Advertising: don't put all your eggs in one basket?

I have to say that is a very good point, I have only recently (in the last week) started using Entrecard and TrafficEra (see my blog for the referral link if you are interested).

So far I have had stunning success with both, however as you mentioned you only get out what you put in. I have especially noticed this with TrafficEra, the more I surf and earn points the better more traffic I get.

As I started both of these at the same time I am unsure where the quality traffic is coming from (but I feel it is from both sources).

But I guess to answer your question, there could be harm in having all your eggs in one basket... and there is no real harm having multiple sources of traffic so I say spread the eggs out evenly.
Stuart

Hi Ben,

Michael here.

Of course it's no good idea to put all your eggs in one basket ...lol

I suggest using as much resources as possibles to attract the visitors you like to have.

Targeted traffic is the key.

Oh, btw, in my latest post i reveal, how anybody could get to the TOP in Google and Yahoo. Easily and for free (at least for a limited period of time).

So if you like to have lots and lots of visitors ...

Regards,

Michael

Thanks for the comments.

Stuart - do you use any statistics outside of your blogging platform, such as Google Analytics? Do you check the ads you place via Entrecard to see how many clicks they generate? Do you look at the Statistics tab at Entrecard to see how many people clicked on your site image from the Entrecard website? I'm not sure what TrafficEra provides in the way of stats, but these tips might help you find out if one site is bringing you more traffic than the other.

Michael - I don't agree. Using as many sites as possible will use up a lot of your time if you were to use each site properly, and it would be a total waste of time if you just signed up and didn't do anything else. (I particularly mean Entrecard. If you don't post on the forums or comment on other blogs then it won't generate anything like the kind of traffic that you'll get if you participate more.)

I commented on your latest post - I don't like the sound of it I'm afraid. But I wish you luck in improving your search engine ranking.

I have been teaching people for years "multiple reaching out methods". Corporations don't rely on just one marketing channel. Why should we?

I just developed a new concept, Go-Giver Bloggers. If you like it, you can join our group.

Larry

Hi Larry, thanks for the comment. I agree in theory, but as I said in the post, does this argument really apply to sites like Entrecard? After all, the ad is placed on the site rather than on Entrecard itself...

I get a decent amount of traffic from Entrecard, but most of my traffic comes from StumbleUpon, Google, Direct (readers, etc.) and other search engines (Yahoo, Live).

However, in my situation Entrecard has given me more quality visitors, which have turned in to Feed subscribers. Also, I have found several blogs (including this one) through Entrecard that I find interesting, and so I have subscribed to their feed.

I could create an entire post on what I think about advertising, but I will try and make it short:

While different sites might sometime require different methods of advertising, I do think sites like Entrecard allow people (including myself) to find interesting blogs that post about different things than I do.

If I just advertise on sites that are dedicated to technology, then I would not find other interesting sites in different categories (like sites about advertising, sports, humor, etc.).

On the other hand, if you are someone who only likes to interact with other sites in your category realm, then Entrecard allows you to do that also.

I will agree not to put all of your eggs in one basked, but since right now Entrecard is my main source for "QUALITY" readers, I am putting most of my effort in advertising there.

Ok, I will stop now, but I could go on. If I missed anything just let me know. Thanks for the post Ben.

Hi Jonathon, thanks for stopping by. :) I recognise your domain name from bloggernoob.com's domain tournament - I think you're just about to knock me out! I'm not bitter, honest ;)

Thanks also for your detailed comment. I totally agree. If a site is producing good results it makes perfect sense to use it as much as possible. This doesn't mean you can't use other sites, but what I've found is that other sites don't product the results that Entrecard does.

So while I might be using a few sites, it seems like I am only doing this for the sake of spreading things out. It's clear that Entrecard brings me the most visits (apart from StumbleUpon) but most other sites bring me very little. For instance I recently deleted my account at MyBlogLog because the visits I received from there were so minimal they just weren't worth the hassle. Especially as most of the people who added me to their contacts were spammers or "contact collectors", i.e. the people who just add anyone and everyone.

To me all any of them are is a tool. You don't want to rely on any one method of blog promotion or indeed spend all of your time entrecarding to the exclusion of other important parts of blogging like actually posting to your blog (as you've mentioned before), commenting on other blogs, forums and the like.

Agreed, you need to put in if you want to get something out of them. I don't understand the common penchant to get something for nothing that everybody seems to be chasing these days.

For me, entrecard has been a winner. As much for the blogs I've discovered as the traffic.

Thanks for the comment, Lightening. :) I think it's a careful balancing act - there's only so many hours in the day. I know how easy it is to spend ages on these sites!

Entrecard has worked very well for me too - I found it barely a week after I refocused my blog, and I'm sure I wouldn't be getting all these comments without it. It's been great.