I’ve never been too big on blogging. I know, I know… everybody’s doing it and it’s sooooo “Web 2.0″, right?
Well for me, it’s always been sort of a secondary tool I use to draw traffic to my main site, and it was usually at the bottom of my “to-do” list.
But in the past two months, I’ve noticed a spike in my blog traffic and AdSense revenue. And those two things… traffic and money always get my attention.
.
Not to mention, I finally signed up with FeedBurner.com and discovered I had more than 400 subscribers to my blog.
So I decided to put a little more energy and time into blogging, especially now that I know many people have taken the time to subscribe (thanks!).
In the meantime, I stumbled upon this traffic-generating program for your blog called BlogRush. Like many of these referral network “thingies”, I usually approach with caution and expect the least. But since it’s free, I figured why not.
Here’s how it works…
BlogRush operates on a pyramid-style, multi-level structure. You sign up for a free account, submit your blog to the network and place a widget on your site that displays other blogs from other members.
Without getting too deep into the details (you can get them at BlogRush anyway), you earn display credits every time your blog loads.
The more times your blog loads, the more times your blog is displayed throughout the network. You also earn display credits for your blog when you refer others to the network.
So just like any other multi-level traffic system, the people with high amounts of traffic, benefit the most because their traffic earns them more credits, which results in more blog displays throughout the network.
One flaw with BlogRush (and this happens with most programs that operate in this manner) is people have already figured out ways to cheat the system by using random user agents to spoof impressions.
In English, that just means they can generate more credits for their blog by using a script to trick BlogRush into thinking their blog has been displayed so they can earn more display credits for their own blog.
John Reese, the creator, says he is fully aware of these practices and is doing everything he can to remove “cheaters” from the network and keep the system clean.
Another issue I noticed with BlogRush is relevancy. When you join, you tell BlogRush what category your blog is in. This is to ensure your blog is displayed on the most relevant blogs and vice versa.
But when I check the widget on my site, often times I see blogs that are quite irrelevant to my content. And of course this means my blog is being displayed in the same manner.
Although I will say, things have improved tremendously since you can now choose a sub-category for your blog profile.
So what’s the verdict? Can BlogRush deliver a flood of traffic like they advertise?
For most bloggers, due to their lower traffic levels, probably not. A “flood” may be overexaggerating a bit. But I do think you can generate some decent traffic.
And with time and some more fine-tuning (removing cheaters from the network and better targeting), this could be a very worthwhile program down the road.
I have been generating some traffic through BlogRush, and even though it’s not a lot, it’s enough to let the BlogRush widget maintain a slice of real estate on my blog.
And while there is much room for improvement, I like what I’ve seen so far. John seems very committed to the success of the program and has already improved many features, stats, etc.
So in the meantime, I’m sticking with them.
You can sign up with BlogRush here.
If you enjoyed this post, please Stumble it!. Feel free to leave a comment. Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive future updates at your favorite feed reader.
Follow this blog on Twitter.
Learn how to install WordPress on a Windows platform to test a new theme. Click for instructions.
One Response
January 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I’m new to the feedburner thing.. not sure why..but I think I added your blog the right way. Lots of useful content so I hope I got it right!
Leave a reply