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By Kurt On October 31, 2008
4 Comments
I was so surprised when reading the email BlogRush sent me saying they are closing down the service for various reasons including security issues, spam, and low click through rates. But in my opinion, the most important factor is the lack of a clear business model to make it sustainable.
The concept behind it is creative, powerful, and easy to implement. It unites the blogsphere by connecting like-minded bloggers and utilizing their traffic to benefit each other. Readers are also being introduced to more topics of their interest in a simple way. This is really a win-win situation for bloggers and their visitors.
But BlogRush itself seems to have been left out. Everybody is talking about it and using it, but it did not bring monetary return. John said they wanted to benefit the users first before making money. Well, that’s really thoughtful and I really appreciate it. But I think that’s one of the most important reasons why they could not go on.
We bloggers won’t mind seeing a little ad on the widget for a free quality service that brings free traffic. Though the click rate really is low, they could have used the money earned to find out what the problems are and improve it.
In my mind the BlogRush widget is not only for the purpose of bringing free traffic, but also adding value to my blog content and indicating its quality. I still remember how proud I was when receiving the email notification saying my travel blog is accepted in the network. I know a lot of big names in the blogsphere are using it. It was really an encouragement to me and it really made my day. But sadly I have to say goodbye and remove the widget. I don’t know where to find a similar one to fill the blank.
Crazy ideas are popping up everyday in the blogsphere ever since the birth of blogs. Ideas like the one behind BlogRush are making the blogging world better each day in terms of interactivity, openness, multi-function, and quality. But a clear business model is no doubt very important to keep things going and improving.
Anyway, my sincere thanks to John and his team for their effort and the quality service they’ve been providing, and good luck to their continued journey and success in the online world!
Here’s the original message from John:
After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service. If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.
When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web. Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web. During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 Billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world; even up until the moment we closed down the service.
BlogRush didn’t grow without its fair share of problems — from security issues to abusive users trying to ‘game’ the system to much lower click-rates than expected. We also had some problems with trying to fairly control the quality of the network, and in the process made many mistakes in deciding what blogs should stay or go. All of these issues, ultimately, limited the service’s full potential.
Our team worked very hard to try and build a service that would truly help bloggers of all sizes get free traffic to their blogs. This was our primary focus. Not once did we ever try to monetize the service with ads or anything else. BlogRush never made a single penny in revenue. We wanted to be able to help our users FIRST and then worry about monetizing the service later. Unfortunately, the service didn’t work out like we had hoped. (It happens.)
I want to say “Thank You” to all of the great bloggers that at least gave BlogRush a test to see if it would work for them. We sincerely appreciate you giving the service a try.
We have received several offers & inquiries about acquiring BlogRush, but we are choosing not to go that route. While many might think this is crazy, we truly feel it’s the ‘right’ thing to do for our users. Believe it or not, it’s not always about the money. In fact, BlogRush will have lost a small fortune when it’s all said and done, and it was by choice. There were many things we could have done to monetize the service but we wanted to make sure it was going to benefit our users first.
Last but not least I want to say that I hope the failure of this service doesn’t in any way discourage other entrepreneurs from coming up with crazy ideas at 4AM (like I did with this one) and from “going for it” to just try and see if something will work. Without trying there can be no success. And as we all know, ideas are worthless without action. The Web wouldn’t be what it is today without entrepreneurs trying all sorts of crazy ideas.
On behalf of the entire BlogRush team, we wish the best of luck to everyone with their own blogs, ideas, and crazy ventures.
Sincerely,
John Reese
http://twitter.com/johnreese
Share your opinions and thoughts by commenting on the post. Thanks!
By Kurt On October 28, 2008
1 Comment
First off, I’m not reviewing a paid product. It’s a free ebook created by Yaro Starak, the famous pro blogger who makes $6,000 a month and growing from his blog. You can check out one of his blogs at www.entrepreneurs-journey.com.
Note the domain name for the blog. It’s easy to remember but hard to type, especially with the “-” in between the two words. And you must be careful typing “entrepreneur” because it’s very easy to have a typo. The domain name would be of low quality in the gurus’ eyes. But it belongs to one of the busiest blogs on the planet. See why you should care less about what most other gurus on the web are telling you and focus on the real stuff.
Yaro is one of the gurus. But instead of selling you products filled with free information gathered around the web, he teaches you the real stuff. The mindset, the strategy, the tactics, and the step-by-step blueprint. He tells you exactly how he makes money blogging. He gives you real life examples. You can find all of the above in his mind-blowing free ebook Blog Profits Blueprint, which is gimmick-free and loaded with not just useful information, but also the real thing.
Rest assured, you are not going to get rich from blogging just using tricks. You must view it as a business, from a higher ground. You must have a clear strategy and follow it using effective tactics. That’s exactly what Yaro will help you to achieve.
Download your copy of the ebook here if you haven’t done so. You’ll get what’s 10 times more valuable than most paid make money blogging products out there, for free!
By Kurt On October 24, 2008
6 Comments
The point of using Twitter as a marketing tool is to have a large list of followers who share similar interest, that is, your niche, and keep them updated about your blog content, promotions, or anything useful for them to stay following you and keep coming back for more.
I just registered at Twitter 2 weeks ago, I first tried to get followers by following others randomly and hope they could follow me back. This worked really bad as you can imagine. I got only 8 followers for several days of work. And I’m not sure if they fit into my niche. So I pondered and pondered, knocked my head on my keyboard, and come up with a way to get some targeted followers.
This is what I’ve done this morning. I searched the name of a leader in my niche, and found out he’s got well over 2,000 followers (which is not surprising at all), I clicked on the blue link that says “Followers” and got the total list of his followers. Then I kept clicking on the “follow” button under their username, until Twitter tells me I’ve reached the 2,000 maximum people that I can follow.
The point of doing this is that Twitter will send an email telling them that I’ve started following, and they are given the link to follow me back. I believe a good percent of people will follow me back once they are notified because that’s simply good manner. On top of that, these people share the same interest with me because we are following the same guy who’s been successful in this niche. This is much more targeted than searching randomly.
Though I don’t know how many people will start following me, but I’m pretty confident in this approach. I’ll wait for a few days and report back.
By Kurt On October 23, 2008
2 Comments
Yes, I feel frustrated. Working in front of my computer day in and day out. Writing articles, submitting to sites, posting on forums, commenting on other blogs, asking for linkbacks, reading ebooks, and waiting for traffic to come.
But it never comes.
What the hell am I doing wrong? My content is unique and helpful, my pages are optimized, links are increasing, why is traffic still can be counted using my fingers?
I am indeed frustrated because my work seems not bringing any return.
But I must deal with it I said to myself. The virtual online world is not any easier comparing with the real offline world because the web is a true reflection of it. There’s no easy way to achieve success without continuous effort. If I want to stop blindly believing the so-called gurus and falling into their money sucking traps, I got to work hard.
Do you think they really want everyone else to become as successful as themselves, as claimed in their endless guides, courses, blueprints, and all that crap? They won’t tell you the real thing because once they did, they’ll have the whole globe competing with them.
Then what’s the real thing behind their success? I guess the only way to find out is to… well, try. Do everything on your own, don’t outsource articles, don’t pay for installation, don’t ask somebody else to look up your own problems, because that way you’ll never learn.
Do it yourself. Find out the reasons why your effort is not paying off and continue. I guess that’s the only way.
Are you facing the same frustration at times as a blogger? Share it with me.
By Kurt On October 21, 2008
1 Comment
I’ve been using some of the most popular web 2.0 sites to generate traffic for my travel blog for about 2 months. Traffic is not flooded, but I’ve seen some good results using them and I’m sure there’s a huge potential if I put more time and effort into it. Now I’m going to share with you my experience getting traffic and backlinks using these sites.
1. Bookmarking
Bookmarking sites are getting extremely popular these days. Every serious online marketer is using them as a way of promoting their businesses and getting traffic. But sometimes it’s not possible to continue bookmark your pages to 20+ most popular sites separately each day. So that’s where this powerful website comes handy.
Open your account at OnlyWire, fill in your login username and password for the listed 19 bookmarking sites. If you don’t have accounts with the websites, just open one on each, it only takes around 20 minutes. Now drag one of the “save page” link onto your toolbar. Everytime you want to bookmark a page, just click on the link, type in some tags and a brief description (if you want), hit submit, your page is instantly bookmarked on all the 19 sites.
I haven’t checked how many traffic I receive from these sites but I believe it helps to get the word out and receive more pr backlinks. Plus, it only takes less than a minute, why not give it a shot?
2. Digging
I’ve been using Digg for some time now and have received a good amount of traffic for my blogs. Open an account with Digg, search for people in the same interest, add them as friends, and digg your pages. Everytime you digg a page, your friends will be notified. But you have to continue find active members to add as friends since a lot of them only check their accounts once in a month.
You can also find a handy little link icon on Digg’s homepage, drag it onto your toolbar, then you can digg your pages follow 3 easy steps.
3. Twittering
I just registered at Twitter one week ago and fell in love with it instantly. You can tell eveyone what you are doing at the moment in a couple of words or sentences, and embedd one of the widgets on your blogs so that your readers know what you are up to. It’s a great marketing tool if you have a lot of followers (similar as friends on Digg) who will be notified once you send out a message.
I’ve discovered some powerful techniques to let targetted audience follow you on Twitter. I’m implementing the techniques and will report back really soon.
That’s it for my Web 2.0 experience, share your thoughts by commenting on the post. 
By Kurt On October 20, 2008
2 Comments
Link building is extremely important for bloggers who want to make a full time income from their blogs, especially when Google gives more credit to quality one way backlinks. There are lots of free ways to generate one way links, such as commenting on other people’s niche blogs. But it could be very demanding to search for related blogs, check their page rank, read through the posts, and finally leave your comment with a link to your own blog. Comment Kahuna created by Jason Katzenback, Jason Potash and Marc Quarles is a very useful little tool to help you build one way backlinks fast.
It is no doubt one of the best, if not THE best free link building tool on the web. I’m not affiliated with the creators of the software in any way, I’m just expressing my gratitude to them by letting more fellow bloggers to be benefitted from their work.
The software perform search queries according to your keyword and return blogs in the niche from several sources. You can choose what types of blogs to appear in the results, such as Wordpress, Typepad, Drupal, Live Journal, etc. You can also specify minimum page rank to search for the blogs. It does the work in a second and you can start posting comments to the posts right away.
First create your profile with your author name, email address, and most importantly your blog url. Find the blogs with desired Page Rank. Fill your profile information with one click of the mouse and post your comments. Imagine the time saved using this tool. You can literally post to 100 blogs in an hour if you want. But in order to let the blog owners to approve your comment so that you finally get that backlink, you must follow the following tips.
1. Post quality comments
Instead of posting the same “great post, thanks for sharing, pls visit my blog at…” comment to a thousand blog, you should read the posts first, get a rough idea of the key points, and leave your own opinion. That way the blog owners are more likely to approve your comments, so that you get the backlinks.
2. Read fast by scanning
No need to read word by word, just scan the posts and note the key points. I usually read the first paragraph really quick, scan the body for key points, and read a little more carefully at the final paragraph because the authors usually summarize their points or give away some tips here. Then you can post your opinion about what the authors have said. No need to be long, just 1 or 2 sentences like “I totally agree with you on that quality unique content is essential for making money from blogs because nobody likes spam.” The whole process usually just take me less than 2 minutes.
3. Post on low Page Rank blogs
Apart from posting on high Page Rank blogs, you should also post on low Page Rank or “0″ Page Rank blogs because every successful blog starts from zero. Imagine the traffic and pr juice they bring you once they take off in the search engines!
4. Post more on Comment Luv blogs
Comment Luv enables your latest blog post to appear in the auto-approved comments. So apart from getting a backlink, you may also get traffic. Put more effort and time posting on these blogs, you’ll get more return for your time and energy.
That’s basically it. Download the software here if you haven’t done so. Continue building links using this tool for 2 or 3 months, you’ll see your pages climbing up in the SERPs.
By Kurt On October 18, 2008
No Comments
Back in August this year, after I said goodbye to that heart breaking blackhat community, I started my travel blog about the city I’m living in. I have thought about other topics that I could build a blog on, but I was not confident because I’m no expert in any of the topics I’m interested in. Then I thought, the city I’m living in just successfully hosted the 29th Olympics, there must be lots of people planning to come and visit. Why don’t I blog about the city? Then I started researching on the web for similar websites or blogs that are providing related information.
Like I have imagined, there are lots of it. The competition must be tough if I don’t have something new. I then recalled what a foreign visitor once said about travelling in the city in a TV show. He said he likes the fancy restaurants, the popular tourist attractions and all that stuff, but he prefers to experience the ordinary citizens’ life in the city. Their traditional residences, customs, recreation, and their unique way of life in general. That’s a good idea I said. Since I’ve been living in the city for over 8 years and I was sure there are loads of interesting stuff to write about. And as you may have imagined, there’s very little competition.
I bought an expensive camera and started wondering in the city and record the ordinary people’s life, which most online publishers tend to ignore. I tell my readers on the blog the hidden places to taste the best traditional food, the secret underground live rock shows, the benefits of our traditional sports, the best places to find bargain electronics, how to avoid falling into all kinds of traps, etc. Surprisingly, lots of visitors really liked it. A group of 21 foreigners from 13 countries even thanked me for the surviving guide I wrote about a major IT products market. I was so encouraged and worked harder to provide quality information.
I know I’ve taken the right route, but I wasn’t ready for a bigger surprise. Two offline magazine publishers contacted me on the same day and asked for permission to re-publish my articles on their websites and also in their paper magazines. I agreed and didn’t ask for any monetary compensation because I know apart from bringing me more traffic, the traditional media exposure will sure help establish my image as a unique travel expert of the city.
Now number of visitors of the blog is steadily rising every day and I continue to write quality articles and provide useful information. It becomes a routine to brain storm interesting topics to write, travel at the “forgotten” places, and record what I see representing the true life in the city. And I really fell in love with what I’m doing.
Among various lucky elements, I attribute the relatively fast success of the blog to quality content. Unique perspective, real insider information, and practical and personal views and experiences all add to the quality of the content.
Trust me, being unique and fresh in a useful way can do wonder in your journey to become a full-time blogger. Here’s to your success!
By Kurt On October 17, 2008
2 Comments
Writing articles is one of the most, if not THE most cost-effective way to establish your online presence, bring traffic to your websites or blogs, and make money online. Your visitors will love you for providing useful information in your articles and become loyal readers, and finally, customers. If your articles are well-written, it is very likely that the ezine or even offline magazine publishers will pick it up and bring you endless traffic.
Writing articles is not as hard as you may think. You don’t have to be an English Literature graduate to write effective articles. Below are 5 helpful tips to get you started.
1. Write from your own experience and knowledge.
Always relate your topic to your own experience and knowledge. Tell your readers what you know about a topic and share your opinions. Explain from your own perspective. That way you won’t worry about what to write. For example, there are hundreds if not thousands articles on writing articles. But this one you are reading is not identical to any one out there because I’m writing it from my own experience. I’m explaining how to write effective articles from my own points of view. I never run out of things to write about because I have so much to share with you from the bottom of my heart. Don’t repeat others because telling your readers what YOU know about the topic is what blogs are about.
2. Don’t worry about fancy words.
Writing for blogs is completely different with writing for your dissertation or a masterpiece in literature. Providing useful information and share your thoughts using easy to understand, down-to-earth, and day to day language. That way your readers will learn what you are talking about in a time-saving and effective way. Remember, there’s never a need to show off your encyclopedia language skills in your blogs.
3. Make it a conversation.
Imagine you are talking to your friends on msn or writing them an email. Write your articles in the style of conversation. This is a very powerful hint to make your article stands out from the boring illustration of figures or no-life promotional sales copies. Always have your readers’ needs in your mind as if they are asking questions in front of you. Then provide that information as if you are answering the questions.
4. Use bullet points.
Start your title like “5 Tips on…” or “10 Reasons Why…”, this way your readers will have a rough idea of how much information they are going to find in your article. Instead of wasting time locating your key points in an ever ending cluster of words, tell them your main points by listing them using bullet points or numbers and bold them. If your readers don’t have enough time to read from word to word, they still can understand your points by just scanning the bolded sentences.
5. Follow the Flow!
There’s no need to research on a topic you already know about for a month to write an article. No need to plan everything like you are drawing up a conspiracy. Just follow the flow of thoughts in your head. I don’t have an idea about how many tips I should tell you in this article because they are countless. I just naturally follow my mind because I believe the first ones that pop up in my head when I decide on the topic are the ones that matter the most from my perspective. I also find it hard to stop some time after starting writing, even on topics that I may not have in-depth knowledge about. That’s the power of the flow!
Ooops, just 2 more powerful tips from the flow: let your personality shine in your writing, and don’t worry about if someone’s gonna like your writing or not!
Tomorrow I’ll talk about how I managed to have 2 offline magazine publishers to re-publish my articles from my other 2 month old travel blog. Stay tuned.
By Kurt On October 16, 2008
1 Comment
Getting unique quality content for your blogs is one of the most important factors to determine success. However, lots of blog owners are either not passionate about writing, or find it hard to turn what’s in their mind into words. That’s where the gurus come in to sell you various software programs claiming the sweet little scripts can write on any topic for you in a second. Some charge a one time fee, some are subscription based. Continue reading and see why you should not trust these software programs.
I personally have tried out several article writing software programs because I was searching for a way to write on things that I don’t have a lot of knowledge or expertise about, when the time I was trying to make $100 a day from 100 blogs. I soon gave up as you can imagine, writing articles for even just 10 blogs is impossible, even with the help of the software programs.
Most article writing software programs work in the same way. They first perform a search query for the keyword you type in on several search engines, gather related information, and stick them together to make them into a whole piece. It looks nice at first glance, but when you start reading you will find it unbearable to continue. The information is scattered, covers various areas on the same topic, and has no logic through out. In order to make the piece unique enough to pass Copyscape, some software programs have the function of spinning the articles by replacing certain words and phrases with synonyms, which make the articles even more unreadable for the words and phrases have lost their original meaning in the context.
Imagine the consequence of putting up articles like these to your blogs. Maybe the search engines will index fast for the content is unique to the robots’ eyes. But your human readers will soon be put off. You are only hurting your business.
Instead of trusting the gurus’ ad copy (believe me they are really pros in persuading you buying their products that never deliver), you must write yourself! Don’t worry about your writing skills. You are not creating a masterpiece in literature, you are just providing useful information. Write in your own style from your own experiences and expertise, that way your readers will love you for the information you provide, and more importantly, your honesty and sincerity.
Tomorrow I will talk about how I learned to write in a fast and effective manner, and enjoy myself along the way.
PS. You may not know that I’m not a native English speaker. I’m from China. I’m confident in writing in English, why can’t you? So stop believing in the gurus and seeking help from software programs, start writing on your own!
By Kurt On October 15, 2008
1 Comment
Make money blogging is all about quality. You don’t need to be professional in writing or web design, but you have to provide real value to your readers if you are serious about success in the online world. Lots of factors determine a quality blog, and it varies depending on different niches and the character of the blog owners, but there are 3 factors that matter the most.
Unique Content
“Content is king”, we all heard that. But in the online world, it should be more specific: unique content is king. Google loves unique content, as well as your readers. One of the reasons that people are tired of the traditional media forms such as TV and newspapers is that a great part of the content is duplicate, especially for news. It is a fact that duplicate content does not do well in the search engines. And from a quality perspective, it undermines your role as a blogger who is supposed to be knowledgeable in certain topics that your blogs talk about. Also use graphics, animations, and videos where you see fit. They all contribute to the quality of a blog’s content.
Updating Frequency
Different with traditional websites, blogs live! They breathe, and they have heart beats. In order to make them live you need to put fresh content on a regular basis. Especially during the early stages of blogs, at least one post per day is a must. Google loves frequently and regularly updating blogs, especially those focusing on specific niches and has unique content. Use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin for WordPress, every time changes occured in your blogs, i.e. a new post or widget, the major search engines are immediately notified, and spiders will soon follow. Frequently update your blogs (not too frequent though), the spiders will make it a habbit to visit your blogs. So will your readers.
Interactivity
Another important advantage of blogs is the ability to interact with your readers. Reply to comments posted by your readers, answer their questions, feel their concerns, and become friends with them. Encourage your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed so that they will be notified with new posts or send them weekly newsletters with useful tips and resources. Give them the ability to share your content on bookmarking sites and social networking sites use simple widgets such as Share This. Your blog turns into a live community and that’s where the real money is when you establish the trust with each other.
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