Single Blossoms & Blogging Thoughts

Perhaps I'm feeling a bit brighter and more hopeful about things today. I chose a collection of recent bright blossoms from the gardens to light up the day, and have been digesting some thoughts and ideas.

The comments everyone left here in response to Entrecard gone haywire were really wonderful for me. I took some time thinking about them, about the whole blogging experience in general, and reading what other folks have had to say about all this. I'd like to summarize some of my initial impressions and mention some of the actions I've been spurred to take, in the wake of my experience with the EC frustration and the wasted time.

I concur with every single opinion left here (and elsewhere) that finding wonderful new blogs and blogging friends is the crux of my Entrecard experience. I decided that, just to be safe, I'm adding more blogs to my "own special list" in case I do leave Entrecard...so I'll still be able to find most of you fellow bloggers. This list isn't complete yet, in fact, it may take awhile, but it's a work in progress.

The second thought is that the whole point of this 'exercise,' commonly called EC, was to both find blogs AND to be found by new readers. To this end, I joined the EC forums and have posted some of my thoughts about their new proposal to cut down on credits as a response to the 'inflation' they claim has messed up the points system. There I pointed out how, in my opinion, their proposal to not give credit for drops upon a blog--only for dropping on other blogs--really undervalues the blogs and the blog writers and rewards the 'power droppers' primarily. It seems to me that a true measure of a blogs' value is how many folks bother to check it out! And power dropping (and not stopping or reading) and high bounce rate were exactly the things that the EC folks were railing against just a few weeks ago. I'm tempted to say "get your act together!" We'll have to see how this all shakes out and the jury's still out for me on my future with Entrecard....

But the challenge of getting a blog more exposure remains. I have put my blog into a couple of new lists and directories, have begun to use the CMF ad program. I'm investigating other ad programs and directories, and am open to hearing other ideas from any and all of you for exposing a blog to a wider audience with the hope of finding additional interested readers.

At the root of it all is my love of making & sharing photos and possibly sharing some words, ideas and opinions in a fun and maybe artful way. For me, this is all part and parcel of making objects, too, because each activity feeds the other.

So to both bribe and reward you for sharing some of your thoughts about this...here, enjoy a few fresh bright new flowers! And thank you so much....