The Blog World Expo is coming up, September 20 and 21 in Vegas. As you may or may not know, Entrecard launched at the first ever Blog World Expo last year…. I am going to give the Entrecarder’s who show up free T-Shirts (maybe we can all wear them?), and I want to take all the Entrecarders out for the best dinner in Vegas (The Wynn)….. If you’re an Entrecarder, and you’re going to be at Blog World, reply to this post as an RSVP -I’ll email you with details from there.

Entrecard Blog

Blog World Expo

I’m reviewing ths blog because it’s a GOOD blog, not because it’s Entrecard (though it is).  Despite criticisms that the blog author “doesn’t return drops” or “uses the blog to get back at Entrecarders he dislikes” (unsubstantiated), I’ve found Grahm, the blog author, to be amenable and helpful.  His articles are often the most interesting when he is rubbing elbows with computer “celebrities”; though his articles on improving blogs and blogging are also good reads, insightful, and (although idiosyncratic) at least worth considering if you wish to improve your blogging skills.  He’s knowledgeable and experienced in what he writes about, certainly.  And surely, if you are an Entrecarder, you’ll want to visit… to keep up on new advances and to give feedback.

I’ve particularly enjoyed reading about the Blog Startup Project:

The Blog Startup project is a project in which I, Graham Langdon (founder of Entrecard -for those that don’t know) walk you through the process of optimizing a blog, and an experiment to see how big a blog can get promoting it with Entrecard only.

I’ve commented on this project.  I’m not sure Graham listened to my suggestions:  He seems intent on doing this his own way.  I don’t think the study is very scientific; though, admittedly, Graham has all the tools and information he needs to conduct it.  And he has an audience:  a) Perhaps a flaw (Is the study biased toward Entrecard users?)… but b) NECESSARY for the study (He needs a certain number of visitors so he can to perform meaningful analysis on the stats he gathers).

I mention these two projects to show, in addition to what I’ve already said, that this blog is trendy.  And there are enough trends to make this Entrecard “experiment” interesting.  Note:  Graham seems to follow trends, sometimes to his detriment.  They’re glorified, sometimes added to the Entrecard routine, then just as quickly abandoned.  The Digg trend, for example (Remember that?), now appears to have lessened in favor of a Stumble trend.  And what happened to SezWho (Graham refuses to talk about it, seems)?

So, this blog is both focused and also varied… eccentric but also professional.  I find it enjoyable, if somewhat conspiratorial.  Controversial. It’s not necessarily cutting edge (it doesn’t have that many bells and whistles).  And it seems to be moving in the direction of capitalistic commercialism (too many paid ads for my taste and too many plugs for interent startup businesses). But it utilizes comments to their fullest, occasionally has original photos and images, and is well written (though is, perhaps, dumbed-down too much… a critique I have of most sites online and the way they’re geared to the “average” internet user).