If you are reading this, you probably are not a hardcore Entrecard dropper.  Hardcore droppers are those that burn through a minimum of 300 drops per day.  Some drop 300 cards from multiple blogs.  That leaves little time for actually reading posts.  Sick?  Maybe. 

How many of these Entrecard Olympians are out there?  Phirate approximated there to be 260 of this breed.  Far fewer than I expected; I thought maybe 600-700 people dropped that many cards.  Why is that number important?  It means if you are a new member, and you drop on the right people who reciprocate from the inbox, at a minimum you should receive 260 cards dropped back on you.  Multiply that x5, and you get a popularity rating of 1300.

It’s also significant because these people tend to drop around midnight of the new dropping day.  Why? Because they want other hardcore droppers to return their drop before they finish their allotment of 300.  So if 260 hardcore droppers all pleasure each other with drops, that leaves a mere 40 cards left over for everyone else.  By the time some johnny-come-lately wakes up and drops his cards, a hardcore dropper can’t drop on him that day even if they wanted to.

The critical number is 300.  Once the number of hardcore droppers goes over 300, does the 301st person get zero drops for the day?  No, for a variety of reasons.  While most of the hardcore people drop at midnight, others space their dropping out over the day.    Also, some droppers like myself drop from a list.  This means I drop on you even if you wake up late or don’t drop on me that day.  Not the most efficient method, but I benefit up front by increasing my RSS numbers, Technorati favs, or the occasional affiliate signup from those on my list.

Even if there are 400 or 500 hardcore droppers, they will spread out among each other.  The longer you wait until after 12:00am to drop, the less likely you are to get a reciprical drop from the hardcore crowd.  But is that bad?  Not at all!

It all depends on why you joined Entrecard.  If you want readers and commenters, you might be better waiting until the olympians have finished for the day.  That way you drop on those who are new, those who take the time to read, and those who are in your niche.  You certainly won’t achieve a popularity value of a hardcore dropper, but was that your goal when you joined?

So why do the hardcore Entrecard droppers drop cards like they do?  Several possible reasons:

  1. They are competitive and want to be at the top of Entrecard. 
  2. They sell credits and want to maximize their time spent dropping.
  3. Their blogs are pay-per-post blogs, and the added traffic allows them to earn more per post.
  4. They are marketing blogs, who get judged by Alexa ranks and such.  Also more traffic may equal more sales.
  5. Their sites are “made for adsense splogs”.  This is actually counter-productive for these sites, but not everybody understands internet marketing.
  6. They made a site with the intent of selling it and Entrecard provides a nice amount of daily traffic.
  7. They are addicted to dropping and just can’t stop!

Now in my case I always drop 300 cards a day.  In addition, I usually drop another 150 from other accounts.  The 300 I can knock off in 20 minutes if I want.  Usually I stop to comment on a few blogs and in the forums, so the process takes about an hour.  The other 150 I can do anytime or skip them altogether.  How about you, are you a Hardcore Entrecard Dropper?

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