Why CLIQ May Kill BlogRush

When BlogRush was released to the masses, it became the next best thing for bloggers since Akismet. BlogRush claimed it would provide it’s users with a RUSH of traffic from relevant blogs through the use of a widget. This widget would display your blog posts via credits earned by displaying posts from other blogs through the widget on your own site. The truth is, neither I or many others witnessed the RUSH in traffic that was almost guaranteed to those who used the service. If you’d like to see my results that came along with BlogRush, please read an earlier post I made called Is The BlogRush Over With?

After reviewing CLIQ and what that service had to offer, it dawned on me that this service could potentially wipe BlogRush off the map. Here are the reasons why.

Full Control:

With BlogRush, you have no control over which posts are displayed on the widget. You can only control what DOESN’T show up. You also have no control over who displays your blog posts.

With CLIQ, you have full control over what will be displayed in the widget. You also have the ability to make your group private so that members can only join if you accept their request, or if you manually invite them.

Relevancy:

BlogRush does provide a FILTER list that allows you to create WORD or PHRASE based filters so that you can sort of control which posts are displayed or not but when you think of all the posts your going up against within a widget that only has 5 spaces, the filters become less of a factor. BlogRush maintains a category based organizational system. Without knowing how many blogs are actually within this category, it’s hard to judge how much competition you’re actually up against. BlogRush also uses an algorithm to detect relevancy between the blog, category and blog post title.

Because CLIQ provides you with an option to make your CLIQ invite only, you can essentially control how relevant the content will be within the widget. That is, if you only invite members that post similar or close to similar content, your going to have a relevant widget that contains blog postings that your visitors and the visitors of your member blogs will have a higher probability of clicking.

Creating Your Own Niche Network:

Users have no way of creating networks within BlogRush. Your essentially at the mercy of the BlogRush algorithm to determine when your blog post fits the right criteria to be displayed next to 4 other entries.

By creating your own CLIQ, you have the ability to invite high traffic blogs into your group. Each blog that joins your CLIQ is a referral. CLIQ administrators can set unofficial TRAFFIC requirements for CLIQ memberships meaning, you can determine what amount of traffic a blog has to gain and refer in order to maintain membership. This produces competition amongst the members to drive up their own traffic which in turn, benefits the group as a whole.

Conclusion:

If you haven’t picked up on the theme yet, as a user of BlogRush, your essentially at their mercy versus CLIQ which gives you total control. Why rely on BlogRush to provide you with a lackluster rush of relevant traffic based on algorithms when you can do it yourself and reap the benefits? Sure, the CLIQ method revolves a little more in the way of work, but hey, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Bloggers won’t be benefiting from BlogRush anytime soon unless your JohnChow. So do yourself a favor, ditch it and go for something you can control and manage yourself.

CLIQ is what BlogRush should of been and I’ll leave it at that.

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know by leaving a comment and contribute to this conversation.

The Truth Behind The Digg Effect

Chris Brogan, a social media maven, has published an article on his blog that goes into detail about his experience with the so called “Digg Effect“. Chris provides a visualization which shows the surge in traffic he received when he reached the Digg front page. What happened as a result? According to Chris, NOTHING. His RSS subscriber base didn’t increase, nor did the initial traffic to his site which is the basis for this post. Bloggers and site owners alike believe that getting on the front page of Digg is like striking gold, unfortunately this is not the case.

I’m not saying that being on the front page of Digg is a bad thing, but there is something you have to realize. The type of traffic that Digg sends is the “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” type of traffic. And while were talking about this sort of traffic, the same thing can be said for Stumbleupon, Sphinn, and Propeller. I’ve read so many blog entries that covered their own surge of traffic and the similarities between all of them are the same. No one sticks around, no one subscribes to the RSS feed, and the site that was once popular ends up returning to the shadows of the web.

A blogger or site owner should be looking to grow their reader base and that won’t happen by getting on the front page of Digg or any other major social bookmarking site. There is the argument where if you appear on these sites multiple times, there is a more likely chance of gaining quality traffic. I wouldn’t consider the digg effect to be called quality traffic, but I do think that by receiving this fly by night traffic, your building brand awareness. Your brand being your site and it’s a golden rule that REPITITIVENESS works.

The gist of what I am trying to say is to not rely on Digg, Stumbleupon or any other website to provide you with traffic. Instead, write good quality content. Good quality content does the job of so many other facets of blogging. Good quality content creates links, conversations, interactivity, spawns relationships, builds your brand and does so many other positive things for you, that if I were to write a book on SEO, it would contain one page. That one page would simply say, WRITE QUALITY CONTENT.

Tell me what you think in regards to this issue. I’d be very interested in your opinion.

BTW. Hello to all of you STUMBLING across this post. Are you here to prove me wrong?

Is The BlogRush Over With?

When I initially became aware of BlogRush and it’s associated claims of rushing traffic to blogs, I became extremely interested. As a blogger myself, I’m always looking into new ways to generate traffic. As we now know, BlogRush has itself experienced a rush, a rush that I believe is bigger than any smalltime blogger currently using their widget, has experienced. Their system is simple and at face value looks like it would work for everyone, but after reviewing my stats, it looks like it won’t work for me.

Out of 2,401 impressions or appearances on various sites, only 4 people have clicked a headline attributed to my site. If you ask me, that’s not exactly a rush of traffic. Now I know it could be possible that the headlines to my articles suck, but is that really the case? My blog is currently competing within the Computers and Internet category and I myself have clicked on a few of the links within the widget on and have found some really cool sites. However, till this day, I have yet to see any of my posts appearing on anyone else’s widget. I even spent half an hour, clicking on various posts from one widget to the next, and I never saw one post from my site.

It’s also worth mentioning that I have checked both my Entry pages, and my Exit pages for the widget url. As we’ve seen earlier, at least 4 people have used the article headline on the widget as an entrance page to my site. However, there are 25 hits for the widget url being used as an exit page. Although I don’t know how many of those exits are attributed to myself, I really feel as if I’m doing everyone else a favor, by having this widget published on my site versus helping myself out.

The only people that seem to be benefiting from this service are the big blogs who most likely have quite a few referrals. BlogRush has stated in their latest email that:

We’ll soon be adding a bonus credit system that gives certain bonuses only to our low traffic members since they need the help the most!

That may be enough to help us small timers out, but only time will tell. So far, I’m experiencing lack luster results with BlogRush and apparently, these people are too although I’m not sure why Darren is using Blogrush as his blog gets enough traffic as it is.

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Web 3.0 Dead Already?

I just finished reading a very thoughtful post written by Bill Snyder, A Preemtpive Strike: Death to Web 3.0 (and 2.0 while we’re at it). In his post, he makes quite a few valid points. One of those points is the fact that companies abroad are jumping aboard the web 2.0 bandwagon. It doesn’t matter what the company does, or what the company sells, that company needs a social network, and a Twitter user account even if they have no clear understanding as to why. As I have stated in numerous other conversations, social-networking is out of control but the good news is, the users themselves will determine which ones stay and which ones fall by the wayside.

Bill also makes another excellent point about the definition of web 2.0. Is web 2.0 one thing, or is it a series of concepts? I tend to agree with Bill in that the term describes a series of concepts. Since the web 2.0 O’Reilly definition was published, users have been coining the term Web 2.0 as a variety of different things. Whether it be the use of AJAX, website design or social-networking. Has anyone ever tried to explain what Web 2.0 is to a noob? It’s practically one of the hardest things on earth to describe because everyone has a different sense as to what it actually is.

Bill also states that Web 2.0 did not replace Web 1.0 and the web is not based on version numbers. Tim, I think your related to Bill! In any case, if you dissect a number of websites, web based applications, and quite honestly, anything that is related to web 2.0, it’s quite obvious that the web is still the web and the underlying code is still the same. So why are we still using the term web 2.0?

The whole point of defining Web 2.0 was to figure out where we are. Unfortunately for those who like buzzwords, we are everywhere. The whole point of discussing Web 3.0 is to figure out where we are going. Well, here’s the news: We’re not all going to the same place, and that is the beauty of this medium (or perhaps these mediums). The possibilities are endless and will continue to defy labels. We are just at the beginning of this “internet thing,” and what comes next is going to be many things — some will die anonymous deaths and others will change the very nature of the way we communicate.

I couldn’t agree with you more and I am definitely looking forward to what lies beyond the horizon of the web, however it will be described or defined.

Full Feed Or Partial Feed That Is The Question

An interesting debate is taking place on Problogger.net That debate centers around the question of whether or not your RSS feeds should be partial or full. Gina from Lifehacker argues for Partial feeds while Rick from Feedburner argues for Full feeds.

The argument I hear most often when it comes to partial feeds is that, the partial content serves as a teaser and is used to get the user to click on the article link to visit the actual page where ads are waiting to be clicked. Most content authors think that by providing a Full RSS Feed is the same as giving away their content for free which then, can not be monetized because users will never visit their site.

After reading the argument presented for both sides, I am going to have to side with Rick Klau from Feedburner.com He presents a number of points that are really worth considering. Some of the points Rick mentions include:

If you just include a sentence or two of a post in a feed, you’re asking the reader to click through to read the rest of the post – when the actual substance of the post is not at all obvious from those first few sentences.

It should be noted that in feeds who’ve compared full and partial feeds, we’ve seen no hard evidence suggesting that partial feeds alone increase the clickthrough rate.

full posts also contain far richer information within the posts – hyperlinks – that can be exploited by services like TechMeme, Technorati, and other RSS-aware services. Partial posts rob readers (and automated services) of that context, as the hyperlinks themselves aren’t included in the partial posts.

While it’s easy to see which side of the fence I’m on in regards to this issue, it has to be noted that partial feeds make sense for specific situations. For example, some publishers do not have the proper licensing rights to publish the full text of an article.

Most feed readers now a days give users the ability to choose how they want to view their subscriptions. The options are typically Full Text, Partial Text, or headlines only. I’ve always told other users of Feedburner to set their Feed to display the full post which would cater to everyone. Let the user decide if they want to see only a partial post or not.

To read the debate and decide for yourself, be sure to read Full Or Partial RSS FEEDS – The Great Debate

Which Class Of Twitter Users Are You In?

Chris Brogan has published an interesting article where he reviews his use of Twitter and comes up with a few different classifications of Twitter users.

Out of the different classes of Twitter users that Chris presents, I have determined that I am within the Announcers vs. Conversationalists class.

Announcers vs. Conversationalists

This is a current hammer-target for Eric Rice. He’s railed out about people (including me) using Twitter as a promotion engine. I understand this, insofar as some people do nothing but twitter links to their blog posts, their flickr pictures, and whatever else turns them on. (Note: I will Twitter that I posted this article when I’m done writing it).

But conversationalists know to use a mix. They talk with other Twitter users, using the @ function to make sure people see the threaded conversation. They engage with the flow of people twittering around them, building a social sculpture, and engaging in what Jeff Pulver calls amorphic communications. Conversationalists reach into Twitter and move people back and forth.

In the beginning, Twitter was a social networking tool that I believed I could use as a promotional stepping stone for my blog. I added all sorts of people to my friends list because I knew, most people would end up following me simply because I chose to follow them. After using Twitter for a few months now, I have changed my way of thinking. I still use Twitter as a tool to share postings on my blog that I think are good conversation starters, but I also participate in conversations with those I follow. I’m also beginning to follow only those people that I actually have an interest in.

I’m currently being followed by 54 people while I’m actually following 84 people. I wonder just how many of those that are following me actually give a damn as to what I post on Twitter. I am also starting to wonder if I should delete everyone that I am following and start over from scratch. Now that I have a sense as to the correct way of using Twitter as a social tool, I think I should either start over, or I should fine tune my friends list.

Thank you Chris Brogan for the inspirational post. It’s really made me step back and realize how and why I’m using Twitter.

If you enjoy what I write on this blog and you have an account on Twitter, consider adding me http://twitter.com/jeffr0 I need more social-media, social-web, web2.0 people to converse with. Outside of the Internet, no one has a freaking clue about Web 2.0 or any of the cool stuff going on in the Cyberworld.

Is Tumblr Dead?

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Tumblr, the service that makes publishing to your blog a breeze seems to be showing signs that the service is dead. Granted, there have been no official announcements and the following is only my opinion based on observations that anyone can make. Upon visiting the official blog for Tumblr, the last post to be published – Tumbling Towards 2.0 was back on April 27, 2007.

The post goes on to describe the development of Tumblr 2.0 and what to look forward to. Since today is August 28th, many Tumblr users are beginning to scratch their heads, wondering what is going on. Take a look at the comments on their last blog entry and you’ll see users are already starting to ask if Tumblr is dead.

No one seems to know where Tumblr is heading. Wouldn’t that be interesting if Tumblr, tumbled into it’s own demise? As I said, it’s not for certain if the service is dead or not but all of the signs I’ve seen point to that observation. What do you think? Am I just blowing smoke?

*UPDATE* It would appear as though I’m not the only one who has brought this subject up within the past few days. Amit published a post a few days ago where Marco, a Tumblr team member responded to his post with the following comment:

Tumblr and Davidville are both doing great and we’re hard at work on Tumblr’s next release. We’ll have something to say on the blog when it’s ready, I’m sure.

This is not the Tumblr forum – it’s my personal site. Official Tumblr news will never be posted here.

But your comment is duly noted. Thank you.

Reader Feedback Answered

Mark, an email subscriber, emailed me some feedback in regards to this site. He also asked me a question which I decided I would answer in the form of a blog post.

Hi Jeff,

I’m very much enjoying your blog. Very educational and “present”. I’m curious how you got into this game and if this is a full time gig for you. Continued success to you :)

Cheers, Mark.

Well, to tell you the truth Mark, I’ve been blogging since 2004 but only recently have I decided to take things a bit more seriously. I use to post on a blog located on the EFx2.com network which I somewhat consider to be the WordPress before there was WordPress. Back in 2004, I used the blog to share things that were going on in my personal life such as photographs, news and events, recent trips I took and various other musings. I essentially used the blog as a diary for a long time.

In late 2006 into 2007, I decided to concentrate on sharing my thoughts on general news items I was discovering across the web. I would merely post a quote of the article, include my thoughts and then provide a link to the article in question. This formula worked rather well as there always seem to be a few comments left on every post. This eventually bored me. In early 2007, I decided that somehow, someway, I was going to break away from the self serviced blogging platform and do things on my own. I just didn’t know exactly what my niche blog was going to be about.

Then, one night in Talkshoe, I was participating in a LIVE podcast when I met Pete Balasch JR, otherwise known across the net as xyour925job. We started discussing various topics during the show such as SEO, blogging, web2.0, ect. Pete told me that there were quite a number of people who still didn’t understand what Web 2.0 is. He suggested that I start a blog around the topic of Web2.0 to see where it would take me. Up until this point, I watched the Web 2.0 space from the sidelines, never really caring about what was coming out of the gate next. I had a general idea as to what Web2.0 was all about, so after sharing a few of my ideas with the crowd, I ended up choosing the domain Jeffro2pt0.com My actual name is Jeff, but I think Jeffro2pt0 just has a nice ring to it. I just hope web3.0 doesn’t arrive sooner than later, or else I’ll look really outdated.

I purchased everything I needed during the month of May. That included a domain, hosting, and a few other tidbits. I had a general idea as to what I wanted to accomplish with the site and the way I wanted it to look, but I had no idea on where to begin. WordPress was suggested to me numerous times and even Pete suggested that I use WordPress, so that’s what I did. Initially, I couldn’t for the life of me, figure out the templating system within WordPress. I gave up and decided to use Joomla, as I had a good amount of experience with the CMS. I quickly realized, Joomla was too much of what I needed. I ended up giving WordPress a second try and since then, I have never looked back.

The first post published on this site occurred on June 4th, 2007 New Fan Of Tumblr Since then, I have provided a number of reviews on different sites and services, offered tips on blogging, covered various news items and plan on doing even more. This particular site has been online now for only 3 months, yet I am achieving personal milestones that I didn’t think I would achieve until much further down the road.

Concerning the advertisements. My blog is relatively new and at this stage of the game, I am trying to establish a reader base, aka an audience. Once I feel I have accomplished this and after I do some research into the different methods of monetizing a site, I will begin to dabble with those different methods to try and turn blogging into my second job, which is one of my goals.

It’s nice to know that folks are actually reading what I write. Makes me feel like I’m not wasting my time. Other than turning the site into a second job, my other major goal is to create a community of like minded users around the site using forums and other methods. Once I accomplish these goals, I’ll be in blogger heaven.

Thus the short answer to your question Mark. This is a part time gig with full time possibilities.

Web 1.0 And Web 2.0 Visual Differences

Sizlopedia has published an article which highlights the visual differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0. These differences are illustrated using a translated graphic, which simply shows how webmasters used to manage their website, compared to how webmasters of today manage their sites.

Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Visual Difference

The following questions were asked near the end of this article, Do you like the evolving web culture? Do you think that web 2.0 has helped users get more interactive or do you think it is just a propaganda term created to wipe out the old web standards?

I think web 2.0 has created a ton of opportunities. Ideas are turning into reality for many people and because of web 2.0, the barrier to entry is practically nil. Of course, the barrier to entry or lack thereof could be considered a drawback.

At any rate, I think social-networking is out of control and we are being deluged in web 2.0 startups on a daily basis. I think it will alright though, considering the market aka userbase will determine which of these startups stick around for the long haul, or which ones will die off.

Be sure to read Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0: The Visual Difference

How Would You Explain RSS?

Theres been an interesting conversation going on within the comments section of a piece of news that I clipped the other day. I clipped a section of a WinExtra article titled, New media isn’t as big as it thinks it is In this article, Steven points out that new media is still in it’s infancy. So much so, that anyone outside of the early adopters crowd most likely doesn’t have a clue as to what RSS is, let alone Vlogging, twittering ect.

The fact is that this whole new media thing is still so much in its infancy that trying to explain what RSS feeds are let alone how to use them to Auntie May who thinks that the Internet is Google is incredibly hard to do in plain English.

Then you throw things like podcasts and vlogging into the mix and you start seeing a whole bunch of deer caught in the headlight looks.

I tend to agree with your points Steven. Thanks to your article, another conversation was started centered around the question, How would I explain RSS to someone?

Alanocu started it off with his response: I have been asked that same question about RSS and it’s not easily explained. The benefit is often not completely understood.

Tidbit2 had this to say: I find the best way to describe these technologies is just say what you can do with them. I don’t understand all the technical details but I use them and learn from what other people explain on the net

juliapatriciaroy followed up with: The only way I can explain RSS in a way that understandable is if I can sit someone down in front of my computer and show them how I use it and how easy it is. I bet it will be another year, even more, before people really start to pick it up. Frustrating, it such an easier way to consume information.

Let’s not let the conversation about this topic end here. Please leave a comment, telling us how you would explain RSS to someone such as your Grandma, Aunt or someone who is less, than web 2.0 savvy. As for myself, I would simply send them a link to Web 2.0 In Video Format and instruct them to watch the easily digestible RSS video. If the video doesn’t work, there may be no hope.

Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff

The Musings Of Jeff Chandler

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