Recently I posted about BlogRush and how it can provide you traffic. What came to my mind yesterday when I was doing some exercises in traffic/link exchanges was it really does not work, especially for the little guys. BlogRush benefits the bigger guys because they get tons of impressions a day. This means this over takes small websites and blogs.
How did I come to this conclusion? I was looking at some websites about BlogRush and saw a similarity - the same websites are being shown every time, with different topics. How is that so? BlogRush works on impressions, depending how many impressions your page is viewed is how many times a topic from your feed will be shown. BlogRush uses this example: 100 impressions = 100 views, which do not mean 100 clicks.
If a person signs up from your widget and they receive 100 impressions that is an additional 100 views to your current 100. So this makes sense for the BIG guys, because they get over 50,000 impressions a day - if someone signs up under their referral or widget, which is an additional views for the big guys.
Since I noticed a repeated amount of blogs is being show on other blogs I thought hmmm - what is my view count for the day? (I have yet to wait to see some stats, BlogRush states they are under construction) BAH! How many times will this blog be shown across the blogosphere? The widget only shows 5 links and rotates on every impression, providing view counts for the users that sign up. Let's dissect this widget and its algorithm.
At a Beginners Glance
Let us take a small blog and work with BlogRush. A blog at blogspot has a daily impression of 100, so his feed links or posts will be posted on a widget among the blogosphere 100 times. Now let us say 1/3 of his visitors signed up under his widget. 33 readers signed up and get about 100 impressions each, that is an additional 3300 views on top of the current 100 the blogspot is receiving, a total of 3400 views among the blogosphere that has the blogrush widget. Not bad at all! This is a great service!
At an Experts Glance
A popular blog gets about 50000 page impressions a day lets say. That is 50000 views across the blogosphere. Now here is where it benefits the big guys. They post about BlogRush on their blog and let us say 1/3 of their visitors sign up, 16666. Each of those blogs get at least 500 impressions, 500 * 16666 = 8333000 views on top of his current 50000 impressions, which means the popular blog's feed posts are being displayed 8383000 times among the blogosphere! This easily overtakes any beginners' blog and this is just the first tier! Imagine if those 16000+ blogs sign up more blogs. This is a great service!
I noticed the same blogs were being posted among other blogs as well as my own. So I started thinking does this really help the little guys? If impressions = views, then the big guys and the guys who first signed up are benefited. This alone is just the non tier, if popular blogs sign up more blogs under them imagine their views among the blogosphere!
I have searched the blogosphere for negatives and found some input from others. There are even arguments about this little widget; it caused chaos since it did spread like wildfire!
BloggingTips has some Cons about BlogRush:
- The FAQ page needs updating
- The reports section needs updating
- They mention in their video that you can build impressions from one blog and use them to promote another. This is a fantastic idea as it means that you can build impressions from your established blog and use it to build up your new one. Unfortunately, there is currently no option to actually do this in the control panel.
- Whilst you can block out certain websites and keywords from your headline feed however you cannot choose a keyword to display only certain types of blogs on your widget. This is a big problem in my opinion because the categories are so vague. For example, if you had a poker blog you would have to choose between entertainment or Sports. This is not a very good topic match in my opinion.
Blogging Expirement has a great Math Equation:
To continue my explanation I’m going to use a math equation but just stick with me and it will simple, I promise. If I were John’s only referral, he’d be earning credits for the amount of traffic his blog generated (J), as well as my blog (M) and all my referrals’ sites (R) for a total of J+M+R. My total would obviously be M+R and last but not least my referrals total would simply be R. While other programs (such as Yuwie which I reviewed last week) run on this type of model, in BlogRush’s program, my content is competing with John’s for space.
In the end this is not a great source for traffic, especially for smaller blogs; even if you publish this on the internet and mail it to your list, what are the chances of overtaking a popular blog? The big bloggers are the ones to benefit from this great little system.
A big argument rose up on a Google issue about this little widget. Mark from 45n5 has a big argument within his comments section about violating the TOS of Google. Is this system really a traffic exchange program is the main argument at Mark's blog. This does not pertain to me since I have been banned from Google Adsense, or disabled as they call it.
This bothered me a lot since I was hopeful of getting some traffic from this little widget.
BUT, ShoeMoney is giving back, even though this will benefit him in the long run - but at least he is caring for other bloggers. He will rotate your BlogRush widget on his blog, sharing his impressions with others!
This should be fun. I can kill 3 birds with 1 stone.
1) I can help my readers get more exposure
2) Help my friend launch his blog rush widget
3) Get more referrals for myself! (not quite sure the value of this yet)
Besides all the cool kids are doing it.
This is great for the little guys but more beneficial for Shoe, too bad I did not sign up under him or anyone matter of fact. Now if this continues tier after tier - the big guys are benefiting a lot. If you did not see the video I suggest watching the video at BlogRush, and have a better understanding of their tier system.
In any case this raises the question does this really help a beginner's blog or does this just benefits the top bloggers of the blogosphere? BlogRush is meant to help everyone but is it really?
