When I started this blog in October of 2007 I had no idea what the focus would be. I was excited about blogging itself, but not any one topic. Almost two years later I’m ready to change gears yet again. All I know is that you have to write about what you are interested in. If you have no passion for your topic, your writing will be bland and robotic, that’s if you can bring yourself to write at all. My passion since April has been for gardening, fantasy baseball, and Microsoft Expression Design 2, in that order.
Writing about CMF Ads as “the CMF Ads Side Dish” the past few months wasn’t very exciting to me. CMF Ads does what it does very well as a blog advertising platform, but most discussions about it take place in their forums. So outside of a few tutorials here, nobody gets all that excited reading about it. Except Ben, he’ll express outrage at the drop of a hat, or the first use of non-validating html.
For laughs I could continue to write about Entrecard. That’s a trainwreck that never stops smoldering. Sure, getting 90+ comments for an article has it’s merits. But eventually it’s beating a dead horse. I predicted long ago that June 2009 would be the end of Entrecard as we knew it. Sure enough, today (6/30/2009) the owner announced yet another sweeping change: “dropping and running” will no longer give you credit”. Unfortunately, most of the people who would have wanted this change have long gone, and those who stayed are the worst offenders. There will be people who are somewhere in the middle, or perhaps a few who would want the change, but I think it’ll just push more people away.
Pushing people away has been what EC has excelled at this year. At their peak in 2008 they had 2500 active members at any given time. By January 2009 they were down to 1300. Now that it’s June 2009 only 194 members bother logging into the forums anymore. Does any current member really want more changes that obviously haven’t been thought out? How will their one remaining mod handle all the support issues for the “no drop and run” plan? Maybe by posting “The secret algorithm has never been known to fail” and then “Please place your Entrecard blog link in your signature before you post again to avoid being banned. Thank you.” Ha, customer disservice at it’s finest. Let’s hope this is my last mention of that foul stinking beast named Entrecard until the inevitable ”Entrecard Sold” post.
That’s not to say you wont be able to learn about internet marketing from my blog. Most of what I posted in past articles still applies. The difference is that now I will be using my techniques rather than discussing them. No big secrets. Just get your blog indexed, make the ads load quickly and be seen by all. When you write about a product, link to it. No tricks required.
So stand back and get ready to hear some fascinating gardening tales. Like the time I went to the gardening center in Shelbyville. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn’t get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…Now where was I…
Anyway. At least my blog will continue to interest me, and hopefully interest my readers. One secret I learned is gardeners love to talk about their own experiences. Like the time a hail storm knocked down my corn stalks. Bet you can’t wait to hear how I got out of that jam!
I, for one, cannot wait! Bring it on Turnip.
On a slightly serious point, it’s more fun to have a positive subject to blog about. It’s easier to smile as you sit down to write it.
Can we have some pictures of your garden too… please?
Ken, I plan to provide many photos. The wife took both the digital camera and video camera with her for a trip. So I have to wait a week until she gets back. One idea I had was to have an entire page with a huge picture of the garden. Then you could click on any plant and zoom it to read about it.
John, never. That weed is not allowed in my garden. Courgettes is just a sneaky name for zucchinis. I like most vegetables, but not that one.
Just give me a moment to get my breath back. This is most certainly a major change. I am not sorry to hear that you will no longer be posting about Entrecard, that lot were getting boring, it is the rest that has taken me totally by surprise.
You are correct though, one can only blog about that which you really enjoy. No matter what you blog about, your passion for blogging will always come through. I wish you lots of luck (and fun) in this new direction you have chosen. The name ‘Turnip’ now takes on a new meaning.
Good luck with the gardening adventures Turnip. Maybe you could give me some tips on growing courgettes?
Your reasoning is why, after a few months, maybe a year, I decided to write a genealogy blog. I know the subject; I can write about it, and perhaps keep people enthralled. Maybe…On a lighter note, this year was my first try at the hanging tomato planter. It’s working great, and the organic fertilizer is making for a fine sturdy plant.
I researched the upside down planters. Turns out their yield is much less than normally grown tomatoes. However, the fun factor alone makes them worth trying. If you want to write a guest post on your topsy-turvy tomatoes for my blog, I’d be happy to post it.
my friend Kathi (who does not much like being called an ‘enviornmental activist’ grows tomatoes and corn on her back deck every summer. according to her it is so easy even brown thumbed me could do it.
Alan (never met a plant he couldn’t kill but is willing to try)
very true! if you are blogging about the topic you are not very passionate about, it will turn out to be insipid.So its better to find out what you love talking about.The entrecard comes to an end, its a sad news but am really looking for ward for your gardening tips.Having your own garden and spending time with your plants make you feel so close to the nature.These saplings are not just plant they become your babies whom you nurse and feed until they become grown.looking forward to new posts!!
Where was this new entrecard announcement made? I can’t seem to find it.
The announcement was made on the EC blog, June 30th. I find it funny how they are still lying about having to approve “hundreds of blogs” daily. Each blog that registers gets assigned a unique number. You can simply check what number they are on to see how many applications received per day. Then you count the “new blogs”. That tells you they get about 170 applications per week, and approved about 64. That means the lazy admin(s) there have to look at a whopping 25 blogs per day, not 100 as claimed. Out the 25 submitted they actually approve about 10 a day. But go ahead feel sorry for them. The lot of them seem a bit out of it.
Well maybe this new drop and run thing won’t be too bad. It may improve the quality of traffic. However, I am pretty sure they are going to mess up the ‘algorithm’ a few times.
Interesting change. I read somewhere on your site that your domain name wasn’t really clear about your website’s intent (social networking). But at a time like this (change of focus), it’s kinda convenient to have a general domain name. I have one general domain name and am thinking of changing its content/focus, too.
Jenny, Correct, ranking for the word “turnip” did nothing for social networking traffic. On the other hand, it made my site unique and the brand easily recognized. The nice thing now is those searching for “turnips”, but want gardens and not social networking, will be coming to the right place after all. I still keep my PR 4, and get most of my traffic from search engines anyway. So older articles will continue to receive their current level of traffic.
This is cool. I started a garden for my class this spring and I could use some pointers.
Good luck to you. It’s now time to write that “Entrecard sold” post.
I came here today to read your thoughts on ZipBurner. No one seems to have any thoughts since no one can find much information about the acquiring company.
I just woke up Tyson. Give me a few minutes to dig some dirt.