Forget the security issues or the pyramid scheme accusations (MLM-tier scructure to syndication credits.) There is a fundamental problem with Blogrush that needs to be fixed if its going to have any future.

Blogrush only sends a small handful of visitors, as evidenced by multiple reports:

swollenpickles, on WickedFire.com webmaster forums — “I joined up 5 days ago, just logged into my stats and have nearly 10,000 impressions and only one click. Has anyone actually seen any traffic from using BlogRush or is it a dud?”

Via Technorati: Caroline Middlebrook did a little better, 5,800 impressions and 14 clicks. With just 384 impressions, another blogger received an unsurprising zero. HowToGeek reports 3 clicks out of 7,231 impressions.

Most telling of all is John Chow’s report: 27,293 impressions, for a whopping 91 clicks. John Chow is sitting at the top of the pyramid, ranking in the top 50 internet blogs. The post is now a few weeks old and I am sure he has received many more clicks. Whats important is John Chow’s results represent “best case scenario.” If 91 clicks gets you excited, you probably have not been in the business for long.

Is the clickthrough rate really the problem? John Reese has acknowledged it, and said they are working on it.

John writes — “…we’re also in the process of rolling out “Phase 1″ of some of our major changes — like moving to the 100% Manual Review process which is going to greatly improve the QUALITY of blogs in our network which will also raise the click-rates for everyone. (i.e. more traffic!)”

One minor problem, getting rid of the “bad players” will also drop the number of impressions. Lower impressions and high clickthrough rate hardly is a guarantee of more clicks. It could even be less, as early arrivals bail out of the system.

Take a look at this full view of Shoemoney.com.

Several have attributed bad headlines to Blogrush’s low clickthrough rate. You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me. Headlines don’t matter when no one can see them.

I did not write this to bash Blogrush, or John Reese (or Jeremy for sticking his Blogrush widget in no man’s land.) Rather the post was made to illustrate what works, what doesn’t, and why. And, most importantly, to show how simple the concepts of “working” online really are.

Want to really fix Blogrush? Here is how to do it:

Mandating that Blogrush be displayed only above the fold is not the answer. I have not used Blogrush, I do not understand exactly how their syndication credits system works. Whatever it is, syndication credits must correlate directly with outgoing clicks. Any measurement by impressions is horrendously flawed. Yes, the system will be gamed, and counter-measures will have to be put in place. No one said this would be easy.

Blogrush needs a better display system. If you have ever used Adsense you know a simple border can kill your ad clickthrough rates. The same is happening here, and then some:

Just as bad as having borders, syndicated headlines & blog names are being chopped in half. Bloggers just are not going to change their site names or headline posts to fit in with Blogrush, nor should they.

So just how should Blogrush look? I got an idea. It involves ditching that sexy Web 2.0 widget and returning to plain old text. It is not nearly as lucrative from a free branding standpoint, but it will work.

Big drumroll…

Here is how Blogrush should look:

Yes, its that simple. Users should be able to set their own font & size. Users can drive as much or as little traffic as they want — and be rewarded accordingly. This is the same way it works for big PPC syndicaters. Integrate, blend in, and drive the traffic (and it this case, receive it back, for free.)

If a blogger stuck that in their header, they could drive clickthrough rates anywhere from 5-25%+. Toss in an update for RSS subscriptions, and now you’ve got a real blogosphere pull. Beyond this is contextual & user targeting; you basically end up with an ad network.

John Reese is smart. He knows damn well what he is doing and he understands very well how things work online. I think he will figure this out, and he probably already has. But geeze, why hasn’t any of the big bloggers bothered to point this out with all the free coverage they’ve given?

Over a month ago I announced that I was taking a “blogging holiday.” The holiday turned out to include 5 posts. At the very least I didn’t feel bad about not posting regularly.

I noticed a few other big bloggers took summer breaks as well — John Reese at Income.com is out for a few weeks. Frank Schiling at Seven Mile is out until September. For one of the most prolific bloggers I read, thats quite a long break!

My blogging vacation included a break from reading blogs too. I blocked bloglines.com on my primary machine and managed to catch up with my RSS subscriptions at the end of the month. This was a welcome break and I am going to keep it that way. Never before has there been so many bloggers posting highly valuable ideas and information, but that doesn’t stop reading from being horribly distracting!

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere has another month or so. For some of us it won’t be long until cold weather returns. I am not looking forward to it.

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post calling into question a meeting with Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, as a grand prize for Yahoo Search Marketing’s “Ultimate Connection Contest.”

I just noticed that this post recieved a completely unrelated comment. It would appear to be backlink spam except the poster’s anchor text is “Karin.”

“Ivanka will emcee the Third Annual Inspiration Awards Gala… (date, time place) Each year, Step Up Women’s Network rolls out the red carpet and gathers 400 members, supporters, industry elite, and community…blah blah blah for another paragraph)”

What was the motivation behind this? It certainly isn’t from your typical blackhat SEO cialis debt reducer, nor does it appear to have come from someone who understands internet marketing…

Time to start my own blog PR firm?

The blogs listed below meet one qualifications: lots of details. The writers tell you how to do things and they share their results.

I remember my first days pouring over threads on WebmasterWorld and Sitepoint. It appeared that the entire business model of making money online was write content, exchange links, and get free traffic from Google.

Since then Google has evolved. Cash cow Adsense niches have turned downwards due to an enormous growth in available click inventory. While things may not be as “simple” as those days, there is no shortage of opportunities to be had online.

EarnersBlog – Dig deep, there are lots of good “out of the box” posts here.

Capitalist Pig – A blog from a successful affiliate marketer.

BlueHat SEO – Step by step SEO techniques, posts are certainly not short on details.

DirectoryVault – Another blog from a successful affiliate marketer.

One of my favorite blogs, Mashable, was just banned in Thailand.

Earlier this month the blog owner, Pete Cashmere, made a post about YouTube banning videos making fun of Thailand’s king — light stuff compared to what us Americans see of George Bush.

Would Pete be arrested if he ever visited Thailand? Punishment for insulting the King is up to 15 years in prison.

You never know what forum or blog posts you wrote may be dug up, or have even been indexed and noted by a foreign country that does not value human rights or free speech. That really sucks for bloggers who enjoy traveling.

I read several of the comments left on my post, “What the Hell Should I Do With This Blog?”

Diorex left a comment — “Those weeks where I had lots and lots of readers and was encouraged to write more, I found were black holes of delayed projects and little new revenue.” A matter of days later he closed his blog down for good.

One of the sole reasons I have been able to write this blog is because I can write it entirely off the top of my head. If I had to sit down and create an outline, do research, and proof-read this site would not exist.

This blog will stay. The long and sometimes dull posts will stay too. I’m not changing to format or audience appeal. This blog is written specifically for people who want to make a lot of money online and are willing to work hard to get there.

Continue reading →

One of the reasons I started a blog was so I knew people were reading, and properly crediting, what I wrote.

Burried deep in a forum thread or in blog comments carefully crafted words are easily missed. By creating a page where you own words control the headline and primary content you leave a far great footprint. This footprint results in personal branding and more recognition.

Certainly there are great benefits of using an establish medium to immediately communicate to a targeted audience. Social networks form around existing communities. Strands connect these communities together forming a far reaching web of knowledge.

Whats the point? If you are going to put in much effort in your writings on forums and other’s blogs, you should begin directing the audience to your own blog (through links) to establish greater visibility and credibility for yourself. After all, you’ve already done the work, why not compound its effectiveness with just a little more time & effort.

Without question, business blogs play a critical role of information distribution in many industries. Although many industries are still lagging way behind — they will catch up (providing once-in-a-lifetime oppurtunities to a select few.)

Right now I am subscribed to about 300 blog RSS feeds. Some get deleted. Some get added. I have been writing this blog for over a year now. In that time, I have figured a few things out. Rules are meant to be broken, but that doesn’t mean they are bad starting points.

1. Minimize your personal life — but don’t ignore it. If every blog post is about which concert the writer went to last night I am going to start losing interest fast.

On the other hand, readers like to know you are a real person and not a journalism major earning $20,000 a year. If you are doing something exciting or adventurous post about it. I’d like to be known as the blogger who summited Everest, but for now I’ll just be the insomniac-by-choice who has carpel tunnel

2. People want to hear about success. The big earners generate big buzz. The Markus Frind interview was hands down the best linkbait I ever produced.

3. I have a confession to make, my blog was originally meant as a cover to hear from interesting people, not a website to attract a lot of traffic. Perhaps thats a good rule. If you love what you are writing about you’ll dig deeper. That means your posts will be more interesting, more unique, and soon you’ll be scooping your news sources.

4. People want to hear what they have to do to be successful. Whether they follow the instructions or not is up to them. It makes people feel better when they know that they know what to do to be successful. Thats why one self-help book is never enough.

5. Linking to other bloggers is a very good idea. Besides the obvious SEO implications, your biggest audience are those who are already reading blogs. As trackbacks on popular blogs become more saturated, you also must e-mail the writers and regularly post comments.

Think of yourself as a D-class celebrity. The paparazzi aren’t stalking you — if you want to be seen you better show up anywhere and everywhere. That means if you think you wrote a good post, tell people about it. Need a reason? Figure out a way to mention them in it.

6. If everyone else reported it, put a really good spin on it, or ignore it.

7. Use images. I break this rule because I am too busy. If your blog audience is slanted toward a more mainstream audience this is a must. If you can use video, even better.

8. Back away from over-used & tired out blogging trends — you don’t want to blend in. A few examples: numbered or bulleted lists, digg-baiting irrelevent content, and interviewing important people in your industry. Just kidding. If your blog has no readers it probably is because you have not done one of these things.

9. Create controversy. If you want to be unprofessional this is really easy to do. A common technique is to completely bash someone one day and then high five them the next.

This is a very tricky technique for several reasons. First, it can make you look like an idiot. If you have no claim to fame, people are going to have a hard time taking you seriously anymore. Building mind share is a critical part of success,. Destroying your brand value means losing your relevence and being placed on a fast track to failure.

10. That being said, second guessing everything you say doesn’t make for a good read. Blogging is the exact opposite of a scientific journal. You write what you feel, when you feel it. If the information is wrong, so be it. Despite a handful of grammer polyps most of your readers aren’t interested in reading an English masterpiece. Can’t figure out what they really want? Re-read this post.