When BlogRush launched they really hyped it up so high that whole blogoshpere was on the verge of bursting with this thing. Expectations were high, especially among those who yearns for a traffic influx that won’t cost them a dime. Naive bloggers taught they can cheat their way trough by posting false reports in their blogs praising BlogRush to the sky, hoping they people will sign up via their referral links. I personally have seen a brand new blog title simply “BlogRush” with a post that said, “I have personally tried it and it definitely works. Sign up with BlogRush now” At the time of writing, BlogRush has just been launched less than 72 hours.
The higher the expectation that has been created, the faster will criticisms come when the expectations were not met. Within a week after launching, bloggers have started painting a bad picture of BlogRush. Numerous blogs have started questioning whether it will ever work at all. They have not even realised a single click or any additional traffic to their blogs after a week of displaying their widgets. In my opinion, they are really expecting too much. However, I think BlogRush themselves should also take part of the blame for this mini backlash. They really over hyped their product a little bit too far, presenting the theoretical facts but totally ignoring the practicality.
In theory, BlogRush is perfect, as presented in their introduction video when you sign up. Bloggers don’t have to spend a dime other than referring as many of their friends as possible so that their links will appear in as many blogs with the BlogRush Widgets as possible. It is fool proof. It works. Our post titles do appear in the widgets. If I have 1000 referrals under me, my blogs should should show up in one thousand other blogs. Not that I have that many. I only have 3 referrals if you are interested and so far I received one click. See? it does work. One click out of 3 possible ones is almost more than a 30% CTR. Imagine if I had 3000 referrals. I would easily get 1000 click-throughs. But if it is working, why then are people complaining?
Like I said, they expected the sky. You don’t simply have less than 10 referals in your network and expect a deludge of traffic.No matter how free BlogRush is, there is till nothing as a fee lunch in this world. You still have to do some legwork and get as many people to sign up with your link as possible. There is no need to go and read some secret “How To” tip that tells you to write alluring post titles. You knew that the first week you started blogging and learning how to write a good post that a good post title is very important.
The second deciding factor why Blogrush is not living up to expectation is with the bloggers themselves. I don’t understand why, but 8 out of 10 blogs hides the BlogRush widgets away from their readers sight. This one silly act totally destroys the very basic principal and concept needed to make BlogRush work. When we visit a blog with the widgets, we are supposed to be attracted to what the widgets has to show inside. A good linkbaiting title will make me click on that link. That is the very basic action expected from a blogger to make BlogRush’s theory come true. If the widget is hidden somewhere near the foot of the page, what good does it do? They might as well not place the widgets at all. They can just sit back and wait for the clicks to come from the blogs that shows the widgets clearly.
So these are the 2 things that should be addressed should you want BlogRush to work as well as it claimed it will. It is too early to write off BlogRush. Even Darren Rowse advised us Not To Throw the Baby Out With the Bath Water There is hope yet. I don’t know about others, but I am keeping the BlogRush Widget for a little while longer. I might even change to a new flavor.
Yep, the placement of the widget makes all the difference. If people can’t see, they won’t click.
Another thing is, I know it’s easy to come up with catchy titles. But the content has to match..:-)
It does bring in a few traffics but not a rush of traffics.