CornerScribe

Archive for January, 2008

John Cow has an article on why he’s dropping out of Entrecard. In short, he argues that people are gaming the system by spending lots of time dropping cards on sights, encouraging people to drop on them, and sites are seeing their Entrecard prices artificially inflated.

First, I realize that the traffic from Entrecard is likely to be of pretty low quality. I might expect to get one reader from a few hundred who visit this way. I do think, however, that Entrecard can still be a good way to attract traffic.

• I think that those gaming the system are probably looking for a quick boost in traffic and/or quick money. Over time, they’ll get tired of it and move on to the latest big thing.
• Problogger’s article on Entrecard probably is doing a lot to drive users to Entrecard. I expect many of these users will stick around a little while and then dwindle away.
• If you’re buying ads on Entrecard, then check the quality of the site before you put out a lot of credits for a 24 hours spot. At least check the page rank and the Alexa rank before going ahead.
• Don’t trade recommendations, and don’t respond to people who ask that you do so. It’s against Entrecard’s policy, and the value of a recommendation system lies in honest recommendations, not traded ones.
• Don’t spend hours dropping cards on every site available. Yes, you’ll earn credits, but you could be doing something much more beneficial to your blogging (and money-making) than that.

I’m still taking a wait and see approach to Entrecard. My traffic is up from it, but I have no idea yet how that will translate to readers and RSS subscribers. I’ll keep you up to date.

Entrecard is a relatively new way to advertise your blog. Here is a quick rundown of how it works, and how you can use it effectively.

How does Entrecard work?

1. You sign up for Entrecard and place their widget on your blog. You’ll see mine in the sidebar.
2. Almost immediately, I started to receive ad requests for the blog. Review them, and approve any that you want to allow to run. Personally, I try to keep the ads relevant to the blog content.
3. You get paid by your advertisers in Entrecard credits. Use those credits to buy your own ad campaigns on other blogs.
4. Visit blogs and drop your entrecard there to earn credits.
5. You also earn credits for each card someone drops on your site. The number of cards dropped also determines your advertising price.

Tips for getting the most from Entrecard

1. Check out advertisers who will run ads on your site before approving the ads (just in case there’s something you find offensive or inappropriate).
2. Check your Entrecard dashboard daily to respond to ad requests, check your messages, etc. I’ve had an ad requested for three days now from a blogger with no response. Do you you think I’ll ever work with her again? Probably not.
3. Use the statistics page to gauge the success of your ad campaigns and re-use blogs that did well for you. Also, experiment with your entrecard icon and text to see what works and what doesn’t.
4. Set aside time each day to visit blogs and drop your entrecard. An easy way to do this is set up a separate folder for entrecard blogs in your RSS feed. Subscribe to the feeds, and then visit the blogs from your RSS reader and drop your card daily. I’ve found this to be quicker than visiting Entrecard directly for each blog.

I’m not sure that the quality of traffic coming from Entrecard is particularly good. I’m sure that a lot of users are simply dropping cards without taking a second look at the blog content (or subscribing, etc.) However, it has raised my overall traffic, so that’s one positive.

Also, I’m hoping that by targeting blogs in my niche for advertising, I can attract readers who may be interested in my blog’s content. I see a lot of ad requests coming in for blogs completely unrelated to what Corner Scribe covers, and I just don’t see much point in running those. As I continue to try it out, I’ll let you know how it works for me.

If you’re an entrecard user, post your URL below and I’ll add you to my RSS feed.

See Problogger’s Article for more info.

Really. Yes. No kidding.

Finding an agent doesn’t have to involve searching through publications, acknowledgment pages, and a myriad other places. Here’s a site you’ll want to try, LitMatch.

First, you can search for an agent or agency. Their search feature allows you to filter by several categories like genre, fiction/non-fiction, geographical area, agent name. You can further limit your search to agents with web sites, those taking queries, and those who accept e-mail submissions.

For each agency, you’ll see information to help you decide if they’re right for you. This includes a list of other authors they represent (you can search by that as well). Users of the site report their interactions with the agency, including response times, whether rejections are personal or form, and acceptance information. Users can even enter comments for the agency.

The site also has an area to allow you to track submissions. If you have a book you’re interested in sending out, enter its information and track which agency you’ve sent it to and the response.

Overall, I think this site looks great, so if the time is right for you to approach an agent, this is definitely a great place to begin looking.

In case you missed these last year, here are some of the most popular posts on the blog. Enjoy!

Get Ready for NaNo

Two Great Market Resources

Short Story Markets

Writing Tools

What’s Holding you Back?

Novel Writing Tips

Finding a Novel Idea

Writing Helper: Lose vs Loose

 Markets: Non-fiction

Subscribe to my Feed 

You know I’m always on the lookout for the perfect writing software (alas). I just downloaded SuperNoteCard from Mindola.

I haven’t worked with it much yet, but it looks like it might be a good option, and for $29, it’s a good price as well. One thing that I see that I like is the ability to make “cards,” and move them around to reorganize the work. You can nest cards as well, and I can see that might be handy, or it might just overcomplicate matters. I haven’t decided yet.

Anyone want to recommend a piece of writing software you like?

What do you want to accomplish in the new year?

I’m not big on resolutions. I think they’re a great way to make yourself feel bad, so I avoid them. I do, from time to time, like to think about where I want to be and whether I’m on the right track to get there. This time of the year is a good time to do that.

I think a good thing to start with is to review where you are and what you’ve done well. Where are you on track?  I think we’re too quick at this time of the year to knock ourselves for what we lack, what we haven’t done. This review is a great way to look at the positive side of things.

Next, think about what you want to do now, where you want to continue to grow and what you want to do differently. Are you on track to do that? What might you do to move that along better? Take a few minutes and write down some of the things you want.

Here’s the important part… For each goal you’ve written down, write down at least one thing you can start doing right now to move you in that direction.

It doesn’t matter how much you want it, think about it, dream about it, or anything else. What matters is what you’re doing about it. You can dream all day long, but until you start to take action to move your dreams along, it’s not going to happen. So, for each thing, write down at least one thing you can do now to move yourself in the right direction.

So, here are some of my writing goals.

1. Finish the two novel rough drafts I have and get them out to publishers. I plan to spend 2-3 evenings a week working on the novels.
2. Publish at least three short stories. I have one coming up for publication this spring, so I’m not counting it. I have a short story I need to rewrite and start sending out.
3. Publish at least three free stories online. First, I need to decide if I want to use my own site or something like scribd. So, some research is in order first.
4. Continue to regularly post on this and my other blogs. I’ve already put together a posting schedule that should help me plan my posts and stay on track, if not ahead.
5. Increase my page views by 20 percent per month this year for each blog. I’m gong to work on getting more links, participating in writing groups, blog carnivals, etc. I’ll do one of these each week.
6. Increasy my RSS subscribers by 10 percent per month this year for each blog. Although my page views are currently pretty good, my subscriber numbers are terrible. My first step is to do some research on effective ways to increase RSS subscribers.

What are your writing goals, and what will you do to reach them?

Paperback Writer has a great post about Scribd. In short, it’s a site where you can post your writing and have others find it and read it. The advantage of posting it there instead of on your own site is the availability. Of course, if you’re getting tons of traffic anyway, it might not be as useful.

One thing to keep in mind… if you double-post material to scribd and your site, you’ll get a search engine penalty for duplicate content. My guess is that it’s worth the exposure you’d get, but if you’re really focusing on your search engine optimization, it’s something to keep in mind.

Daily Blog Tips has a post on using your blog to get paid writing jobs. If your blog isn’t generating the kind of money you’d like to be making from it, maybe you can use it to make a little cash elsewhere.

The Writer’s Manifesto Blog has a post listing places to freelance. I’ve used Elance in the past, with some limited success. If you’re planning on using one of these types of sites, you’ll need a portfolio of examples of your work. Elance (and others probably as well) provides a way to upload reviews from prior clients so you have a rating for prospective clients.

EMoms at Home lists a variety of ways to promote your blog.