I’m kidding. But that’s what some people have been saying.

I apologize for the extended delay. We’re making last minute changes and everything will be ready to go. As mentioned a gazillion times before, it will be well worth the wait.

Thanks so much to everyone for their patience. We had hoped this major update would be released nearly two weeks ago but when you’re dealing with several BILLION (yes, with a “B”) pieces of data it can create some challenges.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that the BlogRush “Phase 2″ is getting very close.

I wanted to release it today but the dev team wants a couple more days to stress-test it.

It’s coming very soon! Thanks for your patience.

We just completed our Quality Control audit. You will now notice that all non-English, spam, and low quality blogs (or others that didn’t meet all of our guidelines) are GONE from appearing in your widget. We removed over 10,000 blogs from our network.

You will enjoy visiting blogs that show up in your widget now more than ever! You should also start seeing an increase in the traffic you receive from the BlogRush network. (More traffic on the way!)

We will be rolling out the new Dashboard and other changes in the coming week — sorry for the delay. It took about a week longer than we originally expected.

* If you were one of our members that had their account deactivated, you will notice that the widget no longer will load on your blog. For now, please remove the BlogRush code from your blog. When you login to your account you will find instructions for how to resubmit your blog for review to reactivate your account.

If your BlogRush account was made INACTIVE recently, please don’t take it personally.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE understand… we had no choice but to move to a strict, quality guideline criteria system. It’s the same thing that many other Internet services use.

And, no, it’s not always fair and impartial. Mistakes ARE made. Good sites can and do end up getting mistakenly rejected. If YOU feel a mistake was made with your blog, as was previously stated, you can resubmit it.

Thank you for your understanding and please do not take it as any kind of sign that we think you’re a spammer or a bad marketer, etc.

If you had a “make money” related blog you should know that we had to be extra strict with that category — because most of the blogs in that category were heavy with ads and promotional material compared with the ratio of tips, techniques, and true unique “helpful” content. Ultimately, it was a judgement call by whatever one of our reviewers reviewed your individual blog.

If you want to see examples of “make money” type blogs that got approved, you can check out the following to get an idea of what we were looking for:

http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/
http://www.andybeard.eu
http://www.internetmarketingsweetie.com/blog/

As your notification stated, you can resubmit your blog after the “suspension period” is over.

Best Regards,

John Reese

We have temporarily disabled the comments on this blog. Understandably, some people are upset that their accounts were made inactive. Unfortunately, a few of these individuals started posting all sorts of profanity and other junk comments on the blog so we have temporarily disabled comments.

We’ve finally completed our massive “quality-control audit” of our entire network…

By the end of this weekend, over 10,000 blogs will be removed from the BlogRush network for not meeting our quality guidelines and criteria. We’ve begun the removal process and it will take about 3 days to complete.

By Monday, BlogRush members should no longer see spammy, non-English, or poor quality blogs appearing in their widget.

We took a lot of heat about the initial spam and abuse that our network suffered, and many said we wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Well, they were wrong.

Every blog in our network will have been manually reviewed (now and in the future) and we will uphold strict quality guidelines. These guidelines can be viewed in our updated Terms Of Service agreement.

We’ll post more news about all of this by Monday, and include information for those that might have their accounts deactivated; including how to resubmit a blog for review and/or make changes to meet our guidelines.

As I have previously stated more than once, we will not rest until our service provides tremendous value for our members and helps drive a long-term, steady stream of new readers to their blogs.

Have A Great Weekend!

Just a quick update…

We’re working through some minor server issues and we will start deploying “Phase 2″ piece-by-piece shortly. Thanks for your patience.

ALSO…

We’ll soon be launching a new BlogRush Blog on the blogrush.com web site and moving all of our news and updates over there.

This blog will resume with videos, tips & tricks, and further discussion of marketing and moneymaking techniques. (Like it was before the launch of BlogRush.)

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.

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.

BlogRush will soon unleash PHASE 2 of its network.

This is a MAJOR update. The service is not even 30 days old, yet we’re about to release more changes than most Internet startups do in their first 6 months.

Here Are Some Of The Changes

- New User Interface

More options, more reporting, more features.

Here’s a “spy photo” of what the new Dashboard looks like:

- Per Post Statistics & Addition Of “Buzz Meter”

Now you’ll be able to see how many times each of your posts is syndicated across the network and how many people clicked to read that individual post.

Next to the statistics for each post you’ll see a “Buzz Meter.” This new meter will tell you if that post is HOT, COLD, or somewhere in between. The meter ‘temperature’ is calculated based on the average click-rates per headline for your blog’s category.

This data, if used properly, can be extremely valuable for your blog — you’ll be able to know what types of posts are getting the most attention in your blog’s niche.

- Custom Reports

You’ll be able to run custom reports and view your account activity by specific date ranges.

- Bonus Syndication For All Users, But Weighted Towards Low-Traffic Members

All members of our network will be receiving bonus syndication but we’ll be giving more bonus credits to our members that need it most — ones with low-traffic.

- More Categories! (A lot more)

We’re introducing tons of new categories to our network. You asked, we listened.

We’ll be adding a lot more sub-categories and niche topics; this will help our users’ widgets serve more relevant headlines for their own blog readers as well as increase the click activity on their own headlines shown across the network.

- Improved Security & Abuse Measures (We’ve already squashed 95% of the cheaters!)

We’ll be rolling out improved security measures, but we’re happy to report that we’ve eliminated about 95% of the cheaters in our network. We’re sure to continue to get a few new ones ‘trying’ from time to time, but we’ll work hard to zap them as quickly as possible.

- 100% Manual Review & New Quality Guidelines

We’ve already launched our Manual Review process… all new users as of today (and for good) will have their blogs manually reviewed BEFORE the widget will even load on their pages. Their posts will not be syndicated across the network until they are APPROVED and meet our Quality Guidelines. If they are not approved the widget will not load on their pages and none of their content will ever be syndicated on the network.

We’re almost finished with manually reviewing all the existing blogs in our network. We should be done with this massive ‘audit’ within about 7 days.

As soon as we complete this full audit there will be a MAJOR SWEEP of our entire network. All the blogs that don’t meet our quality criteria will be REMOVED from our network.

Say goodbye to all the non-English blogs, junk blogs, and any low-quality blogs you may have seen from time-to-time in the widget.

We are committed to maintaining the highest level of INTEGRITY and QUALITY for our network.

We know that you only want great blog posts and resource links showing up inside the widget you serve on your blog and we’ll do everything we can to maintain that.

It will now be a PRIVILEDGE for a blog to be accepted into our network.

- Widget Performance Monitoring

One of the biggest contributors to some of our low, average click-through rates (i.e. less traffic for our members) is due to some of our members giving the widget POOR PLACEMENT on their blogs.

Some of our members have placed the BlogRush widget at the very bottom of their blog templates, or very low where most of their visitors don’t even see it.

THIS IS ABOUT TO COME TO AN END.

The BlogRush system is based on TWO things: QUALITY and FAIRNESS.

On the “quality” side of things we have it covered — manually reviewing all blogs against quality guidelines, and continuing to improve headline relevance; through more categories and better technology.

But the “fairness” element is one that we haven’t really had to address… until now.

BlogRush isn’t about joining the network and just slapping the widget in the worst place possible. Because that’s not fair to our other members that are giving the widget HIGH PLACEMENT and sending more traffic to others.

We are adding Widget Performance Monitoring to our network. If a member’s natural widget performance (the rate at which visitors click headlines and other factors we aren’t making public) falls far below the average activity of other members in their category…

THIS MEMBER WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE BLOGRUSH NETWORK.

We are working on something that might give members with poor widget performance a “warning” to let them know they are in danger of being removed from the network; which will give them a chance to give the widget better placement on their blog so they can, hopefully, rectify the situation and remain a member of the network.

We are not going to require our members to place the widget at the very top of their blogs or put it in any specific location. However, it’s common sense that if someone places the widget where normal visitors aren’t going to see it much, that they will achieve poor widget performance — and will most likely be removed from the network.

DO YOU HAVE THE WIDGET PLACED REALLY LOW ON YOUR BLOG?

If so, you need to move it higher on your blog to give it better placement.

Don’t want to do that? THEN PLEASE REMOVE IT COMPLETELY.

As I said, BlogRush was designed as a FAIR system. There’s a reason it was created as a COOPERATIVE network. It’s so its members can work together to generate more targeted readers for their blogs.

But this system doesn’t work if all members aren’t contributing at least somewhat equally. Why should any member give the widget high placement if other members are not going to? And yet those other members stand to receive the SAME REWARDS? It’s just not fair and, therefore, we have no choice but to make this change.

So any member that’s only willing to put the BlogRush widget at the very bottom of their blog isn’t a member we want in our network — and our network will deliver more traffic, per member, without them.

UPDATE: We’ve heard from several members that are unable to give the widget higher placement because of their narrow blog design. We’re trying to create a solution.

OTHER THINGS WE’RE WORKING ON…

We’ll be adding more features and additions beyond this giant Phase 2 roll-out. More customization options for the widget. New syndication methods and features for generating even more traffic. And much, much more.

And, oh yeah, there’s also the upcoming release of TrafficJam.com that instantly benefits all members of BlogRush — but we’re not quite ready to let the cat out of the bag on that one.

Stay tuned.

SPECIAL NOTE: This major Phase 2 roll-out is taking a bit longer than we originally expected, but we hope to have it completely released within 7 days. Thanks to everyone for their patience — I told you it would be worth the wait.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that people are now making videos about me (and BlogRush) like they do for Britney Spears.

Actually, I think these videos are hilarious. They are so silly they are actually really funny — especially if you have seen the original Chris Crocker video here that all these are spoofs of. That original Britney Spears video was viewed over 10 MILLION times (there are many versions of it) in less than a week. Truly insane viral marketing.

A couple of Internet marketers decided to make their own versions of this Britney Spears video… they’re pretty funny. Even, though, some people might think they’re ’stupid’ it’s interesting to note, from a marketing perspective, that these guys are getting a lot of free traffic just from others passing them around. (Something to think about.)

I am definitely a HUGE fan of VIDEO MARKETING. It’s obvious that it’s the future of the Internet. In the near future if your business isn’t using video of some kind you will be at a major disadvantage to your competitors.

Here are those videos… one from David Ledoux and one from Dr. Mike… enjoy!

Leave John Reese Alone! Blog Rush Is A Human Being! - Funny videos are here

UPDATE at Friday, October 5th. 9:12AM EST. We are rolling out piece-by-piece of the NEW Beta V2.0. It’s going to take a few more days until the completely new network is online. Thanks for your patience. Thank you.

STATS ARE BACK UP! We’ve enabled some temporary account summary statistics that appear at the top of your Dashboard. This was a “quick fix” for now as we are preparing to roll-out BlogRush Beta v2.0 and an entirely new Dashboard and network by the end of the week. (Thanks for your patience!)

All BlogRush “Dashboard” statistics modules are currently offline for all users. We had to take them down temporarily as we are rolling out a “system-wide” upgrade to the Dashboard (it will have more charts, graphs, and data reported).

And 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!)

We’re also applying the first wave of our new security measures.

So we’re doing some massive upgrades to the system and we’re dealing with a lot of data — so this isn’t some simple “upgrade.”

Please rest assured that everything else is functioning normally — referral activity, syndication credits, syndication impressions/clicks, etc.

We hope to have the new Dashboard up and running as soon as possible. Right now we estimate it will possibly take until the end of the weekend. I’ll post more news as soon as it becomes available.

For now, ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

UPDATE: Many people are asking if they can repost this letter on their blogs. The answer is “YES” that’s fine but please make sure to leave the entire letter intact. Thank you.

This is a “letter” I just sent to all BlogRush members. It contains some very important BlogRush developments so I wanted to be sure and post it on the blog also.

Many ISPs have email delivery issues and not all emails go through so I wanted to make sure everyone will read it, if possible..

TO: All BlogRush Members
FROM: John Reese, Founder of BlogRush

ARE YOU READY? Because *everything* is about to change. Forget everything else up until now…

PREPARE FOR *BIG* CHANGES! (TWO MAJOR CHANGES ARE NOW LIVE.)

BlogRush CAN’T EXIST if we’re not sending you a lot of ongoing, targeted traffic. We fully recognize this and that’s why this is our ONLY FOCUS.

The BlogRush team has been hard at work making major improvements for you and we won’t rest until BlogRush is running 100% smoothly and sending you tons of targeted traffic! This is OUR MISSION. Please know that our entire team is working around-the-clock to make improvements and fix any problems AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.

(We sincerely appreciate your patience.)

We’ve encountered some problems since our historic launch just over a week ago, and we fully recognize that we’ve made some real ‘goofs’ with the system for our Public Beta release…

For example, our data center provider (one of the largest in the world) had a short, temporary outage (they had to replace a network switch) two days after our launch. We had no control over this outage but want to SINCERELY APOLOGIZE to those that saw this message on their blogs (where the widget should have been):

“We are currently experiencing some technical issues and the site will be back online shortly. Please come back in a few minutes.”

We were completely *EMBARRASSED* when we realized this happened. That simple message was part of our application code and was meant to appear only on *OUR* WEB SITE PAGES if we ever experienced an outage. This was accidentally ‘marked’ to be a global error message for ANY outage — including if our widget ever had a problem loading. This was a major GOOF and we’re willing to admit it. Our code was planned so that in the case of a problem with our widget, NOTHING WOULD LOAD in its place. So a visitor to your blog doesn’t see an error or anything wrong should the widget ever have any technical issues.

This was quickly corrected and is now working properly. Should the widget ever have any problem loading in the future, your blog will be served a transparent space (which will show whatever background your blog design has) and your blog readers won’t really notice anything.

Again, our sincere apologies for our major goof. It was quite embarrassing.

NOW ONTO SOME SERIOUS ISSUES…

We also realize that we completely underestimated the number of unethical people that would sign up and proceed to CHEAT and try to ‘game’ the BlogRush system. These cheaters ruined the click-rates of many of our members (and burned through a lot of their credits using automated ‘exploit’ methods) and hurt BlogRush’s ability to send maximum traffic to our honest members’ blogs.

BUT ALL OF THAT IS ABOUT TO BE ERASED… LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED.

In the next several days to come, we’re going to be rolling out MAJOR changes to BlogRush. BIG changes. And these changes (again) have just ONE primary purpose — to drive more ongoing, targeted traffic to your blog.

We’ve listened to your valued feedback and constructive criticism and we have been working in TURBO MODE to make the changes you want ASAP…

—– HERE’S WHAT’S COMING IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS —–

100% MANUAL BLOG REVIEW.

Our team is going to be manually reviewing every single new blog that registers to participate in the BlogRush Network.

We’ll be applying some quality guidelines and criteria to our decision-making process. (We’ll be publishing these guidelines very soon.) If a blog does not meet our guidelines and criteria, THEY WILL BE REJECTED from the network and not allowed to join — i.e. they won’t be able to serve our widget, refer other users, or have their blog posts distributed across our network. They will have no access to any BlogRush services.

Our members, like YOU, made it LOUD AND CLEAR to us… BlogRush needs to only have members that have quality blog content — not blogs filled primarily with ads and other spammy looking JUNK.

The only accurate way we’re going to keep these junk blogs out of our network is to REVIEW EVERY SINGLE ONE BY HAND. And we’re willing to do it to protect the integrity of our network. I don’t care what it costs us to hire more people (if we need them) to review 100% of any blog trying to join our network. We will be reviewing ALL OF THEM from here on out.

* We realize that several non-English language blogs blatantly ignored our “ENGLISH BLOGS ONLY” warning on our Registration page. Rest assured, though, they’ll all be PURGED from the network when we do our QUALITY CONTROL AUDIT over the next several days (you’ll read about it in a moment).

As I’ve said several times before, BlogRush isn’t some passing “fad” or short-term service. We’re dedicated to building an incredibly valuable resources for bloggers FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.

We’ll also be doing a QUALITY CONTROL AUDIT of all of our existing member blogs. We’ll be reviewing every single blog that’s currently in our network (or that registers before the Manual Review Process becomes active.) And we’ll be completely *REMOVING* any blogs in our network that don’t meet our quality guidelines and criteria.

As you can probably tell by now, we’re not messing around. We have put a lot of hard work into the development of this service and we will continue to bust our butts to make it one of the best Internet services in the world. COUNT ON IT.

We’re also deploying several new Anti-Cheat measures to SHUTDOWN AND WIPEOUT the cheaters and unethical users that have abused our network. Sorry, crooks, but THE FREE RIDE IS OVER.

We’ll be dedicating an entire department to stay on top of any abusive behavior in our network. We believe that our new measures are going to instantly eliminate most, if not all, of our system abuse. It’s going to take us a few more days to roll-out all of these measures (and to complete our entire QUALITY CONTROL AUDIT) but rest assured, BlogRush is about to go through a major TRANSFORMATION.

And a quick word to any ‘cheats’ that might be reading this letter… it’s very possible that you may come up with something extremely creative that temporarily gets by us, but you should know something… IT’S NOT GOING TO BE WORTH YOUR TIME. And I’m not just talking about the tiny amount of traffic that you’ll receive before we shut you off.

You see, we have other plans in the works…

If you attempt to cheat or abuse our network in anyway, shape, or form, we will not hesitate to come after you. Our company is well funded and has plenty of resources. And we WILL use them to punish you to the fullest extent of the law (and civil court process). Oh, you think you can just hide behind some anonymous proxy IPs? Sorry, it’s not that easy. ANY reason you’d have to try and cheat the BlogRush network for traffic and any attempt you make to monetize that traffic will lead directly to your front door — whether it’s AdSense, any affiliate program in the world, any online pharmacy, porn site, casino… ANYTHING. We will follow the trail and it WILL eventually lead to you.

Our hard-working company provides the income for MANY families. As the CEO of our company, I take this very seriously. I HAVE TO. People that attempt to abuse or cheat BlogRush are affecting the livelihood of all my employees and their families. And I will do everything in my power to protect them — it’s MY DUTY.

So for all you cheaters that joined BlogRush and had your fun trying to siphon off some traffic, hopefully it was fun. And I’ll go ahead and make this statement right now… IF you were one of the people that has been cheating our network I’m going to give you ONE opportunity… quit now and we’ll pretend it never happened. I think that’s more than fair.

BUT… if you continue after this point, all bets are off. We WILL eventually discover what you’re doing, where you’re trying to send traffic, and we will prosecute you. I GUARANTEE IT. Sorry, but WE HAVE NO CHOICE NOW.

* If you’re one of our valued, HONEST users, I’m very sorry you even have to read stuff like that. I know it’s a waste of your time. Unfortunately, there are unethical people in this world that attempt to abuse and take advantage of others.

MOVING ON…

—- ALSO COMING SOON! —-

**** A LOT MORE CATEGORIES! ****

You asked for it, and you’re getting it!

We’re going to be greatly expanding our directory of categories to increase the relevancy of post links appearing in the widget on your blog — this will also increase click-rates (and traffic) for all members.

* Stay tuned over the next several days for more news about the addition of new categories.

AND…

**** IMPROVED REPORTING! ****

The current Dashboard stats are being under-reported for all users right now. This is the reason that users show discrepancies when looking at Google Analytics data (or other stats packages). We’re currently sending more traffic to our users than we’re reporting in the Dashboard because we are giving all users bonus credits everyday. We’ll soon be reporting all bonus credit activity so all the numbers will be accurate.

SPECIAL NOTE TO ALL LOW-TRAFFIC MEMBERS: In the near future we’ll be giving our low-traffic members (those that need more traffic the most) the BULK of our bonus credit allocations. You’ll get a ton more bonus credits than high-traffic members because you really need it. It’s only FAIR!

* Also we apologize to anyone that has seen a “negative” credit balance for their account. This is a minor bug that we’re taking care of. It doesn’t mean anything and you can just ignore it for now. We apologize for any confusion.

**** IMPROVED NETWORK DISTRIBUTION ****

A few of our users have noticed that they’re building up credits faster than the system is using them. This will eventually balance itself out as the network continues to “adjust” to the growth levels and traffic patterns of each category — because our network provides syndication distribution based on daily average “cycles” and then adjusts moving into the future; so it’s able to accurately predict how fast to use a certain user’s credits, etc. — as compared to just using them all “as fast as possible.”

—- AND HERE ARE *TWO* BRAND-NEW ADDITIONS THAT JUST WENT LIVE!!!! —-

**** BLOGRUSH “FLAVORS” ARE NOW ACTIVE!

You can go login to your account, click the “Settings” tab and then select “Flavors.”

You can choose from (13) different widget colors. You no longer have to only use our original “black” widget design that many users thought was ugly! (Hey, just don’t let our lead designer hear that… he thought his black design was “really cool.”)

Now you can select a color that more closely matches the look of your blog. Our users have been asking for this since we launched our Public Beta, and we’ve taken action to offer these new options.

* We have future plans for further widget customization but we’re working on one “stage” of improvement at a time! Please bear with us. We’re fully aware of the request for a more narrow widget as our current one doesn’t fit on some blogs. We’re trying to produce a solution and should have some news soon.

HERE’S THE BEST PART…

You don’t have to copy and paste new code to your blog. Just go to that “Flavors” section for your account, select the flavor you want, then hit the “APPLY FLAVOR” button. That’s it! Reload your blog in another browser window and take a look.

And if you want to see what a different flavor might look like, just pick another one, hit the “APPLY FLAVOR” button and reload your blog. PRESTO!

AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST…

***** BLOG POST CONTROLS *****

Under the “Settings” tab you’ll also find a new option called, “My Post Control.” Here’s what this awesome new feature does…

You can create POST FILTERS for your blog posts…

For example, you can add a keyword or phrase and create a new post filter. If you ever create a post on your blog (while you have that filter active — and you can add/delete them at anytime) that contains one of those keywords in the TITLE of your blog post, that post…

WILL *NOT* BE SHOWN ACROSS THE NETWORK. And you won’t use any of your syndication credits!

All bloggers post “off-topic” stuff from time to time, or short posts that don’t have a ton of great content. Well, now you can easily keep any of those types of posts from using your valuable syndication credits and from being shown across the network!

This is GREAT for you because now you can control exactly which posts of yours will be syndicated. This can help you maximize your CLICK-RATES and, ultimately, the traffic you receive from the BlogRush network. AND it can help retain NEW READERS for your blog (your ultimate goal that can grow your blog’s traffic on a day-to-day basis.)

Here’s Why…

By selecting which posts get syndicated (by simply adding filters right BEFORE you publish a post on your blog that you don’t want to be used; or having setup one well in advance) you can make sure that you’re only syndicating your BEST POSTS. The ones with top-quality content. Your posts that a new visitor to your blog will enjoy and be much more likely to make a “YES!” decision to become a regular reader for you!

AND OH YEAH, ONE MORE THING…

This is only the very beginning for BlogRush. We have so much great stuff in store for you! As I said at the beginning of this letter… we will continue to work VERY HARD to make improvements and add-ons with ONE PRIMARY FOCUS…

To drive more ongoing targeted traffic to your blog.

I want to personally THANK YOU on behalf of our entire company for your interest in BlogRush. We’ve received a lot of criticism from many bloggers on the Internet, and we’ll be the first to admit we’re not perfect and a lot of it was WELL-DESERVED.

But please know, we’re busy working around the clock FOR YOU. You have our word on it.

Now go login to your account and try out some of the new “Flavors” for your blog! And also start setting up some Post Control Filters so you can start maximizing your content syndication.

I’ll be in touch when I have more “news” to share. Thanks for reading this long letter. I had a lot to tell you about.

Best Regards,

John Reese, Founder of BlogRush