Earlier this week internet marketing superstar (and also my good friend) John Reese launched Blog Rush. Its pretty sexy I must say. Basically you display the widget on your site and for each impression the widget loads you get credit to get your posts displayed throughout the network in similar categories.
Also because its javascript you don’t have to worry about reciprical links or even linking to people or nofollow tags….. it just works. I think this might be the first cooperative link network matt cutts might even get behind 
.
Watch this video, I cant explain it better:
Get going on blog rush right now!
- Comment Likes 
- Comment Dislikes
November 3, 2007 at 4:40 pm
BlogRush still has tons of issues to iron out, including how to accurately judge blogs for inclusion in their network. In our case, they got it completely wrong. (Click my name for our write-up.)
Commenter, Vishal, (above) has it right too in pointing out that the amount of referral traffic (CTR) that you get will be poor or possibly even non-existent.
Obviously, they’ve got a tool that is attractive to many bloggers for the promise of additional traffic that it could bring for free, and you’ve got to give them credit for building and hyping such a system.
November 3, 2007 at 4:36 pm
BlogRush still has tons of issues to iron out, including how to accurately judge blogs for inclusion in their network. In our case, they got it completely wrong.
Commenter, Vishal, (above) has it right too in pointing out that the amount of referral traffic (CTR) that you get will be poor or possibly even non-existent.
Obviously, they’ve got a tool that is attractive to many bloggers for the promise of additional traffic that it could bring for free, and you’ve got to give them credit for building and hyping such a system.
October 9, 2007 at 12:26 pm
thanks for the tip
September 29, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I dont like these “Exachange systems” I think it takes traffic away…
September 23, 2007 at 6:40 am
it wont work for bloggers. this is not something that will get you tons of traffic. why? read here ……
For every one display of the widget (which ultimately results in 5 links being displayed) you get one exposure of your blog post on the network – on other blogger member website widgets. This sounds fair, but if you look deep into things you will realize theirs a defect. I will come to that later. But irst another important trick thats going to work like viral marketing on steroids for BlogRush…
For every blogger you refer – when they sign up by clicking on the BlogRush logo at the bottom of the widget, you benefit. For every direct referral you also will get one free link exposure everytime your referral displays the widget. If this referral refers another member – you get the same benefit again… gaining one more exposure for a two level deep referral. And so on … 10 levels deep.
This trick is absolutely fantastic, because it will cause bloggers to start promoting this new exchange service to fellow bloggers immediately in hope of getting referral bloggers before others snap them. Bloggers can see the potential of the 10 level deep credit system. It can really balloon to a large amount of free link exposure. Which *could* result in traffic.
This is where I tend to differ. Blogrush is claiming that – bloggers should sign up right away to get a huge rush and volume of traffic to their sites in a short span of time. There is however 2 issues here.
The first one is that – if this is a 1:1 exchange network, and BlogRush is displaying only 5 ads inside the widget – then they are creating an excess of 4 ads per display – which they can then distribute to the referring members. So, the excess credit of 4 ads can help them – BUT only 4 levels deep. As the system grows and referral lelvels start to get deep and aproach 10 levels of depth – how will BlogRush maintain the 1:1 ratio? The answer is – that well, now all members will have referrals of 10 levels deep. So there will always be member whose widgets display 5 expousres, and get one credit exposure in return and therefore create an excess of 4 credits for the system. This will help BlogRush.
And if it doesnt, and the excess exposures being created are geting close to zero – they can always simply increase the widget size or make it scrolling and display 10 links!! This will immediately create a larger excess for BlogRush on every widet exposure. Super!
Super for BlogRush, but bad for members.
I can already see a very very very low CTR on this network. Although the links displayed are in your category and may match your sites content – the CTR is going to be extremely low. A standard ad on yor blog post probably has a CTR of half to one-and-half percentage. This widget firstly may not be placed by bloggers on the top of their sidebar / page – and will probably be tucked away at the side bottom – is my guess. My guess is that the CTR for this widget will probably be around 0.1% ( or one-tenth of one percent. ). Now, if your blog post title appears with 5 others – your CTR will be further reduced by a factor of 5 or 20% of 0.1% which is 0.02% which is 2 clicks out of 10,000 page views or 1 click every 5000 page views!! Now, what kind of rush of traffic is that?
And, if BlogRush decides to increase the number of Blog Links inside their widget tomorrow (to compensate for excess credits being given to members for referrals) – then you can be assured that the paltry traffic and CTR will get even worse.
Nice try BlogRush. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. This is just a passing fad.
September 19, 2007 at 12:07 am
That would be a great way to bring in visitors, thanks. I’ll be checking it out.
September 18, 2007 at 3:26 pm
My blogrush stat is Up!
I received more with my referral Network.
Credits Earned Last 30 Days: 6,304
From Your Traffic: 2,906
From Your Referral Network: 3,398
September 18, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Very good job
Congrulations John Reese.
September 18, 2007 at 10:51 am
great and inovative system. no longer will be popular.
September 18, 2007 at 10:46 am
great and inovative system. no longer time will be populer.
September 18, 2007 at 12:48 am
ill be on this shortly
September 17, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Definitely a great concept. A friend of mine would be very interested in this. Thanks.
September 17, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Well how many real visitors you get with exposure?
September 17, 2007 at 1:22 pm
This is great! I cant wait to try it out and see what kind of traffic it brings in.
September 17, 2007 at 1:17 am
I’m definitely trying this
September 17, 2007 at 12:14 am
It’s been 24 hours now since I installed the widget and I’ve seen my traffic go up quite a bit. I’m impressed.
September 16, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Actually, is it some sort of pyramid scheme for the extra impressions? I see a lot of ’sign up under me’ type things.. I guess i should look into it further.
September 16, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I don’t really mind the 5 links part, but its the.. missing 80% of the blogs in 1:1 trade that I am concerned about…
I doubt you can say ‘oh show it once and we will show your articles 5 times’ which is how the numbers work out.. but it doesnt appear to be that way.
is there some marketing thing going on here?
September 16, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Yea, i am rather confused about how the numbers work.. if the share is 1:1 and they display 5 results… theres a huge .. surplus of available content here..
Are they planning to have a pay model to fund this? If everyone is sharing 1:1, then the surplus number doesnt make sense at all..
September 16, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Well I’ll be darned, this seems great! I’m signing up tonight via ur referral link, Shoe
September 16, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Wow that looks pretty awesome!
September 16, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Wow you read your comments… Went back and read your post. Definitely more informative… I am hoping the video gets on youtube so I can embed in websites…
September 16, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Kudos to John Reese for coming up with this idea. This has great potential to take off big time.
Thanks for sharing the video, Shoe.
September 16, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Once again John Reese shows that he is one of the true visionaries of the Internet.
I set this up just once and can load all of my sites and blogs, etc.
Damn! this is good stuff
September 16, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Yea it would be a great thing and help both sides out a lot.
September 16, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I just dont like this. It’s way over rated, it’s everywhere on every SEO blog. And what you do is show 4 titles from other blogs, in exchange of getting one of your articles title listed somewhere else.
September 16, 2007 at 3:47 pm
The targeting doesn’t seem to work. I tried inputing some keywords that i want to block but It seems like it’s just ignoring them
September 16, 2007 at 3:46 pm
great tool. its up on my site.
September 16, 2007 at 3:27 pm
i forgot to say;
“Are you really not smart enough to make up your own mind about a product?” you are a genious and this sentence is the proof
September 16, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I’m in – it’s a cool concept, and really simple
September 16, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Just added it to my site using your referral Shoe. Let’s see what happens!
September 16, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Already telling my authors!
September 16, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Ok in the DP sig, not stuck in the middle of a post.
September 16, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Okay done. I just have it updated on my blog too
September 16, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I found your post on MY BlogRush widget and clicked through. How ironic is that! Great social networking tool – I love it.
September 16, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Still doesn’t look too bad for a first effort, and I’ve seen worse (MyBlogBlog).
September 16, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Interesting angle, maybe they will look at this (or already have).
September 16, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Yeah you and 90 other people
September 16, 2007 at 12:14 pm
40 uniques…. not bad!
September 16, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Just came to your site after I clicked on the widget! It works!
September 16, 2007 at 11:42 am
unless you want an infraction i wouldnt use referall links on dp.
September 16, 2007 at 11:39 am
I’ve started my thread on DigitalPoint to grow up a network of referrals!
September 16, 2007 at 11:19 am
should be interesting I am going to keep an eye on this
September 16, 2007 at 11:10 am
Hopefully the first change will be to make it able to blend in better, most of my blogs color schemes make that thing stand out like a sore thumb.
September 16, 2007 at 11:00 am
I think this is more about targetting the audience than anything else. When I want to read blogs about Costa Rica for example, I find one in Google, read a little and then normally go back to Google to find some more. It’s a lot better when you have similar blogs displayed on the post itself and benefit from being the one referring readers to the other blogs.
September 16, 2007 at 10:52 am
Joined the rush last night.
September 16, 2007 at 10:51 am
Joined the rush last night and things have been going great.
September 16, 2007 at 10:45 am
I guess the keywords “artificial” is the traffic from blogrush artificial? currently no but id email google just to be safe, I dont really care as their is no adsense on my blog.
September 16, 2007 at 9:13 am
I think this widget would be much better off going by clicks instead of impressions.
September 16, 2007 at 8:36 am
I referring more to the traffic exchange aspect, not the linking aspect (which blogrush seems to have sidestepped).
September 16, 2007 at 7:31 am
From what I can see – the people who are going to benefit most from this plugin are those who get heaps of traffic already.
September 16, 2007 at 6:36 am
Cool plugin just added in my blog , hope i will get some traffic thru this links.
September 16, 2007 at 6:21 am
I was wondering how this would stand out against technorati, SU, DIgg, and othe rbuttons then I saw the size. I think the large size will get attention. I’m interested in hearing how this works out for others.
September 16, 2007 at 3:25 am
Wow – there’s a lot of buzz on this thing already – I’ve signed up already works quite nicely so far…
September 16, 2007 at 3:14 am
The script is new, and has thousands of new sites signing up. It might take 24-48 hours to realize what kind of blog you own… hopefully that is the case.
September 16, 2007 at 3:03 am
I didn’t include the video because there wasn’t clear usage rights defined and when I wrote my in depth review John was most definitely asleep after a 40 – 50 hour session before launch.
If you had clicked through one of the links on my review you would however have seen the video on John’s landing page.
September 16, 2007 at 2:51 am
Its nice but that things is ugly.. they should get some more options..
September 16, 2007 at 1:36 am
Agreed, no one is going to be able to answer that now though because it is so new.
September 16, 2007 at 1:28 am
Worth to try.. thnx for the tip..
September 16, 2007 at 1:23 am
Installed it – and came here by clicking on the link on my own widget!
But I gotta ask, given your relationship with Reese, and your post, how come you don’t have it installed here?
September 16, 2007 at 1:20 am
Doesn’t change anything for me, but I would be surprised if it was. Just doesn’t seem very “Shoemoneyish”
September 16, 2007 at 1:19 am
Just what I thought. Income.com – sweet domain btw!
September 16, 2007 at 12:56 am
Hey Everyone, John Reese here the creator of BlogRush. The reason why you’re seeing some blogs that don’t contain the widget is because we had to see the initial system with public RSS feeds so the widget wouldn’t display blank spaces initially before members started to populate the system. You’ll begin to see those disappear shortly and just be left with member sites. Thanks for the great comments, everyone!
September 16, 2007 at 12:51 am
I threw it up too, will see how it goes!
September 16, 2007 at 12:27 am
Just thew it up. My blog is brand new, so hopefully it drives some initial traffic and readers.
September 16, 2007 at 12:02 am
I put the widget on my site, but so far I have not seen it installed on ANY of the sites linked from the widget displaying on ScreenRant.com. This was surprising to say the least, as I assume that to have a link show up, your site MUST have the widget installed…
What gives?
Vic
September 15, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Ive noticed this too and the blogs linked too dont even have the widget on their site.
September 15, 2007 at 10:47 pm
@Travel Notebook: It is javascript code, which means it is 100% loaded clientside through the browser, so Google does not see any links, or pass any PR/Authority.
September 15, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Man it works too, I just got carried away on someone else’s blog for the past hour, and totally forgot how I found it.
September 15, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Has this really sent you any traffic Shoe? It does sound similar to the coop without all the SE penalty worries, but I’m concerned this could just be a fly-by-night deal.
September 15, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I just added to my blog too and just posted about it.
Seems like a great service for newbies.
http://abhishek.tiwari.com/2007/09/15/blogrush-a-pyramid-traffic-scheme-for-bloggers/
September 15, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I can’t wait for this site to bring me lots and lots of traffic
..I already added it on my site
September 15, 2007 at 9:48 pm
ok I’ve thrown it up on my blog (using your referral) – but every blog i’ve looked at is showing the same links – they never change… is it broke already?
September 15, 2007 at 9:17 pm
interesting widget. Does google even see the links if its a widget?
September 15, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Im sure they wont mind because its javascript, google likes links being shared as long as you use the nofollow attribute, and google doesnt follow javascript
September 15, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Hmmm it’s like all the benefits of a traffic exchange without the fear of reciprocal linking, I wonder if adsense will dislike it (since they don’t like things like the digital pt co-op and stuff).
September 15, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Sounds cool, hope they get an auctionads type buyout lol
I am sure shoe is doing good on referring all our signups
September 15, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Could not explain without that video! Saw this on Andy Beards site too, but without the video. I was going to read it later, but I would of forgotten.
I wish I had more blogs. There is going to be a mad rush for this gadget. Its going to multiply fast just like all those BlogCatalog MyBLogLog widgets…. Will some people pay to have more headlines on and or will they have a little ad there at the bottom??
One thing I did not notice is how they are going to monitize…
September 15, 2007 at 8:17 pm
I had used adgridwork for a bit but it didnt really work but this one looks promising since its only blogs.
September 15, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I’m in!
What a cool intro video too, I would have never read through all that info, but I sat there and watched it.
September 15, 2007 at 7:02 pm
hey calm down amazed guy it was just a kindly-kidding message. but i didn’t type a stupid smiley (i thought that you would understand it) assume that there is a smiley at the end of the message. good luck!
September 15, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Assume I own or have a interest in writing about everything.
(please see disclaimer).
Does it change anything? Are you really not smart enough to make up your own mind about a product?
September 15, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Yeah cool!
I’ll try it too!
September 15, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I am just going to wait until more people start using it. At the moment, it lacks coverage of certain topics.
September 15, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Hey Jeremy, Please don’t lie to me, is this your own project?
September 15, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Oh, boy! Yet another blog widget!
September 15, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Okay done. I just have it updated on my blog too.
September 15, 2007 at 5:38 pm
I blogged about this on the 13th and have just put it on my blog today. It’s a great concept, the expansion rate is unlimited so people with huge blogs (cough, shoemoney) should do exceptionally well from it when enough people start using it.
September 15, 2007 at 5:34 pm
yes except its javascript so you dont have to worry about linking to sites you hate… also you can block sites and even add negative keywords (watch the video)
September 15, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I am in!
September 15, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I signed up too earlier today. Almost as simple as AuctionAds.
Do you think it’s a bit like the DP coop?
September 15, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Awesome concept. I guess i must try this out
Thanks for sharing Jeremy