If someone told me less than four months ago that I would be a blogger, I would laugh it off.
You see, at that time, I didn’t even know what a blog was all about.
But let me tell you this significant story from the start.
I work with the academe. I try my best to meet up with the ideals of the university where I am engaged in. It is a daunting and formidable task, because it requires one not only to have a mastery of the subject matter but also to be innovative enough to be able to incorporate the updates in science and technology – into one’s didactic methodology.
It was for this reason that I wanted to conduct an experimental study on how I could effectively use solely – the world wide web resources in my particular subject.
One computer expert in the University advised me to open a main “site” of my own.
“How will I do that?” (I only know the basic rudiments of the computer) I could not help but ask him.
“Just surf in the internet, and you’ll learn how.” was the curt reply.
…So there I was, hunkered down on the computer, going over pages and pages of related literature.
Then I chanced upon this:
” Blogger create your blog now — Free!”
I was curious what it was all about, so I clicked on it and followed the prompts.
I got excited when I learned that by making use of this “blog”, I would be able to write about anything under the sun and be “published” in the internet. Incidentally, I forgot to mention earlier that I love writing. In fact, I would have ended up being a journalist if my parents didn’t insist otherwise.
“There is no money in writing, ” they said. Topic closed.
I didn’t have the option but to be an obedient child.
Going back to the story – so that day, I created my very first blog.
I wrote my first post – it was entitled: “ The Value of Honesty”.
It was composed of only one paragraph. I was just curious of how it would work.
As soon as I saw the outcome, I was hooked. I started “blogging”, and within the week, I created 5 blogs (imagine that!) – each with a topic of its own.
And yes, I was able to create 2 blogs for my subject.
After several days however, I realized that my blogs did not appear in any search engine.
I had presumed that they would, because they have been created for the internet. Sadly though, people came to me asking what the URLs were as they could not find them.
So I conducted another search and found this; “Add Your URL to Google”. I got some pointers from google and painstakingly copied the meta tags, etc, to my blogs.
Would you believe me if I say that I had 15 tries before I was able to properly paste the verification code to my blogs’ HTML?
I was ready to give up then!
This computer language was all Greek to me and I didn’t know the “body tag” even if it was there in front of me.
But because of my desire to write, I persisted and learned painstakingly and slowly.
All my sites now had the verification codes in their HTML. BRAVO!
I had also started enlisting my blogs in Bloglists and other blog ranking sites.
To my dismay though, I still got little traffic.
I had a snippet of success – my blogs’ names now appear with google search but not with any other search engine.
I wanted to be read just like any blogger. I wrote because I loved to.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful to share these thoughts, ideas and facts with people around the globe – regardless of race, color or creed? I wanted to share with others my culture in this corner of the world, and learn from them too.
I had dreamed about this to happen one day.
Miracle of miracles, IT DID eventually!
And this is how it happened.
I was going over an interesting site which I had chanced upon the search engine when I noticed this small rectangular logo - ENTRECARD!
I clicked on it and it led me to another site. I discovered that the card was like an endless link to several blogs.
“Get one” the card said, so I registered and got one – more out of curiosity.
And that was the day, my real blogging days began.
I met writers who were excellent in their own genre of writing. The icing on the cake was that- my traffic and rank increased in leaps and bounds.
I could now type “The Clamor of Kalinga” in any search engine and it appears in one of the top searches, or even on top of all the search results.
I have discovered a new and exciting world.
There were varieties of blogs dealing with any topic that I could think of. Blogs that were simply amazing and incredibly informative.
I realized the fact, that to be able to maximize the benefits of entrecard. I will have to consider that entrecard is a community of people – of bloggers, and that in a community – respect for one another, understanding and cooperation – should be observed.
Presently, I try to reach the maximum drops per day, but I don’t make it as my sole target. I usually stop and comment on articles I find worth reading and there are several noteworthy and information laden posts. It is much more rewarding to learn something new and interact with people all around the globe.
I took my chances with ENTRECARD and I had succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
I laud ENTRECARD for continuously trying to improve their services. I am sure the blogging community recognizes your efforts.
Without you, blogging would never be a dynamic experience.
TO ENTRECARD , THANK YOU AND MORE POWER!
i always love posts on entrecard and you have a really good one here too. not to mention my cute pic on the side. entrecard is great. i really like them and also the great services that they are offering.
mommy, thanks also for joining surf and drop. thanks!!
always,
pinaymommy
Pinay Mommy Online
Blessings and Beyond
Mommy Earns Money Online
Pinay Mommies Community
Well, here I was , just worrying over my hit counter in my blog on the very last post I wrote, and look what you write about. Life is so genuine, thank you. Check out my last post at http://www.newdilemma.com . I will check out entrecard.
Hi pinay mommy, of course, how can I forget, the most popular mommy. OO nga, you look lovely….thanks for the visit.
Hi James,
use entrecard, it will help…and thanks for commenting. I visited your site and I can see that there are visitors in your site and you have only been blogging for 2 months. Keep at it…the visitors will increase slowly but steadily.
Good luck.
Jena Isle my dear, i don’t mind you using my EC widget at all – in fact, I feel very honoured.
Mabuhay ka!
Hi Jena,
It is such a honor and pleasure to have my EC widget included in your great post.
I have been always saying this Entrecard is not perfect just like any social site but if only all members will maximize its usage, it is very powerful and useful. The principle is very simple – visit other blogs and you will be visited.
Of course, there will always have bounce rate but the key will be always be quality content, just like your blogs have.
Thanks and more power!
Mabuhay ka Kabayan!
Angel
HotMomma, thanks for dropping by. Where is rest of Tinay’s story?
Happy blogging.
Angel, how is St. Peter? (lol). As ever, the wonderful angel of the blogosphere. Great posts you have there at your blog. Thanks for the visit.
What a great post.
I love EC too, I was a lonely blog until Bebo Author put me on to it.
Onwards and upwards, dear Jen, onwards and upwards…
Thank You, I got entrecard because of you, and thank you for lifting my spirits!
Hi Ken, yes you’re right, EC is a good community to get to know other blogs and make your blog be known as well. Thanks for dropping by.
Hi James, you’re welcome. I would like to stress my point that in order to become successful in the the EC community, one should be genuinely interested in other blogs. Dropping the maximum everyday and not bothering to read and explore will only increase your rank in the lists but not your true readership. So James, welcome and I hope that you’ll enjoy your stay here.
Well I may start droppping on you now, but remember, I came here before signing up with entrecard. I came in through blogrush. I enjoy your content. For now, you are actually in my favorites list on my browser, not on some service. (my way of saying good job)
Thanks James, your encouraging comment made my day!
Yes, start dropping now. Don’t just drop, read and interact with the authors before you proceed.
You could say hi to the entrecarders. (grins)
Good luck and keep in touch.
I added you too , to my blog roll.
Dear jena, you have wonderful writing skills. I followed with interest your adventure of blogging and I am sure, the world will see/read further success stories of you.
Thanks Ray for appreciating what I painstakingly wrote. Yes, I do hope, I can reach more people.
Happy blogging too.
I can relate to your story on so many levels!
I actually found you through entrecard, shocker, huh?
I also recently started using EC, but have not seen a huge jump in traffic yet. How long did it take to really see a difference?
Thank you!
Alyssa
I worked with a web directory. It will take a few weeks for your blog to get spidered or noticed/ listed. Some directories and web searches will only list a blog that is a few months old even. There are too many one hit wonders.
You can go to Yahoo and get your blog listed there too. Will take time to show up but the more places that link to your blog the more chance you have of being found. That’s why so many other sites try to stick you with or ask you to give links back to them.
Alyssa, you will have to be a regular dropper at least and visit blogs. Use your EC credits to advertise in other blogs too.
Use all the features provided by EC.
I have mine jumped rank after 1 week only of using EC.
Laura, yes thanks for that important info. I did all that…but I haven’t yet been able to write a site map for my blogs because the instructions are way complicated.
Perhaps in the near future.
Guys, thanks for dropping by.
Entrecard has been the greatest thing to come along for social networking. To actually get someone to come to your blog is gold. You have done a very nice post on how things evolve. Good job!
We almost started at the same time. Same experience – no friends, didn’t knew what a blog was, until I found entrecard one week after I setup my blog. Entrecard can be a good friend for bloggers like us who just started. And I always am a fan.
Wonderful insight about one of the best networking tools for blogging. I discovered your site through Entrecard, and I am happy I did.
peace,
Mike
livelife365
Carol, yes entrecard is a social comunity. You get to meet new friends with the same interests as yours. Thanks for the kind comments
Bloggista, let me visit your blog too .. Have you tried the MyBloglog? We have also several ranking sites, Like Blogtoplist…enlist your site there. it helps to maximize your exposure too.
Lifelife365, I’m happy you did too. We should help each other, as the success of one would be our eventual success too.
To the three of you, thanks for visiting…and happy blogging.
Thanks Jena for introducing me to Entrecard. It really has helped me with my blogging. My sites are gaining more readership through the power of Entrecard.
Hello Tasha, you’re welcome. Good luck with your novel. Cheers!
Hi! Thanks for pointing out to this post. I got some good input about ENTRECARD. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use this networking platform. And BTW, you really have a very cute blog. Keep it up.
Hi Nilz, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for dropping by from mylot. I do appreciate your visit. Why don’t you be an entrecarder too so I can drop on your blog. Happy blogging.