We build affordable web sites and blogs that get results.

A few years back I read a story about successful podcasters and one of the podcasts that got a great review was Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Grammar Tips. To tell the truth I’d forgotten all about this site until recently, when I happened to stumble upon it using, as you may have already guessed, StumbleUpon.

I don’t subscribe to podcasts, but fortunately Grammar Girl’s (aka Mignon Fogarty’s) work is also available in blog format. This blog has only been in my reader a short time, but already it’s one of the favorites, because it has good, simple grammar advice.

Time spent studying the rules of grammar, rhetoric, and style is time well spent. To be sure, most writers hit the mark on these rules a large portion of the time, but I’ve found that my writing improves enormously to the extent I spend a couple of hours per week on the nuts and bolts of the craft.

But when it comes to Grammar Girl, I’m not just motivated by self-inflicted self-improvement. On the contrary, Fogarty has a way of making the subject very engaging and an easy read.

If you’re a writer working on the Internet, Bob Younce’s Writing Journey is one of the blogs you should be reading. I’m not saying this because Bob’s blog is an easy read, though don’t get me wrong, his style is fine. Bob’s blog can be a tough read because it’s loaded with the kind of advice that makes you think “You know, darn it, he’s right — that is something I should be doing a better job at doing.” For example, his article 4 Keys to Establishing Your Brand as an Internet Writer reminded me of the fact that this blog, Inklit, had yet to settle on what it wants to be when it grows up. Am I writing for would-be Internet writers, sharing my journey from a one-client-wonder to a writer who’s succeeding online? Or am I changing the title tag to Internet Writer and going for the gusto as a search engine optimized sales piece? Or am I just another ProBlogger wannabe jamoke with an AdSense account, a pink carnation and a pickup truck?

Another really great thing about Bob’s blog is that unlike many blogs, it comes with Bob!   What distinguishes Bob from most of the writers out there is that he doesn’t just write for the Internet — he actually reads it as well.  Bob was one of the first people to come by, find my blog, and engage me in a conversation, and he makes a good case for establishing such peer relationships in his 4 Keys article.

I visited Entrecard today and signed up.  Entrecard is an intriguing mix of a social network plus an advertising network.

Entrecard is a free service that combines the idea of a traditional business card with the 125 x 125 pixel ad format that is so popular on blogs today.  When you sign up, you’re asked to upload an image that size to create your ad / online business card.  (You can enter text if you don’t have an image file).   That image becomes your online ad / business card.

Once you’ve set up your account, you get some widget code that you add to your blog, and then you’re ready to visit other Entrecard members and "drop" your card off at their site using their widget, in the same way you might hand a business card to someone you meet in person.  Dropping your card off and having others drop their card off at your blog in turn earns you Entrecard credits, which you can the use to buy "ads", that is, have your card featured on another user’s site.

Eventually you’ll also be able to sell these credits if you’re not using them for cash, or to buy more credits with which to purchase ads on other user’s sites.

Money Maker or Promotional Tool?

As the authors of the site point out on their pricing page, this service "will not make you rich, no matter how good a guess you make at your pricing."  From an advertiser’s perspective, freelance writers who aren’t on the professional blogger track would probably be better off buying a precisely targeted AdSense ad or  working on blog content related to their business.

Nevertheless, I think Entrecard is a worthwhile blog promotional tool.  If your web site has space for ads, until those spots are sold profitably or pointing to your own products and services, an Entrecard widget is a good use for one spot.  It may help you identify some congenial colleagues on the one hand, and help you build your own blog’s community on the other.

Although some of the first blogs I went to were of mixed quality, after a short time I found a few good ones.   For example, I’ll review an excellent blog about improving your writing in a future post.  Several other blogs were quite entertaining but less relevant here, but the gems I did find made it worth the trip.

One concern I have about the Entrecard is that — like most social networks — the pleasure of participating hides the fact that it’s very labor intensive.  In contrast, my experience with the 101 Subscribers campaign to date has taught me not to turn up my nose at a well placed guest blogging opportunity.  I’ve almost quadrupled my visitor count in two days, largely through this guest blog post.  Social networks I’ve announced the contest to have been less helpful.

Overall, as with any blog promotional campaign or tool, Entrecard can get you started, but without good, consistent writing and a clear purpose it won’t help you much.

Related Posts:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Write This Word:  Monetize

P.S. For an amusing critique of the national 125×125 banner ad addiction, check out Garry Conn’s How Many Button Banner Ads Does It Take To Screw In a Lightbulb?

Jennifer Williamson is the proprietor of Catalyst Writing Services, and author one of the first blogs about freelance writing that I bumped into online. After a few articles, I was hooked and added her to my feed reader right away. The first thing that stood out immediately about Jennifer’s blog was the quality of the writing and thinking she put into both her posts and her comments. Jennifer’s blog is one of the few blogs that I’ve not only subscribed but have also started “reading backwards”. Her post about PLR writing inspired a later post of mine, and her writing scams article was also a treat. Jennifer’s blog also has a well maintained and current blog roll that helped me get started on my own resource section and begin learning who my betters are.

And as if that isn’t enough, Jennifer Williamson also has the distinction of being the first person to ever make bold to write a comment here on Inklit, before anyone knew that writing comments here would become a major Internet pastime.

I am starting an article series that will be dedicated to pointing out the online resources that I find most helpful when it comes to the topic of this blog, which is working as a writer online.  Because it’s an article series instead of just a collection of links, it will be a little different than a traditional Resources Directory or Blogroll.

My goal for the resources directory is to put together perhaps 101 articles (or thereabouts), that collectively will point to the best online resources on a variety of topics that relate to making money as an online writer.

If you know of resources that you feel should be included on the list, please let me know and I will consider adding them in a future article.