I’ve just checked the numbers for over-hyped Blogrush and I am not sure if I should keep the service up and running. Here are my current stats:
Everybody can see that the CTR is extremely low and I doubt that with changing the colors (Blogrush Flavors) the widget drives more Clicks.
The Blogrush idea is not bad, but the Blogrush widget looks too much like an ad and most blogs run it in the lower right corner of the sidebar.
I highly doubt that CTR will significantly go up (even with all the little tricks) unless the widget becomes more and more customizable (e.g. like Adsense).
So not sure what to do right now. It slows down the site, it does not really drive a lot of traffic and I doubt that it gives much value to the readers of this blog . Would you keep Blogrush on your site?
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 am
[...] Mag auch sein, dass es an der Sprache liegt. Viel besser Erfahrungen hat aber auch Sebastian vom Webanalyticsbook nicht gemacht. Für mich heißt es daher erst mal Abschied nehmen von Blogrush. Evtl. probiere ich [...]
September 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Widgets are great. But one of the problems with a widget that just displays other people’s blog headlines is that it seems too much like an ad block, but without the benefit of paying you like ads do.
Plus, if it’s just going to have titles on it, then writing great titles is crucial. Most people don’t write good titles. Your titles are pretty good, but I am looking at one on the BlogRush widget and it is entitled “Hey There!” Maybe some people would click on such a title, but not me.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Anita,
I agree with you and you make a good point with the comparison to an ad block.
I am not even sure if titles will ever make a big difference. The average blogger puts the widget in the lower right hand side of his website. Eyetracking studies show, that this is one of the worst spots on the site. I highly doubt, that there will be a CTR higher than 0.5%.