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Internet Marketing Coach
Gurus Getting Bashed by the Little Guy - Another BlogRush Post - Don’t Puke
October 22nd, 2007 | 21 commentsHopefully I don’t strike the nerve of Andy Beard with this post, as he is pretty much the only one on the “guru” side of this that I still have alot of respect for.
If you’re a blogrush user, there is a very good chance your account was made inactive, as TEN THOUSAND were recently!!!
I recently stated that I still have some respect for John Reese, despite his unprofessionalism while dealing with bloggers who don’t run blogs that are “up to his standards.” That little respect has diminished to about 1 percent and that 1 percent is ONLY because Andy is still defending BlogRush. After John Reese’s recent post on the Warrior Forum it really drives in my opinion that most Internet Marketing “gurus” are full of it!
These are the guys like John Reese who are damn good at what they do, unfortunately that isn’t helping others. What they do is create loads of products and cross promote them with other “gurus.” In most cases, these products aren’t bad, but they are always hyped and when it comes down to it, newbies don’t NEED these products. What they need is to actually learn from REAL gurus like Andy Beard, Yaro Starak, Tim Gorman etc. who aren’t just trying to sell them “the next big thing.”
So why does this whole BlogRush thing piss me off, even though I’ve never signed up? Simply because so many good people wasted their time playing with this useless widget only to get disrespected by someone who many considered a good guy. You CANNOT TELL ME that there were 10,000 blogs in the BlogRush network that were lousy!!!! I’m SURE there were several hundred, but theres no way 10,000 blogs were trash!!
Anyway, that’s my rant for the week.
P.S. John should probably give up on BlogRush and start focusing on whatever it is he plans to unveil next for Income.com and man, it better be good or he really is ruined 
P.P.S. After stabbing 10,000 of his own customers in the back and ruining his reputation, he went further by turning off all comments on his blog for every post. Now the only way to contact him is through this link http://www.income.com/contact.html
Popularity: 13% [?]
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22nd October, 2007 at 6:58 pm
That strikes me as pretty sad. I suppose there’s more to the story. I am all for little-known blogs getting more attention…but the truth is, there’s no money in blogs with no traffic. So that may explain the thinking behind it.
I still say that few blogs are really valuable or well-written. And it’s tempting…especially for newbies…to spend more time on what their blog LOOKS like, or on silly little systems like this than to focus on either finding something valuable to say…or even a better, more clever way of saying the same old thing.
We’re being done a disservice to suggest that there will ever be a lot of blogs that make money. You really need a message, some writing talent, and some networking ability to get up into that upper echelon in order to even have a chance to make more than a few bucks here and there.
22nd October, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I agree with you. One of my trash email accounts is full of thousands of offers from gurus.
I think I was inspired do not use blogrush, even if it was recommended by many… However, I’m working hard to put my marketing and consulting experience on my best associates blog. It’s not easy… but I insist… Thanks for your good quality posts. I like to read them.
Teodor
22nd October, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Hey Chuck,
You do have a point, but all blogs have to start somewhere. That’s really the point here in my opinion. It’s just wrong to suspend TEN THOUSAND blogs because they get little or not traffic.
I do believe there are many bloggers who take the wrong approach to their blogging. I also agree that it’s not an easy task to get a blog to a level where it makes decent money. I disagree though that you need writing talent. I’m about as illiterate as they come
and I do well online. Of course this blog isn’t exactly an “upper echelon” blog yet, but I’ve always been a big believe that if you can provide good info, your grammar and writing skills really don’t matter all that much online.
When it comes down to it, John is shooting himself in the foot. That’s 10,000 prior and future customers that will think twice about purchasing a product from him.
22nd October, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Josh,
When I speak of writing talent, I’m not talking about Stephen King or David Halberstam. I’m referring to the ability to take unfamiliar or complex issues and to simplify them and make them more accessible to your Average Joe (which is all of us who aren’t on the inside as a programmer or heavy-duty web developer or affiliate guru). You do just fine at that stuff.
And I am not suggesting that good blogs jump will leapfrog everyone else. I’ve run across plenty that I found valuable that were not seeing much traffic. I’m just saying that it’s misleading for problogging gurus to suggest that blogging is a good way to make money. That’s true for only some people who can inject real value into their blogs. The vast majority of people are flapping their wings, but not going anywhere. I’d much rather be perceived as cruel and tell people the truth.
If folks are going to make money with a blog, it has to START with uniqueness and value. Blogging about blogging is very dangerous territory. Blogging about making money is (for the most part) also a waste. Your blog has proven to be an exception, which is why I subscribe and invest time commenting here. But it’s laughable that people throw up sites talking about the 50 cents they made today, and saying that it’s their goal to make 55 cents tomorrow. That’s like a bunch of babies laying around passing the milk bottle. Seriously.
It’s time for folks to take a look at the concepts of uniqueness and value. Does anyone care what you have to say? Is there anyone else saying it better elsewhere? If you can’t do something that’s not already being done elsewhere…or can’t do it better….then I think it’s time for a long hard look at where you’re investing your time, and where else your time might be better used.
And, of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. But not many.
22nd October, 2007 at 7:46 pm
[...] Another BlogRush Post- Don’t Puke- In the attempt to cut down the spam on BlodRush 10,000 bloggers were kicked out. Unlike Josh I have signed up for BlogRush, only to get nauseous when the “Shocking Changes” were announced. [...]
22nd October, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Chuck,
I totally understand and appreciate your kind remarks toward my blog
lol I probably wouldn’t go that far, but I do see your point. That’s exactly why I waited on starting a blog in this niche until I was actually making decent money online. I personally don’t have a problem with those types of blogs, as long as they’re not trying act like someone they’re not, but it’s true that many of them don’t provide much quality.
22nd October, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Oh… there may be a lot of trashy blogs on blog rush. After all, I found “The Tampon Blog” on Blog rush.
The problem is, the bad blogs aren’t necessarily the ones that got banned. You should visit sphinn today and see which blogs got banned. It’s kind of hilarious.
Right now, I’m feeling sorry for John Reese. He kinda-sorta had an idea that might have worked ok. But instead of sitting down and anticipating problems like “made for blogrush spam”, bloggers quickly figuring out how to reload the widget etc., he decided to launch and market he hell out of a very vulnerable product.
Hiring a huge number of humans to visit all the blogs and “check” after problems arise didn’t work well… Sigh….
22nd October, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Josh,
I’m not trying to suggest that I am the judge of value. I can only speak for myself. And I’m not suggesting that other blogs should be legislated out of existence.
My bottom line is simply this: Many people have a vested interest in telling people that “thar’s gold in them thar heels!”..and they spend little to no time educating people on how to do it right, and what kind of realistic expectations to have.
Darren Rowse, of course, is an exception to this…and there are others. But, like you, I grow weary of the JV-addicted gurus who are making money hand-over-fist telling half-truths to the starving.
I’d love to see the net filled with great-quality blogs. And there are a lot of good ones out there. I do my best to link to and spread the word about those that mean the most to me.
22nd October, 2007 at 8:11 pm
@ Lucia, yep, they should have ran BR is beta for some time before announcing it to the universe!! Lessons learned I guess.
@ Chuck, I gotcha, I think I misunderstood at first, but it’s clear now and I totally agree!! As for the half-truths with blogging, I’m actually about to start a new project (report) on the subject. I’m no blogging guru, but I brought this blog up fairly quickly and like I said before, although it’s nowhere close to that of Andy’s, Yaro’s etc. I’m confident that it will be in the next year or so. I’m going to write a report on everything I’ve learned about blogging that has proven to be effective and offer it as a WSO on the Warrior Forum. I’ll announce it here as well of course.
22nd October, 2007 at 8:59 pm
[...] John Reese announced he’s purged all the bad blogs from Blogrush: Banned bloggers were sent email that [...]
22nd October, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Josh…. You’ll never guess what blog met the quality standards cut. (Or… mayb e you will!)
22nd October, 2007 at 9:53 pm
lol of course, that’s quality right there!! I bet all you women sit at home just praying that you win some tampons from there
and just look at the relevancy, “bonsai care myths exposed” on a tampon blog?
22nd October, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I was one of the 10,000 that were dumped on our butts this morning. At the time, I did not know I was one of 10,000 - I just knew that I got this email and I posted it, along with their “quality standards” and asked my readers - Where in this do I fall? What did I miss?” and their responses were a resounded “WTF???” because it made no sense.
I’d like to know but I won’t bother emailing them because clearly, it’s not worth the effort - but wtf! LOL
22nd October, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Well with the right tools I am sure you could create 10,000 blogs in less than 24 hrs.
The post on Warrior forum hinted that at least one person still has auto-generated blogs in the network.
I reported one site manually to John that might have slipped through and I only spotted that one was scraping content by chance, following a related link to older content to an article written on the plentyoffish blog.
I think the biggest problem for John is the opposite of “Englishmen love underdogs” - bloggers, especially in meta blogging, SEO and marketing love linkbait.
I think the biggest problem was providing stats that were confusing, especially about the bonus credits, and of course the targeting could have been improved immensely.
Lots of the other gripes that people are making are equally true of Facebook and Digg.
23rd October, 2007 at 1:02 am
Thanks for the comment Andy. To me, and I haven’t heard many others complain about this, it’s the way John is handling this. It’s a free service and I normally would never talk about a free service like I do BlogRush, but I really expected him to handle this much much better. Turning off comments on his blog and telling people the reason their blog wasn’t accepted is because their blog is worthless isn’t very professional.
We all have projects that don’t do as well as we thought, guru, newbie and everyone in between alike and that’s when the persons true colors shine. Maybe it’s just me, but I lose respect for people when they lash out after one of their projects doesn’t do well.
Now if people were just calling him an idiot etc. I would totally understand. I’d be pissed too!! But most the criticism, if not all, is of BlogRush not John. When the criticism is geared toward ones product, one MUST be extremely careful what they say in defense! I think John started out very professional, but it all got to him and he started saying things that were very questionable.
This is true, I don’t know anyone who would do that though
23rd October, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hi Josh,
For some reason I too didn’t feel compelled to
join in the “BlogRush”. Probably because it was
too mainstream. Hence,I actually let the thought
of using it sit in my mind for a little while longer to
see how the steak turns out to be…. like what you
mentioned… it got “burned”!
Anyway, I still have some respect for some guru’s
still even if they make cross offers between each other.
Not that I’m in awe but it just shows that birds
of a feather flock together. Wait, am I saying it right?
Also, I just got your AMD like we discussed via email.
I’ll be studying it this week then putting it to action
the week after. Great work by the way!
You are definitely one of the few rare genuine marketers
people can find nowadays. Love your honestly and
simplicity in teaching marketing to others.
Until then, I’m just holding up until I revamp my
“kick-ass-trash” blog to something else. My current
one is full of my marketing baggages. I’m not shy to admit it.
It was my first one. LOL!
Take care,
Vern
24th October, 2007 at 1:09 am
[...] Gurus Getting Bashed by the Little Guy - Another BlogRush Post - Don’t Puke [...]
25th October, 2007 at 7:28 pm
It’s true a Blog or Site without traffic, is a fish out of water. It’s also true (in my opionion) that not all Blogs deserve traffic.
Even with all the questionably bad blogs there are , There’s still a few very Exceptionaly well written and Highly informative blogs out there (ez-onlinemoney.com being one)
Thanks again Josh.
5th November, 2007 at 12:12 am
Very astute! You are the only one I’ve come across so far that has noticed Andy Beard is still rooting for John Reese / BlogRush. Even after how the whole sordid affair turned out.
For a top guru, I agree John Reese was very unprofessional.
BlogRush did not only bring the cheaters out of the woodwork, as he said (and no-o-oh, that’s not HIS fault!), but it also brought out the worst in John Reese. It was uncomfortable to watch him loose it and degenerate into defensive blame and shame.
Well, I suppose that’s a lesson he did teach us. Though it needn’t have been such a public one.
5th November, 2007 at 12:56 am
LPF what were your initial expectations?
In my very first review I wrote
I haven’t worked out an average yet, but I frequently get above 0.2% CTR, and up to 0.5% before the v2 was launch, and that doesn’t allow for the errors in their internal tracking, because I have had more visitors than their internal stats count.
I am personally gaining what I predicted to my readers would be possible from Blogrush.
5th November, 2007 at 2:58 am
Andy,
In the end, I never signed up.
Though I was patiently waiting to (”Thank you for your patience!”), all through the 6 weeks until he deactivated those 10,000 blogs and through to the release of the new “shocking” BlogRush.
That did it for me. No way was I going to be part of this long-overdue, over-hyped, inefficient, botched, re-hashed system.
Based on John Reese’s reputation, my expectations were way up. Not only did I want to use it for my own blogsites, but I was going to recommend it to my networks, and to my clients to use in their blogsites which I had set up for them.
My clients and networks depend on my word. And I was depending on John Reese’s reputation. Well, he let me down with the way he handled the launch of BlogRush.
I’m now thankful I never went ahead to install BR for my clients. I couldn’t bring myself to recommend BR, it being the way it was, to my clients and subscribers.
I don’t want to hear the excuses that it’s new and in beta and therefore needs to go live to have the bugs worked out. Being a webmaster, I just don’t buy that.
You don’t give half-baked, barely-working goods to your customers. They’re paying me for what I give them. I cannot throw shoddy goods at them and still expect to succeed in my business.
Yes, BR is free. But it is a tool, for generating traffic. If it’s working and we can use it, by all means we will. If it’s not working, then we won’t. It’s purely a business decision.
It’s not a question of oh, it’s John Reese, and it’s free, so we should to give him his chances and as much time as he needs to fix his buggy system, and then we’ll use it.
And it’s not about my expectations with the numbers either. Being a John Reese product, the numbers should be good. (They weren’t, practically from Day 1, but I won’t go into that.)
It’s rather that he (of all people) saw fit to release a system which was most definitely not ready for the market. And after sorely trying our patience over several weeks, even scolding and threatening us, then telling 10,000 members they’re deactivated, and then John himself scrambling around doing damage control…I mean, who would have any more faith in BG or John Reese?
You have a solid reputation yourself, Andy. But I doubt you would risk it and plan things so you yourself go through the same experience John Reese had. Nobody with any sense would do it that way. It was one big fiasco.
If your numbers are now looking up, good for you. I congratulate you! And wish you ever more BlogRush traffic for the future!
As for myself and my networks, we won’t be joining BlogRush.