The Entrecarder

One of the most well-known Entrecarders, Lee Doyle, isn't always a happy man, although he would like to be. Fresh off a post where Lee is attempting to re-vitalize his U Drop - I Follow movement, Lee is a great example of moving forward despite significant difficulties in his personal life. I'd be angry most of the time to be going through what Lee is going through, and I believe it attests to his character that he is able to look beyond himself for ways to aid the Entrecard community.

Lee is a young (25) father of three who is battling for the right to stay regularly involved in all of his children's lives, and in the past has been an outspoken proponent of fathers' rights, which he believes has led to some of his current difficulties. I've had a few interactions with Lee regarding his Followers and found him to be a reasonable and amicable fellow. He really does Follow those who drop on his site with a drop of his own and is seeking to improve his U Drop - I Follow movement by weeding out those who are Followers in name only.

I've found that a good way to see what a blog is about is to take a look at the Categories. Here's what I found on Lee's site:

* Uncategorized
* Poems
* Funny
* News
* Rants
* Fathers-4-Justice
* Website
* Blogging
.....o Guides
.....o Meme
.....o Debates
.....o Questions
.....o Blog Of The Week
.....o entrecard
.....o Blogging Tools
* Computing
* My Case
.....o Social Services
.....o Police
* My Children
.....o Harmony
.....o Faith
.....o Jack
* Media
* Fans Section
* Thoughts
* Interviews
* Reviews

Bloggin-Ads was created by Mike to explore the whole Blogging Community by reviewing a blog every single day. Mike started this idea because he felt that people paying to get reviewed was not very fair to smaller blogs or blogs that do not receive income. Regular visitors to Mike Huang's Blogging-Ads will note that he and his wife Michelle have expanded their original concept to include "Blog Reviews, Ramblings, No Money Involved!"

Before I address Blogging-Ads' content, let me say that Mike already has 3 things going for him in my book: 1) He's from Los Angeles, where I spent most of my life prior to moving to Utah; 2) He's a devout SiteHopper; 3) He always has pretty girl pics on his Entrecard. While age is no real barrier to becoming a successful blogger, I'm still surprised by how young some of our Entrecarders are (Mike is 20), probably because I have children ages 25, 21, and 18, and while I accept their skills and accomplishments, I haven't quite made the full mental shift to embracing their generation as peers.

Mike is a fan of the NOT-Evil one, which is interesting because Blogging-Ads is not an MMO site. They do take paid banner ads in order to pay hosting fees, etc., but the reviews are not paid and there aren't any funny MMO schemes woven into the site. Recent posts include some of the above-mentioned "ramblings":

User Friendly Is A Bonus
John Chow Is NOT Evil
Global Warming: A Scientists (rare) Perspective
Retiring Early With A Bang
The Secrets Of eBooks
Recommendations

I first became aware of Bloggin-Ads via the "One Heck of A Giveaway Contest" Mike spearheaded in January, in which I was fortunate enough to be the winner of Group 6 prizes, which included 200 OneBuckWiki pages from SiteHoppin Max. Not many other Entrecarders can boast 917 subscribers and I find it amazing that Blogging-Ads has a price of 256 EC at the moment. I wonder if Mike and Michelle will continue to go the review-for-free route, considering the number of subscribers they have? Personally, I wouldn't think less of them for charging a few bucks for a review, seeing as I'm thinking of doing the same. Of course, my subscriber count hovers around 20, but that should be worth about a nickel a day, don't you think?

The Cleveland Ohio Real Estate Blog has some great tips for buyers and sellers of real estate, regardless of where they are located. Great tips aside, it's the person behind the blog that has made a mark on the Entrecard community. I did have to look up her full name, but that only helps support my point that Cecilia Sherrard, aka The Realtor, is one of the few Entrecarders whose first name is sufficiently well-known as to generate immediate recognition from many of the active members of the community.

Perhaps it's due to her photo being an integral part of her Entrecard, or maybe she's easy to remember because of her quick wit and humor, but there have been few Entrecarders who've hit the scene running as quickly as Cecilia did and become so recognizable so fast. After reading her bio page I shouldn't be surprised at all, as Celicia has garnered many awards as a successful Realtor. What is surprising is that she manages to find the time to stay active in the Entrecard community! I spent 8 years as a Loan Officer and interacted with many real estate agents, most of whom weren't particularly drawn to techie stuff, and the more successful ones (like Cecilia) were too busy for something like Entrecard. Honestly, it was usually the guy who sells two properties a year that was into Internet stuff and not the top agent in the office. What that tells me is that Cecilia is just plain good at what she does.

Cecilia also did something that I think is really smart in that she put her URL on her Entrecard, which might seem unnecessary as far as the Entrecard community goes, but makes for a great ad on sites like Chow, Cow, or Problogger, where the vast percentage of visitors aren't Entrecarders. She's got name recognition, face recognition, industry recognition, URL recognition, and location recognition all wrapped up in her Entrecard presence. There's a lesson to be learned here for those Entrecarders who are in the community to promote their businesses.

Do you know this blogger? IT-Aid: PC Tips, Tricks and Tweaks is at this writing in the 56th position on the Popularity rankings and deserves to be there. Check out these stats: current Alexa 3 month ranking of 114,492, but 1 week ranking of 37,148, Drop Master status, and a Google page rank of 3. What's not clear is who the author is, merely a username of Slavezero. Ah, well, a few minutes of searching did not yield a answer and so Slavezero's anonymity can be left in place.

Ok, so IT-Aid is the real deal and that's leaves us asking the question "Why?" This answer can be found without much difficulty as the site is full of exactly what the title suggests, tips, tricks and tweaks. Recent posts include:

* The easy way to Fix your Task Manager
* Restore your desktop icons arrangement
* How to disable PC speaker beeping on errors
* How to convert DVD movies to PSP format
* FREE Traffic Exchange / Stumbleupon Exchange
* FREE Blog Backup
* World's Fastest Internet
* Future applications for mobile devices using nanotechnology
* The Ten Most Dangerous Online Activities
* How to Remove Happy99.exe

Not thrilled with that list? Give credit where credit is due...someone, a LOT of someones, must enjoy these posts and it would be wise for each of us to take a closer look, if for no other reason than to place an ad on their widget. This is one Entrecarder who is headed to the top of the heap!

For starters, you've got to love the non-politically correct title of today's highlighted Entrecard Advertiser. Is A Man's World is authored by David Jackson, a New Zealander, and the site's byline is Where Technology and Humanity Meets, which helps focus in on the real intent of the site, which has nothing to do with the anti-feminism movement.

From Dave's About page:

This blog is about My thoughts, My Interests with Sports as well as technology, planes, motorsports, everything about big boys toys, including New Ideas, News, Gadgets, Resources related to technology, Opportunities, Comedy and more.... that is why my Site calls "Is a mans world" I will be posting contents that interest men and women in some occasions.

Sure enough, the top post categories on the site are Home Technology, Motorsports, Mega structures, Technology, Airlines, Supercars, Make Money, & Big Boys Toys, topics that have traditionally been "guy stuff." Dave must be doing something right as Is A Man's World has been climbing the Entrecard popularity rankings of late. (It's not hard to figure out...he's dropping lots of cards and placing ads on good sites.) I liked the site right away, because it has a "guy" feel to it and he's featuring a SiteHoppin Beer Credits widget.

The blog is appropriately listed in the Entrecard Men's Interests category, but that shouldn't stop the ladies from visiting to see what interests the fellas. However, if you're looking for controversial commentary about the sexes or how to win a man's heart, you'll have to look elsewhere. This blog is about the stuff that interests guys, not what's interesting about guys.

The Noob got married! Any day now Bloggernoob will be returning from his honeymoon with pics and stories for all his fans. In the meantime, the "BrotherNoob" is filling in and has written some interesting posts of his own. This is a site worth spending some time on and not just passing by while dropping cards. Chances are, if you have already been to the Noob's site, you might have missed his video that got over a million hits on youtube. It's on his About page, as well as some FAQs that give you an idea about his personality.

Bloggernoob has been very successful making money online in just a short few months and if you are trying to do the same you should check out his income recap post for some ideas. I enjoyed the random pics of starlets that are scattered around Bloggernoob's site, decorations and eye-candy that have nothing to do the various posts, but make your visit a bit more enjoyable nonetheless.

Bloggernoob has been pretty vocal about the Entrecard popularity rankings and for good reason. At the moment he boasts 282 Subscribers and can back that up with the number of folks who have signed up for various programs via his affiliate link. Of course, the new Alexa rankings smacked the Noob on the backside along with most of the rest of us, but it's my belief that the Noob's widget is a good one to consider buying an ad on. I did!

Pay attention, those of you who want to see an example of how one can design a great looking site that is hosted by Blogger! Mall of Earnings' site was so good I had to check the URL to make sure it had blogspot in the address. Mall of Earnings is "A place where you can earn everything... from money to wisdom, life's humor to life's lesson, tips and turn, and a lot more!!!"

Lucky_witch is the author of Mall of Earnings and her site is a good study in how to diversify your traffic so your Alexa ranking doesn't tank. She is listed with a number of social networks and blog directories, something that I should do more of, and have since visiting Mall of Earnings. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see an About page or section and while I was able to track more information about this author with some Google searches, I'm hoping she'll list some personal info on her site and allow everyone to get to know her better.

Today I am highlighting Iris of Clickdtalk, "A sister, a daughter and a mother of two gorgeous kids and most of all a wife of a wonderful and loving man from New Zealand." I didn't realize until I wandered through her site, but Iris is also the author of TheBuzzNutter, another very popular and familiar Entrecard blog.

Spending so much time writing about Entrecard, I enjoyed reading Iris' posts about buying a new vacuum cleaner or who should be in charge of the money, husband or wife? From her About page we get an idea of what her blog is intended to cover:

About clickdtalk
Clickdtalk is about womens interest, fashion, styles, beauty tips and tricks. Every now and then i am posting funny stuff. This is sort of personal diary for me but have included some stuff that have interests me being a women, a mother, a sister and a daughter.

My Motto is "No venture, No gain"

I love to learn and i am passionate of what i do, i simply love blogging and i love tweaking, playing with my site -- That is why i got in trouble most of the time :(

Really, wouldn't you rather read about what Iris is experiencing today as a mother than the current Entrecard issue-of-the-day? I think Iris is much more representative of today's blogger than I am, and as such you should pay her a visit!

Today's highlighted Entrecarder is FeeFiFoto, one of those folks who has a blog that supports their main website. In this case, FeeFiFoto's blog is a great example of how to draw attention to one's main business without distracting from the main purpose of the blog and also not feeling constrained to keep all of the blog posts focused on the business.

FeeFiFoto's blog includes blog reviews, memes, contests, Wordless Wednesdays, and is rich in photos and graphics, which one would expect from a Foto-driven author. In fact, if there is a downside to the blog, it's that it stands on its own two feet so well that one might forget that there is an associated business that merits a visit.

Also easy to miss is the About button on the left hand side of the page. It leads to one of the most informative (considering that the author chooses to remain anonymous) and interesting About pages that includes this short bio:

FeeFiFoto is a recovering attorney with two kids, one dog, a gift site called FeeFiFoto, and very little free time on her hands.

I'm glad that FeeFiFoto chose to advertise on my widget today, else I might not have slowed down enough to give her blog a good read. Now that I've spent so time there I'll definitely be back!

Fantasy sports leagues have been around for some time now and I think I joined one for all of about 2 weeks. That doesn't stop me from appreciating the passion that surrounds this digital pastime and the real sense of competition that it can evoke. Hardly anyone who has posted in the Entrecard Forums has escaped bumping into Fantasy Baseball, so I decided to take a closer look at the site that currently is advertising on my widget.

Writers for the site are Rudy Gamble and Grey Albright and you can almost smell the pine tar as you click from page to page of detailed notes on today's major leaguers. I grew up in Los Angeles during the Koufax and Drysdale era and stopped followed baseball shortly after Fernandomania. However, wandering through this site (which is located at Razzball.com) reminds me of my youth, when I was the winning All-Star Little League pitcher for the National League, playing at Like Field on Sepulveda Blvd in West Los Angeles. Sites like Razzball exist for the boy in grown-up men who never quite left the ballpark and each year look forward to changes in the weather that herald the beginning of a new baseball season and yet one more chance for sports glory.

Yet, what makes Fantasy Baseball a valued member of the Entrecard community isn't the stats and commentary, but the playful and good-natured ribbing that permeates the Forums during game time. Whether forum or dugout, Fantasy Baseball is going to make you laugh, give you an honest opinion, and occasionally make you look to make certain your fly's not open before you step up to the plate.

Mapiles.com, Your Partner Online, is written by Joliber Mapiles, a 23 year-old blogger from Candaba, Pampanga, Philippines. Joliber is a Software Engineer by profession and also a licensed Electronics and Communication Engineer, and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, too. He loves basketball and chess, but loves internet marketing more. He also loves to problem solve, something I can easily relate to.

Reading through some of Mapiles' recent posts, I noticed that he's running a contest that easy to enter. Register in his new Forum and write something about YOUR blog. Now that's a nice twist for a contest entry! I found his content to be so interesting that I signed up for his feed by email so I wouldn't miss anything whilst card dropping.

Other than his obvious expertise with IT and the Internet, what strikes me most about Joliber is he seems to be a nice guy. He does a great job of replying to comments on his posts and appears to be doing a good job of building a loyal readership without excessive self-promotion or chest thumping. So, as long as you slowed down your card dropping long enough to read this post, take my advice and head over to Mapiles.com and say hello to Joliber, enter his contest, and subscribe to his feed. Go ahead and tell him that Kent sent you! (And that I finally got around to correcting my multiple misspellings of his first name. My bad!)