At The Top.

This post is how to be at the top in Entrecard. Or maybe should say how I made my way to showing on the popular page. And I may or may not stay there, but I have made it there and know how to get back there. Either way, that's alright.
1st off, I didn't do it by myself. Thanks to all that visited, dropped on me and to those who have bought an ad spot on my site and to all who will in the future.
And no, I am far from figured out all about Entrecard and all that makes it work. But I kept at it trying different things until I found a way that made me start climbing to the top in my category.

1. Put you card above the fold on your site!
If you don't know yet what that means. It means place your card widget near the top so people do not need to scroll down to find it. People will not spend time hunting your card to click it. No scrolling up and down, cross ways or anyway. And by all means, do not make a link to it on another page. Place it near the top of your main page! Founding more and more of sites that have theirs nearly all the way to the bottom. People won't keep dropping on you if you make it hard for them.

2. Lighten your site so it will load fast.
If your site won't load, no one can read it or click on your Entrecard widget.
Anything time over one minute to minute and a half to load is to long and people will back out from your site and move on. Also you make it harder on people who use dial-up connection.

3. Audio and videos.
Not good to have them set to auto start. A real turn off for many people.

4. I do my best to drop 300 everyday.
Some days now that we have 600 IP drops, I do a few more. Just depends.
I use my inbox for my drop list. Some agree and some don't agree it's a good list. When I first started, I made a list of 300. Didn't work out very good so now I just use my inbox. You will learn who will drop back and who never will again. I had three large Entrecarders that I faithfully dropped on everyday and they never have dropped on me. So you learn who will and who won't.
Leave a comment now and then when you visit someones site that you enjoy.

5. Buying ads.
LOL! I don't have a clue what to say here. I think it's a gamble. I've paid a lot for some and got very little to zero back from it. Some paid off big.
I've paid little for some and they paid off big. Some paid back nothing at all.
So I think it's just a guessing game and take a chance on them.

6. Visit the Entrecard forums.
You can learn a lot. Ask question if you don't know or understand something. Join in posting on the forums. Good way to learn Entrecard, and the people using the system.

7. Mostly, have fun with it. You can find a lot of great blog sites through Entrecard.

This is what I have found works for me. Just like you'll have to find what works for you. :)