I joined the blog promotion portal Blog Explosion one month ago today. Blog Explosion is a place where you can promote your blog, meet new people, and get some good tips on how to improve your blog.
I had no idea how many visitors I would have after a month. I hoped for 1,000 and, as you can see in the image of my account below, my hope was more than doubled with 2,084 visitors and those numbers reflect only Blog Explosion visitors.

Blog Explosion Blog Stats as of July 1, 2005


Here are a few things I discovered over the last 30 days to help coax your eye here.

1. Banner Advertising — I wrote a Banner Ad Review
to share some of my Blog Explosion banner design pinnacles and
pitfalls. Beyond those puzzle banner ads I created three weeks ago,
here are three new ads I created last week and they are doing really
well with initial Click-Through ratios of over 2.75. I have three
categories of banner ads.

The first is the Urban Semiotic logo in
various modifications — to sear the brand name — that links back to
the main blog page. The second category is a puzzle advertisement where
the reader has to “finish” the thought by clicking on the ad to get
understanding and those ads usually link to the homepage as well. The
third kind of banner ad is one that teases an individual blog post that
links directly to an article and not the main homepage. The following
three ads are examples of this third advertising category with 2.75
Click-Through ratios:

Urban Semiotic Banner Ad
Urban Semiotic Banner Ad
Urban Semiotic Banner Ad

2. Rocket Your Blog — Surf at least one Blog Explosion member site a day so you can add your blog to the Rocket Page.
Pick smart in choosing your time to rocket because sometimes it is dead
and you won’t get many hits. I usually look around first to see how the
blogs in the current rocket are doing and if most of them have five or
more hits then I add my blog to the rocket. My all time best visits
number on the rocket happened on June 20 with 107 hits. The highest
number of rocket visits I saw over the last month was, I believe, 147.

3. Good Writing — Write a good description of your
blog for inclusion in the directory and on the rocket. Be enticing. Be
excited. Be mysterious so people will be compelled to click on your
blog name to get more information! Remember content is King even in
self-promotion! If you don’t write good stuff people who visit you will
not be compelled to return again and again.

4. Get in the Directory — Get in the blog directory and fill out a personal information profile for your blog. Identify any RSS feeds
you might have set up. Bid on category and country directory displays
to get your blog some eyes. Keep some things private if you wish, but
getting the word out about your blog in every possible way helps to
build traffic.

5. Battle of the Blogs — I used to vote on the Battle of the Blogs
all the time because it was fast and furiously fun, but Blog Explosion
ruined the Battle of the Bands with a recent “fairness” update that is
nothing of the sort. You used to be able to go there to earn credits
for advertising or for being seen on BlogExplosion just by voting on a
battle.

Now the whole thing is so convoluted you need a calculator to
follow the idea. The blind voting revision is better, but flawed. To be
truly blind, the win/loss record of the competing blogs should be
hidden. As the revision stands now you only get a share of the credits
wagered if the blog you choose wins.

In theory that is a great idea. In
practice, however, it is an awful idea because people never “read” the
content of the blogs; they just vote on the prettiest design. With the
change, however, you don’t even vote on pretty anymore — because if
you’re smart you vote on the previous win/loss record of the two
competitors and pick the blog with the best win to loss ratio and hope
that, if you vote for them again, you will win your share of credits
for the time you spend voting.

I already see the richer sites get
richer while blogs with even or losing records are stuck in the
constant loss column. I confess in the good-old-days if I came in to
vote on a Battle and saw one side winning 5-0 with no hope of the Zero
side taking the win out of 9 vote field, I would throw a vote over to
Zero just because it might make the Defeated sting a little less. I
don’t compete in the Battles yet because I still don’t think it is set
up to be a fair for both competitors.
I hope the next month will bring even more traffic and fun surprises
from Blog Explosion. I know I had a great time during month one and I
met some really talented and smart people in the process.

25 Comments

  1. i joined blogexplosion long ago started to use it and the difference is great… i am on the top country list on blog-city.com

  2. Hi joker —
    I’m glad to know Blog Explosion has a long and valued history! I find the service impressive.
    Congrats on your top listing!

  3. Hey,
    I found your site on Blog Explosion. Honestly, I usually just browse through the sites, collecting credits, but I actually enjoyed reading yours alot. Keep up the fine work.

  4. Hey Sean —
    Thanks for the fab words of support on my one month Blog Explosion anniversary. 🙂
    I know what you mean about mindless clicking for credits… heh…
    Love your blog, BTW. You put a heckuvalotta hard work into it. Fine stuff there!

  5. Great and interesting article on getting blog traffic! Also very nice blog to read. Keep it up man!

  8. I just joined Blogexplosion a few days ago and have noticed decent traffic in the last two days (21 visitors). I didn’t know about Blogexplosion’s Rocket feature until reading about it in this post, so I am going to surf and see what happening there today.

  9. Hi Chris —
    Welcome to Blog Explosion! I’m glad to se you are getting some hits already! That’s fantastic.
    The Rocket is a lot of fun and you get some visits that way, too.
    Don’t forget to create an advertising banner or two and do a little surfing to earn views so people can find you or… just spend a few bucks and buy some credits. 🙂

  11. hello there.
    do you think thatthe mystery credits are getting fewer.
    i used to be able to get lots more.
    but the last few days i must surf up to 3 hours and still not get any.
    is there a problem orjust my bad luck.lol
    percy

  12. Hi Percy —
    I have noticed the lack of mystery credits myself on Blog Explosion. I don’t know what’s going on… maybe more people are joining and less credits are available?
    I find if I don’t surf for a day or two I usually get a couple of credits right at the start when I go surfing again.
    You might want to send some feedback to BlogExplosion and ask. Jeff and Tom are really good about getting back to you fast.
    Good luck!

  13. Great post, David. 🙂 I joined BE back in October and not only spent a small sum of money buying credits but a considerable amount of time surfing. I’ve discovered some great blogs as a result and have built up my readership.
    I’ve also noticed the decline in mystery credits. I think the most I’ve received was 50, but that was back in October or November. Now, I’m lucky to get 5.
    The Rocket feature earned me some more hits, as well as the Battle. I didn’t like the latter because I don’t like to vote on a blog based on its design and its track record for winning. But if you want to earn the credits, you have to vote in favor of the odds rather than your own personal tastes.

  14. Hi Deborah —
    Nice to hear from you again!
    Oh, wow! 50 mystery credits?! That’s great! I think the most I earned in my first month of “membership” was 3 credits in one shot and I mostly get 2 credits every fifth of sixth separate “surf” session.
    Yes, the Rocket works. It is too bad the Battle was changed. The first version had a charm and an elegance and a humanity. The new Battle is only about playing the odds and running the numbers — all of which has nothing to do with Blog quality.

  15. Very nice blog!
    I found your site while surfing myslef at Blog Explosion.
    Many thanks for all the tips to help increase my blog’s traffic and for earning more credits.

  16. Hey Living —
    Thanks!
    Ooo, it’s good to know Blog Explosion brings good folk here.
    Good luck with the increase in traffic! I find the one thing that brings in the highest reader numbers… is always something new to read…

  18. well a update this morning i hit 2 50s a 10 and a few little ones.
    so i guess its just luck.lol
    percy

  20. Very helpful site! I’m totally new to blogging and overwhelmed. Great info, especially for newbies.
    Ciao, bambino!

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