So far it feels like it is a waste of the “real estate” space on my blog. But I really would like to know if I am wasting my time. Sure it is not like I am working hard all that I had to do is to place the widget on my blog. In a way I am “doing nothing” in exchange for traffic to my blog. But if you want do nothing and get TONS of traffic to your website- you should be staffing the shells in your local supermarket.
I was really close to take the widget down few days ago and you will not believe why. (Update: I did take the widget down from all of my blogs on October 1st). Its all because of one word that pissed me off. You know what it is? SHOCKING. Yes that is the word that turns me off. Maybe it just one too many spam e-mail that I have received contained the word in the subject. One too many “shocking news” I’ve seen on TV or one too many “sales letter type of landing pages” promising to reveal me the shocking secrets of making money.
I hope you get the picture of my reaction to upcoming Shocking Changes at BlogRush. So here is my question, where are these shocking changes? “Flavors”???!!! Are you kidding me? The only reason I stayed because the of the raving reviews on all those big blogs. In fact until recently I did not know who John Resee was so his reputation or lack of it did not matter. What mattered was positive reviews by bloggers who’s blog I read daily and who’s opinion I respect.
Yes it is still early to judge. But again I am a little worried that a marketer uses word SHOCKING when launching or relaunching a product. I am not taking the widget down yet. But par of me believes Mr. Resee’s project is in the midst of a crisis.
I think it's encouraging that they have responded to the criticism levelled at the idea. I still don't believe BlogRush will send me a “massive wave of laser targeted traffic……..” blah blah.
However, on face value, it's going to stay in my sidebar even though traffic through the widget has been slow, it has sent some visitors and if it keeps doing that, I'll give it a fair chance at proving its worth.
I'm with you on the hypey (is that a word?) language, it's not needed, but it's a marketing sickness we'll never cure! I think the green widget looks good where you've placed it btw.
As I see it the bottom line is that people are more likely to visit a website than to click a link on a widget. I think by now BlogRush has collected enough data to do something with it.
I just was looking at my logs and Marks 100 list sent me over 200 visitors- mind you my blog appears “below the fold” on many screens of those who visit Mark's list.
BlogRuhs on the other hand sent me only 6 visitors- the last time I was able to check those figures.
I think the stats you guys are seeing now are the same stats your going to see in the future with blogrush unless you start referring loads of bloggers to them.
John Reese, Mike Filsaime and all of the IM Gurus are masters at hype and it looks like that's all BlogRush was, hype! I do have some respect for the two, not nearly as much as I have for people like Andy, but I do nonetheless strictly because they've become very successful online.
I haven't given BlogRush any real estate and I don't plan on it. Of course I only run one ad on my entire blog and it's for one of my products. Even that is in a very prominent spot in my sidebar. But if it's only going to bring me a hand full of viewers a day I'll fill that space with my own links.
Hey thanks for stopping by my site. As you know I am not ready to totally get rid of blogrush but within a few days if I don't my real estate is more important.
Oops, I meant to say “That is not even in a very prominent spot in my sidebar.”
I think it’s encouraging that they have responded to the criticism levelled at the idea. I still don’t believe BlogRush will send me a “massive wave of laser targeted traffic……..” blah blah.
However, on face value, it’s going to stay in my sidebar even though traffic through the widget has been slow, it has sent some visitors and if it keeps doing that, I’ll give it a fair chance at proving its worth.
I’m with you on the hypey (is that a word?) language, it’s not needed, but it’s a marketing sickness we’ll never cure! I think the green widget looks good where you’ve placed it btw.
As I see it the bottom line is that people are more likely to visit a website than to click a link on a widget. I think by now BlogRush has collected enough data to do something with it.
I just was looking at my logs and Marks 100 list sent me over 200 visitors- mind you my blog appears “below the fold” on many screens of those who visit Mark’s list.
BlogRuhs on the other hand sent me only 6 visitors- the last time I was able to check those figures.
@Josh I've no doubt of the veracity of your predictions Josh 🙂 Someone made me laugh on a post somewhere saying that the name BlogRush somehow translated in her mind to “BogBrush” (tr. toilet brush) and it remains to be seen if it (BR) will ever be as effective at doing what it was designed to do as that little implement!
Your comments about marketers are spot on, successful at what they do for sure, but somehow trying to emulate some of what they do makes you feel a little 'unclean' for want of a better word.
@Vlad Wow, I was beating your stats by four at the last count :-)~ aren't we the dogs!!
I think the stats you guys are seeing now are the same stats your going to see in the future with blogrush unless you start referring loads of bloggers to them.
John Reese, Mike Filsaime and all of the IM Gurus are masters at hype and it looks like that’s all BlogRush was, hype! I do have some respect for the two, not nearly as much as I have for people like Andy, but I do nonetheless strictly because they’ve become very successful online.
I haven’t given BlogRush any real estate and I don’t plan on it. Of course I only run one ad on my entire blog and it’s for one of my products. Even that is in a very prominent spot in my sidebar. But if it’s only going to bring me a hand full of viewers a day I’ll fill that space with my own links.
Hey thanks for stopping by my site. As you know I am not ready to totally get rid of blogrush but within a few days if I don’t my real estate is more important.
Oops, I meant to say “That is not even in a very prominent spot in my sidebar.”
blogrush promises the easy way out for getting traffic, just put the widget here and get traffic. If that's your thing, or if you want to be associated/linked to blogs that are looking for the easy traffic, keep it on ;p
@Josh I’ve no doubt of the veracity of your predictions Josh 🙂 Someone made me laugh on a post somewhere saying that the name BlogRush somehow translated in her mind to “BogBrush” (tr. toilet brush) and it remains to be seen if it (BR) will ever be as effective at doing what it was designed to do as that little implement!
Your comments about marketers are spot on, successful at what they do for sure, but somehow trying to emulate some of what they do makes you feel a little ‘unclean’ for want of a better word.
@Vlad Wow, I was beating your stats by four at the last count :-)~ aren’t we the dogs!!
I thought about taking down my BlogRush widget, but instead I just moved it down to the bottom of my page. I dont spend any time or energy promoting it so I will leave it for now, but if things dont change rapidly I will take it down.
And personally, I have not clicked on a single post on it yet, which makes me wonder how many other people click through. After seeing Jim Kukral's click through rate the other day, me thinks not many
blogrush promises the easy way out for getting traffic, just put the widget here and get traffic. If that’s your thing, or if you want to be associated/linked to blogs that are looking for the easy traffic, keep it on ;p
I thought about taking down my BlogRush widget, but instead I just moved it down to the bottom of my page. I dont spend any time or energy promoting it so I will leave it for now, but if things dont change rapidly I will take it down.
And personally, I have not clicked on a single post on it yet, which makes me wonder how many other people click through. After seeing Jim Kukral’s click through rate the other day, me thinks not many
I've gotten 10 visitors in 10 days from Blogrush. That's 0.15% of my total traffic. That's pretty low. On the other hand, the bounce rate is only 30% and the visitors spend almost 4 minutes on site.
I've moved it to the footer for now. I need to decide if a visitors a day who stays 4 minutes is worth it. That looks like a good visitor, so maybe?
I’ve gotten 10 visitors in 10 days from Blogrush. That’s 0.15% of my total traffic. That’s pretty low. On the other hand, the bounce rate is only 30% and the visitors spend almost 4 minutes on site.
I’ve moved it to the footer for now. I need to decide if a visitors a day who stays 4 minutes is worth it. That looks like a good visitor, so maybe?
I will entertain this little widget on my blog(s) until the dashboard becomes available as well. In the end though I don't really foresee this service sending my web servers into overload. No matter what new shiny nickel rolls down the pipe you just cant beat tried and true SEO to get massive traffic.
I will entertain this little widget on my blog(s) until the dashboard becomes available as well. In the end though I don’t really foresee this service sending my web servers into overload. No matter what new shiny nickel rolls down the pipe you just cant beat tried and true SEO to get massive traffic.