If you’ve been “blogrushing” or just joined the gold rush on BlogRush, you’ve probably read some negative reviews on the service which can be lumped under three general statements:
1. That BlogRush is a pyramid scheme;
2. That spammers have joined blog rush;
3. That syndication credits are not being given;
As a new service that one observer said appeared to have been rushed, BlogRush — still in beta — still has some things to improve on which its creator, John Reese had tactfully admitted. On his post today at the Income.com blog, Reese answers the three main complaints enumerated above at the same time announcing new color templates for the BlogRush widget.
Reese explains math
In explaining the math behind the system, Reese says every single impression you serve on your blog is rewarded with your headline being displayed on another blog IN REAL TIME or “as it happens.”
In his own words:
There is no ?promise? of future rewards based on referral activity today. Each and every impression of the widget (and impression of the 5 headlines per widget) is rewarded AS IT HAPPENS. And when all the math is said and done, it also leaves 1 out of every 10 headline spaces left-over for BlogRush to use to monetize the service. So apparently some people think it?s all based on false promises that the network will eventually ?catch up? and pay rewards in the future. This just isn?t the case. Every single impression that occurs is calculated and rewarded to the generations ?above? ? that?s how the math has to work.
If you’re wondering what the jargon is all about, there is an item in the BlogRush FAQ which explains how the system works:
Syndication credits are earned based on the following formula: You earn credits on your own traffic using a 1:1 ratio. (One credit for each time the widget is served.) You then earn credits based on your referrals traffic (and their referrals traffic) through 10 generations of referrals based on the following ratios: 1st and 2nd generation (i.e. your direct referrals and their direct referrals) 1:1, 3rd – 6th generation = 1:4 ratio, 7th – 10th generation = 1:8 ratio. After all the math is calculated, there is a surplus of 1 headline space (5 spaces in each widget load) for every 10 that are served. So 10% of all the headline space is reserved for BlogRush itself to sell or use.
Reese was saying credits are not accumulated for future rewards, whether they are off your own site or your referrals; all credits are served in real time.
Low click-through rate
Today on Marketing Pilgrim, Andy Beal says he’s seeing “anything more than a handful of clicks from the BlogRush network and the service is still struggling to deliver the syndication credits it owes us.”
Meanwhile, David Lithman posted his three-day experience with BlogRush and published screenshots of his stats, showing zero clicks in 629 impressions.
Sandossu has impressive BlogRush stats — 44,000 credits, 15,000 impressions, but just 8 clicks.
Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs Journey posted his stats — an impressive referral network of 733 bloggers, and only 27 clicks in 11,466 impressions. He says: “27 clicks from 11,000+ impressions is a terrible click through rate, but I don?t think it?s fair to judge BlogRush too early.”
With popular blogs getting few clicks from tons of impressions, you could imagine the experience of small and struggling blogs. This leads to the question: Are the big getting bigger and small getting smaller?
Yaro said for most bloggers not sitting on top of the BlogRush food chain, like new blogs such as BloggingProfits, “you have to start somewhere.” Even if traffic from BlogRush comes in trickles, it still can bring a new loyal reader each day.
An alert message posted BlogRush members’ dashboards admitted “click- through rates are very low right now due to problems with some users cheating the system.”
On the complaint of spam, Reese said they are “working hard” to move to a Manual Review process in accepting new blogs into the system.
In conclusion, the hype that followed the beta launching of BlogRush has created a virtual gold rush Reese and his team may have not anticipated. Spammers and cheaters are now threatening to ruin the system, and this has resulted in low click-through rates. People are simply not clicking because blog posts being displayed on the widget link either to spam “adsense” sites or blogs with no other intent but to sell internet marketing products.
Also on blogosphere related to the BlogRush topic:
- How to buy blogrush credits -Patchlog reports that a blogrush domain name has been registered, and advertises on Adwords to get referrals
- Blogrush: 3 Days Later
- Blogrush – A lot of promises, thousands of impressions but low conversion
- Video: Is BlogRush Legit or a Scam?
- BlogRush Finally Adds Reports But Traffic is Very Poor
- BlogRush: 8 Reasons to Be Wary?and Optimistic
- BlogRush – Will It Increase Your Blog Traffic?
- BlogRush – The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer!!!
