The Article Writer

After just over one month of doing the “Entrecard thing” I have decided to pull the plug.

All right, let me rephrase my statement: After using Entrecard for the past five weeks on five different blogs, I removed the Big E’s widget from the sidebar of this blog and on my automotive blog. I’m still running Entrecard on three blogs, but I’m only accepting new ads on one of them.

My reasons for cutting back on Entrecard are many and include the following:

Entrecard takes up a lot of time. Yes, there were a few days where I hit the 300 limit for one site (600 total drops for all sites) and I realized two hours had gone by. Time carefully expended in exchange for a small amount of fleeting traffic — not good!

Quite a few sites were dead or rarely updated. I don’t mind visiting blogs but there has to be something new for me to read. I rather not drop and run, but if there isn’t anything else for me to do, why should I visit an aged or neglected blog in the first place?

Newer blogs benefit, but for older blogs it can be a drag. Don’t get me wrong if you found this blog via Entrecard and are now a regular reader — thank you and please stay! But, the quality of the blogs submitted for advertising here just hasn’t measured up.

Bait and switch. I know that I shouldn’t depend on power dropping sites for my supply of websites to visit, but they can be useful to find blogs to visit and drop cards on. Unfortunately, some sites are suddenly converted to porn or other senseless babble, sullying Entrecard in the process. What a shame.

Of course, there are some benefits to Entrecard including:

Newer sites. I launched Auto Trends last month and got more than 1100 visitors from Entrecard alone. Add in all of my digging, stumbling, and propelling and the site got off to a nice start. It remains the only site where I am still accepting ads to this day.

Networking. Some of the bloggers I have met have been friendly and helpful, the usual trolls notwithstanding. I’m sure many of the more active users are also active elsewhere and our paths will cross again and again.

Please don’t take this as a slam of Entrecard as it isn’t — Entrecard just isn’t working that well for me. After this month I may remove the widget from one or two other sites and I’m not planning to resume regular card dropping on a consistent basis.

My time is valuable to me and dropping cards doesn’t seem to add value to my time.

Further Reading

Entrecard and Other Internet Mysteries

Entrecard Notes, Update 1

Entrecard Notes, Update 2

I’ve been contributing articles and/or editing for Wikipedia since last July, by helping expand articles, providing relevant citable sources, and responding to the occasional call for help. Time isn’t on my side when it comes to editing for free, but there are those times when a Wikipedia diversion provides a needed boost for the editor within.

Soon after joining Wikipedia, I also registered for Citizendium, another wiki-style site which launched in early 2007. Founded by the same person who started Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, Citizendium is small potatoes compared to Wikipedia.

It is also a lot more accurate than Wikipedia, in my opinion.

Yes, Sanger feels the same way that I do — Wikipedia’s purity has been sullied by its anonymity, something Citizendium has corrected by requiring contributors to disclose who they are. With Wikipedia, there isn’t anything more annoying than some cyber-troll coming along and mashing up your contributions. Sure, you can reverse the vandalism and dispute changes, but there are some article topics which seem to be dominated by editors with an agenda to uphold.

No, I haven’t done anything with my Citizendium membership, but that is likely to change. The first Wednesdays of the month is Citizendium’s “Write-A-Thon” day where members are encouraged to contribute a new article (even if just a stub) or provide a substantive edit to a current article. By participating you’ll contribute to a growing and respectful resource that is controlled by its members, not by a foundation, private entity, or public owners.

To get a feel for Citizendium, check out their blog. If you have a wee bit of extra time during the month, then stop by and lend a hand. I won’t be able to participate in this month’s “Write-A-Thon” which is today, but I plan on offering some assistance in the near future.

I was reviewing my various projects lately including ongoing contract work and came to a startling realization: every client I have at the moment is someone who found me online. Not simply people whom I connected with thanks to the internet, but people who found me through this website.

Three Years Later…Success!

It was three years ago this month that I launched “The Article Writer” having previously had an online presence through other sites that I owned, but nothing dedicated exclusively to what I do. Sure, my corporate flight attendant site  (sold June 2007) was already three years old when this site was launched, but it was the act of extracting my identity from these other sites and creating a site pitching my capabilities which made all of the difference in the world for me.

I had no idea that this particular move would be so beneficial to me. Up until then, all of my clients came through phone work, third party job sites, referrals, and previous clients. Soon after launching this site I was “discovered” by the first of several big clients, confirming that my decision to strike out independently was a good one.

Self Reliance Pays Off

I’m not writing this to boast about my personal success, rather to encourage people who do not have a visible online presence to get one. Specifically, two points come to mind when developing an online presence:

• If you don’t yet have a website or your site/blog isn’t easily visible (on its own domain and not hiding on blogspot. com or wordpress.com) then you are making it difficult for customers to find you. Almost always a client mentions that they found me through one of my blogs or through an article I published which links back to this site.

• If you have a website, is it properly optimized? We writers are usually very good at what we do — write — but not particularly good when it comes to promoting our personal sites. Your site doesn’t have to look spectacular but you should be easily found in the SERPs, have a strong linking strategy, and your name should be found elsewhere.

I don’t advertise my services, at least I haven’t done so in more than a year. I don’t use Guru, eLance, or other job sites and I haven’t used AdWords in ages. However, I do keep up with people through social media sites and email.

Success won’t come to you overnight, but you’ll be successful if you develop a strong online presence and maintain it. Maybe I shouldn’t be so forthcoming about my work — I could be giving some valuable grist to someone else’s mill — but that is the risk I am willing to take.

Have you found success online?

I’m not a professional researcher, but as a writer I do research various topics to help form the backbone for many of my articles. Oftentimes, I’ll come across something online worth quoting or get information directly from a source (e.g., a press release) and use that as the basis for what I write.

Occasionally, I’ll find something that’ll raise my eyebrows, details which can have serious repercussions if I choose to include it. The fall out from damaging information could be far-reaching — negative news which might impact a company’s earnings, lower employee morale, and bring about a whole host of unimaginable consequences.

If I do choose to go with negative publicity, there is certain personal criteria that must be met before I will include that information:

1. I must be able to verify the news through at least two sources.

2. The quality of those sources has to be reputable — I’ve come across claims on a message board that while likely containing an element of truth, isn’t always posted without malice.

3. I need to ask myself — “Am I including this information to benefit my career or to inform the public?”

Lest you think that I’m being completely altruistic by not including something that might benefit my career, I’m not. However, if building up my career to bring down others is my motivation, then I’ve lost sight of the reason why I’m sharing what I know — to inform the public.

Yes, the basis for this article stems from recent experience where I chose to shelve damaging information instead of sharing it. While some people might have been helped by what I discovered, the first two of my personal criteria were not met. However, instead of tossing the information away I have saved it in the event additional veriable details eventually surface.

I don’t shy away from sharing potentially damaging information, but my personal reputation trumps the public’s so-called “need to know.”