I have to wonder. I ran Google Analytics and have a "bounce" rate of 92.46% and I'm not sure if I should feel pain or not.
I realize that a vast portion of the bounce rate is Entercard folks landing to drop their cards, collect their 1ec and moving on. I don't have a problem with that, especially since I get a 1ec as well. But I have been working on the "stickiness" of this blog.
I know, this is a niche blog. Not every one dancing the Entrecard 300-step will be interested in my niche. I am very happy to see, however, that there are those who do stick around to read and perhaps even comment. And advertise! I hope those who have been advertising on this blog are getting new hits from my widget.
But the bounce rate is one of the reasons I've decided NOT to put up a "top 10" list of Entrecard droppers. I'm going to stay with what I did the other day and list/link those who comment. And I plan to list/link those who advertise on my blog.
Another problem I have with the Entrecard Top Ten is that if you're looking at your list and all 10 have dropped one each day for each day of the month, there may be 11 or 12 or 13 or more droppers who also dropped each day of the month, but because the list is limited to 10, you won't see the rest. It boils down to the luck of timing as to whether a particular blogger shows up on your top 10 list. I'm not comfortable with that.
So forgive me if I don't follow the pack in recognizing the top-10 droppers.
Now I really got to get some new pictures done! I have some new things. Stay tuned.
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27 comments:
I'm excited to see your new photos. I've got ideas looming but I just don't have enough materials to build any of them. :s
i guess i am very new to blogging, i do not know what bouncing means :( but my guess is, we visit a site and it does not visit us back? or we leave a comment and it does not return the comment? anyway, thanks for asking that, now, i have many things to google :)
i agree with you, comments that are left in our site gives a kick of joy than a simple entrecard drop. but i also like the process of dropping since through it, i am able to discover a lot of interesting sites as well.
I decided not to list the top ten too. I spend wayyyy tooo much time doing "drops" just because I find so many blogs that I enjoy reading - which is the whole purpose of EC :)
Sharon
I wouldn't put too much stock in to Google analytics... we found out the hard way that they don't see all visitors. My husband had a website that crashed because we had 16,000 visitors in a day. We used to have this website on a server at home- moved it off site hosting. Anyway the point is Google Analytics only showed 2 to 4 thousand visitors - so they don't see everything.
MY server stats from are webshosting company are way different then Google- I often wonder if Google does not low ball the figures so they don't have to pay out a lot more in Adsense.
That is a high bounce rate! I am not sure entrecarde is the place to find readership. BTW I bounced through on a entrecard. What all the bloggers on there are doing is giving each other links and visitor hits to get better rankings. I wouldn't see it as a place to gain readership... I write my blog for those who come in on Google search looking for articles say on vintage things. So I would say no the bouncing does not hurt if you are getting links from it and being reciprocal and you know that these are entrecarde users bouncing off your site and not taking it personally.
I don't link to my top 10 droppers either. I like your linking to commenters idea.
I only found your site through Kailani's entrecard drop list. I always hope the occasional drop n runner will stop and read something once in awhile.
When I followed your "Thank you" list trend I got alot of great comments about it.
Drops vs. Stickiness... new term! LOL You have a great idea in my book. I love my droppers, mucho! Bounce rate is high for me... I don't know what that does.
Anyway, great post! Hugs and lotsa love!
Monica
i agree with you:) Also, no way will i ever be on someone's top ten because i have other venues to advertise and i drop on hundreds of sites a week to get variety.
shannon
Rock Star Maternity
The Domestic Engineer's Union
when i first read your post's title, i though that bouncing had to do with the physical bouncing. lol! then i got down to the contents and realized it was a different kind of bouncing.. the one that is virtual yet very real. i do not know much about bouncing... i am even very lazy at running my google analytics. but i agree with you when you say that comments are better than drops. while dropping gives you more visitors and credits, comments give you the assurance that they read your contents and not just hop, hop and hop. but i do blog hop... it allows me to discover other sites and i comment on those posts that caught my attention.
I like your blog!
Hope to visit again soon!
Jen
http://goldtonedesigns.com
Im an EC newbie, but I really like the experience so far. I know there are a lot of people who just breeze through, but I do that sometimes too...some nights I am just in too much of a hurry to read much. On the other hand, when I do have time to read, its the ones who keep popping up on my drop list that I keep going back to and stay a bit longer on when I have the time:-) It seems like that is what's happening at my blog as well.
I like this list idea (not just cos I was included,lol)...I am probably not going to have time to do it always, but you make some VERY good points about why just doing a top 10 isnt so great.
You've made several good points and I too have been struggling with the value of the visits I'm getting to my blog. I can tell you though that as time passes, I'm taking the time to read and comment more often.
I agree that entrecard contributes to the bounce rate. I try to stick with certain blogs that I am interested in reading to drop cards on but not all people can even be bothered to read any blogs at all. I think the problem with the whole system is how time consuming this system is. I have yet to drop 300 blogs because i don't have time to read 300 blogs. I don't like the idea of just leaving a card behind and offering nothing in return. To me it seems disrespectful to the work that a blogger does to maintain a good blog.
I'm a guilty bouncy dropper. Though I do look over to the latest post to see if it interests me, and will comment if it does. Like now!
It all depends on what you're counting on EC for. For some people, high traffic with little stickiness is okay. I fit into this category. But others want the loyal readership and interaction -- I still think EC has the potential to provide this. I probably never would have found your blog otherwise!
It's up to the individual blogger to decide what their priorities are, and then reward their droppers accordingly. Your way has just as much merit as a "Top 10 Most" -- but I agree, the latter could exclude a lot of people.
Wow, ramble-ramble...
Anyway, I think I read that bounce rate can affect your Google page rank, but don't quote me on that!
-- Identity Crisis Girl
http://www.IdentityCrisisGirl.com
I feel the same way about what you said. Geez you could have 100 faithful followers who visit you everyday... who determines who the top 10 are when they all drop.. Amazing how this stuff works... I have been working on just dropping an email to whoever advertises... or responding to there comment.. I haven't been able to do 300 drops I usually hang around 100... Have a nice Thursday
Just dropping by with some good news, you've been awarded an award! Just drop over to my blog to pick it up, well done!
Claire
this is a blog. You post once a day (for example) and people stop by to read that one new post. A high boune rate does not mean anything except that people are probably reading the one new post (or dropping an EC).
Want to test if people just drop and leave, split all of your posts in 2, and make the reader go to a second page. This can be negative too, you may drive people away.
I have one site with a 52% bounce, heavy content site that people only find with a complex Google search.
Does this site sell anything? I don't see it on the front page if you do. If the site does sell, re-work it to make the sales more obvious and if it does not sell - then the bounce does not matter.
I usually charge $500 an hour for this kind of conversation.
@Richard:
The check is in the mail!
I look at the issue this way. You have a blog and all of the new content is on the landing page. You should expect a high bounce rate.
When I first hit a new blog, I will go through the "about" page and through one or two categories of postings. After that, I am counted as a "bounce" because I read the most recent post - i.e. home page only. I only comment on 20%-30% of the posts I read.
I would not get too hung up on bounce rate. If you really want to know what is going on, only place the first third of the post on the landing page and make the rest of the posting accessible via a link. This way you can track how much is actually being read.
Also realize that if you do not post daily, and you have people who check you site daily, they are going to bounce right off as their is nothing new to read.
oops - I totally missed Richard McLaughlin comments!
Sorry for the repeated information and I did not mean to post similar thoughts as Richard. His comments are right on target!
I used to be concerned with bounce rate, but have quit worrying about it. I post my advertisers instead of top droppers, I love your idea about linky love to commenters.
I think entrecard is good in that it leads you to blogs you may not have found otherwise, but I don't admire those who stop just to drop. Another tip for you may be to move the entrecard widget down further so they stay longer to find it, thus reading more :-)
Great post!
I'm fairly new to EC and I am still learning how to best use it.
I can tell you that I've found great sites from it. A few I've bookmarked and visit on a daily basis not just to drop but because I like their content.
I do like your idea of recognizing top commenters. I might just borrow that idea for my blog!
I know John Chow recently posted that he's using a plugin on his Wordpress blog for that.
Best of luck with your blogging endeavors!
Just a tip, if you want to see all the droppers for the day and not just the ten, go to the "drops in box" on the dashboard and you will find them all.
I've been wondering the same thing about listing the Top 10. At what point do the obligations to links and attention end? I don't want to dilute my blog for the sake of being a good ECer -- the whole reason I'm doing EC is to get more attention for what I do best. Which isn't a monthly post about who visited the most.
Good points made. I try to always read and comment on those blogs I enjoy. Thanks for checking in on me during the storm.
Sara
I am still new to entrecard, last week of August and not sure what the term bouncing means and also what is google analytical. Do you have to be a member for this? More details or explanation are needed.
As with any social network or travel generating system there will be more "bouncing" than not. Specialized blogs have an even bigger problem. That being said. I've adding you to my iGoogle because I just started beading this weekend. I'd have never found you without Entrecard.
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