Don’t Do as I Do, Do as I Tell You To Do
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Sometimes I think that being a successful blogger is much like being a lemming; do what the guy in front of you is doing. Of course you should only do what the guy in front of you is doing IF the guy in front of you is being successful. I am going to call this the “sheep theory.”
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It seems like everyone always tries to emulate the successful bloggers, such as John Chow and ShoeMoney, but really do we need another duplicate blog kicking around? I admit that I read those blogs on most days, I don’t get excited when I look up my RSS feed and see their posts, in fact sometimes I only read the post so I can make a relevant comment in order to bring the “herd” over to my blog. Honestly I find those types blog F#%king boring.
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Maybe you enjoy those types of blogs. Good for you.
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Personally I would like to try and do something different than those guys. In fact I think I am doing something different: I am not making any money. Am I jealous? A little. Of course I am more than willing to celebrate other bloggers successes. I think it is fantastic that these people can make a living blogging. I wish I could do it. I just get tired of the same old “cookie cutter” blogs that are continually popping up that try to recreate the big name bloggers sites. It’s like every time I see a new movie come out that is based on a novel, comic book or is a remake of an old movie I feel that humanity is really loosing it’s creativity
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Do something different! Be original. Don’t be a “Sheep Herd” blogger
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Now here is the part where I take a giant swig of drink I like to call: Hypocrisy.
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As I was floating around the blogoshpere ( I hate that word) I noticed that a lot of people had some kind of advertisement on their site that had a a giant “E” on it. After you visit a ton of blogs in a day you start to notice the same types of advertisements all over the place. I swear if I see another Widget Bucks advert I may have to sign up
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So I clicked on one of these giant “E”‘s and was taken to a site called Entrecard. The premise behind it (which I am sure you already know because most of you are more on the ball then me and you spend much less time being intoxicated and worrying about rent and more time keeping apprised of what’s happening in the blog world) is based on passing out business cards. You sign up, create your own business card and then drop your business card on blogs that have the advert with the “E” on it. You then get credits based on the number of cards you drop off and can buy advertising space on other people’s blogs.
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I think this service will help me with my goal of 100 unique visitors per day by the end of January, but how good will the visitors be. I assume that half the people that show up are only here to drop off a card and then move on. I guess the only way I will be able tell if this will be successful is whether I am able to pay my rent this month.
I’ve used similar services for websites in general (not blogs). It kind of feels like spamming, to be honest. The number of good quality visits is small and it’s just another thing hanging on your sidebar (or worse). I suggest you don’t take it.
Drop me a line anytime, just to talk about your adsense project. I’m really interested to know how you’re doing.
I would agree with Ren. I am getting sick of all the things that I am expected to add to my sidebar. It gets obnoxious and actually takes away from my good visitors’ experience. I think you should hold off too, but it might get you a few good visitors and really I am not the one to be giving advise as my blog is creeping up the ladder much slower than it seems yours is. Great idea for a blog by the way.
Ren: I have been through the EntreCard site and I can tell you that it is very spammy. A lot of bloggers spend quite a few hours dropping cards on other peoples blogs. This will eventually go “crazygonuts spammy.”
David: I agree that it does take away from the blog experience and fill up the sidebar. I told myself when I started that I would avoid avoid having a cluttered blog. It’s tough.
I think however that I am going to give the Entrecard a try for a bit, but I am going to use it, as it was meant to be used. I [as always] have decided to go natural. So I am going to not “spam drop” my card on random sites. I will only drop my card if I enjoy reading a particular blog. Plus I am only going to approve other blogs ads if I enjoy the blog and if I think my readers will enjoy the ads.
Nothing on here is permanent so I will give it a try for a little bit.
*Shudders at the idea that all blogs could look like Shoemoney – nothing against them, but not all like that, please*
Entrecard actually is pretty much like blogcatalog.
You can hop around happily from one to another and find duts and you find good ones.
Same happens with the people hopping. Some are good and even leave you a comment or even come back, others don’t.
I’m not spending huge amounts of time over there, just place my ads from time to time and drop some cards wherever I see that toy popping up, but I do get some neat clicks from it.
What it’s worth in the end? Dunno.
What is blogcatalog worth?
Only because the faces pop up in the widget doesn’t mean the people have clicked your blog, no
I have to agree with the general feeling about E card. One of the things I preach is ‘targeted’ visitors. You want people to visit your site/blog who are actually interested in your topic or service.
I, like other ‘Internet Marketers’ do the ‘add a friend’ thing because it looks like you have to do some just to stay in the mix. But there is a point where it is pointless. Even if you get thousands of unique visitors a day, it’s useless unless they are interested in your topic (or at least clicking your links :>) ).
Good luck with trying to live off of Adsense. I’m in a similar boat, but I’ve added affiliate marketing and small business services to add revenue streams.
Wow, everyone has some really strong opinions about Entrecard.
Still, I am going to keep it on my blog to just give it a try.
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As Aubrey said:”One of the things I preach is ‘targeted’ visitors.”
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That’s just what I am doing with Entrecard, I am only dropping my card on the blogs that have not only have the same topic, but the same style as Living on Adsense, plus I am only allowing blogs of the same topic and style to be approved to appear on my blog. Thus I will be getting targeted visitors.
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I believe that if Entrecard is used properly and not used as a spam tool, it can draw some nice traffic to your site. So for now I am going to keep Entrecard.
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If something goes wrong and Entrecard and it’s spammers destroy my blog, you can say: “I told you so”
I’ve been using Entrecard for a few days now, and since I only place ads on blogs that are of interest to my readers I haven’t spent a lot of time wasting time, yet.
I can say it has brought me some more unique traffic though, and my adsense earnings have gone up a little since adding Entrecard. We’ll see how the test turns out, but so far I kind of like it.
I think Entrecard will work for certain blogs, depending on how it’s used.
I came here only to drop another Entrecard card, because I wanted to buy an ad on another blog, so people can go to my blog and leave a card, then leave… when this headline with lots of Dos caught my attention.
I’m glad I stopped by. You’ve just got yourself a new subscriber and loyal reader. I fully agree with you, I’m bored to death of all those lemmings
I agree that there are too many clones out there. Sites about making money, created by people that want to make money. Yes, there should be less, but the unfortunate fact is that they drive a majority of the internet’s economy. And they’ll never go away.
About Entrecard. I think it’s a very good idea – despite the only-here-to-drop-a-card users (I call them “Entrehoppers”). See, dropping a card takes a little time, and apart from benefitting both users, it _does_ benefit you.
It takes a few seconds to locate the Entrecard widget and drop a card. In those few seconds, the layout, color scheme and imagery on your blog has to capture their interest.
It’s more time than what you would normally get from search engines and links. Entrecard creates an incentive to visit your blog, and spend some time hunting down the widget.
Plus, if the Entrehopper is browsing sites in your category, chances are he’ll find your site interesting, stay, read, and maybe even subscribe.
But that’s all up to you, and the way you blog. Face it – not everyone out there is looking for sites that say what you say. But there are a few that ARE looking for what you have to say – and they’re the ones that you’ll attract.
Verdict: Entrecard is very, very good.
Other than that, I’m loving your blog, and I’m going to subscribe. And yes – I found out about it via Entrecard
~ Wogan
…and the proper use of Entrecard brings targeted visitors!
100 unique visitors a day? How long has this blog been up? I have had mine since about Novemeber and up to 230 unique visitors a day with a peak day of 3770 unique visitors.
To have visitors all you need is unique content and StumbleUpon. Screw Digg…that’s one time traffic. Write something useful or entertaining and submit it to SU and you’ll have all the traffic you need. You don’t have to sell out for traffic.
I agree with U Nick…I use stumbleupon and get more targeted traffic…I think with entrecard what I have developed is a following of people who like the stuff I post.
For instance on one of my blogs it is humorous, so many people who belong to entrecard and blogcatalog are repeat visitors. Digg is like a one night stand, you do it, and leave b4 the sun comes up.
In the beginning I tried to emulate the big bloggers, I even have some of their feeds on my blog, which I’ll be taking off this weekend. Why? Because it hasn’t increased my traffic or made me any money. In the end, my credibility will be my own and not someone elses’.