For those who have the day off, enjoy the long weekend!

I’ll start with this: The premise and design of Entrecard is brilliant. Graham Langdon has developed a great tool for promoting a blog and discovering other blogs. It has drawn a solid cadre of very experienced bloggers, from whom I’ve learned a great deal.

I’ve written about Entrecard a few times, so I’ll avoid doing yet another overview. What I’ve discovered is that the core concept of visit and drop has a fundamental flaw. This flaw is partially to blame for the higher normal bounce rate, but is more clearly felt on the forums with a regular, unanswered question.

Why visit a blog that doesn’t have any new content?

Entrecard users drop to earn credits and many of us return the favor by visiting their blogs and dropping back. We work our inboxes, often visiting sites that haven’t been posted to in weeks. Are they bloggers or droppers?

There have been a few “cultural movements” in the history of Entrecard that have distinctly highlighted this flaw. I’ll spend a bit of time discussing each one:

UDropIFollow
Initially, I thought this was a very good approach to Entrecard. Because I couldn’t fully commit to dropping on my droppers each day, I didn’t don the badge. But I didn’t try to work my inbox diligently.

I recently did a very unscientific experiment. I visited and dropped on the self-proclaimed founder of the UDropIFollow movement, Lee Doyle. I dropped using bot of the blogs I have at Entrecard. I did this for eight consecutive days. How many drops did that get me from Lee Doyle? Zero.

Wait? You mean the founder of the movement can’t or isn’t walking the walk? No, he isn’t. But maybe he was away? He was on the Entrecard forums regularly during the time I was doing this experiment. Maybe he gets more than 300 drops each day? Perhaps, but I did run this with two blog accounts for eight days. In the not so tactful language of my other blog, UDropIFollow is bullshit!

It isn’t enforceable. It isn’t sustainable. And it misses the true value of Entrecard. I considered carrying on the experiment a bit longer, or extending it to other bloggers, but other cultural movements at Entrecard woke me up.

Entrecard Bans Quick Drop Sites
When you’re dropping just to earn credits, quick drop sites rock! You get your credit they get their credit. Quick and easy just like a hand job in the alley. If credits are all you want, then Entrecard isn’t for you.

The ban and subsequent removal of the quick drop sites will do a lot to improve the quality at Entrecard. I applaud Graham and the crew’s efforts on this. I’m only now understanding this well enough to appreciate the ban.

Comment Bomb!
What if we collectively visited a blog with fresh, good content, read the post, dropped an Entrecard, and then wrote a comment? Novel idea? Not really. That is how I imagine Entrecard was initially envisioned. The results of the comment bomb were magnificent and energizing.

I felt a spark of home emerge. What had become a chore with a hint of addiction, now had a much more pleasant aroma. A glow of promise where 300 drops per account wasn’t a goal, but was a commitment to the community.

Digg Community of Entrecard
Graham next posed the suggestion that we form a collective Digg by Entrecarders. I had always seen Digg as a big tool for a small blog, unwieldy and cumbersome. But as a collective, we could do something cool. We aren’t one small blog, we are a network of thousands of blogs. The forums and comment bomb had made us a community. I now had over 250 friends on Digg (in a single day). With careful management (Digg will ban you for violating their TOS) this could be very powerful.

Then the shouting started. The incessant shouting! “Look here!” “Please, Digg this!” I taught my daughter that if she begged me for something she wouldn’t get it. It goes the same for me with Digg. Why on Earth should I Digg a post that consists solely of a YouTube video the blogger didn’t make?

So here we are. What did we learn?

Dropping for the sake of dropping isn’t productive and degrades the Entrecard community. While the premise of UDropIFollow is noble, in practice it isn’t working. There is a community here, but mining the value of that takes focus.

To make Entrecard matter, we as a network have to start where all great Internet media does, excellent content. We need a constant stream of blog posts that entertain and/or educate.

How do we do that? I don’t know if a technical solution exists. It starts with the users. We have to stop rewarding stale blogs.

Here is my approach:

1. If you drop on me, or get my attention on the forums or on Twitter, I will subscribe to your RSS feed.
2. Through my RSS reader (Bloglines), I will drop from at least one of my blog accounts on the blogs that have new posts.
3. If you have written a good post, I’ll Digg, Stumble, Reddit, etc. If the Entrecard community is behind you, it is likely I will be too.
4. At least once per month, I will post a “featured” (i.e., relevant) blog posts I found and enjoyed, with full backlinks.

Entertain and/or educate me and I’ll pay you back.

I moved my Entrecard widget to the sidebar “above the fold” because I believe in the Entrecard community.  I hope you’ll join me in pushing mediocrity out of the system.  Are you a blogger or a dropper?

It started with an Entrecard Forum post by Entrecard founder Graham Langdon. The premise was simple. What if we all made a concerted effort to post a comment on a particular blog post. This being done as a way of gaining exposure for the commenter and “rewarding” the blogger for their commitment to the Entrecard community. The name was subsequently changed to Comment Rush to avoid any negative vibe from the group action. The intent was not to do this for damage, but rather for positive reasons.

They made a great first choice with Ken Armstrong. His blog post, Music and Driving, was brilliant! Ken’s wonderful writing and well developed blog post took all of us to a place we were familiar with, despite our differences and distances. The Comment Rush produced 165 comments (as of this writing) on this single blog post. It was a very uplifting experience for all of us.

From this, Graham came back to recommend that we form a Digg friendship pact. The outpouring of support for this idea is amazing. We’ve had over 100 people join. The network is building fast (in some cases faster than Digg will let me add friends). You’re welcome to join me there at http://digg.com/users/bsawards and see all of the “new friends” I have!

This got me to thinking. If I want to Drop and Digg my new contacts, what easier way than to subscribe to their RSS feed? I will use Bloglines, but you can use what ever reader you want. I’ll be able to see new blog entries when they arrive. Do my Drop and Digg right there.

You can subscribe to my RSS Feed right here: The Bullshit Awards Blog.

Leave your feed details in the comments of this blog post and I will add your RSS feed to my Bloglines account and will be a regular Dropper and Digger on you. Thank you!

I was reading through Ars Technica and came across this article: Google, Yahoo Spiders Can Now Crawl Through Flash Sites. This is great news for web developers! Sites can be much more dynamic with flash, but SEO experts were against using flash because the sites would be un-crawlable. By being un-crawlable, it meant they weren’t indexed by Google or Yahoo. Very bad!

But recently, Google (with Yahoo not far behind) came up with an algorithms that allows it to crawl certain aspects of flash sites. We should start seeing a lot more of them pop up as this constraint goes away. As for us, we can not use more flash in our blogs and websites and not be penalized as much for it.

You can read more about it here at Google Webmaster Tools.

This is a very good day indeed!

It is a simple question. But the answer isn’t always apparent. Are you being true to yourself when you post as a blogger? And is that voice coming through to your readers?

Having a solid voice in your writing comes from first being honest with yourself. It means that you take the time to understand how you really feel about a topic and why you feel that way. Then, you take that and turn it loose. That is the rawness that makes great bloggers great.

I have a personal blog where I most definitely lay it on the line. I put things about myself on that blog I would usually reserve for a close friend. This blog is more of a sandbox of sorts. As such, I often wonder if my real voice is coming out. It may not be. And this blog is poorer for it.

I might not change that. Particularly since I’m not looking at this blog with a success versus failure view. It is merely a place to share distinct blogging lessons. But going forward, I will be very cognizant of the difference. Are you yourself?

If you’re not a follower/user of Entrecard, then you may have missed the drama that unfolded over the past few weeks.  The short version goes like this:

Posts and claims were made that apparently worked a group of forum regulars into a frenzy.  This escalated despite efforts by the forum moderators to squelch and deflect the conflicts.  As usually goes in these matters, feelings were hurt, bans were issued, and now we have a history mark called Firestorm.

This series of events goes on every day on the Internet.  Especially on internet forums.  There are disagreements, flame wars, and violations of forum rules that escalate out of control until the fire is extinguished (typically within a few weeks).  Everybody will want to point to one individual or one event that set it off, but the reality is, it all comes down to maturity of those involved.

I joined Entrecard for one reason.  To promote my blog.  Over time, I accomplished an even bigger feat.  I learned of some excellent resources and bloggers.  Many of the users of Entrecard are brilliant bloggers who know quite a bit about Internet marketing.  I learn something new every day.  Much of that through the forums.

What most people involved in Firestorm lost site of was their original purpose of joining Entrecard to begin with.  We’re here to promote and/or learn.  To those that left, good riddance.   If you’re too immature to understand that Internet arguments are pointless, then it is better you are gone.  Entrecard is a for-profit service.  One that I’ve found quite valuable.

I’m interested in your thoughts/impressions about the Firestorm.

Probably not the best of questions to ask a reader, huh? But it is one you should ask every day. Why are your readers coming to your site? What are they after? Are they getting it? Are they going to come back?

The way readers use blogs is so different from other websites. When a websurfer goes to Web MD, they will read an article that is years old. But on a blog, they are typically looking for fresh content. Will they drill down to other articles you’ve written. Sometimes, but more likely, they are only looking at the most recent post.

Are you creating regular, fresh content? If so, then you’ll likely see regular traffic. Are you making it easy for them to find related content on your site? If not, then you’re missing an opportunity to hold a reader. This can be addressed simply by linking to older stories. You can also look at the layout of your blog. Are your categories what they need to be?

Perhaps your site is more about the present and less of an information resource. Then you need to have a strategy to create a regular posting pattern. You’ll need to ensure your readers get their daily, twice weekly, weekly fix. That takes planning.  Fortunately, Wordpress allows you to schedule out posts.  That can be a life saver.

While I know this site should be a reference source, most of my current readers are looking for regular, fresh content.  I need to address that if I want to maximize my revenue from this site.  I tried a little experiment this past few weeks.  I made a generally good post about my first month blogging.  The number of hits and comments were very good for me.  I found that leaving the good content up longer drew in more readers.  Now I just have to find that sweet spot.

In any case, if you don’t know what your readers want, you might not be providing it.

I’ve been at this blogging for money stuff for about a month. How did I do? Well, I’m not quitting my day job any time soon. But I did learn a great deal!

Lesson #1 – Crowded Market

It is a crowded market. If you’re not offering something of value, something unique, you’ll get buried in the mush. Personally, I know that I have a unique perspective, but I’m not sure I’ll make it as a Make Money Online (MMO) blogger. And I don’t have a passion for it the way some do.

Lesson #2 – Focus

There is no shortage ways to make money online. From ads (text and graphic), affiliate marketing, and pay-per-post, the ways and number of vendors is overwhelming. My advice, find one or two that work well for you and stick to them (especially when you’re new at this). More is not better.

If you focus on just a couple, you’ll figure out how to maximize them for your site. Also, you’ll hit your payout amount that much sooner. It does you little good to have regular, but small earnings on several networks and not ever hit the payout amount for any one of them.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with them, but once you find one you like. Stick with it and make it pay.

Lesson #3 – Integrity

Integrity matters. There are tons of people who use inappropriate ways to make the money they make. They will trick you into signing up for a subscription service when you think you’re buying one e-book. They will lie about various aspects of their strategy or the amount they’re able to generate with a given strategy. Or they will post about something they don’t know anything about or really use all for the sake of getting paid for the post. Don’t sell your integrity. The price goes down fast when you start down that road.

Lesson #4 – Work

Posting fresh, well-written blog entries takes a lot of work. From research, writing, editing and posting, a good post takes a lot of time. Also, to keep an active audience, you’ll need to post regularly. At a minimum that will be two to three times a week. Many MMO bloggers post one or two posts per day. If you’re looking to make a post once a week, you won’t draw much traffic. And if the quality of the content isn’t there, it won’t matter how many posts you make.

Lesson #5 – Promotion

To get and keep traffic, you will have to promote your blog. There are lots of ways to do that, from directories, commenting on other blogs, traffic swapping, and social media. Each promotion opportunity will give you a different amount and quality of traffic. Pick the one that matters most to you. Also, if you don’t continue to promote, you’ll usually lose most of the traffic you were getting. Promotion takes time and effort. Make sure you dedicate enough time to this pursuit.

Lesson #6 – Be The Brand

A blog is an extension of you. If you are an interesting person, with good writing skills, you can be a successful blogger. But, to make that happen, you’ll have to connect it all together. Your promotion should blend naturally with your blogs. Your ability to connect with readers through the comments takes it to the next level. This is the building of a brand. If you have a consistency across all of this, you have a brand. Then you can focus on building the best brand possible.

Lesson #7 – Socialize

The most successful bloggers are very social. They comment on other blogs. They are responsive to readers of their blogs by answering comments and emails (I read about one blogger who even takes phone calls from his readers). They are also active on the primary social media networks, such as Twitter, Digg, and StumbleUpon. While this may be fun for some, to do it successfully as a blogger, you’ll need to make it an extension of your blog persona. And therefore, it is more work.

Lesson #8 – Analyze To Grow

It is vital that you know the details about your site’s traffic. Where are they coming from? What were they looking for? Did they find it on your blog?

There are a ton of questions. The answers come from reviewing the analytics for your site. I use Google Analytics as a means of getting the data I need. I am only beginning to get enough data to be able to know anything. The data is eye opening. I will use it, and as a result, I expect to get better at this.

Lesson #9 – The Art of SEO

Despite what people tell you, SEO is an art not a science. There are truckloads of “SEO Experts” out there trying to sell you on their work or tools. While there are some good general rules to follow relative to SEO, how it will work on your site/keyword situation takes trial and error. And, the rules change from time to time as the search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) tweak their search algorithms.

The basics of SEO can be wrapped up in one phrase, “Keep It Simple.” If you write good prose, keep your content fresh, and keep at it for a while, you’ll place well relative to your overall niche.

Lesson #10 – Take Breaks

It is easy to get so involved in the whole cycle that you lose sight of why you’re blogging in the first place. It takes a heavy investment in time and effort to get a good blog going and keep it going.

However, you’re human. And that means you need a break from time to time. To be a good writer, you need to have a life. Experience new things away from the blog. Enjoy!

Have you ever gone to a blog and seen comments where the commenter has their picture next to their comment? At first, I thought this was just how blogger or wordpress.com rewarded their members. Mine would always be a gray blob or a gray square smiley face. Well, it wasn’t something they did, it was something the commenter had done.

It is called a gravatar and you can get yours at gravatar.com. At the site, you register the email address that you use for your blog comments and upload a picture. That’s it. Blogs that allow gravatars will pick up yours based on your email address.

Why is this important? Blog brand. Yes, your blog has a brand, whether you want it to or not. And if you aren’t maximizing your brand, you’re minimizing it. Like the flavicon I posted on last month (see Flavicon From A Picture File), a gravatar shows professionalism and polish.

My flavicon and gravatar… sounds like a kid’s robot cartoon a bit there, doesn’t it? Sorry , I’ll be back on topic. You’ll see that I used the same picture for both. I also use this image for my message board avatars and for Twitter. With this, I’m keeping my brand intact across sites. I’d encourage you to do the same.

Happy blogging!

I’ve seen it happen in the tech industry where various tech companies that compete with each other cooperate (EDS was reselling IBM tools). I’ve seen it in other mature industries (Joint ventures created for oil and gas exploration). But blogging?

Very much so!

The first, and most prevalent form of cooperation that I’ve seen is link sharing (particularly in blogrolls). In this case, two bloggers include links on their sites to other blogs. Obviously, if you like a blogger, you should like the blogs they like, right?

I’ve also seen guest posts. In this case, you have another blogger guest post on your blog (or you guest post on theirs). The blog gets good content and the guest blogger gets more exposure. The goal is to create some reciprocal traffic as the result.

But both of these provide very limited (typically one-on-one) results.

Now, I’ve found a new form of cooperation that has me really excited. Effectively, it is an RSS/Twitter Cooperative. The organizer has created a list in a special format that allows members of the cooperative to subscribe to each other’s RSS feeds through a simple import. As a function of the cooperative, we all agreed to assist each other in marketing to include Tweets, Stumbles, Diggs, etc. This could be big!

I’ll be monitoring the results over the coming week or so and will let you know how it is going in my monthly update.