BlogRush: Hip or Hype?
It’s a bit too early to tell, but as you may have noticed, I’ve installed it in the sidebar of this site. My hope is that it turns out to be an awesome service for both readers and webmasters alike.
Here is the deal:
- You provide them the name, location, and RSS feed for you blog.
- You install the BlogRush widget on your site. Just a bit of javascript like most other widgets
- The widget displays headlines from other blogs that (supposedly) are targeted to your own blogs content
- Every time your site gets a pageview, you earn one credit
- Your own blogs headlines are displayed on other blogs with the BlogRush widget. Everytime one of your displays is posted, it costs you a credit
- There is also a ten-level affiliate program, which allows you to earn credits from people you refer to BlogRush
Is it going to work? I hope so, it sounds like a cool idea to me. The question really is, are people really going to click the headlines in that widget in any great numbers? Kevin points out over at BloggingTips, that he feels BlogRush was rushed. The FAQ section is incomplete, the reporting is unfinished, and some of the touted features aren’t implimented yet, such as using your earned credits to promote other blogs. I am going to remain optimistic and give it a few weeks as a test to see if people like it and if it gets and traffic.
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1
I’m still undecided on this one. I’ve been having a look at the sorts of headlines that tend to come up. It does seem well contextualised if you’re in the right category at least.
Comment by Michael from Pro Blog Design — September 16, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
2
I’m seriously undecided as well. I’ve been seeing a ton of the same articles, at least on this site. It didn’t give me a good feeling when I installed it. There was this little button to press once you have installed it on your site, which presumably went and checked your site to see if it was there. I got a little red warning saying “Please install widget on your webpage.” I already had, and it was showing up fine, so that was a bit concerning.
I think, just to be fair, I’m going to give it a few weeks and see if it does anything. It is free after all.
Comment by admin — September 16, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
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Just FYI, I found your site via a link in the blog rush widget on my site….
- http://www.JoeLevi.com
Comment by Joe Levi — September 19, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
4
Very interesting. I was looking for some hard proof that my articles were actually showing up in other peoples widgets. Thanks!
Comment by Chris Coyier — September 19, 2007 @ 6:53 pm