I committed space on my sidebar yesterday to BlogUpp after reading a positive review.
It claims to be “the easiest recipe ever for a more effective and interactive web promotion.”
BlogUpp uses an iframe in the sidebar. The theory is that users promote two other blogs/sites in exchange for 90 percent cross-promotion back to their site, which is supposedly the best ratio on the web.
Sounds good and I’d like to believe it is true. The proponents say they assess each submitted site for suitability and the review normally happens within 24 hours.
The first 12 hours of BlogUpp on my site returned only iframe links to Techcrunch, Mashable and BlogUpp.
I posted a comment on BlogUpp’s blog stating that fact. Soon afterwards my widget was working and I had numerous other blogs appearing in miniature on my sidebar. Good stuff, I clicked through to several and found some interesting material.
Later in the day however, I only saw BlogUpp in those two slots and my referral tracker shows I have received just one visit from the system in 24 hours.
The concept sounds good, but it needs to work. The other BlogUpp sites I’ve visited recently reflect the same issue (eg BlogUpp links only).
The sidebar is important real estate on any blog. If I’m going to give away 300 pixels in depth I expect some value in return and I’m not seeing it just now.
I’ll wait until Monday night before deciding whether to retain it.
Update:The service is working again on Sunday and I have now received two visits from it.
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Thanks Michael for sharing with your readers the experience with BlogUpp! service.
Additionally to the above, we’d like to mention that as part of our “cheat-proof” strategy, we do limit the number of community impressions shown to a particular reader to a reasonable figure. That is done in order not to consume too many community impressions by one single person.
Derived from this, the fact that you were seeing in the widget only our blog’s thumbnail, makes us think that you reached that limit. If you feel the limit is too low, please send us an email with your suggestions and we’ll consider adjusting it.
Thanks for being with us, and enjoy your blogging.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
Thanks BlogUpp team. I find the widget strangely addictive and enjoy visiting the sites you show me.
Some of the other bloggers I visited had a similar issue if they were showing your site’s thumbnail.
So that’s a vote from me for changing the threshold.
We are really glad you are enjoying visiting other community blogs, and we’ll keep improving the service for you to get the most out of it.
Actually once somebody exceeds the daily limit of visited blogs, only he/she sees default impressions on any blog with the widget. On the other hand, all the other readers who are not exceeding that limit, see same blogs with the widget displaying normal results.
As mentioned earlier, that’s to protect the community from “impression-waste”, which is normally practiced by cheaters. We understand you are not one, and would like to ask you tell us if you notice you are exceeding the limit frequently (during several days), for us to improve your experience.