In an effort to drive more traffic to my blog, I recently added both the BlogRush and EntreCard widgets. I mentioned that I would provide a follow up post to let you know how well each one worked. So here goes..... EntreCard beats the hell out of BlogRush. I think this picture will speak for itself.

As you can see above, there was definitely a huge spike in traffic the first day I started using EntreCard. I barely noticed a difference after adding BlogRush.

Perhaps my biggest criticism of BlogRush is that there really is no incentive for readers to click on your link. Your headline gets mixed in with a bunch of other meaningless headlines and its easy to understand why people just skip right over it. You only get points for showing the widget on your site so it makes no difference if other BlogRush users click on the headlines. The only way you'll get traffic from BlogRush is if you have an absolutely killer headline (how about "Tupac is in my kitchen and wants to give you a million dollars"). Even then, unless your headline is the first one in the widget, people will probably just ignore it.

EntreCard, on the other hand, not only builds great traffic - it is actually pretty fun! I have to admit, time slipped away from me yesterday while visiting countless blogs through EntreCard. I would click on a card that someone dropped on my site, check out their site, drop my card, then follow the EntreCard on their site to a new site. I followed this chain over and over and in no time I had collected hundreds of credits. I even left a few comments for people in my travels. I can now use the credits I collected to display my ad on someone's blog. The more cards (or credits) I collected, the more people dropped their card on my site. The more they dropped on my site, the more it costs for someone to advertise on my site, half of which comes back to me. It is a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, EntreCard really is pretty fascinating.

Am I giving up on BlogRush? Not yet. I still think there is a chance for it to be useful as your network grows. So please still sign up for BlogRush. Its like chicken soup - might help, couldn't hurt. Also, BlogRush doesn't take any work on your part. Time will tell if the spike I saw from EntreCard will continue every day. It is fun to drop your card on dozens of blogs when you have the time, but your traffic might not be as great when you're in a hurry.

What are your thoughts on these and other traffic generating services? Let us know in a comment below.

Jeff