Fired: BlogRush, Fuel My Blog and even Technorati

Today, I finally did it! I removed the Technorati badge from my sidebar – the very one that I wrote. I also removed BlogRush and FuelMyBlog‘s widgets.

The simple fact is that I’m getting virtually no traffic from each of those sources. Technorati now ranks me well over 5,000 when I was approaching the 1,000 mark earlier in the year. This despite the fact that my readership is growing double-digits, but Technorati is being diluted with corporations disguising themselves as blogs. They’ve turned their back on bloggers and don’t appear to be willing to change their minds. Chow Technorati!

BlogRush has done nothing… and after listening to the recent video berating bloggers like me who are abandoning the service, I’m leaving. My BlogRush impressions are quite impressive… thousands of impressions with no click-throughs. I even defended BlogRush when it was first released and I was committed to sticking it through. However, the ‘exponential growth’ and ‘flood of readers’ has never come. I have 0 new readers due to BlogRush. Ba-bye BlogRush!

Fuel My Blog had a cool logo so I kept it around for a while. Again, though, no new readers. Cya FuelMyBlog!

Continuing to keep these widgets and buttons and badges and such hurts more than it helps, for several reasons:

It prolongs the death of the service, or worse, provides an indication to a larger company or investor that they are actually worth investing in or buying.
It slows down my site by having to add more crap from servers that I have no clue can handle the load or not.
It clutters my site.
It provides me no useful data regarding my site and its statistics.
It doesn’t help promote my site. When there are tens of thousands of other schmucks, there’s no spotlight for you.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor and cleanup your site! Write a post about what you threw out!

http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com Robyn

Interesting, Doug. Thanks for the information. Interestingly I have Technorati Favorites in my sidebar and the blogs I list as favorites show there and that is how I discovered this particular blog.
- http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  I was a huge advocate of Technorati for a long time, Robyn! I know I used to get a ton of traffic from them – but then they went through several redesigns, recalculated their indices, and accepting non-blogs (pretty much anything with a feed).
  
  I still get a couple dozen hits a month from Technorati – where my widget is publicized, but no traffic on content. Content is really what I attract folks with so my eyes are open for new opportunities!
  
  If you find some, let me know.
  
  Thanks Robyn!
http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com Robyn

Doug, you’re the expert here and I look to you for wisdom. I’ll try to stay tuned.
http://www.fuelmyblog.com Kevin

Hi Douglas,

I am sorry you felt that way.

In all honesty, I liken online communities to pubs (bars). You have to take part and interact with people. The guy that sits in the corner meets nobody.

I bet that if you took part in the community we have, added your avatar to our book we just created, left comments on the blog, added friends, chatted in the forum and voted for blogs by leaving comments, entered competitions, you would gain something from our community. In fact I guarantee it.

By simply adding your blog and avatar and waiting is too quiet, the noisiest are heard most in communities.

Try us again, look at our userguide for tips. I guarantee in 1 week you see more traffic, decent traffic and gain friendship. If not i’ll be back here to eat humble pie.

Finally I completely and utterly disagree with the harshness of your final points and the calling of fellow bloggers schmucks, but this is why we blog not write for newspapers
- http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  Kevin,
  
  Thanks for visiting and responding. It says a lot for your organization that you’re tracking feedback like this. Perhaps I’m a bit selfish, but I think pushing the conversations over at your site helps you more than it does me, doesn’t it?
  
  And there are so many different blogging communities to join from… there are hundreds of them out there!
  
  To be honest, I get many more visitors to my blog simply by going to blogs I’ve never heard of and trying to promote them or add to the conversation with a comment or two. It takes out the middle man and seems much more efficient.
  
  I really do appreciate you stopping by. And schmuck was used as a friendly dig. I really do love the tens of thousands of bloggers out there! Perhaps I came off sounding like a schmuck! I worked all day, so some of it may be that I’m a bit cranky!
  
  With much respect,
  Doug
  - http://www.linkylove.net Linky Love
    
    @Doug
    
    As a member of FuelMyBlog of course I am not objective…
    
    Having said so: for what I am doing FuelMyBlog is a community where quality extends quantity.
    
    I like the hard work they put in and the difference they make compared to other communities like mybloglog, where a sexy avatar of TheThinkingBlog was linkbait number 1.
    
    Communities are quite some hard work to get traffic from, but then, SEO also is quite of hard work. It’s just that you need to chose what works best for you and what you like the most.
    
    And, thanks to the fuelmyblog community, I now dropped by
- http://www.tully.ca/blog/ William Tully
  
  No doubt, yet you assume I have all kinds of time to spend on YOUR site… Add to YOUR book, comment on YOUR blog, add friends within YOUR site, chat in YOUR forums, enter competitions on YOUR site, and gain something from YOUR community.
  
  So, why don’t I create my own book, comment on other blogs that interest me, develop friendships through a community I’m already a part of, chat on my own blog or other blogs which I already visit, develop my own competitions, and simply build my own community – you know, actually fuel MY blog and not some “community” site which actually takes time away from my site and my community. I already have a community within my blog, and I already belong to a bigger community. I’m also a part of each community established on each blog I read/comment on.
  
  Actually, I had a good nights sleep and a couple coffees by now – the schmuck line was dead on simply because these sites get filled with thousands of individuals making everyone a friend and joining every community/group available simply to promote their own site so they can drive traffic to their ads. I will call fellow bloggers schmucks, hacks, idiots, and morons – I will also call fellow bloggers friends, visionaries, gifted individuals, and at times, absolutely brilliant. To take a simple statement and apply it to every blogger in existence (when you know it wasn’t meant as such) just to make a reaching final point is both pathetic and well, lazy.
  - http://www.fuelmyblog.com Kevin
    
    William,
    
    I want fuel to help new bloggers, you clearly have a great community built around you and your blog and therefore have no need to join the ones you have previously. Communities are only relevant for those wishing to (and have time to) participate with others. We want to help new bloggers, we don’t promise thousands of new readers, that only comes from content, no amount of community joining will get you that.
    
    The book is relevant as it was created for one purpose, to show that bloggers are actually human. Getting nasty comments and false accusations are becoming more and more common in the “blogosphere” – every single penny we make out of the book is going direct to charity, one chosen by OUR community, and yes, we are knackered and spending too much time making this but we (yes those in the community and book) believe in it, and to me that counts.
    
    Sorry to have offended people, I really didn’t mean to, just pointing out that joining communities for traffic and not taking part generally do not work in the slightest, any more than in the “real world”. You must surely agree with this point?
    - http://www.tully.ca/blog/ William Tully
      
      Simply joining a community and doing absolutely nothing beyond that – yes, I will agree that generally does not work. Now, depending on the community, it is possible to join, participate on a very low level, yet still receive an acceptable level of traffic.
      
      I guess it is simply hard for some of us to understand why we would spend less time on our own blog community and in the communities of blogs we respect and read regularly.. By spending time in my community it helps my blog. By spending time in, oh I don’t know, say Doug’s community (generally – this may be the exception..), it helps his site and community grow. The challenge is that I would have to put far more effort into a “blog community site” to have the same impact – especially given the number of schmucks armed with their self-promotion arsenal… But hey, that also depends on the community site and the moderation that is in place – each one is different.
      
      The book… At what point was it ever in jeopardy that bloggers weren’t human? And how do you make the link between nasty comments/false accusations and a donation to say, breast cancer research? I’m not against doing good outside the blog community in a more tangible and physical form using the blog community as a catalyst – I’m just against it under false pretenses.. I don’t think the blog community is ever at risk of not being recognized as driven by humans.
      
      Kevin, I do appreciate your clarifications and do tip my hat to you and your team for actually going out and creating a community with good intentions. Many non-new bloggers are simply questioning the effectiveness of these communities as a whole when we believe that the development and improvement of our own sites (and others) can only truly be accomplished out in the actual blog community.
http://www.nextinternetmillionairedvd.com Thor Schrock

In all seriousness Doug, I found your blog through Technotrati search when I was exploring the many ways to game one’s Technorati ranking.

I liked your content do I stuck around. But I agree. Blog rush will not find a spot in my new theme.
http://www.momsjournal.org Erica (Mom’s Journal)

Amen! I cleaned up my site a couple weeks ago. I removed BlogRush, and cliqin. Cliqin was the worst. It loaded on my site less than half the time. I’m keeping Technorati and MyBlogLog, at least for now.
http://www.fuelmyblog.com Kevin

Thanks Doug.

I wrote my commet at 3.30am my time last night. Maybe too dedicated.

At the end of the day, our community is really to help new bloggers, how to get started and find like minded people. The core nucleus are more there for fun and talking to others than traffic boosting. We can guarantee new readers to those that use the site but you certainly won’t feel a huge rush of people, not yet, maybe one day soon.

One other thing we do is talk to people, you’ll notice that we are one of the few communities of any type .

Great blog BTW.
http://www.tully.ca/blog/ William Tully

Blog garbage and social networking sites are on my hit list… The Technorati thing is one of the pure “no effort” ones in my books. Our blogs ping Technorati when we post, they do what they do, and when people search on their site they end up at ours. I think whether you have a favourites button or whatever really doesn’t matter. It’s not like you’re going to completely pull your site from Technorati, and people still found your site regardless of widget or not…

I dropped Fuel, MyBlogLog, and a couple others a while back. Was giving Blog Rush a shot to see where it goes – more of a curiosity than a tool at this point (syndicated +3500 times yet no readers?! Yeah, what’s the point?).. I’ll likely drop it soon too.

Really, the only one I’ve kept is Blog Catalog simply because it’s big, it does deliver some traffic, and the widget is the fastest loading one of all those types of sites…
http://www.unintentionallyblank.co.uk Phil

I have to say, Doug, that I have been seriously considering losing the BlogRush and possibly MyBlogLog from my sidebar. BlogRush, has sent me 3 visitors, I think. 3? It’s not worth it and even with the choice of colours, it sticks out just a bit too much for my liking. At least MyBlogLog is providing some value, however I do worry about the time for my page to load. I may even be purging my plugins soon too, just to optimise the page by removing unnecessary JavaScript files being included.
http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

This conversation really hit a cord, didn’t it? The irony is that the technology behind blogs is what may be connecting us best! I spend more time on other blogs than I do on my own each day.

If I took that time and put it to use on these blog networking sites, I really don’t think that I’m helping other bloggers – it’s really only helping the blog networking site.

When I comment on another blog, 9 times out of 10 that blogger will come check out my site. I really believe that Search and Commenting are the two best methods for growing your readership – not these other sites.

I do still have the MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog widgets up – the reason is actually selfish – I like to see the faces of the folks stopping by. I often click through to their blogs, but rarely spend time with the service in the middle.
Giovanna

Hi Doug,

I read your blog a lot and this my first time to comment due to your compelling post. The market is just so saturated. My friend and I were talking about the successful and hyped up launch of blogrush and realized that it was similar to a multi-level marketing scheme.

You give up 5 slots and a massive ad space to get one from someone else’s blog. Another issue with blogrush is that the ads aren’t very well targeted.

A well known blogger who gets over 20,000 uniques daily was making $1 a day on blogrush.
http://www.inmedialog.com Jill

Our blog hasn’t received much traffic from BlogRush. Maybe it’s time to clean up the sidebar.
http://www.atanone.net drt

Doug,

I think I will drop the Blogrush first, and keep the Technorati for a while. I will also keep Mybloglog to see the faces of those who visited my site, even though they could only see the picture of mine drawn by my daughter when she was in the grade school.
http://blogmunch.com bmunch

I love this quote:

“It prolongs the death of the service”.

How true, how true…
http://atomicblogging.netrepreneursblog.com William Caleb Rodgers

I’m noticing a similarity amongst bloggers with the BlogRush widget…I too get tons of impressions yet no visits?! They claim we should place their widget in a higher position,but I haven’t seen anything applaudable from that either.

I’m thinking about making the same move you made,Doug.

…and by the way,I’ve kept certain widgets&ads that had cool logos as well…thought I was the only one who done that!
http://www.hannesjohnson.com/ Hannes

I know what you mean – no reason to continue using something if it’s not working. But my experience with BlogRush has been pretty good – they’ve brought me some nice extra traffic and it’s totally hands-off.

But I don’t know how many of my BlogRush visitors have turned into RSS subscribers — what are you using to track that? (that’s what you mean, right? Readers = RSS subscribers?)
http://www.atanone.net drt

Just want to let you know, my BlogRush is gone.
Pingback: A Tanone dot Net » Blog Archive » What Widgets to Keep?
http://www.davinciplanet.com Leonard

Doug, thanks for your frank disclosure, it helps other bloggers see through all the smoke. I wanted to sign up for BlogRush, but now I’m not sure I even want to.

B.t.w. your RSS self discovery link doesn’t work. I noticed it when I tried to add your blog to my Google Reader. The RSS link on your site works, but not the self discover which seems to want to use FeedBurner’s MyBrand.
- http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  Leonard,
  
  Thanks for the note on the RSS link! I moved to the DNS service but messed something up a couple weeks ago and switched it back. I forgot that one!
http://www.atanone.net drt

Thanks for the visit and comment, Doug.
http://www.earnblogger.com EarnBlogger

A good decision! You are right. They simply consumes valuable space on our blogs. I am using BlogRush on my blog (not this one), right from the beginning. I got only 3 readers from them, where search engines sends 200+ per day. Inspired by your post, I will remove it today. Thanks.
http://rotus.wordpress.com ROTUS

I am one of those new bloggers that Kevin is trying to help and, in fact, Fuelmyblog has helped me in a couple of ways. It has sent me some traffic, readers who spend an average of a minute and a half on my blog, and it has become the primary platform from which I look for new blogs to read. (and comment on)

I have explored many and joined a few blogging community sites. Certainly no blogger can spend the time to be active on more than two or at most three of them effectively and I can understand that an established blogger, with lots of readers and lots of contacts withing the larger blogging community might not feel the need for any blogging community site anymore. That does not mean that they have no value.

I’m not going to fire my community sites, or Technorati either.
- http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  Hi ROTUS,
  
  I respect your opinion – but I’d also challenge you. For a specific period of time, say 2 weeks, participate daily on a blogging community as you normally would.
  
  Then, for the next 2 weeks, participate in both promoting blogs through your own (through direct links to their blog posts in yours) blog and in comments on their posts – adding value added information in several blog’s posts. Be sure they are new blogs that you’ve never been exposed to before.
  
  To find them, simply use
  http://atLindas.com Linda
  Hey Doug
  
  I like that you reply to each poster. Probably why your blog grows constantly.
  
  Like Kevin, Linky and Rotus, I’m a member of Fuel My Blog. I didn’t find you there, though. I found you at Rotus’s blog.
  
  Here’s the funny thing I notice about FMB. If I look at my stats, I’d think I get no traffic from FMB. But… if I start clicking on my referring sites, it’s amazing how many of them have the FMB flames in their sidebar.
  
  That’s the funny think about FMB. Members link to each other a lot, and interact a lot. So, while my traffic isn’t coming directly from FMB, a fair amount comes from FMB members. So my flames stay.
  
  Other than that, I agree with you. Too many blog places are getting link love off bloggers without returning anything. I’ve cleaned my sidebar, too. Now I’m just looking for a couple more like FMB that will bring me more traffic.
  
  : )
  Linda
  
  http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  Participation is definitely a part of growing a blog, Linda – it definitely helps. Some folks might think I’m being a jerk because I’ve got okay traffic and FMB and the other services tend to help smaller blogs out… I hope not.
  
  I love discovering new blogs and then pushing them into the spotlight as much as I can. I remember how if felt to get 10 subscribers then 20, 30, etc. on my feed. It was awesome!
  
  I kind of feel like we’re all climbing and some of us are reaching for help and others are reaching to help. I’m just not sold that these services will have the same impact given one’s participation. If you put a lot into one of these services, you may get out less than you put in… and the service might be the real winner!
  
  Thanks for stopping by! Hope I see you back again soon!
  
  http://councilofnicea.blogspot.com Ryan
  
  Well Doug,
  
  I read your post and thought you made some interesting points. I, like many others that have commented on this post, came to you from FMB and a post by ROTUS. As I went through the comments I went from agreeing with you, to thinking you were a jerk, to thinking you were a BIG jerk and then I just realized that you are just looking for something different.
  
  Correct me if I’m wrong (because with all these posts I admittedly skimmed some) but you care about traffic and high quality traffic at that. I certainly can’t fault you for that, it;s what everybody wants. Whereas FMB works to foster a sense of community. That sense of community may not get you a flood of traffic but is more likely to give you a loyal readership.
  
  But again your focus is on you, not you as a part of a community.
  
  Am I close?
  
  I’m a novice blogger but maybe thats really why something like FMB whose focus is on community is so appealing. It’s like training wheels before you go out under the big shiny lights of the pro-blogosphere.
  
  I liken your abandoning of these communities to kids moving out of their parents basement when they turn 25: sometimes its better for both
  
  Congrats on the success of your blog! I’m sure I’ll be back.
  
  http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  Hi Ryan,
  
  I hope you’re not close. You’re correct on one thing – I personally didn’t get the exposure that was advertised and that’s why I removed them.
  
  A greater concern, though, is that novice bloggers such as yourself are being educated that the way to grow your blog is through these third party services. It’s just not the case!
  
  Blogs were designed to grow organically. It’s their best feature and I’m not sure that anyone is going to improve on the basic trackback or ping.
  
  Stop the madness! If you want to grow your blog, find other blogs, comment well, comment often and – most of all – write fantastic content consistently.
  
  Look forward to seeing you back soon!
  Doug
- http://www.arachna.com/roller/page/spidaman Ian Kallen
  
  Hi Doug,
  You do have 187 fans indicating your blog is a favorite on Technorati, see
  http://technorati.com/blogs/www.douglaskarr.com?fans – maybe having Technorati widgetry on your site ain’t all that bad
  
  Seriously though, I was saddened to read this when I first came across this post last week. I’ve been looking into various reports of rankings that’ve dropped, in most cases it comes down to one or more of a few simple explanations. There’s the case of folks who have a handful of posts that received an unusual amount of attention and as those links age out of the 6 month window , their rank drops even as they continue to produce great posts and acquire new readership. I’ve found folks who were the beneficiaries of cut-and-pasted link sets from last spring’s rash of viral link memes saw their ranks drop as time progressed. There are also cases where folks are unwittingly benefiting from a spammer’s feed-scraped splogs or a bug in our system that was artificially inflating their links; when a correction is made those gains are reversed.
  
  Suffice to say, you’ve got a great blog and I’m hoping we can continue to be of service to you and your readers. The Percolator we built is designed to highlight the things that bloggers are paying attention to and highlight the bloggers themselves, I’ve found some of your posts in there and I’m hoping to see more.
  best,
  -Ian
  Technorati
- http://www.2dolphins.com/ Rob O.
  
  I gave up on BlogRush too. It wasn’t bringing in much traffic and my subscriber numbers didn’t budge. But perhaps more bothersome than that was the poor “randomization” of the widget – it kept feeding me the same post feeds again and again.
  
  Our blog is kind of streamlined to the extreme in that we have – brace yourself – no sidebars. Yup, just one column. That way, for better or worse, the content is front & center.
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- http://ivanfilios.blogspot.com F I Ramirez
  
  As a new blogger I must tell you: Thank you for this post!
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