Love Thy Entrecard Neighbor Blog Meme - A Powerful Use of the All Cards Page

If you've been using Entrecard for a little while, you might already know that Graham and Phirate created a big huge "All Cards Page" which is like a big Entrecard Mosaic that has the icon pics of something like the first 1300 Entrecard users.  And yes, each is clickable and links directly to each Entrecard user's personal website.  That is to say, it does not link to their Entrecard info page but actually gives a real bonafide link to actual sites.

Well, my first thought was,

"Well, That's Nice, But Aside From Being Nice, of What Real Benefit Is It?"

I reasoned, and properly so, that it was unlikely anyone busy building their business was going to sit there scanning over 1000s of Entrecard icons trying to determine which would be a good one to click.

So, I Almost Did The Unthinkable...

I ALMOST wrote the Entrecard "All Cards" Page off just as some early Entrecard users hastily wrote off Entrecard traffic as "junk traffic."  They were wrong, and I was almost wrong.   In fact, my admonition to such people had been, "don't blame the traffic, blame the marketer, or blame the blog owner."  After all, it's up to the BLOGGER to learn how to make the most out of ANY traffic.  Well, similarly, it's up to the Entrecard user to find a way to make the most out of the All Cards Page, as well.

So I Racked My Brains for A Way...
And, Naturally, Found One...!

LOVE THY ENTRECARD NEIGHBOR!

Even though Christmas Day, 2007, will soon be behind us, how relevant is it that we should be asked on Christmas Day, to LOVE THY ENTRECARD NEIGHBOR? 

The Concept Is Simple And Crystal Clear. 

1.  Read these instructions twice then copy them for your article.
2.  Go to the Entrecard ALL CARDS page.
3.  Find your card and open the pages of all the card owners around your card.  For example:

4.  Visit their site.  Drop your card, and find at least one positive thing say about them (or their site).  Here are mine:

Atomic Popcorn - Two words:  BLOWN.  AWAY.  I was blown away by the awesomeness of this person's movie reviews.  I'm not kidding.  How it is only a 200k Alexa ranking, I will never know.  But I suspect it won't remain there for long.  This site is going to do nothing but grow, grow and grow.  And I was particularly impressed with the review of "Sweeney Todd".

Learning About Natural Healing - We all hear about things like acupuncture, "feng shui" and "qi gong" but what do we really know about them?  And how much of what the people we meet tell us do we really comprehend?  Well, this is a brand new blog by a person who is going to share their experience while taking a master's program in acupuncture and Eastern medicine... could be very enlightening!  And a great public service, too.

Letters to Business - A hilarious site of rants written to businesses.  Whether they were really sent or not, I don't know, but most people can expect the much needed "belly laugh" for which their inner, disgruntled, postal worker has been impatiently waiting.  While it doesn't appear to be updated frequently, don't worry, the laughs you get should last a month or two each.

Widgets Lab - How freakin' cool!  A blog that's chock-full of information about all the cool, new amazing widgets that come out faster than the chocolate candy conveyor belt on the "I Love Lucy" show.

Contestime - I just keep getting amazed at who my "Entrecard Neighbors" are on the "All Cards" page!  This site lists various contests going on.  Already it's listed 5 different Entrecard contests.  If you want to learn of more, or get yours listed, this is the place to be!

Merritr.com Blog - Ok, I think I'm in love.  Alright, not really, I've way more self-discipline than that but it turns out that one my Entrecard "All Cards" Page neighbors is a hot 26yr old female mechanical engineer, car enthusiast who also trains with the US Masters swim team (plus one of her former high school classmates married Google's Larry Page).  Ok, so tell me... how else would I have found this unique and interesting person if I didn't check out my neighbors on the Entrecard Users "All Cards" page?

Scarty.Com - "My daily life experiences" are what she says and are exactly what I got.  Normally, I don't have the attention it takes to read personal blogs of this nature BUT I was pleasantly surprised.  I'm not sure if it was the bubbly female perspective, the creative touch and the overall positive, fun nature of each of the entries but the total impression I got is, "this is a GOOD soul!"...just really simple, down-to-earth and nice.

There should be 8 total but, in my case, one is a blatant ad blog with only one entry - an ad.

5.  Include a link to the original, "Sam Freedom's LOVE THY ENTRECARD NEIGHBOR Blog Meme"
6.  If you tag your posts, include "entrecard", and "entrecard meme" tags, so others can find us and we can find them all (if you don't understand tagging right now, don't worry). 
7.  Post your article.
8.  Revisit your neighbors and leave them a comment with a link, and an invitation, to your "Love Thy Entrecard Neighbor" blog meme article, letting them know that it names them (ideally, they will participate and you will get a link back).  You can also notify them by clicking the "E" on their Entrecard widget and leaving them a message at Entrecard.
9.  Go thank Graham and Phirate right now! 
10. Enjoy the new traffic, new links, new relationships, new friends and new opportunities!

All Because You Loved Thy Entrecard Neighbor As You Would Love Thine Self! ;-)

GO SEE WHO YOUR ENTRECARD NEIGHBORS ARE NOW!

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The First Ever Controversy Blog Meme - Stealthy Tips on Steroids

Hey, Look!  It's the Scoble Starfish!  What's IT Doing Here?

Those who know me understand that I could not just come up with an ordinary blog meme.  But I first wanted check if there were any cool, new super factoids I should know about starting a meme so I Googled for "How to Start a Meme" and found Dane Morgan astonished that Google had very little in the way to report on that query.  Maybe it's because there ain't nuthin to it? ;-)

So in starting my first blog meme, my list of criteria looked something like this:

1. It must fit in with the "controversy" theme.
2. It has to take bloggers down "the road less traveled (no ordinary controversies).
3. It has to have MASSIVE teaching potential; and
4. It has to be FUN.

We mustn't forget FUN....!  So listen, watch and learn...!

Sam Freedom's Controversy Meme

The rules are very simple:

1. Blog about THREE to FIVE (3-5) secret or cool ways you know how to obtain something valuable outside the established order.  These will be some of the unexpected, ways of getting needs met whether for your blogs, or for life, in general (you'll see my examples in a moment).
2. Begin by including 1 link to this post with a mention of it as the origin of the Controversy Meme; and 1 link pointing to, and naming, the person who tagged you.
3. End by linking to, and notifying, 5 other bloggers you admire or think would enjoy sharing their homegrown wisdom;
4. Use the Technorati Tag for Controversy Meme.  Since these are going to be real secrets, tips and tricks, each person's contribution will be more than mere likes and dislikes but will actually have some significant value.  Using the Technorati Tag for "Controversy Meme" will make them all accessible from one place (feel free to use other tags, too, such as "blog memes" or "memes").

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/controversy+meme">Controversy Meme</a>
Code for the Technorati Tag if You Need It

Please Note:  It doesn't have to be a TRUE secret.  The point is to possibly help others and create an overall feeling of goodwill.

Let the Controversy Meme Begin!

1. Free MP3 - Oh yea, sure.  Just download a copy of Limewire or eMule or get all tangled up in iTunes like everybody else, right?  Wrong.  It's much simpler than that.  It's called Project Playlist:

   
   So you enter in some magic keywords, and...

   
   What's that at the very bottom?  Oh, a link to the MP3...

   In short, any song you find through Project Playlist also comes with the link to its location.  All anyone would have to do, theoretically, is create a hyperlink to it and then right click and choose "Save As" or "Save Target As..." and Voila! - A free MP3.  Now remember, music is copyrighted and downloading free music is wrong and can get you in trouble.

   YouTube Video Demonstration
    

2. Index Page Treasure Hunt - The previous tip leads to music.  This little secret allows you greater control of your search and, therefore, a much tighter focus over a far wider range of results.  It's a tiny bit involved but easy once you know it so it's best left to a video which is worth a 1000 pictures which is worth a 1000 words.  So here's your "million words" on how to find free mp3, mp4, pdf and whatever else your greedy little fingers desire:

    

3. Hard-to-Find Ready-Made Autoplay Music for Any Site - Now, I'm not saying anyone should actually DO this or that even I do it but if you embed a video from any video site, set it to autoplay, and then resize the height and width down to 1 pixel, you've got yourself some instant background music without any video distracting from your written message.  Now if that's against a video site's TOS then I suggest you don't do it.

 
4. The Forum-within-a-Forum - Actually, this is very powerful and requires a bit of explaining so I'll put it one of my next blogs.  It takes all of a big 10 minutes to set up.  Here's a picture of some results after a day or two from just a quick 10 minute free technique:

Controversy Meme Suggestions:  You don't have to have elaborate pictures and headings, you can just list 3-5 ways of getting something accomplished uniquely, or secretly, or at a cool advantage over the established ways.  It can even be something like, "Buying a new mouse and returning your old worn-out mouse for an exchange so that you have a new mouse and a new mouse backup."  Just make it slick and, hopefully, an embarrassment to your friends and family.  And remember to tag it with the "controversy meme" tag in the textbox up above.

I Tag the Following Bloggers

1. Dane Morgan - There's marketer/bloggers and there's blogger/marketers and Dane's about as close to being balanced between the two as anyone you'll ever meet.  Plus, the guy ALWAYS has some clever little traffic-generating techniques up his sleeve such as showing up first in Google for "How to Start a Meme."  Not to mention, if Dane didn't hate me after our very first meeting several years ago on HowtoCorp forum, there's a pretty good chance he'll never hate me.  So I tag Dane first.

2. Andy Beard - To me, Andy is an uber-blogger.  The fact that he'd probably deny it would be just another example that would help make my case.  Andy is highly respected by 452,368,721,429.553 bloggers and being comfortably able to fit, and endure, my shenanigans into his overall view of the world has earned him my respect, as well.  And besides, I think he secretly longs to be a wild man like me so this will be a good exercise as a warm-up.

3. Tellin It Like It Is (Lin) - Didn't even know her before now.  In fact, as I'm writing this, she hasn't even yet seen my introductory comment on her blog.  I picked her out of respect for the power of social media.  I did not even know her until I saw her comment in the sidebar at Dane Morgan's profile on BlogCatalog.  After going to her blog, I found it not only to be VERY good and informative but also sporting it's own Interactive Experiment, a Technorati Favorites Exchange which she attributed to DoshDosh... which I also read about on Andy Beard's blog.  The connections are maddening! ;-) 

   Here, take 2 seconds to please Technorati Fave us both (Fave Lin - Fave Sam).  Thank you. 

   Make sure to leave us both your Technorati Fave links in our respective comment sections and we'll support you with a Technorati Fave right back!

4. Brad Fallon (click "Learn More" to see a video of Brad in action) - Until Brad sent out a little down-to-earth note sheepishly admitting how much he liked Twitter, I saw him as just another of the big-name internet marketers who just happened to make the right connections at the right time and got a jump on the subsequent waves of wanna-be marketers coming down the pipeline.  After all, I had spent most of my life on the inside of my family's business that just sold 1 of its divisions for $10m so his earnings weren't what impressed me.  But along with his intro to Twitter was his good-natured SEO battle with Mike Filsaime for the term, "The Coolest Guy on the planet."  Now THAT was fun.  And THAT was something into which I could gladly sink my teeth.  I figured, amongst other things, that THAT was a chance to introduce myself to him without having to grovel and chase him around at a $3,000  per person internet marketing sales pitch.

And lo and behold...


Yeah, But Only Google Matters When It Comes to Contests, Right?


Ok, Ya Happy Now?

Anyways, I'm gonna Twitter Brad Fallon and see if he's able to come out and play today.

5. Robert Scoble - There's too many reasons why I chose this guy.  For many in the blogging community, it'll be difficult to believe that not only had I not heard about him until several days ago but that I'm calling him out on the first ever Controversy Meme and actually expecting that he'll respond.  Why not?  If you only knew what I really do on the other side of this piece of glass, you'd know that I honestly believe anything's possible  Seriously, if you don't dare, you don't succeed but, anyways, here are my reasons why I chose Robert Scoble.

a. Robert Scoble probably has more Google Alerts set up than there are sticky notes throughout the Pentagon combined.  So I'm sure he'll find his way here.
b. Paying respects to the power of social media, yet again, I embarked upon "The Great Adventure" by clicking Justin Kownacki's icon on my MyBlogLog widget and ended up at his Cafe Witness.  True to his blog's title, he was commenting that he'd witnessed a conversation on, of all places, Twitter, between Eric Rice and Robert Scoble.


It's that darned Scoble Starfish, again...!

Robert found his way to Justin's blog and chimed in which lead me to Robert's blog.  There was one, in particular, where I read...

"I tell ya, the more I understand 'the new blogging world' the more I want to create a fake identity and just make stuff up about people. But, instead, I’m going to crawl back into my little walled garden."

Did you hear that?  He said, "....a fake identity and just make stuff up about people."  Anyone?  Did anyone hear him say "Sam Freedom"?  Yes, that's it.  While so much of the blogging community feels they need a little more Scoble in their lives, Scoble unwittingly expressed his need for a little more Sam Freedom in his life. 

And if you only knew what I did on the other side of this piece of glass, you'd know that I honestly believe anything's possible.
d. Robert is a product of the social media craze.  He's a grassroots kinda guy.  And a Stealthy Tip sharing Controversy Meme is about as grassroots as it gets.

Alright, have I linked to enough people yet?  Anyone who has some stealthy tips to share about ANYTHING at all, feel free to share your stealthy/controversial tips in this meme and include the link to your blog (and yourTechnorati Fave if ya got one) in the comments section.

robert scoble scobleizer andy beard brad fallon dane morgan justin kownacki scoble starfish social media tellinitlikeitis eric rice social media sam freedom controversy meme memes blog meme blog memes freeiq twitter blogging fun blogs internet marketing technorati technorati faves technorati favorites project playlist free mp3 hacks black hat controversy the coolest guy on the planet mybloglog blogcatalog

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