Spontaneous ∂erivation

I haven’t yet decided whether I should enjoy this as schadenfreude or not. EntreCard hasn’t really ever pissed me off, but then again, I left some months ago¹ before the drama and excitement.

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1. July 18th. I wasn’t mad or upset at EntreCard. S∂ was switching focus, and I didn’t feel that an EC widget would be a great idea for a while. And as it turns out, I didn’t really need or want it anymore (and became much too busy). [↩]

Yes, the little EC widget from my blog is gone for the nonce.

This is not due to sudden EntreCard hate on my part, but a change in the direction of my blog that I have yet to really figure out. I mean, as of this writing, I haven’t been able to come up with a nicely coherent About page either.

Until I do figure it out (which always involves a lot of writing and reflection) EC will be off on my sites.

I will miss you all for a while.

Photography: maxedaperature

You’ll find my guest post on the EntreCard blog. Hope you enjoy—and leave plenty of comments over there!

Photography: Mshades

Entrecard is one of the most unusual ideas in site promotion around. A kind of free advertising, you gain credits to advertise by visiting sites and dropping your card on their Entrecard widget, as well as from other people’s drops on your own widget.

But after a while, for some the Entrecard experience becomes hollow. Some see visiting sites as a chore, while others see Entrecard as advertising that doesn’t pay them hard cash.

I used to feel that way, until I realized that there was another way to look at Entrecard. For me, that made all the difference in the world.

So here’s my Entrecard journey and five benefits I continue to reap from it—and which you can, too.

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There’s a new blogging shiny out there, called Entrecard.

Entrecard is basically a new blogging network based off the old-fashioned idea of business cards; each blog has a 125×125 “card” that they can drop off at some other target site with Entrecard. You earn credits every time you leave your business card with someone else, or someone leaves their business card with you.

If you amass enough credits, you can pay to have your card appear on someone else’s Entrecard widget on their site. The credits you pay go to them.

It’s a neat little economic system that basically generates the old-fashioned web rings in a less centralized way. When I’ve visited Entrecard sites and started clicking on all the little cards, I would see related sites (because of course that’s where people are most likely to a) drop off cards and b) accept the dropped off cards and offers of advertisement).

More information available at Problogger’s article about Entrecard.

Hopefully your Entrecard is cool-lookin’ and people won’t mind having it on their site.

I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.

This Entrecard business also inspired me to create logos for Spontaneous Derivation. I eventually used the symbol for a partial derivative (the thing that looks like backwards six, or a flipped nine).

And I replaced Blogger’s shortcut icon with my own:

Sort of a productive day, anyways.