I just returned from a quick vacation in Wisconsin. I thought I’d do a quick check on my blog to see whether Blogrush had generated a “Rush” of traffic while I was gone. Diagnosis: Nope. It has not generated a rush of traffic!
I’ll admit my check was cursory: All I did was check my Sitemeter stats to see whether or not there were any hits from blog rush and then check my BlogRush Stats. Site meter shows the 100 most recent results. Here’s what I found at the two blog where I have installed Blogrush:
- Total hits from BlogRush widgets: 1 at BigBucksBlogger; 0 at The Knitting Fiend. (That’s pretty bad considering I haven’t posted since Tuesday, this is a period with no Stumbles etc. In otherwords: 1% hits on a very low traffic day.)
- Click rate: 1 hit per in 3,059 displays. I know my titles may not be terrific-but that’s truly low!
- Total page visits for the one: 2. (That’s pretty good.)
- Length of stay: 4 minutes 15 seconds. That’s a nice long time. (Unless they just left the window open while answering the doorbell.
- Clicking on the referrer does not send me to the blog that showed the widget. That’s unfortunate because it means I can’t ever expect return visits when people want to inspect their referrer logs. (I could get to the referring blog if I fiddled. But that’s work.)
My Prediction for Blogrush:
BlogRush is doomed!
Why? Well, I don’t know how this is working for other bloggers who may have decent downlines. But a 0.5% increase in traffic is simply not enough to make me want to devote much blog real estate to that widget. If that’s all the widget brings me, I would prefer to post an ad in that space!
And sure, Blogrush suggest I read “tips” that tell me to keep my titles to less than 40 characters so they aren’t cut off in their widget. I get the reasoning, but why should I do this when longer descriptive titles are useful at StumbleUpon, which brings loads of traffic?
I suspect most other Bloggers will feel the same way and anyone getting this small amount of traffic will remove the widget. So… then what?
Well, I’m in 10 people’s downline, right? Taking off my widget will decrease the number of hits they get! As each blog experiencing small amounts of traffic removes the widget, the blogs upstream will have less and less traffic.
Then, they’ll take the widgets off too!
So, unless other bloggers are getting more traffic than I do, BlogRush is doomed.
What will I do?
I planned to leave it up a week- and I will. I’ll then collect more data. But unless BlogRush generates at least 2% of my traffic, then off goes the widget goes for a month. Then, I’ll retest to see if things improve. But if they don’t, then forget it.
And if other bloggers are inclined to do what I do, it’s all over for Blogrush! 
There does not seem much point me setting out to argue that blog rush is a pile of [[choose word]] if you set out and actually proove it.
In the first place, they should let us choose the template for widget, like mybloglog.
The, they should stay online much often
Oh my, 1 out of 3059, you’re doing truly bad! I have seen much better results so far :O.
Let’s see, let’s make it a top out of worst results which I came across so far then.
1/3059
1/2500′ish
1/1900′ish
1/1200′ish
1/250′ish
The 1/250′ish was the best I’ve seen so far, but even then is it truly worth it? A click through rate of 1/250 is pathetic still, definitely not worth the time of even bothering with. Many of the smaller blogs would get what, 1 extra visitor every 1 or 2 days thanks to blogrush if they manage to get a click through rate that good?
It’s a waste of time and the widget doesn’t even look good.
Hehe, I was being cynical when I said your click rate was horrible, they’re all trashy click through rates if you ask me. If it doesn’t result in at least 1 out of a hundred people to click on average there’s just something wrong with the service.
What actually would be nicer is if each click cost you a credit, not each impression. But of course then the backlog of earned credits would never, ever be worked done through
.
I’d say the main issue isn’t that it wouldn’t be in the same interest but many people just ignore widgets. Just like ads tend to be completely ignored widgets have been used so damn much already it’s not going to work.
The only thing which would probably still work to some degree is if 5 words maximum within an entry would be linked to the other entries. Rather than picking the titles it just picks top keywords from the original entry, scans through your entry on what can be used and parses it as a link. Sort of like the amazon contextual link beta stuff and quite a bunch of other services use as well.
Since links within entries is a natural thing still, it might just work.
Downside though, just like all other things like banners, widgets, icons, etcetera having been completely wasted stuff like this might result in people getting tired of links within entries in general as well which stops normal links from getting a chance too.
In the end Blog Rush is just another glamourized directory listing. Probably get us all banned from Adsense to boot.
Ok, BlogRush coverage is getting too much but here’s my feedback on the stats issue. Bear in mind that I would have to be classed in the “smaller” blogs category. I installed the widget on day one and have no referrals.
It’s brought me 8 visitors so I guess that puts me in a better position than many are claiming. However, the visits have been cursory, an average stay just 13 seconds and 1.25 page views per visit and a bounce rate of 87.5%.
Does that make it worth the space I’m giving the widget? Probably not but I’m still going to let it stay for a little while longer, I’ve never had any unrealistic hopes for its ability to drive traffic in any case.
If it’s any consolation, I found (and bookmarked) your site via BlogRush. I hope it works out well for you.
In the “pre-blog” days these widget-esk exchanges did not work. I doubt much has changed. Each user can put the widget “out of the way” and earn the impressions without much chance of sending visitors. To all ends it is a banner exchange with links.