This week I actually was able to stay focused and complete this project which I will share with you below and ask for your feedback.
To summarize, I took the three Blog Traffic Exchanges of Blog Explosion, BlogMad and Blog Soldiers and rated them based on my own personal experiences in the three categories as follows:
a) Site Layout & Services offered - this covers ease of navigation and the extras which are offered to their members
b) Popularity - number of active members based on traffic (this allows me to only count active accounts and not simply members)
c) Customer Service - Turnaround time for tickets, email inquiries and feedback
I have then put on a quick poll for all of my readers so you can rate these services based on your own personal experiences.
Your opinions are also welcome since this may help new users get a better idea of these exchanges and if they want to be a part of them based on this report card. If I have missed a great service that you may use or know about, please feel free to share it here as well.
I do realize that 'this poll is quite unscientific' and probably only a few people will even bother sharing their opinions on the matter however, I am posting this anyway since I know it might be helpful. I definitely would have found it useful prior to trying to decide where to sign up and spend my valuable time in building traffic to my own site.
Overview:
Blog Explosion or BE advertises itself as one of the fastest growing blog communities on the internet. It boasts over 45,000 blogs currently in it's directory and was for the longest time considered the 'cadillac' of all the blog exchanges.
Their surfing numbers are .5 credit per viewing a blog for 30 seconds. The ratio is 2:1, meaning for every 2 blogs you visit, yours will be displayed 1 time.
Site Layout & Services offered
BE has one of the most user friendly layouts and additional services currently being offered by any of the Blog Exchanges.
In addition to the usual blog rotations, they offer popular services such as Rent my Blog, Battle of the Blogs, Blog Rocket and other ways to increase your traffic and win credits.
Popularity
Based on the number of members they boast, one would expect huge traffic from this exchange however this is sadly no longer the case. After the original owners sold this service back in June, active membership, based upon my traffic, has been plummeting like a wounded duck.
In an open letter to the members in September, the BE staff acknowledged some of the issues & problems raised by its members and expressed an intent on correcting these. As of writing, no noticeable change has been made.
Customer Service
Based upon my own experience and the many other's I have heard about, I would rate the current level of customer service and ticket turnaround time as poor. Blog approvals are slow and they are not currently meeting the timeline standards which they set themselves & publish on their own site.
The open letter I mentioned above also stated that "the new owners have requested to remain in the background...." I now realize why, as I wouldn't want my name associated with this kind of level of service either.
My Rating:
Not recommended
Your Rating:
Click to Rate Blog Explosion & see results!
(poll will open in new window)
Overview:
BlogMad bills itself as the ultimate Blog Traffic site.
Their surfing numbers are 1 credit per viewing a blog for 25 seconds. The ratio is 1:1, meaning for every blog you visit, yours will be displayed 1 time.
Site Layout & Services offered
I have found the BlogMad site to be rather cluttered and difficult at times to navigate. After using it now for a number of months I am somewhat comfortable in its layout.
In addition to the usual blog rotations, BlogMad offers services such as Cage Fights, Lotteries, Hangman and a number of other ways to increase your traffic and win credits. They appear to be continuing to add new and interesting services all the time. They seem to be picking up a great deal of new users every day.
Popularity
The member count at time of writing is currently listed as 7992 subscribed to BlogMad. Based upon my own traffic, I believe it to be by far one of the largest active bases of all the three services I am reviewing. if you're blog is looking for hits from other bloggers, Blogmad is definitely worth your consideration.
Customer Service
Based upon my own experience the customer service appears to be usually rather quick although not always reliable. I had a minor issue a couple months back which they were unable to resolve however the problem finally was corrected a couple of weeks later.
My Rating:
Recommended
Your Rating:
Click to Rate BlogMad & see results!
(poll will open in new window)
Overview:
Blog Soldiers is a Manual Traffic Exchange designed to generate visitors to your website. It appears to be a very bare-bones service which does exactly what it advertises.
Their surfing numbers are .5 credit per viewing a blog for 20 seconds. The ratio is 2:1, meaning for every 2 blogs you visit, yours will be displayed 1 time.
Site Layout & Services offered
I found the Blog Soldiers layout to be very simple to navigate & non-descript as they appear to have a very limited number of services aside from the blog rotations.
Popularity
I was unable to find the official number of active users however I estimate it to be lower than the other two, based on my own traffic.
Although the number of users appear low, the quality of traffic I have received either through comments or emails seems to be very good.
This service could easily be number one if they continue to focus on their core business, add a few supplemental services and advertise in order to attract new members. I am quite satisfied with their service.
Customer Service
Based upon my own experience the customer service appears excellent. Quick turn-around with no issues.
My Rating:
Recommended
Your Rating:
Click to Rate Blog Soldiers & see results!
(poll will open in new window)
So hopefully the above information may be somewhat helpful for those of you looking to join one or more of the Blog Exchange services.
That's all for now, my 'community service' is done for this week....Now it's drinking time!
16 comments:
Nice summary! I agree with your ratings for BE and BM (I haven't tried BS) ... BE only seems good for the Battle of the Blogs, otherwise it only provides ~10 visitors per day (vs. 100+ for BM). After reading your post, I'll have to checkout BS too!
BlogSoldiers has about 5000 blogs and 5000 members last time I checked.
You might also want to check out Blog Advance as well.
I would add the following - BE seem to be getting their act together now after a "troubled" period - I recently moved by blog from blogger to wordpress and they responded very promptly to the change over and approved the replacement blog in under 12 hours.
BM has the best ratio by far, have the quickest delivery of those credits and the shoutbox community is very welcoming.
BS are developing nicely although they lack the community air of either BM or BE
been looking for details on these sites. thanks
I use both BE and BM. I'm satisfied with the service from both even though both BM & BE were having some issues. BM went through a spell where credits were being eaten up in what seemed like record time but I think they've worked on that issue. The thing with BE is that I don't think many people surf because you can earn credits in other ways such as BOTB and through the Shoutbox.
Nice summary. I agree with the first comment. I haven't tried Blog Soldiers, but I have tried the other two. I thought Blog Explosion was a total waste of my time, and I've thoroughly enjoyed Blog Mad. In fact, that's how I came here today.
Pretty much my thoughts on the exchanges too
Happy c&c Day
I've been surfing all of these blog exchanges since the summer plus blogadvance. Blogmad was defintely the best until they did the 50 free credits thing at which point my traffic crashed. It's recovered since but still less than it was in September.
I used to get 350 hits a week from blogsoldiers but that has been declining continuously, and has gone down to about 150. BE is averaging about 10 hits per day, as stated above, and blogadvance gives the least traffic of the four.
Nice layout and a good summary.
I've not looked into BlogMad or Blog Soldier but will have a gander based upon your points.
Cheers,
ok, I joined, but there was no way to give you the 50 credits for referring me...
I have only been surfing for a couple weeks, but agree that most of my traffic seems to come from BlogMad. I had trouble getting approved by BE, apparently because it had been a whole 5 days since my last post! Hey, I got a life! (or I did before I got hooked on surfing!)
I much prefer Blogmad for the ratio and the fact that I can start surfing with one click. Blog Explosion is more convoluted. I get more than twice the payoff from Blogmad.
I do like that in both Blogmad and Blog Explosion you can block sites you don't want to see again. I haven't figured out how to do that in Blogadvance. Some sites are so off color or spammy that I simply do not want to see them again.
Thanks for putting your thoughts together.
I have three active blogs and have them listed on both BE and BM. I have had a lot more problems setting up my blogs on BlogMad and keeping them active, In fact there is one which I have marked as "not active" even though I've put the code on, contacted support, and all that, and I guess I'll try writing them again about the matter.
I like BE for Battle of the Blogs and BlogRocket. Surfing is not that much different between the two, but I agree you do get more bang for your effort with BM.
blog mad by far is the best, i run out of credits so fast lol
blogsoldier is okay i get a decent amount from them
Explosion is not bad but it took me nearly two weeks to get approved. first my frames were messed up which was BS... then whatever else
blog advance gives me nearly nothing so i just used my worthless credits to post banners and stuff. Its not bad cuz you get so much just to login but no one is surfing.
http://ffnstuff.blogspot.com/
Explosion is dying on the vine. The rent my blog offers are down to just a handful. The quality of the traffic it generates stinks, as well. I've never tried the other two, but I'm about to.
http://thejebber.blogspot.com
Thanks for the summary of the various blog exchange programs. I've been mostly using Blog Explosion, due to the "Rent My Blog" program, but I'll have to look into the others as well.
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