Entrecard Madness - My First 24 Hours

((You + Entrecard) * 24hrs) = Insanity - Me

Quite frankly, I don't even know where to start, so I'm just going to get out my mental "walker" and just proceed forward at a kind of wobbly, handicapped pace, thanks to Entrecard.  Others have written about the EXISTENCE of Entrecard but I've found few posts regarding one's actual moment-to-moment experience of trying to use it. 

So This Is My Gift To You

The "Drop Your Card" Avalanche

My Drop Card

You see, never mind my first DAY using Entrecard, in the first hour ALONE, I got slammed with people dropping me their "cards."  They do this because it earns them 1 credit and causes their "business card" to show up in my Entrecard Dashboard.  Even though all the traffic and attention coming so quickly can be overwhelming, it's considered a good thing because each card that is dropped at your site increases the "cost of advertising" at your site.

Dropping a card earns a credit for the dropper and the biz card shows up in the dropees dashboard as if to say, "Hi, stop on by!" and having a card dropped on your site beefs up the cost of anyone having a biz card actually SHOWN on your site (which is why potential advertisers try to get ads on newbies sites early before all the card dropping causes the cost of advertising to go up).

And We All Want That, Right?
More Credits, More Ads, More Eyeballs, Right?

But the geeks will ask, "Yeah, but is it targeted, quality traffic?"  And my answer is... who gives a #$@!?  It takes 3 minutes, at most, to set up and it gets eyeballs on your page.  It's networking, pure and simple and it works, period.  If people need to get out their slide rules and pie charts to see whether this is viable for them, then they are just totally in the wrong ballgame.  Those who REALLY know how to do all kinds of site metrics, and so on, won't be hanging around Entrecard asking such questions. 

Those who do are either sincere and need a little education or they're "emulators" trying to sound like they know what they're doing.  Next...

An Avalanche of Advert Requests

When you USUALLY join a club of like-minded people, it's pretty cool.  You can talk about your favorite fun things all day long whether it's surfing, biking, playing video games or drinking beer.  But when you join a "club" of attention seekers (aka business opportunity seekers), you're pretty much screwed if you're not prepared for what comes next. 

Just imagine that the moment you step in the door you're confronted with at least 100 overly-jubilant people wearing all kinds of eye-busting colors and patterns getting right up close in your face and shouting...

HI, HOW ARE YOU? HI, HOW ARE YOU? HI, HOW ARE YOU?

Well, It's Going to Happen at Entrecard

And as always, there's those who've left the primordial muck before you and so they're set up to chow down on your ass the moment you finally try to hurl yourself up onto the beach to join them.

For example, there's ALREADY people using 1000s of credits to hold contests or offering 100s of credits for you to jump through hoops for them or wear their mothers underwear - things like that.  And there's already talk about "gaming the system" and how to defend against it (if you or they really can).  And you're also going to get a bunch of advert requests from people who aren't even remotely related to your topic simply because the cost to advertise on a newcomers blog is dirt cheap. 

But have no fear, the cost of advertising on your site will go up as more people come up to you and scream (drop their card),

HI, HOW ARE YOU?
HI, HOW ARE YOU?
HI, HOW ARE YOU?

But, by then, you might be feeling a bit dull and woozy, as if you took the wrong anxiety medication - you won't actually mind it but you'll still know that under the thin film of glaze that surrounds your brain, something's not exactly right.

CAN YOU REALLY HANDLE IT?

I'm not saying whether YOU should or shouldn't use it.  However, I WILL give you a way to qualify yourself...

Those Of You With A.D.D. or A.D.H.D to the Left...

And Those of You With O.C.D and Mild to Severe Depression to the Right.

First, I want to remind you of an article I wrote last month titled, "Sir Samuel Freedom: Social Media's Errant Knight."  In it, and elsewhere, I mentioned fellow blogger, David Armano's, article about "social media fragmentation" in which he says,

"By now most of us wouldn't argue that the media landscape has been fragmented.  In the old days if you wanted to communicate something—you had a few choices.  A marketing campaign fueled mostly by television, magazines and newspapers.  You had all the usual PR methods and of course the press.  Digital happened—eyeballs went to the Web and now you had to add a whole new mix of tactics.  Social Media picked up steam and now you've got another set of options to take seriously."

[....]

"If we want to influence folks regarding our personal or corporate brands, we've got multiple ripples happening all at once not only in the digital space, but drilling down to the social aspect of it.  It's enough to make your head spin.  But here's the big takeaway from all of this.  Successful personal and corporate brands alike will be the ones who take a holistic view when creating, maintaining and amplifying their ripples.  This means avoiding the temptation to hyper fixate on one venue thinking it's a replacement for another." Influence Ripples + Social Media Fragmentation

In other words, and in Sam Freedom style, if you have ADD, ADHD or don't want your attention split up, yet again, think twice before joining Entrecard, or check with your doctor about doubling up on your Ritalin.  Also, as you'll see in my next article about "gaming Entrecard", you're going to end up seeing a LOT of new blogs... and I mean A LOT!  Two things can possibly result from this

1. Information Overload

2. A Sudden Realization of The Bigger Situation

And, Therefore, DEPRESSION

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, entrepreneurs, without ill intent, generally consider the downside of their products inasmuch as it helps them profit, or avoid major profit loss.  As I'd said in my aforementioned article,

Like ANY technology, the positives are stressed AD NAUSEUM by both those who KNOW they are in the ripe position to gain handsomely from it; as well as by those who are utterly naive in IMAGINING they might POSSIBLY gain handsomely from it.  So the battle lines get drawn and each begins to fall into rank as to what kind of soldier they're going to be in this new "social media" vacuum, this same old, same old war for POWER.

As you drop your card, again and again, and check out others' dropped cards, while qualifying more and more blogs seeking to advertise on yours, you're going to start seeing TONS of blogs.  Now let's get serious for a moment:  how many of you can even make it to your kitchen and back without getting side-tracked?  You know, deep inside, that cruising all these blogs in order to gain credits and more exposure is going to mess with your head, don't you?

Ideally, you'd find a couple of new blogs you like and add them to your newsreader.  But, in reality, you're going to find 300 new blogs you like while trying to NOT add them ALL to your newsreader.  And is that what you need?  Do you need another 150-200 blogs to read, or DO YOU NEED TO ESCAPE THIS RAT RACE BY ACHIEVING FINANCIAL FREEDOM?!?!

Oh Dear, I'm Starting to Sound Like A Broken Record

From Day 1, I've constantly referred to FINANCIAL FREEDOM and NOT about chasing, chasing, chasing, more and more and more of what?  the feeling of belonging?  the antidote to feeling that you might miss out on something important?  And that's all I'll say about it here.

But if you're a NEWER blogger, you're going to suddenly realize just how many other bloggers and internet marketers are competing for the same tiny, little piece of the pie you're going after and, unless you've got Florence Griffith Joyner's genes (or are a liar), you're going to end up depressed.  And if you think your life is a bit overwhelming now, just think of how it's going to be when you have 300 more blogs to read, and 300 more ads to qualify and approve, and 300 more cards to drop and 300 more excuses to make about why you didn't take out the trash...

Oh yeah, you forgot to take out the trash...

IN CONCLUSION

If you want to play around with Entrecard, go for it... because now you know what you're up against.  Now you have DISTINCTIONS and the possibility of noticing when your focus and attention are becoming more shredded and flaked than a serving of Wheetabix.  So go have fun!

If, however, you want FINANCIAL FREEDOM then calculate your monthly expenses (including emergency funds, leisure and some savings) and get back to me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go check my EntreCard Dashboard, view my last 300 Twitter messages, read my MySpace and Facebook email, write my next article on "10 Simple Ways to Squeeze the Most Out of Entrecard for Your Greater Advantage" and make a few new submissions to Mixx, Digg, StumbleUpon and Sphinn.

Cheerio!

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