3rd World Blogger

Coming out of the dark
I hit my key board running
Stuck the couple of weeks past
In a land against my blogging

Land of no stress
Place that’s naturally blessed
Country side it’s called instead
Fun if you love nature enough to quit blogging and not be pressed

The pain I felt
The hurt it left
No connection to pass through
Losts words for my crew

Not sure what to write about yet
But in dire need to re-assert myself
I write this mess to some ’selfs’
Less those who understand stress
Two words “I’m back” is all I’d let rest
And pray you accept my ‘retroness’
It’s the return of the 3rd…

Alright I have plus 7000ec to give away who wants it and how is the question… would post that soon so please check back and thanks for stopping by.

As 3rd World Blogger, I consider myself a ‘certified’ Part-Time Blogger at least for now, but I love the sport. My main goal has always been to express my own view or perception on what I see, learn or do online. Today, COMMENTING on blogs came into my cross-hairs again. The conflict? Commenting on Small/Medium Blogs vs “The Big Bad Competition” and Traffic…

The Stand

A lot of bloggers today, desire to make money from their efforts online daily. Since traffic is the major determining factor however, how to generate large “quality” traffic to one’s blog becomes a major issue. Several methods are encouraged including using social networking sites like Mybloglog, Blogcatalog, Technorati or Stumbleupon. Others are getting Paid Reviews, using Adwords, Placing ads on other blogs (including Entrecard ads) and then there’s commenting on other blogs. The latter being the source of this discourse.

Being one of the cheapest means, there is always a constant search for the best way to benefit from it. What ever means you use however, there exist a question. Do you get the initially perceived, desired or hyped up traffic you expected from the blog you commented on? Do you even get the owner of the blog to visit your blog talk less of his readers? Is the response based on the “quality” of comments you leave on other blogs?

The Question

What is the best way to use commenting to generate traffic? Does the Top Commentator plugin really help (traffic wise that is…). First off, to me, commenting on another blog is a way of establishing some form of relationship. Sometimes the effort is beneficial other times it’s not. Considering the relative lack of a cost to you, I think the effort is always worth it. 

For example,  I left comments on Bloggin-Ads that brought in some traffic to 3rd World Blogger. Later on I got an invite to be part sponsor to a competition on his blog. Isn’t that cool? Well I did with 500 EC plus a 125×125 spot on my side bar to go with it. Since then, not only have I constantly received traffic from his blog, I’ve also gotten a boost in my Alexa and Technorati authority/ranking from all the backlinks in the competition. That to me is one comment too good. .

Ahkong on the other hand I left a comment on for not featuring my blog in his post about “Above Fold Entrecard Boxes“. Well I now recieve daily traffic from his blog just from that one comment (check out my Feedjit bar, you’d probably find one visitor from there). I guess people want to find for themselve if its true my Entrecard is above fold or not. Are you one of them? Is it above fold enough for you? :). So what’s my point? These two are just some great examples that led to this post. At variance is comments I left on Problogger and John Chow which I guess got shrouded in the sea of daily commenters they get. My verdict - I got less traffic and less interaction with the blogger even though it is part of their sermon to their daily faithfuls .

Bottom Line 

In my view,  commenting on small/medium blogs vs ‘the big bad competition’ enable your comment to actually get read/seen and increases the probability of the much desired click! It also requires less worry as to whether you comment is at the top of the page or bottom. In my last post I got 6 commments and two post back I got 27 -that is the highest I’ve gotten for any post. Anyone arriving at that post (Cause I tend to point at my posts) would definitely see your comment and your link. Nuff said! Is commenting on Small/Medium Blogs vs “The Big Bad Competition” better? What is your opinion?

 And while you’re at it, check out these 10 cool blogs I found Entrecard dropping/reading.

The Optimizer SEO News,  
Living in Sven’s World,   
Sue Blimely, 
Mom Reviews, 
The Asian Economist,  
Charles Hamel dot com, 
Noir le crois,  
Juha Ylitalot,  
Lightening, 
Moremerchant

Keeping to my word, just keeping to my word. Did I miss your blog? hmm well another day another Entrecard dropping/reading and I’d find you I guess or better still drop yours, and I do hope you got the picture…

Confusing title right? Well just hold on a second and I’ll explain. Most of us understand what a niche is right and how that translates to niche blogging? Now how many of us actually knew what we wanted to blog about when we started? Were you able to find a niche that best describes all your yearnings to be heard? Could you put all your ideas under just one niche. I couldn’t. I just knew I loved writing, especially poetry. So when I came upon blogging I’d found an outlet for my voice.

Then What’s the Bru-ha-ha? 

If you got into blogging through one of the big Make Money Online Blogging or some other extremely monetized blog, you’d probably derail before you even realise it. Yes our innate desire is to make some form of income in what we do but, I must confess the infomation on making money online tends to get overwhelmingly  confusing and sometimes you forget why you even started blogging in the first place “TO GET YOUR VOICE HEARD” from you keyboard. And then there’s the almighty NICHE thingy they keep talking about…what is that? Isn’t Weblogging supposed to be like diaries where you write whatever you feel like and fine if someone discovers your blog and decides to be a daily reader. I fear the deviation is very high. What do you think?

The idea for this post came to me when I read Reward Rebel’s post. It brought to my mind these questions which I’ve decided to put in my original talent if you may to see what the general understanding of niche blogging is and more. Looking forward to your answers, A lot of questions but at least answer the last one. Here goes:

What are you searching for?
When you browse the worldwideweb, or put up your picture on a social site
What’s your innate desire?
When you come online and see “you’ve got mail”
What do hope you hope you would acquire?
When you leave the comforts of your office/home/hotspot and the internet
What do you wish your ramblings online could into-transpire?

As you Blog hop daily, dropping your entrecard and acquiring all that creds
What do you hope to do with them?
When you leave a comment on another blog joining in the conversation in dread
What do you expect from your effort there?
But mostly, when you try to make a new friend online or met someone for real,
Where do you hope the encounter would lead?

What are you searching for…
From society and your need for existence?
Need to let your voice out?
Need to leave a mark?
Need to be loved or just wanted?
Need to be relevant in this multitude?
Need to to be part of something great or small?
Need for some income?
Need to be free?

Could I be of assistance?

Happy New Year everyone! Did I hear ‘belated’ nah! not with 360 days left. At the start of this new year 2008, I noticed in my blog hopping that a lot of bloggers are giving Link Love to those who dropped the most number of Entrecards on their blog. Hmm! What’s the logic?

My View (as Usual )

Well here’s my view. Dropping the highest number of Entrecards on my blog without even leaving one comment on any post or joining in my conversation to me is not beneficial to my blog growth on the long haul. Comments enable me to assess my post quality leading to improvement. Everyday I come across blogs with no comments at all to any post and I wonder if such bloggers would be happy enough to have someone drop ‘100 entrecards’ in their box instead of 100 comments. But then this is just my view. Comments to my posts here at 3rdworldblogger have improved by the day thanks to you all, giving me immense joy. In my last post, I hinted on making a list of interesting sites I find through Entrecard dropping/reading. I might be starting with one I saw that’d give you 10 Entrecard Credits for each comment you leave. Hmm…Does that prove my point? Well, this is just my way of sharing the love around. Am still working on that scheme so my hint still stands :).

Link Love My Way 

So at variance with the Entrecard Top Dropper Link Love Scheme, today am giving Link Love to those who recently visited my blog, dropped a card and contributed to my conversation. In no particular order I give you these wonderful blogging pals. I suggest you join in the relationship building scheme

1. Mike White

2. Tokio

3. Billy Grady

4. Shari Thomas

5. Telling it like it is

6. Alan

7. Mert

8. Jamaipanese

9. Ryan

10. Colin

11. Lis

12. James Wilcox

13. Xacur

14. Adamsky

15. Kexbrown

I’ve been giving a lot of link love lately, maybe I should just make a page for link love or better still my blogroll is empty… Hmm what to do? Suggestions anyone?

Most of us get regular updates/posts from blogs we have found interesting enough to subscribe to. Reading these posts enriches our minds but have come to be like daily chores we deny. I subscribe to most of “the usual suspects” or “famous big blogs” like John’s and a couple of “little ones”too, but lately I’ve found myself in conflict between blog reading via RSS vs Entrecard. 

RSS Chores or Entrecard Chores - CHOOSE ONE!

For those who don’t read blogs they drop cards on, this post might not make sense, but if you do like I do, then read on. With the advent of Entrecard, A lot of my time has come to be spent browsing the multitude of blogs on the network. Lately, I’ve come to discover that I now enjoy my daily routine of card dropping because I also get to read some very interesting posts as I go along. Posts that I probably would never have discovered based on their Alexa ranking, Google pagerank or something. The point is that a couple of days back, my friend Toks drew my attention to a post by one of my “RSS Chores” that made me realise I’d stopped reading via RSS. Why? I guess I already had too much fun reading new discoveries and dropping my card as I go along, ending up too exhausted to try.  Which now brought up the question and topic for this post - Blog reading via RSS vs Entrecard dropping/READING which is best?

Entrecard Traffic Rules!

Card dropping in Entrecard grants the dropper credits that can be used to advertise on other blogs (bringing in some traffic), while also making his card visible in the inbox where dropped (bringing in more traffic). This simple system of advertising has leveled the playing field in the blogosphere in no small measure, granting smaller blogs a lot of visibility for virtualy nothing. A feat which they would never have dreamed of before.

Bottom Line 

Entrecard dropping/READING chore in my view is much more beneficial than RSS reading chore especially for small blogs. This is supposed to be a very short post thus I’d stop here and let you digest the message. However, I think am going to make a list of interesting blogs/posts I see on my way pretty soon, even if just to prove my point.

What is your take? Blog reading via RSS as your daily chore or Entrecard dropping/READING? Note: I just might include your blog in my list