What is Entrecard? Entrecard is a free exchange network for 125x125 ads. By using the Entrecard platform, you can advertise your own 125x125 Entrecard ad on any blog in the network, for free.

You can see an example of an Entrecard ad by looking at the ad with the gold bar on the bottom in the right side-bar of this blog. This ad belongs to another blogger that chose to advertise on my site. For this privilege, the blogger had to pay me a certain amount of Entrecard credit to advertise. In turn, I can use the credit to place my ad on another person’s blog in the Entrecard network. You can also earn Entrecard credit in others ways, which I’ll explain later. When a person clicks on your ad that sits on another person’s blog, the Entrecard system will re-direct them to your blog. This is how you get traffic.

Entrecard makes it easy to drive traffic to your blog by advertising on other blogger’s site. The best part about Entrecard system is that it’s free to use.

Here are 7 tips on how to successfully use the Entrecard network:

1. Sign-up and create a custom logo: When you first sign-up for Entrecard, they will ask you to either use a pre-built logo or upload your own. I recommend that you create a customized logo to set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd. If you create an eye-catching logo, you will get people’s attention and subsequent clicks to your website. You can use MS Paint or free resources on the Internet to create a custom logo.


2. Place the Entrecard Widget near the top of your blog page: The Entrecard widget should be easy to find on your page. Therefore, the best location is near the top of your page. Remember, you’re selling advertising space and you want your fellow bloggers to “drop” their cards on your site. Therefore, your widget should be easy to find. More on “card dropping” below.


3. Accumulate credits by becoming a “card dropper”: You will receive 1 credit every time you drop your card on sites that have the Entrecard widget. To drop your card, simply click on the “Drop yours” link located at the bottom of the Entrecard widget. This will automatically update your Entrecard account will 1 credit. The best place to find blogs to drop your card is in the Entrecard system. So login, navigate to blogs, then start “dropping” cards. You can start with blogs that interest you but it doesn’t really matter. The point is to accumulate credits so that you can advertise on blogs and get traffic to your site. Try to accumulate about 50 credits before purchasing advertising.


4. Initially, don’t pay a lot to advertise: So now that you’ve accumulated a lot credits, let’s spend it on advertising. Go to the Campaign page in the Entrecard system then select the “Most Recent” link near the top. Look for sites that are priced between 2 to 5 credits/day that are not full. You want to go cheap to get the most “bang” for your credits. It will be hard to find sites that meet your criteria because other bloggers are looking for them too. Dedicate any where from 30 to 60 minutes of your day to proactively monitor this page. You need to be “Johnny on the spot” to buy ad space from these sites before others. Once you see an eligible site, check it out to make sure that it is suitable for you to advertise. If the site passes, “drop” your card then go back to the Entrecard system to purchase advertising space via the “advertise” link. Repeat these steps until your credits are gone then start the accumulation process again. Monitor your email or Dashboard at Entrecard.com to determine if your purchase as been accepted or rejected. Don’t be offended if a blogger rejects your ad. It happens all the time and the system will automatically refund your credit back to your account. Just spend it on another site.


5. Monitor your Entrecard Inbox: You will earn 1 credit when another Entrecard user “drops” their card on your site. When this happens, you’ll be notified via your Inbox in the Entrecard system. When you see that someone has “drop” their card on your site, return the favor and “drop” a card on their site. The Entrecard network is also a social-network. This is a good way to make friends with your fellow bloggers.


6. Reject ads that don’t fit your site: As I mentioned above, you earn credits when someone advertises on your site. However, you can afford to be picky because there is a lot of demand in the network. If an ad is not suitable to be on your site, reject it. Don’t worry about offending the other person. They understand how the system works. You don’t want your blog readers to be offended by an ad on your site.


7. Write recommendations: Every Entrecard user’s detail page in the system includes a link to write a recommendation about them. Find several blogs you like then write a recommendation. The majority of the time they will return the favor. Again, the Entrecard system is a social network. Its great way to make friends and increase your exposure.

In summary, the Entrecard network is a good way to increase traffic to your blog or website for free. The “quality” of the traffic may be debatable at times. But, in the end, traffic is traffic.

Here’s a link to the Entrecard User Guide if you need more information about how to get started with the Entrecard network. You can also watch the video on their home page.

Please try these tips then come back and leave a comment about what worked and what did not work. You’ll probably modify the tips above as you gain experience with using the network. All comments are welcome.

Squidoo.com was founded in October 2005 by Seth Godin. Squidoo is a website designed to make it easy for anyone to create a lens (single web page) on any single topic. Squidoo is a cross between a blog and a static web page. You create a lens once then go back periodically to update the content with fresh information. However, the topic always stays the same and the lens is always on a single page. Basically, Squidoo is a network of user-generated content on a single topic that a person wants to share with the Squidoo community as well as the rest of the world.

You can use the Squidoo website for free to create an unlimited number of lenses. People that create lenses are called Lensmasters.

Here are the top 5 ways to make money with Squidoo:

1. Create several lenses on Squidoo: Squidoo allows you to create a lens for free. So create more than one. In return, Squidoo will run ads on all of your lenses. The ads on your lens are relavant to your content. Therefore, your lens visitors are more likely to click on the ads. Squidoo splits its revenue with its "co-op" of lensmasters. The first 5% goes straight to charity then 50% goes to the lensmasters and 45% goes to Squidoo. Simply put, Squidoo pays you royalties for written content on your lens. Google loves Squidoo.com because it's viewed as an "Authority" site. Many lenses get top rankings in search results shortly after being published. The more traffic you get the more potential for royalties. The Squidoo website uses Web 2.0 technology to allow you to build highly interactive lenses without any programming or HTML knowledge. Click here for an example of a Squidoo lens. Ready to make some money? Click here to get started via my referral link. Or, you can go straight to Squidoo.com to begin creating your lens.



2. Generate affiliate income with your Squidoo lens: Earn royalties by adding affiliate products to your lens. Sell an affiliate product via your lens and Squidoo will share the revenue with you. Squidoo makes it easy with the built-in affiliate modules for popular brands. The popular brands include Amazon, eBay, Netfix, Orbitz, CafePress, and others. All you have to do is pick and choose which products you want to sell. What's important is that the affiliate product should be relevant to the topic of the lens. In general, this will lead to more sales. Click here for an example of a Squidoo lens that include links to Amazon books and CafePress t-shirts. The topic of the lens is Texas hold'em poker then later in the lens you can buy books about poker or buy t-shirts with funny poker slogans.



3. Squidoo referral program: Refer a friend to be a Squidoo Lensmaster. When your friend's lens earns its first $15, you AND your friend will each get $5, free. All you have to do is create an account then start referring your friends. I recommend that you create a lens first before you begin referring your friends. Show them how easy it is to create a lens on any topic in Squidoo. When they sign-up then tell them to sign-up their friends. So if you sign-up via my referral link, we both will get $5 dollars when your lens earns $15. By the way, it only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to create a lens and publish it to the world.



4. Promote your products via your Squidoo lens: If you sell products on eBay, Amazon, or CafePress, you can promote and link to your products using the built-in affiliate modules. All you have to do is create your lens, add the applicable modules then link to your products from within the modules. It just takes a few minutes to setup. Traffic to your products should increase since Google loves Squidoo.



5. Promote your blog or website via your Squidoo lens: If you have a blog or website, you can drive traffic to your site using your Squidoo lens. Create a lens that's relevant to your blog or website then link to your blog or website from your lens. Traffic to your blog or website should increase since Squidoo pages rank high in web search engines. People that find your site may subscribed to your RSS feed or simply share it with others on the web via social networking. The additional traffic may lead to more sales and/or AdSense revenue.
   
   
   

Squidoo sends you your royalty payments via PayPal. The default payment threshold is $10. However, you can easily change the threshold to be between $1 and a $1 million. You can also contribute all or a portion of your royalties to charity. It's very easy to configure.

Squidoo is very easy to use and there are many opportunities to make money with it. The best part about Squidoo is that it's free.

Additional Squidoo Resources:

• The Free Squidoo Guide
• Squidoo Marketing Strategies
• How to make your first Squidoo lens
• How to make a living on Squidoo
  
  

Did you like this post? Please share your thoughts with me by providing comments. Let me know if you thought the information in this article was useful.