Fortune Seeker Blog

I thought I was free of the disease, but it obviously got in my brain and clouded my thinking. I rambled on about how we were blogrush and power to the people stuff. I mean has my past finally caught up with me?

After four days, I came to my senses. Why on earth did I succumb to the BlogRash again?

Because it’s a very clever marketing virus and sometimes I’m not that smart, that’s why.

I mean who doesn’t want to be popular. Traffic is what we all crave, even Z-list bloggers like me. Personally, I don’ t want to think I’m blogging for an audience of one, even though that happens more than I care to admit. But, when the hype comes from someone you respect, you tend to overlook it. At least, I do. Is that a fault?

Like I said, I had four days to think on my Rash decision to put the widget back on my site. As I re-read my post and visited other disillusioned blogophyles that were rejected by the rashbot, the scales fell from my eyes.

You see, I started this site to help people that want to earn money online. (Pretty noble of me.) And part of that mission was to steer you away from the things that are not in your best interests. I’m sorry to say, but BlogRush is one of them.

I realize that what I have to say isn’t that important to the majority, but I was surprised to learn that I was not alone and that not all dissenters were Z-listers. And these real blogs shared my opinion that BlogRush hyped its way to the top and wasn’t worthy of our support.

So, after my re-evaluation I realized that everything I hated about this program was the same, except now there were graphs on a new dashboard.

But wait, they posted a cure, a way to delete my blogs from their system. I pressed the delete button and I am free at last.

I am sorry to say that I am removing John Reese from my favorites list also. I’m seeing him in a new light and it doesn’t flatter him.

For an excellent read on the whole hypefest known as blogrush, check out this article by Snoskred “The Echo Chamber Effect”

Look at this collection of blogs rejected by blogrush:

• SeoPedia: This site is loaded with content and worth a visit, but somehow doesn’t pass the mysterious BR Quality Review criteria.
• Techipedia: Tamar Weinberg, a brilliant young woman from New York, learned her awesome PR4 site was not worthy, probably because she saw through the hype from the start and never put the widget on her site.
• 134u.com: not enough posts?
• JohnCow: He was rejected and then got a personal letter from John Reese explaining that they had made a mistake. I noticed the widget was back on his site, and he paid homage to the IM gods with his lashing the naysayers.
• LocalSEOGuide: Check out the first comment. John Reese. Also check out the widget back on display. This site has excellent quality, but obvious mistakes (read: getting alot of internet exposure) like this one, get an immediate reply from Mr. Reese. A “case study in crisis management” is how the LocalSeo guide put it.
• Cindalou’s kitchen blues Another PR4 content rich site, I guess they don’t like recipes.
• Steve-Olson.com Yet another PR4 blogger with nothing to offer the blogrash community.
• WorldFamousPhotos.com

I’m sure there are a ton more, feel free to post them in the comments section below.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Okay, the revised BlogRush is released and my micro-protest against BlogRush had the effect I expected and that was… Absolutely “ZERO”.

I’m still not convinced of the benefits (if any) to the small blogger, but I’m going to give John Reese the benefit of the doubt and give BlogRush 30 days to prove to me it has any value to me.

I’ve got my Google Analytics set up, Sitemeter logging visitors, and my own webhosting stats configured to compare my stats with theirs. We’ll see.

I still believe strongly that we (the blogosphere) are BlogRush and that without us it doesn’t exist. And that we as a group, have enormous clout if we want it.

But, alas, most people are too enamoured with the internet marketing gods to stand up and say, “Huh?” 

I think deep down they think if they defend the gods and support them in their pillaging, that they’ll be deemed worthy of some scrap from their table.

I and all my fellow FortuneSeekers will not bow down to the IM gods. We know they are mere men and women and that most of these “gods” have deluded themselves with their own hype and greed.

I’m not saying that John Reese is among those self-deluded, but he has definitely taken the position that BlogRush is his. A real mistake in my humble opinion.

This a 2.0 world we’re in. We want to be part of the community, not serfs and peons with no rights.

So, why the change of heart?

I got the email from the John Reese autoresponder and I stopped in for a visit.

I’m a sucker for graphs and statistics and the new dashboard has me drooling. Yeah, well, that was a little too graphic, but let’s just say I really wanted to see it in action.

So, I’m going to re-install the widget through November and report any increased traffic that can be specifically attributed to BlogRush and if it’s as insignificant as I imagine, I’ll do as John Reese suggests and remove the widget.

I hope you’ll follow along.

As you can see, I took John Reese’s BlogRush widget off of my site. In fact, I took it off all my sites.  A protest that I don’t think will turn the world on end, but it does make me feel better.

For those of you that don’t know, the BlogRush widget is supposed to be a blog traffic exchange. I mean who doesn’t want free traffic?  See my post below.

Well, it all started the other day, when I submitted a new blog of mine, SynchroBeats.com, an information blog on binaural beats.  When I say new, I mean brand spanking new. It only has one post, but I’m working on about five different ones. I didn’t want to just slap up a bunch of regurgitated crap that’s on most of the other sites promoting binaural beats. I’m really excited about this site and want it to be special.

I’m convinced that these binaural beats have relieved alot of the stress I was under and I have a clarity of thought I haven’t had in a really long time.

So, anyway, there’s a new procedure over at Blog Rush, in that all blog submissions are now being reviewed by a live person to be sure it’s not a spam site (at least, that’s what I thought). So I put the link on my site and went to bed.

The next morning, I went to my site to write some articles and I noticed the widget was gone. So, I logged into the BlogRush dashboard to see if the site was down or something and was shocked to see that my blog was rejected!!! I’m a spammer?? I don’t even have adsense on this site. I do have some links to products I’m representing, but give me a break.

Not only that, all my other blogs were now under review.

Man, I don’t know who John Reese got to review these blogs or even what the criteria is, but obviously I’m not good enough.

I started giving it some thought.

For the last month I gave him a free place on my site to post links to other peoples blogs. What little traffic I get, could be lured away by a competitors blog on my site. Tell me again why this is good for me?

I thought I’d do some checking of the five or so regulars on this widget, most of them didn’t even have the widget on their sites. Where’s the exchange??

Now he wants the widget displayed prominently and said if we don’t like it, leave.

Hey John, I left.

I would ask anyone trying to monetize their site, going through the hassle of creating quality original content to generate natural search engine traffic, why you would invite your competitors to your site to take that traffic away?

I don’t see the value or the benefit and anyway, I don’t measure up to the other crap on the network.

My advice? Join Authority Site Central, real traffic and amazing content to help you grow your blogs to the money source they can be.

You see I’m just one of the little guys trying to make a go of it.

I woke this morning and had an email from someone that I had unsubscibed from. It seems they will re-subscribe you to another list when you un-subscribe. That’s a Filsaime trick to keep you on his list.

Anyway, this opt-in spam was promoting a Russell Brunson “FREE” report, the IM-Myth.

I was actually quite impressed with the content and amazed at the stuff he had in this free report. Why? Because he was doing all the things I detest in IM marketing guru’s.

Let’s have a look:

1. The FREE report is filled with links to his pre-launch of his next program. 
2. Sign up for the FREE report and you’re dropped into another squeeze page (One Time Offer). You know, you’ll never see this offer again.
3. It’s for a valuable CD and only costs a dollar.
   1. Or Does it? You see, if you opt-in to the deal, you’re giving up all your contact information and signing up for a $40/month membership program.  The beauty of this technique is explained in the IM-Myth report he gives you for free.  I was amazed.
4. If you opt-out, he brings you to a “Make Money Giving this Report Away” page with Bonuses.

This is where I was feeling like I was getting scammed.

The first bonus was a “Make up to $264 a day with your own FREE money making affiliate website.”

It’s free, except for the $20/month hosting deal. You see the subtlety? You’ll make $264/day, who wouldn’t spend $20/month for that?

And I love the fake countdown thing. FAKE??? How can you tell? Here’s the code from his source code.

  Better
  Hurry - Only 350,

154, 27 Websites Left

  Website Was $1,297

Now Free 

Then came Bonus #2 something FREE from Dan Kennedy. Is there anyone as good as DK? I’ve learned alot from his stuff, but like Russell, you sign up for his membership deal for free, I mean $19.95 for shipping, and then you sign up for another list and your automatically signed up for $40/month. Hmmm. Sound familiar?

Bonus #3- Mike Filsaime   RUN AWAY!!!!

My suggestion is pick up the free report, it is amazing and has information not available anywhere else that I’ve seen, but steer clear of all the bonuses, unless you want your pocket picked clean by the best of the best.

I just spent about an hour messing around with Jason Moffat’s new product, NicheBrowser.  And I have one word for it, AWESOME!

And I really mean, AWESOME !!

Jason developed a web browser that literally blows away anything you’re using now.

It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but everything is at your fingertips for researching any niche, checking out your competition, finding articles, link partners….the list goes on and on.

It is a genuine tool, not some over-hyped gimmicky software app and in the spirit of Web2.0, Jason is giving it away for free.

I haven’t figured out how he is monetizing this yet, other than the product offers that start up with the program. But I’m not as saavy as others out there.

Here’s a Tip:
When you first open the program, there’s a full size ad for an affiliate program. After several minutes of trying to figure out how to close the window, I realized I just needed to input my search term in the “Query Box” and I was off to the races.

I’m convinced this tool will increase your ability to make money on the internet so I am genuinely happy to endorse it. I encourage you to grab your copy today.

You can pick up your free copy of Niche Browser here.