I got my BlogRush account approve within 48hrs.
Below is an abstract of their email to me.* We have already rejected a lot
Sounds like boasting to me but I do believe that many blogs have registered to be part of BlogRush network. "Free" is indeed a very attractive factor.
of blogs (several thousand) that do
not meet our strict quality guidelines
and we will continue to enforce our
detailed criteria in order to protect the
integrity of our network.
Some comments:
- Their Dashboard is still under construction.
- I tried clicking on the links in BlogRush and some of them took a very long time to load - maybe its a sign that that the site is swarming with traffic or that there's a problem with BlogRush.
- As for the relevancy, it's still alright but I'm beginning to think that BlogRush uses the Blog Category that you select rather than your content for matching.
My personal blog was rejected, but my book directory wasn't.
BlogRush is using the data they get from clicks in widgets to rank sites and posts on TrafficJam.com. That is where they really plan on making their money.
You are correct about links being chosen by category rather than by page content.
The trick to getting any traffic through BlogRush is all in your post titles. If it grabs the reader, you'll end up with a "hot post" and be ranked higher on TrafficJam, which will send you even more traffic.
Cheers!
Derek
Twitter is fine, as long as you have a bunch of people following you that actually are interested in your content already, but isn't that what RSS is for?
What makes BlogRush different is that it brings in traffic that is interested in your content, and it is fresh traffic that isn't already your loyal followers.
BTW: I found your site through the BlogRush widget on my book site, so it does work. :-D
There is another issue to consider with some of these services: how your advertisers will perceive the traffic.
Google isn't in love with anything that artificially inflates your traffic stats and if the clickthru rate on adsense ads isn't what they think it should be for the amount of page impressions you have, they will pay you much less per click, or they may just suspend your account for fraud. Be very careful of things that increase your bounce rate. They don't like EntreCard or StumbleUpon for this reason.
If you have a blog with a loyal following, you might want to try Project Wonderful. In addition to making money by displaying ads, you can also take advantage of free advertising spots on many sites that have no minimum bid (bid $0 for 2 days, and as long as nobody outbids you, you will have your ad on that site)
A lot of people have had quite a bit of success with displaying Project Wonderful ads, but the ones that do generally have loyal visitors and not much of the type of traffic that comes from search engines.
And you have a choice with Project Wonderful: be an advertiser, a publisher, or both....so you can advertise your site for free and never have to put any additional ads on your site.
I agree that Entrecards don't really bring in quality traffic. I sort of gave up after a month or so.
I have never heard about Project Wonderful but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
Cheers!
Derek