Entrecard Review

This is not a paid/sponsored review nor does the following contain any affiliate links or any sort of thing that would benefit me directly in any way!
 
This is a wholehearted, earnest review of the new widget service called Entrecard.
 
Don't start yawning just yet. Yes, there's going to be some stats and perhaps a little technical mumbo/jumbo so I'll cut to the summary right off the bat...
 
Entrecard is one of the best services that I have ever had the pleasure of signing up with. It has increased my traffic in multiple ways, shown me some really great blogs and brought in a few regular readers, all with a minimum of effort on my part. Seriously.
 
Background
Entrecard started up just over a month ago at the Blog World Expo and has already grown to serve over 600 blogs (expect that to double in a week or so). The widget has been picked up by a few big namers such as John Chow and ProBlogger and GorillaSushi.
The Widget
After signing up with Entrecard, the first step is to add the widget to you site. The widget is an un-obnoxious java widget (comes in three styles) that displays the "card" of a person who has requested to advertise on your site (see "Economy" below), a link to your Entrecard page and a small yellow bar that displays relevant messages. All ads open up new tabs/windows. Wordpress hosted sites rejoice - Vladimir Prelovac has come up with the Entrecard Me! Wordpress Plugin.
 
Your ads show up in the same widget on the sites that you choose.
 
The Economy
There is no money involved here. The Entrecard economy runs on "credits". Earning yourself a credit nest-egg is done in the following ways...

• Once you've signed up, you can click on the widgets of others to "drop your card" which earns one credit for both yourself and the owner of the widget.
• People will drop their cards on you, earning one credit for the both of you.
• Nice people within the site can send you credits (I send people credits for showing their tits being awesome).
• Selling your ad space.

Once you have enough credits you can start to purchase ad spots with over 600 sites to choose from.  
Your Ad Space
Prices to advertise on your site are determined by the number of people who have been dropping cards on you. You can not determine your own price. This is just one of the many features of Entrecard that level the playing field. Everyone starts at 2 credits per day and all ads run for one single 24 hour period. You have the option to approve or deny anyone wanting to advertise on your widget. All ads are 125x125 pixels.
 
Support
One of Entrecards most favorable features is it's support. I have never seen suggestions and requests taken and turned around into features so quickly. Chances are that if you make a useful suggestion regarding the design or functionality of the Entrecard system, you'll see it in action the very next day!
 
Bottom Line - The Numbers
Typically the most important consideration when adding anything that will take up your precious sidebar real estate is whether or not it will bring in visitors. Entrecard has a detailed reporting system that allows you to track virtually everything going on with your account and decide for yourself.
 
Here are a few of my important stats from the last 2.5 weeks (since I've joined)...
Organic clicks:
The orange chart shows the number of clicks from the Entrecard site to GorillaSushi. There has been some steady growth - the most I've seen is 29 clicks in one day (4 days ago).
 

Advert Clicks:
The number of people who are clicking on you advertisements and ending up on your site. These particular numbers depend on where and how often you are advertising. With little effort my numbers have been on the rise with yesterday setting a new personal record at 47 clicks.
 
Who and How Much:
Another chart shows who's been sending you the most traffic. I've had a ton of success with the excellent fashion site iCiNG and ProBlogger.
 
 

Last Word
Join. Without a doubt. With even the minimal of effort you will see an increase of traffic.
 
Over the last 2 weeks traffic from Entrecard and Entrecard users has been among my top 3 (non search engine) referrers.
 
The site is run by people who really care about the users. There is no money and no price fixing which has seemed to have scared away those who would use the system to spam.
 
If When you sign up drop a card on me, advertise here and write a recommendation!