What’s more impressive is the cash behind this cow. Back in January, Entrecard was earning a little over $2.50 a day times 8 ad spots using Project Wonderful. This set up earned a little over $600 a month based on Business Leaps’ estimates. Now, at the end of this year, Langdon deposits a conservative estimate of $250 a month times 8 ad spots generating $2,000 a month — an increase of 233%.

However, that doesn’t include the income from users buying Entrecredits or other advertising deals. In the beginning of the year, Entrecard had one stream of income, Project Wonderful; now, Langdon has moved from Project Wonderful towards private ad sales with other revenue streams including EntreCredit sales and what appears to be affiliate income. To date, Langdon failed to return comments regarding any revenue assumptions.

However, before there was Entrecard, there was College. Langdon attended the University of Connecticut for three years. Langdon dropped out his senior year in part because of the success of a different successful venture. Million Dollar Wiki was founded by Langdon and grossed nearly $100,000, after which, Langdon saved 30% for taxes and paid off his school loans of $30,000. The rest, $40,000 or so, was used to start Entrecard, and according to past interviews, every dime of that $40,000 has been spent on Entrecard. Even after spending every dime on Entrecard, Langdon found himself selling the wiki to further expand his next venture Entrecard according to past interviews.

Entrecard, an idea born from BlogRush describes the creation process behind Entrecard saying, “It was shortly after Blogrush launched. I watched in awe as the Alexa ranking for blogrush on launch day hit something like 400. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone was using it. And then I watched as everyone removed it, and it failed as quickly as it had launched. Then I analyzed how it succeeded.”

Even if Langdon can’t be credited with a completely unique idea, he can be credited with a massively successful idea. And building on this success Langdon hopes the future of Entrecard becoming a new media powerhouse. The road to a media powerhouse does require additional funding, and this founder has been in talks with several angel investors and venture capital firms. Langdon also failed to return comments on the details of talks with venture capital firms. And, to date, a deal has not been officially drafted according to the Entrecard blog. However, according to sources, a venture capital firm was initially investing $700,000 with future funding of $1 Million. Yet, these claims have not been verified by Business Leaps.

Another goal Langdon finds himself reaching towards is 50 million daily widget impressions on high-quality blogs. That goal depends largely on his what some call “erratic decisions.” Decisions, more recently, that have cost him some high-quality blogs he aims to retain. The near instant decision to ban a member came after a Twitter post named Graham Langdon an “asshat” from the blogger Turnip at TurnipofPower.com. Entrecard moved quickly to ban Turnip citing a zero tolerance policy towards “intentional uses of profanity or harassment or harassment directed at other Entrecarders or Entrecard Staff.”

However, one look at Graham Langdon’s personal blog, grahamlangdon.com. Readers might notice a blog category Langdon has named “buying shit.” And as far as harassment, other users are quick to note harassment might be too strong a word in describing the recent Entrecard controversy.

Controversy aside, Langdon exposes his humanity. Shortly after the banning incident, Langdon describes his shortcomings in a blog post, “I’m still a human. No, I have not matured as far as I possibly can yet. I know that I still have a lot of personal growth to achieve. And yes, sometimes I do act emotionally, [erratically], and in poor form. I am human.”  Yet, for a 23 year old, Langdon has made far more intelligent decisions than not.

What’s the motivation behind this 23 year-old entrepreneur? Langdon wouldn’t say specifically, but based on his last venture many would have to conclude money.  When asked about the inspiration behind the Million Dollar Wiki, Langdon described his need,  “to make money that didn’t require any upfront investment.” In  a way Langdon wanted the cash without an investment.

The underlying motivation behind Entrecard could be the same as the past venture. Money. Entrecard was listed on the Site Point auction site with a minimum bid of $100,000. However, to date Entrecard has had no serious bids, did not meet Langdon’s reserve price, and has been taken off the market. According to sources, the reason posted on Site Point was the venture capital firm pulled out of Entrecard.  Langdon explained on the auction, the funding consisted of “700k seed investment and a 2-5m follow on Series A investment in 6 months,” yet the “deal fell through in the 11th hour, right before the terms sheet, because they lost faith in my ability to execute,” said Langdon.

Regardless of the motive, regardless of the controversy surrounding Entrecard’s decisions, regardless of the possible decline of Entrecard in the future, Entrecard has still been an incredible story of innovation, bootstrapping, and viral marketing. All these factors are key to a successful entrepreneur, for this reason Graham Langdon has proved better than many others his creative innovation, his bootstrapping success, and his ability to spread the word about Entrecard earns him the name Entrepreneur of the Year.

Who was born on March 11th? To celebrate this birthday, for this very successful person, Business Leaps is giving away 200 Entrecard Credits. Contest ends on March 11th 8:00 AM.

Hint: The Birthday person is extremely successful in our related field.

See if you be the first to guess and win the Contest! First person to guess in the comments below wins. Limited to one guess per person. Comments won’t be approved until March 11th.

Also, checkout our other Entrecard Contest, we’re giving away 500 Entrecard Credits.

Each genuine comment is an entry, so each comment greatly increases your chances of winning.

Contest ends in Seven (7) days — March 3rd, 2008. And at the end of the contest the winner will be picked randomly.

Enjoy!

However there are a few that begin to offer incredible value to for bloggers and on-line entrepreneurs. One such tool is Entrecard. It’s the better version of a traffic exchange program. As Patric Altoft, on BlogStorm, says it’s “the widget that actually sends traffic.”

The Entrecard network uses credits, which can be sent to anyone on the network using the user’s email address. A credit comes from either dropping a card or receiving a card. Earning credits from dropping card encourages the users to visit blogs within the Entrecard network (real traffic). Second, allowing other blogs to advertise on your blog’s Entrecard widget earns credits.

Although several probloggers like John Chow and Darren Rowse are using Entrecard, Dave at eXtra seems to think the service is on its way out.“Entrecard is another widget fad that is spreading across the blogosphere right now.”

“Once the buzz wears out, [Entrecard’s owner] will sell the site, pocket a decent deal of money, and leave most people with another useless widget on their blogs.”

Yet other bloggers disagree saying Entrecard has increased traffic to their blog and being part of the network encourages repeat visitors. If its the visitors you might be looking for from Entrecard, here’s a few tips for success.

1) Advertise on Only the Best Blogs

There are two levels of thought for advertising on the ‘best’ sites. The first idea is advertising on the new or cheap sites. Generally the cost of having your ad on a new blog is 2 credits. With this low amount used, you can afford advertising on hundreds of blogs. Check the “Most Recent Tab” as much as possible and find relevant sites for your ad. Every time there’s a new blog, advertise on it.

The second idea of the ‘best’ blogs means blogs with the widget ‘above the fold.’ This means advertise on blogs where your ad will be seen. But this means finding sites with the widget above the fold and checking back to see if the widget has moved.

2) Put the Widget on All of Your Blogs

Most bloggers have multiple blogs, get an Entrecard for each of your blogs to see which blog it works best on. However, Entrecard does have a quality control in-place, so check to see if each blog meets the requirements for Entrecard. Second, as of now, Entrecard requires an email address for each Entrecard, so you’ll have to have multiple emails.

3) Drop and Network

You earn a credit from visiting a blog and dropping your Entrecard; however, most users drop and run. This drop-and-run refers to users bouncing to a blog, dropping a card, and visiting the next blog solely to earn more credits.

Instead visit the blogs in the Entrecard network and contribute to her blog by commenting, adding her blog to your blogroll, and writing about her posts. It’s the blogger who network — they’re the successful bloggers.

4) Move the Widget Higher

By having the widget be one of the first things visitors see, you can command more credits from other bloggers wanting to advertise on your blog. Second, this makes other Entrecard Users more likely to visit your site more often. Yes, that includes the drop-and-run visitors.

5) Be Patient

When you do create an account, you’ll be asked to approve adverts for other bloggers. Wait for the credit cost to move higher, which means you’ll earn more credits from others advertising on your site.

Finally, Entrecard isn’t the super pill for your blog; it’s just one more tool for networking and driving traffic to your site. At the end of the day, it’s the blogs that give tremendous value to the readers and advertisers that profit the most, so focus o giving tremendous value.