I’m ready to go out on a limb and make a prediction about John Reese’s BlogRush. This post could have been titled…

BlogRush PSYCHOGRAPHICS - How Owners,
Bloggers & Readers View Blog Rush

But I chose the other title so I got my prediction out upfront. If you want to know my reasons, and get a ‘different’ review of the ubiquitous widget that’s popping up on hundreds of blogs literally overnight, read on.

You’ll find this interesting because it’s not about the Blog Rush tool, it’s about YOU… how you think and feel about BlogRush… as a blog reader, a blogger or (as you’ve likely dreamed of) as the owner of BlogRush himself.

As a non-techie person, what and how the widget does its target matching, and what scripting genius went into creating it matters very little to me. But as a marketing student, and someone interested in studying people, following the rise of BlogRush has been a fascinating experience.

The first question I asked myself is this:

What do people expect from BlogRush?

There are 3 groups of ‘people’.

#1 - John Reese and his team, the creators and owner of BlogRush. They hope that:

• by giving bloggers a way to drive targetted traffic to their blogs, they’ll get thousands, if not millions of blogs to display their widget
• by incentivizing bloggers with offers of even more traffic, they’ll get these bloggers to recruit even more into the fold
• by making it easy to install the widget, they’ll include even less techie bloggers in the network
• they’ll have a huge member base, they’ll delight them with a wonderful experience with the free tool, and this will lead to future business

#2 - Bloggers hope that:

• they’ll get free traffic
• by telling more people and recruiting them as members, they’ll get more of it

#3 - Blog visitors and readers:

• maybe notice the new widget that’s appeared on many blogs they visit
• in time, some will be curious about what those links are
• overall, it’s just one more thing to ignore (or is it?)

Having come up with this list, I then asked myself the next question.

Can (And Will) Blog Rush deliver on these promises?

Let’s begin with the blog visitors who are exposed to BlogRush on their favorite blogs. What happens?

To understand better, here’s a little background (from my own data). My average blog visitor spends 45 seconds on it, and returns once a week (again, on average).

Here’s how I see my typical (or ideal) blog visitor behaving on my blog with the BlogRush widget.

The first few times, they’ll notice the shiny new thing on the sidebar and wonder what it is. A few may even click on the links to see.

Soon, and especially after noticing it on multiple blogs, ‘banner blindness’ will kick in - and they’ll ignore it completely to focus on the blog’s content.

They’ll read, watch or listen to the blog content - and then, at the end, do one of 3 things:

• Read the next post - this happens without any effort on my part
• Look for more related content - maybe affiliate links or ‘related links’ presented at the end of my content
• Leave the blog and go somewhere else - and I’ve encouraged monetization of this process by placing Adsense ads at the bottom of my content block.

Ah, that’s a potential application for BlogRush, right? By placing the widget at the end of a post, I can give my visitors other options - and since the widget delivers relevant links targeted by the theme of my blog, these should add value to my reader.

EXCEPT…

I don’t have any incentive to do it - since BlogRush only rewards blog owners for ‘impressions’, not ‘clicks’.

I could get the same ‘traffic exchange’ credits and benefits from placing the widget right down at the bottom of my blog, or on the right side bar near the end where it won’t be obvious unless a visitor SEARCHES for it!

Hmm…

Ok, so if I go ahead anyway and make BlogRush visible easily, will a blog visitor really be interested in clicking on these links?

It depends on what kind of visitor sees it. Visitors to my blog, fall into 3 broad categories

• readers
• skimmers
• clickers

Readers spend, on average, 3 to 4 minutes on the blog. I assume they actually read my posts. For instance, if you’re reading this, you’ve already spent over 30 seconds here, and will read for another 2 or 3 minutes - if I continue to grip your interest.

Skimmers spend half to one-third as long. Maybe they look at post titles, read the first paragraph or two, and then go to the next item that grabs their attention.

Clickers come to my blog ready to leave. They do leave, unless I grab them by the eyeballs and hold them back… by being daring, outrageous, controversial, hilarious, or shocking.

And, very likely, this last group is the one that BlogRush will deliver TO your blog from other places in greatest proportion. It is also that group which will click OUT of my blog - if they can see the widget easily!

It’s obvious that ‘converting’ this crowd into taking action on your blog is the hardest of all three categories - so bloggers will have a real challenge with BlogRush traffic… unless your profit model itself is based on them clicking a lot of things on your blog (think Adsense or affiliate pay-per-click style revenue streams).

But wait, there’s more…

What about readers and skimmers? Won’t they click on BlogRush links too?

Of course they might - after they’ve had their fill of your content, as long as you’ve kept them hooked with valuable material, they’ll likely want to find other related links - and BlogRush will offer them.

And then, depending upon the links served up by BlogRush, 3 things could happen.

- The links may SUCK. And if they do, a blog reader who is disappointed a few times will stop clicking on links in it - ever again

- The links may be SO-SO. Again, that’s just as bad. A less than delighting user experience will not be rewarded richly

- The links may ROCK. And if they are overwhelmingly excited by what they find, blog readers will keep clicking on BlogRush links to find useful, entertaining, meaningful, relevant, exciting content - and maybe even make it their first-choice blog surfing tool!

Think it won’t happen. Think about GOOGLE in 1999.

I first started using Google as my first choice search engine for this very reason - they threw up relevant, helpful results in the top 10, when competing services like Yahoo and MSN Search were filled with junk results that took time to wade through. (Now, Google has become the same, sadly!)

And that’s POTENTIAL GOLD - for Blog Rush, as a concept.

If that early visitor experience using BlogRush can be made a delightful one that makes them go ‘WOW’, BlogRush could become the magic widget of the blogosphere.

Now, let’s step back from how blog visitors might perceive BlogRush, and see how bloggers and blog owners view this tool.

BlogRush promises a lot. Traffic. A lot of it. More, if you recruit a ‘downline’.

We’ve talked about what kind of traffic is likely to hit your blog through BlogRush. Now let’s see how MUCH of it you’ll get.

Marketing such a program to make it sound exciting is easy. The ‘10 level referrals’ make it possible to project huge numbers. It’s like if I gave you one gold coin today, and doubled it every day, you’d have a fortune bigger than Bill Gates in less than a month.

And ‘believers’ get carried away by the ‘coin every day’ myth, hoping all they have to do is install the widget on their blog and traffic will magically start pouring into it.

But who’s got the ‘gold coin’? And why would they give it to you?

BlogRush, in essence, is a traffic exchange. EXCHANGE. Not fountain, or spring, or gifting service.

You send it traffic - it sends you traffic BACK.

Which reads: He (or she) who has traffic gets MORE traffic.

I feel sorry for the hopeful blogger who is just starting out, and dreams of jumpstarting his blog readership by adding the widget to his sidebar - and then waiting for the flood to begin. There are better ways to get the initial burst going - I detailed many in the ‘How To Launch a New Blog - in 14 days’ tutorial.

Where’s the danger in this? After all, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, right?

Wrong. Bloggers are passionate. And passionate people can be VICIOUS - when things go wrong.

Many are being roped in by the dream of free, easy traffic. When they are let down (or even FEEL let down), I fear a backlash of ire across the blogosphere, all condemning the ‘dream merchants’.

Can BlogRush weather that storm and stand up to the hostility?

And then, there’s the ‘incentivization’ benefit from telling friends to sign up for BlogRush too.

It runs TEN LEVELS deep. Sounds exciting. And it is, if you’re one of the first 10 or 50 people to be telling the world about it.

Oh sure, you still ‘might’ hook a big blogger in your ‘downline’ - but don’t count on it. Plus, there’s a definite upper limit to this… until the widget has proven it’s value, not in terms of traffic delivery but in DELIGHTING READERS.

How do I mean?

In this scenario, the ‘early adopter’ is one who is desperately seeking more blog traffic. They are all aboard the bandwagon - because they have little to lose from a bad visitor experience!

But if BlogRush is to go ‘mainstream’ and if big bloggers are to start using it, the widget itself needs to offer value. And to bloggers with a loyal following, just ‘extra traffic’ doesn’t cut it.

I would never risk offending my blog visitors by shoving a widget with links in their face if I felt it directed them to ‘inappropriate’ websites - poor content sites, competitors, or other forms of undesirable links.

BlogRush has a built in filtering process, which will get better with time. The crunch comes when it is fine-tuned and humming along… how delightful will the user experience be?

No one but John Reese and his team know the answer to that (maybe not even them!) And in that user experience will rest the ‘next level’ of growth - NOT in the viral marketing ‘buzz’ that’s all over right now.

The final piece in the puzzle, the last group of players in this game, are the creators and owner of BlogRush.

They doubtless have spent days and weeks planning a strategy and executing it. John Reese is a smart guy. His experience with running one of the most popular safelist programs, Opportunity.com, should come in use here.

And John Reese’s attitude of being obsessed with providing ‘client value’ in everything he does is a strong plus point that bodes well for the future of BlogRush.

Then why is the title of this review:

Why I Think BlogRush Won’t Work - And Why I Hope I’m WRONG!

… instead of ‘BlogRush Will RULE’ ?

Because I believe the chances of BlogRush making it ‘over the hump’ of broader based user adaptation is very small. There has been a rush of ’stars in their eyes’ opportunists crawling all over this thing.

If they don’t destroy its potential value by spamming and scamming the database with junk content, they’ll whine and groan when dreams don’t come true to the point an unbiased user trying to make a decision based on merits later on will find it hard to cut through the clutter.

The baying of the masses will drown the voice of sanity… and BlogRush may be a hapless victim of mass psychology… wisdom that says: “Go with the herd!”

But I hope I’m wrong - because John Reese is a guy I want to see win at EVERYTHING he does. Because he’s one of the nicest people I’ve never met (yes, NEVER yet - though I hope to meet him someday, it hasn’t happened… yet).

And for that reason, I’ll hope my instincts are wrong in this instance, and that BlogRush will rise to higher and higher levels.

But I’m not betting my farm on it!

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Did you like this review - or not? Please leave a comment either way - I’ll at least know someone’s reading this stuff!

You can find some more reviews of BlogRush in a post titled ‘12 Interesting Reviews of John Reese’s ‘Blog Rush’