There Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere

You may have noticed my new "Featured Site" widget to the right. These are served up by a new blog network called Entrecard that I joined a few days ago.

Essentially, Entrecard encourages you to visit sites in the network by rewarding you for dropping your card into the widget on member sites. You can then use these reward credits to advertise and have your card appear in the widget that appears on other sites in the network.

I tend to join networks like this hoping to find new blogs to add to my reader, and on the off chance that I might even attract a new reader or two. I have found a couple of my favorite blogs through blogcatalog or mybloglog so it tends to be worth a bit of time to set things up.

My experience with Entrecard has been interesting. Particularly noteworthy to me is just how amazingly uninteresting and blatantly monetized most of the blogs are. I visit blog after blog of pay per posts and articles on how get page rank, trade links, etc...

I've written about the "blogging about blogging" trend before but I am just amazed when I see so many instances of it presented to me in one place. Of the couple of hundred blogs I've looked it, I have found only a couple that seem to be written for the purpose of entertaining or informing readers or personal enjoyment of the author.

The process is actually very reminiscent of the story about the young girl who happens upon a pile of horse manure and jumps in, digging through it excitedly. When questioned about her actions, she answers "There must be a pony in here somewhere!"

So I guess that is how I view a blog network like Entrecard. Collectively, the sites that make it up are like a big pile of horse manure, yet I dig through it because, well, ...there must be a pony in there somewhere.

And so here they are - a couple of ponies I have found while browsing through Entrecard (and if you haven't been following along, ponies = good)

Gorilla Sushi - A humor blog that is actually funny. I love the caption contests.

About Every Little Thing - I've been a subscriber to Lis's blog for a while now, and it was actually her post about Entrecard that got me involved. This is one of my favorite blogs, and when MyThermos grows up it wants to be just like it (it isn't nearly as good an artist though)

Temerity Jane: I'm still a bit confused about who actually writes this as it appears to be multi-author - either that or Mr. TJ is asking for advice as to which dress to wear to the holiday party. In any case, it's well written and seemingly paid post and advertising free. And a fellow NaBloPoMo success story as well.

Slightly Mordant - Mordant as in sharply caustic or sarcastic, as wit or a speaker. Fits the bill - a good read.

The Big Bald Blog - While it is affiliated with a marketing company, it's more of an observational blog that occasionally discusses business related topics in a personal, conversational style.

artconstellation - A heartbreaking story, but also an inspiring one full of triumph and overcoming the worst that life can be. I was in tears multiple times - sadness and anger, but also joy as she recounts her healing and time with her S. A brutally honest blog with beautiful writing and amazing artwork.

I'm sure there's more - I'll pass along another round as I find them.

So that's Entrecard. It's not really a review, and it's certainly not a contest. You don't have to write about anything on your blog and link back to me (you can if you want I guess) If you do decide to give it a shot and sign up, give me a shout and let me know what you think in the comments. And let me know if you find ponies of your own amidst the manure.

Oh - and I approved some widgets that are a bit more "ad-like" than I normally would like because of my newness to the system. I don't want to cancel them now as that seems a lot like welching, but I'll be keeping them much more on content from now on once these pass.

SB