Interesting Observations

blogging, social media and self-improvement!

How would you use the empty space with blogrush gone?

interestingobservation.jpg Can you guess whats missing in the blank space between Alexa and dealdotcom widgets in my right side bar?

Well, there used to be a widget called Blogrush! Today I got an email from them telling me that my BlogRush Account has been made INACTIVE because this blog did not pass their Quality Review criteria. Huh?? It sure surprised me but also gave me a good chuckle ^_^

The email continues: “We determined that your blog did not meet our strict quality guidelines. Please do not take this personally but realize that we must abide by a very strict set of quality guidelines. (They are listed below.) If you feel you have made the necessary changes to your blog(s) to meet our guidelines, you can resubmit your blog(s) for review after this date: Wednesday, November 21, 2007.

Below is a complete list of our quality guidelines…

BlogRush Quality Guidelines:

– The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources.

– The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts.

– The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted.

– The blog’s primary contain must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs.

– The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

– The primary content of the blog should not be “scraped” content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

– The blog’s content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal.

Best Regards,
The BlogRush Team”

Wow!! this blog I thought was in English, gets updated way more than 10 times a month, its not scraped content (as a matter of fact I am completely at a loss myself how to stop those blogs from scrapping content), and there is nothing about terrorism or hate etc in here! So I wonder how they decided to make my account inactive!

Could it be because I never blogged about them to promote them? I signed up and added their widget and didn’t have the time to first write that I had come across this system, then that I had included the widget, and then a week later how the widget was doing or how bad the colors were, how most of the links appearing on it didn’t even have the widget installed etc! Everyone else was doing that and I didn’t feel the need. Same was the case with DealDotCom widget which was talked about by everyone but I just didn’t have the time!

Anyways, goodbye blogrush! I am also glad to let you go since now I can add some shopping ads in that place ;)

Did any of you get dropped by blogrush? And more importantly, what are you going to use that empty space for?

Visited 1 times, 1 visit(s) today
29 comments
pearl

lol yeah, you sure lucked out Kim :) oh, I always believed in –

“good things come to those who wait, thats why I procrastinate”

I just need to start practicing that! :D

Nirmal

I have stopped using the widgets, most of them, never used the blog rush. They generally slow up site load. Planning to remove the mybloglog also.

pearl

your site is really neat and clean Nirmal…. and filled with some excellent material…. Until I get to your level of visibility and traffic, may be I wouldn’t need those widgets ;)

Deborah

Yours wasn’t the only quality blog that they dumped through bad judgement on their part, as you apparently know.

I had signed up after request from a fellow blogger, but when I saw the links on the widget on his site, I decided against installing it until I saw improved results. 4 of 5 links went to spammy sites.

Obviously I wasn’t the only one commenting on it, and they took things to extreme and became overzealous in their attempt to redeem themselves. Your site is a perfect example of their lack of judgement, whilst I still see spammy and non-related links in the widget at other blogs.

I’m so glad I didn’t waste time and space on it. Consider yourself rid of a bad concept and be happy for it ;-)

Deborah

PS I haven’t read anyone comment on something that was my major misgiving on the widget to begin with. Has anyone thought about the fact that you’re providing a link to an unknown site from yours, and the possible ramifications from search engines to linking to bad neighborhoods?

Making Sales Making Money

Actually I did Deb, In fact just prior to it being removed I was considering removing it on my own and your decision and insight is good. There are just so many other things we can use. At first I was disappointed, posted about it, now I have moved on. Then I was notified that my Page was ranked. Brightened up my day. Keep doing what you do and do it well.

pearl

good advice Don @makingsales… I completely agree that people will read you if you write something of value! and then we may not need any of those widgets really! thanks for stopping by again!

pearl

hey Deb… good riddance :) like Don, it was on my mind to remove it, but somehow kept giving it what they say, benefit of doubt :) So they actually did us all a favor by removing it!

Brent2

I don’t understand how so many places drop quality blogs/websites/etc. It’s hard enough finding stuff not typed by MySpace fat fingered monkeys. You’d think they’d keep the people who can spell. Not to mention the people who have actual grammar skills and, oh, something to say.

Brent2s last blog post..10 Tricks to Talking to Tech (Support), Part 2