July 8, I joined EntreCard. So today I want to post my statistics for my first month and interpret those statistics to see how to improve.
Converting Four Entrecard
Graphs Into One
To get this multiple line graph, I took the data from the four graphs on Entrecard’s “more stats” page. I typed the numbers into a worksheet in Microsoft Word, then went to the graphing menu and selected a line graph.
Too much trouble, you think. Read my interpretation to determine if this kind of marketing research can help your business.
Relationship of Entrecard Drops
And Organic Search
The most notable relationship on the chart is between the number of cards dropped on my blog (the blue line) and organic clicks (the green line). In fact they follow the same path so well that you can’t really see the blue line except at the three times when I ran advertisements.
This relationship is expected. I didn’t implement my first ad until the 21st. I got 3, 30 and 53 drops on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd respectively. This was the result of ads purchased with Entrecard credits. The other ads raise the blue line slightly above the green line for the last three days of the month.
The Results of Ads That I Ran
This table tells me that UnconventionalMarketingBlog brought me the most traffic for the least amount of credits per drop. This is provided in two tables in Entrecard, but I like having the two together. I wouldn’t go to the trouble for just one month, but as I continue to keep records and advertise on different sites, these statistics will help me to get the best return on my investment.
Relationship Between Entrecard Drops
That I Made And Those Made To My Blog
Now back to the line chart. I see a slight relationship between the number of cards that I dropped and the number dropped on my blog. While my dropping has been a bit inconsistent, it has generally risen throughout the month. Drops on my site indicate a steady rise, but not nearly as dramatic as the rise in my drops.
You can see that when I decreased drops the last three days of the month, drops on my blog also dropped with about a day’s delay.
Summary And Insights
From Entrecard Statistics
So what can I learn from this analysis.
First, there is a slight relationship between dropping and getting dropped on, but the number dropped on me tails my drops. This indicates that as I drop more, I should get more drops.
The question is if the number of visitors that I’m getting is worth the time that I spend dropping. So next month, I’ll keep track of my time so I can see how many drops that I get in return for my time. Once I determine the average number of drops per hour, I can compare that to other traffic methods that require time instead of money. Then I can compare which method provides the best return for an hour invested. You can see the results for August, by clicking the link below:
Interpreting Entrecard Statistics – August 2008
You can use a similar approach to interpret your entrecard statistics and improve your business in the process.
Top Droppers
People You Need to Know 17
Internet Business Ideas 16
Article Specialist 16
The Success 14
Online Social Networking 13
A Marketer’s Ramblings 12
CDubMarketing 11
Money Maker Times 10
BloggerHitz 10
impNERD 9
Thank you top ten droppers.
If you’d like to be listed in one of my posts with a do-follow linkback. Check the numbers by the top droppers. If you can beat it next month, you may get one of their spots in my Top Ten Entrecard Droppers list.
For more on entrecard, see
Blogs Get a Boost With Entrecard and Sezwho Partnership
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Posted 8-1-08:
Interpreting Entrecard Statistics -
July 2008
Entries (RSS)
That’s pretty awesome (the graph I mean). I haven’t really seen anyone else do that, but it is a great way to see the stats actually broken down.
Linda,
The total of the traffic that we get from our clicking and from the ads we buy with our credits MUST correlate highly the traffic we give by visiting sites and clicking.
How can I make such a bold statement?
Simple.
If this were not so, people would have no incentive to visit sites and drop there cards, and Entrecard would be out of business.
The Entrecard system is based on reciprocity.
The important question to ask is whether the traffic you get is worth anything.
Fewer than 5% of Entrecard visits amount to anything more than hit and run.
If this is the case, why go through all this trouble? Is it useful to artificially run up numbers in the hope of impressing Alexa?
No. As many Entrecarders have discovered, Alexa is not so easily impressed. Alexa is smarter than most people realize, and they have a way of discounting junk traffic resulting from traffic exchange schemes.
Nevertheless, Entrecard traffic can be marvelous. It can be marvelous if you focus on exchanging traffic with blogs in your target market. In doing so you’re repeatedly exposing your blog to the right audience.
After all, isn’t that how you and I met?
You can help this process along by commenting on Entrecard blogs that interest you and by placing your Entrecard ads on blogs that are relevant.
When you look at it from my point of view, Entrecard is more of a social networking site than traffic generation site.
Thank you for the mention and link.
I must confess that this way of breaking down entrecard stats is actually your creation. I never heard of it, never even thought of it. I only rely on experimenting on how to maximize my credits but never go deep into analysing th actual outcome of my experiments.
I enjoy the way you have laid down the relationship between the four different variables.
@ LARRY
Your comment adds lots of spicies to this post. It is true that entrecard traffic is close to nothing, but if we look at it from the social networking side, at least we get some exposure for our blogs especially when we target our niche.
However, I don’t think Alexa considers traffic exchange like entrecard to be junk. Since I joined Entrecard, I have been checking my Alexa Rank and it is only getting better and better. I don’t think they are really fighting against it.
Larry,
Thanks for this comment. I’m glad you enjoyed my post about entrecard marketing research. I’ll be continuing analyzing my entrecard statistics every month, and probably adding more variables to the analysis.
You are more than welcome to use my research methodology to analyze your entrecard statistics. In fact, I’d be honored if you did.
Larry Brauner,
Please forgive the formality with the name, but I see that I’ve got comments from two Larrys.
Thank you for clarifying the relationship between entrecard use and Alexa ratings. It was new to me.
I agree the best part of entrecard is meeting other bloggers with similar interests. I’m so glad that I met you through entrecard, and I’m anxious to continue learning about social networking from you.
Marty,
You are more than welcome. Thank you for being one of my top ten droppers.