Tuesday Tip: Speedy Dropping for Entrecard

A couple of weeks ago I posted a tuesday tip about using entrecard to promote your blog (and therefore your shop). Today I want to revisit that topic by talking about some add-ons that can help you use entrecard efficiently.
Obviously it can be quite a slow process to open blog after blog and drop entrecards, even if you know which ones have the card! Here are a few tips that can speed things up.

(Thanks to this blog post for a lot of this help! And thanks to Unique Commodities for giving me the link in the first place!)

1) Use firefox. Download the 'no-script' add-on (which will block a lot of sidebar content and allow pages to load faster). You will need to configure noscript to enable entrecard content for this to work--see this page and this page for details on how to do this (it's not hard). This page also has some helpful screenshots.☺

2) When you visit a site that you want to drop on regularly, mark it as a favorite. (Click on the 'E' on their card and it will take you directly to their entrecard profile. On the right side of the profile is a box with options including "mark as favorite.") I mark fellow etsians because that is who I advertise, and usually who I place my ads with.

3) Look in your inbox (in your entrecard account) and see who is dropping on you. Return the favor and drop back on them! If you like the site, add them to your favorites.

4) If you join a ring, they usually have a homepage where you can click one button and it will open up a row of tabs with new sites...this is a nice way to find new favorites if you don't know where to start. Here are a few of those pages I have found/used: Arts/Crafts/Fashion/Hobbies links ~ LivingBotanical ~ The Entrecard Credit Generator (this one isn't choosy about site content like the others are, but it can get you a lot of drops)

5) Download the entrecard toolbar (which also requires firefox). Once it is up on your browser, you can login or switch between cards (if you have more than one) with one click. When you are ready to go dropping, you can select for it to open 10 pages (in tabs) selected from your favorites or from whichever category you choose. With many pages at once plus the no-script to help them load quickly, you can drop drop drop and be on your way!

6) Make sure you have good virus/malware blockers. A lot of them sneak in via scripts, so blocking scripts can help, but especially since you will be hopping around to lots of unfamiliar sites, it's important to have good protection! (That first blog post has some links to good free programs.)

A note about why you want to drop on the same pages over and over: because then you can be a top dropper, get listed on other peoples blogs, and get more traffic!!!
And you get credits for dropping. Lots and lots and lots of credits. Up to 300/day!