Comments on: Why Blogrush Blows, and how to fix it

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:24:00 +0000

Absolutely; as I pointed out in my post, you need a self-correcting system, trying to moderate it by hand just is not worth it.

I still think he will figure this out, there is no reason Blogrush can’t succeed at this point, its just a matter of making the updates. Hell, in terms of building a targeted blogosphere email list its already a home run. Of course, if all the users were happy and enthusiastic, then it would a targeted email list of loyal bloggers, which is a fricken gold mine.

By: Geordie

Geordie — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 02:51:27 +0000

At first I was impressed by how John handled the “more explosive than we expected” launch, but then it just got annoying and sad with all the “SHOCKING BLOGRUSH UPDATES” emails.

After that, in the name of being “tough on spammers” he notes how those who don’t ‘deserve’ blogrush because they don’t put the widget (that they admit sucks) at the top of their blog will be kicked off the network.

Nice way to lump the remaining few who still have the widget on their sites at all in with the spammers.

Pretty lame overall.

By: Chad

Chad — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:29:10 +0000

I agree Blogrush blows so far. I am giving it another week or so before pulling the plug…

By: Caroline Middlebrook

Caroline Middlebrook — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:05:34 +0000

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the link. I have to admit that I am also guilty of putting the widget right at the bottom of my sidebar but that’s because I didn’t think it would do too well anyway.

That’s a great idea allowing people to customise how the widget looks because that will also help overcome the banner blindness that will inevitably follow soon as people see it on more and more blogs.

By: Blackhat

Blackhat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:43:55 +0000

oh… btw. look at bla.st

By: Blackhat

Blackhat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:43:07 +0000

the other problem is that nobody looks over those boxes… its a ad blindness matching box… thats why nobody clicks on it.

By: The How-To Geek

The How-To Geek — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:41:24 +0000

BlogRush is just completely pointless… I removed it after a couple of hours.

I had around 60k “points” in their system(mostly from referrals) and have gotten only 5 clicks in the last 2 weeks. Pointless.

Of course, anything that sits in the sidebar near the bottom of the screen is going to fail, especially when you show only a few words out of the title.

By: TextAdSearch

TextAdSearch — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:33:58 +0000

That’s more or less what I have been saying/thinking. I have also noticed that the stats for my site do not match up to the clickthroughs in Blogrush’s reporting. I understand that there is margin for error but I am seeing quite void.

I will be waiting for the ‘update’ they are currently doing before I pass judgement as I realise all new ventures have hiccups.