Dec
20
I love trying out new stuff on my blog, especially when it promises to put my posts in front of new readers, so when I heard about BlogRush, I joined the rush to sign up. It made sense, because they have a ten tier referral system, which means the earlier you sign up, the more chance you have of using it well. So I added my blog to BlogRush (despite the horridly ugly widget), stuck some code on my blog and waited for the traffic to rush in.
Trickling Traffic
It didn’t. In fact, it was more of a trickle. Of course, BlogRush experienced some growing pains. So much so, that for weeks you couldn’t get up to date stats about your traffic and referrals. At the end of that period they unveiled BlogRush version 2, and it was quite different. Lots of charts, graphs and statistics, which looked great, but couldn’t hide the fact that in spite of large circulation figures, the actual number of new readers for my blog was very low.
There’s an interesting chart that tracks the buzz of your last 12 posts, but I’m not sure how it works, because their version of buzz doesn’t match up with my Clicky, Analytics, Feedburner or AideRSS stats.
Was It Me? I Don’t Think So
Under normal circumstances, you might think that there was something wrong with my content, but that’s not the case. In fact, I have published some of my best and most commented posts during the BlogRush period. I have had unlooked for accolades from other bloggers and my feed subscribers have more than doubled, so I don’t think that it’s my blog that’s at fault.
One of the issues I have found is that in my niche - writing - the blogs cover all kinds of topics. Although Blogrush has since added sub niches, choosing the most appropriate one for my blog results in even less traffic. Perhaps that’s because few people have bothered to use the sub niches.
The Referral System
The system works something like this (I’m mathematically challenged so forgive me if it doesn’t make complete sense):
- you sign up people through direct referrals (I have 29 or so of those) and you get credits to be shown on their blog on a 1:1 ratio.
- they sign up people and you get shown on their blogs on a 1:1 ratio
- it keeps on like that down to ten levels, with the viewing ratio moving to 1:4 and then 1:8. This week I made it to level 5.
I’m sure this works well for people whose traffic numbers in the tens of thousands, but then they probably don’t need BlogRush anyway. Those of us who are trying to build up traffic for newish blogs would probably like to see a bit more action, such as the type of traffic you get from BloggingZoom. I’ve still got the widget on my blog, but I’m not sure how much longer it will be there.
What’s your experience been?
Don’t Rush To BlogRush
Promoting your posts? Building traffic? No, it’s not another post about BloggingZoom, but about BlogRush, which has not lived up to its promises.
“I added my blog to BlogRush (despite the horridly ugly widget), stuck some code on my blog and waited…
I was an early adopter of BlogRush on my sciencetext.com site, but although I was sending thousands of referrals their way, I was getting only a handful back each day. I ditched it several weeks ago.
Actually, I think all similar news widgets, like Sphere and BlogRush have very little value to one’s site other than to act as a quick and easy jumping off point for visitors.
db
I’ve gotten more traffic talking about how bad they are than I ever got from that ugly widget. I’ll probably do another “BlogRush Sucks” update soon and I’ll include your post in the list.
Blogrush with all it’s hype never appealed to me. Programs like entrecard are more successful and worth the real estate on your page.
I wrote about this a little while ago: The BlogRush is Over.
Traffic, schmaffic. BlogRush offers nothing of value to your readers, and isn’t that what drives traffic and subscribers? I almost never see anything worth clicking on in those widgets.
We wrote about it as well…
http://blogaboutyourblog.com/2007/09/25/the-blogrush-is-over/
Funny… same title lol
I’ve tried a few widgets before, and you may be right, David. I like the Blogcatalog and MyBloglog ones because it makes it easy for me to see who’s been on the site without logging into those accounts.
Frank, Michael, I think a lot of people are disappointed by how Blogrush turned out.
Jaimpanese, looks like you had great foresight in avoiding it.
yes…and I am so glad i did
Same result for me and I am also going to get rid of it. I have 20 people in my referral network, but just a trickle of visitors daily, despite my articles being “syndicated” to 1,000’s.
Frankly, I don’t pay any attention to those ugly little widgets on other folks’ sites, so how can I expect them to pay any attention to the widget that’s on mine?
Entrecard is working much better for me.
Blog Rush, the biggest deception of 2007?
I’ve posted my stats online, see for yourself. It’s ridiculous.
BlogRush never really took off actually. They got a huge amount of coverage and failed, ah sad…BlogRush is just a waste of screen estate now. Hehe, the last 3 months, I’ve only got like 20 people to my blog through BR. I finally removed it yesterday…
JHS, Bart, Ruchir. It’s gone from my blog too.
Blogrush is old news… its all about entrecard now.
Wait… so you guys are telling me I should remove the BlogRush widget from my blog. If I did that, how would I replace those 5 or 6 visitors that they send me every month?
At least I didn’t fall for Agloco…
Those 5 visitors could be vital to your future success!
Lol… replace the widget for entrecard.com ASAP! what are you doing! You are in danger
Good recommendation. I joined Entrecard today and have already had almost as much traffic as I got from BlogRush in months. By tomorrow, Entrecard will have beat BlogRush hands down. We’ll see if these visitors turn into readers or if the traffic remains, but so far, so good.
Blogrush isn’t good at all since it really did not give you any incentives to go visit the other blogs.
Entrecard was a solution to what Blogrush came in to solve.
BlogRush sucks. They banned one of my blogs for having too much advertising, yet they allow blogs like John Chow to keep the widget?
I don’t see any real traffic coming from them anyways. I know that it’s all about that attention grabbing title, and I had those, but it just didn’t cut it for me.
Removed!
good call on the entrecard, make sure to stop by and drop us your card
We are also paying 10 credits per recommendation 
Sorry david, just a few plugs for me
Havent used blogrush yet but preferably will stick to other means to get traffic as the idea of placing widgets doesnt make me feel easy with my blog… due to the loading time it takes to get the complete page up
Blogrush didn’t really do anything for my blog. I have more traffic with BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog instead. I also find that The Good Blogs is also helpful.
Blogrush while not all it was meant to be has sent me some visitors, and I reckon I’ll leave the widget on awhile longer. As for Entrecard, it seems like too much effort but I may consider it when I have more time.
The Entrecard widget loads quicker than the Blogrush one, IMO, Nadim.
I didn’t find TheGoodBlogs that great, Deaf Mom, although ironically, I get a lot more traffic from it now that it’s not on my main blog.
Glad it’s working out for you, Sire, and I know what you mean. There’s always a new widget to try, and sometimes it’s tempting just to wait and see.
I am asking the same thing about the value of BlogRush. Is BlogRush doing anything for my site? I have a small time blog and my posts get about 100-500 impression to the widget. But I only ever about 1 click if I am lucky from those impressions. Here is my post about it and I would appreciate any feedback about others experience.
http://www.husar.us/blog/archives/1461
[...] wasn’t always a cynic. I tried widgets and enthused about Blogrush, Entrecard and others. However, I didn’t find that they worked well for me so I have decided [...]