Is BlogRush Worth It?
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What is BlogRush?
BlogRush is a traffic exchange program for blogs. How it works is: you place a code on your blog. The code shows links to 5 posts from other blogs on your page. In exchange, your post link is shown on other blogs that have installed the BlogRush widget code.
How Much Traffic Will BlogRush generate?
Disclosure: Very few of you know this. BlogClout was working on a service very similar to BlogRush.A (Seriously. Check out the old BlogClout index page.A Whats freaky is, I’d selected the same colour code as BlogRush has!)
But I put a hold to the idea because testing showed that a link would be clicked only once or twice for every 1000 impressions.A So I’ve been spending time in improving the relevancy of the links exchanged.A So that the links exchanged are relevant to the post on the page.
But while I was doing that, John Reese beat me to the punch and came up with BlogRush.
I’m no longer sure if I’ll release the BlogClout widget.A Anyways, I doubt if BlogRush will generate a lot of traffic to your blog either.A It should bring in about 1-2 people to your blog for every 1000 times the BlogRush widget is shown on your blog.
I’ll be testing the BlogRush widget on this blog for a couple of weeks and report back if it works better than that.
Verdict: The idea behind BlogRush is sound.A You may want to test it out.A But without relevancy, it won’t do well in the long turn.A John Reese needs to add relevancy filters to his widget.A And pull posts based on the title of the page where the widget is placed on.A Only then will the click through rate go up.A And only then will BlogRush members receive more traffic.
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After using BlogRush for a few days on my blog, I had only gotten one measly click through from the BlogRush widget. I finally decided to get rid of BlogRush since it didn’t seem to be giving me very much traffic.
Posted 24 Sep 2007 #
Jared: Thanks. I think thats going to be the standard response for most people. BlogRush needs to improve its relevancy. And allow people to merge the widget with their theme. Anything that stands out will be ignored in the long run.
Posted 24 Sep 2007 #
I noticed an article somewhere on a blog that they increased their traffic through BlogRush using an attractive headline. And they didn’t even have BlogRush installed. I had some trouble installing mine but will try again to see how it goes. Cuz if it shows a post 1 million times on the blogrush, that should theorectically translate into at least 10000 visits???
Glad to see ya back Ankesh. Where ya been?
Posted 25 Sep 2007 #
Mark: Thanks. BlogRush has an affiliate program. So even if you don’t have the widget installed on your blog, but you refer others to sign up for it, your posts will be shown because of your referrals. But you’ll need a lot of referrals to reach the theoretical 1 million mark.
Just like in network marketing, the top 1-2% are going to make it big because of referrals using BlogRush too. But for most people, its not worth it promoting BlogRush too hard. Unless you already have a big loyal readership.
But sure, test the widget out and see how well it works for yourself.
(I’ve been busy taking care of a few other projects that were going nowhere this past week. So couldn’t post a lot over here. Thanks for wondering Mark :))
Posted 25 Sep 2007 #
[…] was skeptical, but even if I was gung-ho I’d probably wait awhile to see how well it’s working for […]
Posted 26 Sep 2007 #
I don’t believe BlogRush brings any traffic of worth without a piece of relevancy in it.
But more bad is the risk that you get some unwanted content on your site via that widget. I don’t wanna be the gate for any slippery or insulting blog.
Posted 27 Sep 2007 #
Rainer: Thanks. BlogRush did introduce filters. You can ban sites from being shown on your widget. Obviously you can’t control all the websites that are shown. But I don’t think 100% control policy on your blog is worth it. That way, you’ll have to moderate all your comments and link backs. And you won’t be able to place 3rd party ads (Eg: Google Adsense) on your blog. You’ll be spending a lot more time on moderation then it’s worth it.
Posted 28 Sep 2007 #
I recently developed a free wordpress plugin called “BlogRush Click Maximizer”. By using it you can vastly improve your Click Through Rate.
This allows you to control what you want to display in BlogRush. You can even write alternate - short and catchy title just for BlogRush.
You will have total control of what appears over the BlogRush Network.
Check it out here:
http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/bcm/
Posted 15 Oct 2007 #
you’re right, i get little click-thru’s from blogrush.
Nirav.
Posted 18 Jan 2008 #
I submited my blog today!
Not sure whthr they’ll accept my blog!
Posted 14 Mar 2008 #
I tried this thing on a wide variety of blogs. Complete waste of time. I have now removed them. I have about 7,000,000,000,000 credits stored up if any one wants to buy them lol
Posted 24 May 2008 #