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Phase 2 Feedback | ||
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UPDATE: Tuesday, October 16th: We’re experiencing a delay with some minor server issues. We are working on them and will start releasing Phase 2 piece-by-piece very soon. Thanks for your patience. We’ve received a TON of feedback to our announcement about BlogRush Phase 2! 90% of the feedback we have received is extremely POSITIVE. The majority of our users are excited about all the changes we’re making. BUT… Some of our users expressed some concerns and I want to address them… “It seems like you’re threatening some of us or calling us cheaters!” We’re not trying to “threaten” anyone. We have no choice but to set some RULES for BlogRush or the service won’t be fair and just won’t work. We can’t allow some users to do one thing and others to do something else. Please understand that. All we can do is the best we can to benefit the entire network. If anyone is not willing to abide by the rules then they can’t use the service. There’s just no other fair way to do it. “My blog was rejected. I thought you were out to help the little guy?” We have quality guidelines that we must stick to in order to maintain the content on the network. If your blog is not approved for the network it doesn’t mean that we think you’re a bad person or that we think you’re a spammer or anything else. It just means our Review Staff didn’t think your blog was right for our network. It might be that your blog is too new and needs to have more posts before we can approve it. Or it might mean that your blog is primarily using content from other sources and contains very little original content. Or it might mean that we just feel the quality of your blog’s content isn’t up to the standards we are setting. Again, this isn’t a personal ‘knock’ on you, your business, or your work. We must maintain a certain level of quality so our users are happy to be recommending resources on our network (showing the widget) to their blog readers. Please understand, this isn’t an EASY task. We’ve had to make some tough decisions. If your blog is not approved you will be able to resubmit it in the near future for reconsideration. “I’m afraid you’re going to delete me from the network (without warning) over this Widget Performance issue!” We made a decision today that we are not going to remove any users from our network (due to this issue) without at least giving them a warning first. There has also been a concern that a low-traffic blog will not be able to meet our Widget Performance criteria. Traffic levels have nothing to do with this performance. It’s all based on average click-rate activity (and other metrics we aren’t making public) and NOT on the number of total clicks. So a low-traffic user is at no disadvantage. “How can you expect me to give the widget high placement when I’m not receiving much traffic from it?” You aren’t receiving much traffic yet because so many other users are taking the same approach and have the widget placed very low on their blogs. This is the reason we are putting in our Widget Performance criteria. We totally understand your point of view. But at the same time, we’re doing our best to improve things so the network sends you tons of traffic. In order for that to happen, we need our users to cooperate in the best interest of the network and everyone work together. Anyone not willing to do this doesn’t have to participate and can remove the widget from their blog. This is the only FAIR way to do things. PERFECT EXAMPLE: In the last 24 hours alone (since making the Phase 2 announcement and mentioning that users need to give their widgets higher placement) the overall click-through rate across the entire network HAS DOUBLED. This means that on average every user is now receiving TWICE THE TRAFFIC than they were before — and this will only get better. But the improvement only happens when everyone cooperates. So please understand this. We are doing the best we can to make the service the best it can possibly be for driving tons of free traffic to your blog. “But I can’t give the widget higher placement because the widget is TOO WIDE to fit on my blog!” We’re working on a narrow version of the widget (120 pixel width) for all of our users that have narrow blog templates and can’t use the standard (180 wide) widget without it “breaking” their blog design. Here’s a prototype of a 120 pixel width version of the widget:  We’ll have it available in all the other colors like the standard size. As you’ll notice, this version is a bit TALLER than the standard widget. We have no choice but to make it taller in order for it to contain the same amount of headline text. So it’s a trade-off. If you want to use a more narrow version of the widget, you’ll need to sacrifice a little more height. Please post your comments below (for all the users with NARROW BLOGS) and let us know what you think of this prototype. Other users can opt to use this version if they choose; regardless of their blog design. FINAL NOTE: We’ve gotten a lot of feedback and comments about us making the widget in CSS variables and other options so users can more closely customize the look and feel. We’re working on some alternate options. The “challenge” that we are faced with is providing options that would allow users to remove all attention from the widget design (which will eliminate the click activity). We’re running some tests, though, and we hope to have other formatting options in the near future. One step at a time.
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« BlogRush - The Mighty “Phase 2″ | Latest News » |
October 9th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
If 90% of the Phase 2 feedback was positive, why the need to try an placate the intractable 10% that are probably better off just taking the widget off their site? My vote is to continue moving forward with the development of the widget, and to ignore the 10% that complain. Seriously, by addressing the concerns of a small minority, you make it sound like things are worse than they are.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
We’re always open to listening to ANYONE that has feedback about ANYTHING we do. We don’t just want to “turn our backs” on this 10%. We have respect for these users and appreciate them (and their interest in BlogRush) just as much as we do for any of our users that don’t have complaints. Several people raised reasonable concerns and we wanted to address them. We’re trying to be as transparent as possible with the evolution of our service.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
New narrower widget looks great. Thanks.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
When can we register non-English blogs?
October 9th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
John,
Questions:
1.) Will all blogs in the network move into a “pending review” queue upon phase 2 implementation?
2.) Will the blogs be reviewed in FIFO (first-in-first-out) order?
Thanks
October 9th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Chuck — all of the blogs in the network are currently being reviewed. We’ve reviewed more than half of them and hope to be finished in a few more days. For all the ones that are “not approved” for the network, they will be unapproved in one major update as we roll-out Phase 2.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
[…] Share This […]
October 9th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I have just moved the BlogRush widget higher up in my left sidebar on my fine blog.
I love BlogRush and I’ll patiently wait for the full implementation of Phase 2.
John Reese and BlogRush are one of the best things that have ever come to blogging in a while.
I’m very enthusiastic about the future of this widget, and about John Reese’s tremendous diligence as he works out the remaining glitches in BlogRush.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:24 am
John I have a question for you …
I currently have 2 blogs added to the blogrush network and I would like to use all the credits I earn for only ONE of those 2 blogs … can I do that ?
I remember you saying we could do this back when you launched BlogRush…
Anyway, I’m exited about phase 2, can’t wait for the changes
October 10th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Oh I remembered something else I wanted to ask you.
Let’s say you approve a blog that has great posts. If for example, the blog’s owner for some reason starts making low quality posts, too many affiliate promotions etc …
Will this blogger get banned? …. because he SHOULD be.
So my question is … are the blogs going to be re-reviewed on a regular basis … say once a month or once every 2 months etc…
I know this means a lot of extra work for you guys but if you want to maintain the network’s content quality I see no other way.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:35 am
yes… the narrow widget is perfect… will use it as soon as it is released
October 10th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Blogrush is a great idea. But so far all these attempts from what i can see only benefited those bloggers in the niche of internet marketing/making money online, which requires hype and popularity.
What about those other bloggers that are in a different niche ? that falls under the categories of personal or hobbies ?
Is blogrush main aim to cater for these marketing/making money online niches ??
October 10th, 2007 at 3:23 am
You’re missing the point.
If you have a “website” not a “blog”, then the top part of your site is more important than the middle and the bottom part.
If you have a “blog”, the bottom part is more important than your top part. Why? You blog because you have something to say that is not “news” - your opinions and point-of-views.
In other words, your visitors READ your blogpost, and so THEY SCROLL DOWN. And since you are posting your OWN opinions and PoVs, then they will also read the existing comments WHICH are at the bottom of your page AND they will also post comments, which is AGAIN AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR PAGE.
Now, if you are blogging by copying someone else’s “NEWS” then your visitors will certainly stay at the top of your page.
A REAL BLOG will make their visitors SCROLL DOWN. Why will you read a blog if there is nothing original and new to it? Go to a website, not a blog.
A REAL BLOG will make their visitors SCROLL DOWN, because these blog offers opinions and PoVs not found elsewhere, and THUS his/her visitors will read to the bottom, read the comments, leave their own comments.
So which is important now? The top part of a REAL blog or the bottom part? Which is seen most of the time? The top part or the bottom part?
Which GETS ATTENTION THE MOST NOW? The Top part or the bottom part?
You know the answer, it is very obvious.
Simple: If people read your blog, then they scroll to the bottom. If they don’t, then there is no need to blog.
If BlogRush is really for REAL BLOGs, then the bottom part is as important or more important than the top part.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Speaking as someone who had one of my newer blogs rejected I think the review process is a good idea! Once I know what the requirements are I’m happy enough to wait until my blog is older and has more posts.
It’s good to see the newer, thinner widget too.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:47 am
When you give a warning, will you be able to give
the blog owner reasons why and where it doesn’t
meet the criteria?
Love the slim widget!
Regards,
Stuart Stirling
http://AccelerateMyEbiz.com
October 10th, 2007 at 6:51 am
The thinner one looks good. I was thinking about this the other day actually, how I had to have it in the 3rd column because I couldn’t fit it in the 2nd.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:26 am
WOW… Click-thru rate has doubled in 24 hours… that’s impressive!
Onward and upward
October 10th, 2007 at 7:32 am
What constitutes a new blog? Is it based upon how long the blog has been around or hte number of posts? I started a blog a little less than a month ago, but since I updated the blog on average every other day I have about 12 or 13 posts (I’ve used the Widget since day one). Since I have a decent amount of posts will I not be banned or is only being 3 to 4 weeks old not old enough to keep the widget?
October 10th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Yes the narrow widget will work fine for my blog. I can move it up once I get the narrow widget!
October 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[…] share the concerns of a recent BlogRush commenter: What constitutes a new blog? Is it based upon how long the blog has been around or hte number of […]
October 10th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
JAY - our test results show differently. You have to realize that most visitors to a blog don’t read all the content. Many visit, do a quick scan, and decide to keep reading or find a link of interest and click it.
DAVID - it has very little to do with blog AGE and more to do with the number of blog POSTS.
October 10th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
John,
I have a question.
Since the phase two communication, I have been testing the widget, by refreshing my page. It seems that for every ten refreshesI keep getting three sitesthat come up on a consistent basis. If this is truly a random widget, how is it that the same three companies continue to come up over 60% of the time?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I just wanted to pop in and say how uber-thrilled I am that when you click links, they open in a new window! That is a great feature!
October 10th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Hey John,
160px is pretty standard for sidebar skyscaper ads as is 125px (for 125×125 ads). These sizes seem like some good candidates for alternate widths. A lot of Wordpress themes are ready and willing to handle those sizes.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
JoeJustin — it’s because the sites you keep seeing more than others have more credits to use than the others.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
and i’m still waiting for some basic tech support on why the widget script instlllaed exactly as shown in the video doesn’t display on a validated page.
and having hired script writers, i wonder why it took a week to change the margins to give the 120px appearance, when 120px is a standard size.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I like the new skinny design. Looking forward to it. Right now I have the phat one awkwardly glued to the right side of my blog. It actually covers the content up if you’re browser’s too skinny
So I can’t wait for the new one.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
GIVE ME MY BLOGRUSH BACK!
I have emailed blogrush support team for many times but I still haven’t heard anything from the tech support. Does blogrush store anything on my drive without my knowing?
I just want my Blogrush working pleaseeeeeeee!
I’m really a fan of Blogrush… please …
http://www.blogrash.com
October 11th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Great new small widget - signed up but can’t use the larger. Looking forward to the new smaller widget’s availability.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:10 am
thinner widget will be good if you are using blogger or a custom design on wordpress.
It works great with our blog was a bit shaky last week but seems to be ok now.
Cheers
john
October 11th, 2007 at 6:23 am
And what about Traffic Secrets 2.0??? It is DONE by now! How can I pre-order it?
October 11th, 2007 at 7:00 am
I signed up yesterday, and added the widget to our blog. However (and it’s a big however), there was not a category that was right for our ‘niche’ “chronologically mature” women over 40 online community. So I took the widget off and asked to have my account cancelled.
Now I’m interested again since I read that new categories with sub-categories for ‘niche’ markets are being added. We are very new to the web; are in beta format and are doing a re-design of the site.
Can you give me an idea whether something as ‘nichey’ as ours will be available!
October 11th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Just wondering if those of us who bought the first Traffic Secrets will be eligible for a special price on Traffic Secrets 2.0?
Thanks
October 11th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Hey John. Great work.
Problem though, I still cannot log in. I emailed the customer support… it took 4 days to get a reply and they didn’t resolve it, just dismissed it.
Any answers?
October 11th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
i have a free wordpress blog - any chance that there will be a version of blogrush that works on these sites?
October 12th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I’m very interested in the new categories and what they will be. Most of my blogs are tightly focused on specific niches. The existing categories were not a good fit for most of them.
But I was so delighted with BlogRush (brilliant idea!) that I made do. One niche blog in particular I have been testing in three different categories, none of which really fits.
Many of the blogs and posts listed in the “best fit” categories I chose are irrelevant to my topics. In some cases they are even embarassing, because I know that some of my readers will be offended, weirded out, or just not interested. I can see why many are not clicking.
(No one is interested in everything in a given category, even a small and well focused one. But categories that are too big and mixed up are not going to get as many clicks, IMO. The posts will much too often seem off-topic to readers.)
Having irrelevant or inappropriate posts listed in the widget on some sites can be really counterproductive. It makes the widget look like an ad.
For example, graphic design, web design and blog design should not be lumped in with either general tech or fine arts, IMO.
We need a category for self-help, self-improvement blogs. There are quite a few of those: affirmations, new thought, law of attraction, positive thinking, meditation, and so on. They aren’t religion.
I would like to see categories for alternative health therapies kinds of topics, too, like yoga, nutrition, meditation, acupuncture, massage, vitamins, herbs, sound, aromatherapy, pilates—not just “health = conventional medicine”. About (I think) 70 to 80% of people in the U.S. use some form of alternative therapy, and a higher percentage do in some other countries.
We also need a category for metaphysics and spirituality (also not a religion). It would apply to people in many different religions and also to those who do not consider themselves religious but who are interested in spiritual practices (such as yoga and tai chi). It could include psychic phenomona, remote viewing, dowsing, and other hard-to-categorize (but clearly metaphysical) topics.
Maybe this is a stretch, but what about regional blogs? For example, I have a blog that focuses on the way Texans talk. It is humorous, but it is also about regional manners, mores, and even a little history and geography. The humor is very low key. I looked at the Lifestyle category, but mine **really** didn’t fit with the blogs there (piercing? bondage?). So I put it in Humor. But the topics there are still often quite inappropriate.
I predict that when there are enough of the right categories, click-through rates will jump way up.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I do have a concern about the English-language requirement… sent an email to Support but no word back (no doubt they’re flooded), so I thought I’d just drop a note here…
My blog is an English language blog — but I do use the Global Translator plugin.
The Global Translator serves to automatically create other-language versions of each page, using the google and alta vista translators. The problem is, there is no way to remove one element (e.g. the BlogRush widget) from the translated pages without taking it off the whole site.
I don’t want to shut out my non-English readers, but also don’t want to violate BlogRush terms of service.
Suggestions?
October 13th, 2007 at 9:00 am
I will echo the “regional blog” category suggestion. I run another Chicago-based music and entertainment blog that I think would benefit.
October 13th, 2007 at 10:18 am
John, maybe you’ve already heard about this, but if not, take a look at BLIDGETS by WidgetBox.com
COOL.
It has some features that would be great on BlogRush.
All success
Dr.Mani
October 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Well its nice to have blogrush on my site again. I just hope my 100,000.00 grand prize contest goes nearly as good as your launch has John ( ps it starts on monday ) lol
October 13th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Well I hope someone takes finally care of in what categories the blogs are. I am extremely dissatisfied what shows up in my widget that has nothing to do with the selected topics.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Love Blogrush, actually getting new member signups and sales from the traffic, even though my traffic isn’t huge, it must be good quality/relevant!
QUESTION ABOUT STATS:
it is telling us our measured traffic, but not how many visits we get to our site from the widget, correct?
Can we do an easy calculation to estimate how many it is?
Also, with Google analytics, does traffic from blogrush show as something uniquely identifiable?
thanks
Victory Darwin
October 14th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Hey! I hope things are getting better by the day, because I don’t see any improvement just yet. I was pretty excited at first, but I think it’s because I believed in you and also because you clearly showed and still show passion about your project, so that’s re-assuring despite today being the one month anniversary of the blogrush launch.
Successfull in terms of buzz and membership, but in terms of traffic, not quite the predicted rush. Anyway, good luck and I’m holding on tight!
October 14th, 2007 at 10:32 am
To answer the QUESTION ABOUT STATS question:
From what I understand the current temporary BlogRush statistics are telling us how many impressions we got on Blog Rush widgets, eg how many times our blog posts were displayed on blogrush widgets.
The actual visits we have to look for in our site statistics. They appear as widget.blogrush.com and the address string includes the blog where it was published. If you are watching them live, you may catch your blog being live there, but because the widget content changes often, it will probably change by the time you get there.
October 14th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I just want to say many thanks to you John and the BlogRush Team for “My Blog Syndication Network”. It has just appeared on my sidebar, that’s a super In widget!
Have a beautiful sunday.
October 14th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
If you aren’t going to release any details on the clickthrough performance metrics will it be possible to simply offer a color coded scale from 1-10?
Red (1-3) = bad
Yellow (4-6) = average
Green (7-10) = good
October 15th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Two Reasons Why You are NOT Getting Good Click Through Rate
1. Writing off topic posts
Suppose when you signed up for BlogRush you chose to display your blog in the “internet marketing” category.
One particular day you make an off topic post about your favorite sports team, or perhaps about your sisters wedding. This post would be grabbed by the BlogRush Network and displayed on other blogs that had been categorized as “internet marketing”.
This would NOT be of interest to bloggers of that site, and your click rate would suffer.
2. Writing Long and uninteresting headline
From time to time all bloggers will have post titles longer than 40 characters. If this happens your title is cropped and people on the other end of the Network will not see a proper rendition of your title.
Although that same title look good in your blog, that title will look like a not understandble rubbish in BlogRush.
You must write short and attention grabbing title for BlogRush.
Solution:
I recently developed a free wordpress plugin called “BlogRush Click Maximizer”. By using it you can vastly improve your Click Through Rate.
This allows you to control what you want to display in BlogRush. You can even write alternate - short and catchy title just for BlogRush.
Check it out here:
http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/bcm/
October 15th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
[…] after your programmers actually add the new, more relevant categories and remove the splogs and remove “The Tampon Blog” from the Blogrush hobbies […]
October 15th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
how about a shorter version? something like a 125×125 or 250×250. you know, standard banner sizes.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
One of my favorite things to do is check out other blogs that I see in my widget and then see what blogs are listed on their widget and so on. I clicked on two blogs today on my widget that had no widget displayed.
How did they get on my widget if they don’t have one? Where is it hidden?
October 16th, 2007 at 12:52 am
Kathleen, I think they did something unethical to their Blogrush. Now that is not fair at all, you direct traffic to their sites and they are not directing any traffic to any sites on the network. That is too bad.
Or maybe the widgets are at the bottom most of the page?
October 16th, 2007 at 3:56 am
KATHLEEN - we’ve had some users sign up, refer others, then remove the widget from their blog. These users will be receiving a “warning” very soon that to remain an ‘active’ member they must be serving the widget on their blog.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I’m not sure where to mention this other than here (I don’t see a Contact form) but the last 4 links I have click through, which were shown on the BlogRush widget didn’t even show the BlogRush widget on their own pages!
Yet I have it on my blog and I don’t ever see my blog listed on the widget.
And I am still seeing the same blog posts repeated on the widget on my blog. And some posts are from September!
October 17th, 2007 at 5:32 am
Hi, like the look of the new widget, any chance of a wide but short widget, e.g to go across top of page or under headers/posts? I think that would give better positioning.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Shim–No, I looked everywhere. It wasn’t at the bottom. I agree, it is pretty rotten.
John, Thank you for clarifying. I can’t wait until all the “fixing” is done. I don’t get huge amount of traffic because my blogs are fairly new. I do enjoy having BlugRush though. Just takes a little time to work out the bugs.
Thank you for your hard work.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Agree with the comment above that a wider widget might also be helpful. I have a small area with wide material with two thin columns under it. The current widget is too wide for the columns but looks too thin where I currently have it in the wide area. The thin widget would solve this problem, but if there was a choice of a wide widget I might put it above the columns for better positioning.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Non English - Non Blogrush
http://foro.patinenlinea.com.ar/
October 21st, 2007 at 7:41 am
You said: “Tuesday, October 16th: We’re experiencing a delay with some minor server issues.”
Just how minor are these issues that it is taking days to resolve them?