Is the Next Big Thing really the Next Big Thing?

September 17th, 2007 | 8 comments

Over the past few days there have been two “Next Big Things,” BlogRush and DealDotCom. Both have generated a very large buzz through blogs and newsletters, but why?

BlogRush

BlogRush is pretty much a blog traffic exchange, well it actually IS a blog traffic exchange. The only difference is, there is a 10-tier affiliate program, where you earn “credits” for the traffic your downline generates on 10 levels, which ultimately generates more traffic to your blog (has the potential to anyway). I do believe this will be more valuable than your everyday traffic exchange, but I honestly don’t see it being huge after the initial buzz has died down.

Why the buzz?

1. 10 tier referral program! (May drive some decent traffic to authority blogs and/or to those who can drive loads of referrals through other means i.e. newsletters etc.) The referral program is actually a big part of the traffic generation process.

2. John Reese created it! When you think of Internet Marketing you think of Mike Filsaime and John Reese. Any product they come out with, no matter what it is, WILL generate loads of buzz no matter what.

I would say this is only good for those who can generate loads of referrals and bad for those who have small lists and low traffic blogs, but Andy is promoting it on his Niche Marketing Blog and he is known for his honesty and good advice.

I would consider myself in between. I don’t have an enormous reach, but with my newsletters, sites and blogs combined, I have a decent reach. I’ll most likely give this a shot. If I do (really not 100% sure if I will or not) I’ll post an update.

DealDotCom

I’d say this one is closer to “the next big thing” than BlogRush, but it’s a little over hyped as well (in my opinion). I do like it however and I did submit one of my products.

DealDotCom is a new site (scheduled to launch Sept. 18, 2007) that offers special deals related to running a home business. Product owners can submit their product for approval at a discount price. Since they are offering their product at a discount price, they can limit the number of times DealDotCom sells it. If they approve your product, I would imagine you’ll most definitely get some sells!

The other part of DealDotCom is their 2-tier referral program that pays out for life. This is unique in the fact that unlike most other programs, their is no time limit on second tier payments. You always earn money from those you refer, that’s pretty cool!

This one MAY live up to the hype because although the hype was mainly generated do to the great affiliate program, the affiliate program is actually what makes it unique so I don’t really see anything wrong with promoting it, although as you see I haven’t inserted any affiliate links.

Why the buzz?

1. The 2-Tier affiliate program.

2. There aren’t really any negatives here. If the products that are submitted are heavily moderated and they actually take an in-depth look at their quality, it may very well be a big thing, as people like good deals on products.

I could see DealDotCom turning into a large Warrior Special Offer type site.

My initial goal for this post was to explain the fact that in many cases, there is an exterior motive when people promote “the next big thing” type of products. But, I really can’t bash those who promote these two products because, although they may have been over hyped, they may very well turn out to be good opportunities.

Other things that are going on - Vlad over at the Affiliate Marketing Blog wants his about page to outrank Wiki’s pages on Vlad The Impaler (Dracula). Help him out by linking his first name “Vlad” to his about page at http://www.volodymyrzablotskyy.com/about/ He’s a good guy, help him conquer Dracula

Popularity: 11% [?]

Share This Story:

Related Posts

8 comments

Vlad (7 comments.)
17th September, 2007 at 2:11 pm

Hey Josh,

Thanks. I sent you an e-mail this morning about what I thought looked like a comment by a bot. Sorry, I did not realized you were just trying to make me aware of this post.

Thanks for the link!

By the way the “Hollywood” Dracula is viewed and respected by the people in Romania as a “just prince” :). So my first and for most goal is to be Wikipedia not the Dracula himself.

I could have gone into Wikipedia and follow Ran’s suggestion and make let say current Russian president rank #1 for that term. But that would not have helped me at all. I should not complain though I still rank #13 or 14 for Vlad itself.
Josh Spaulding
17th September, 2007 at 5:33 pm

Yeah I added that trackback without thinking and realizing that I wasn’t actually linking to that post in particular. Anyway, no problem at all and feel free to delete that trackback, it does look like spam.

I didn’t know anyone thought of Dracula of a prince hah that’s neat though. You could go in, create a page on yourself, then point all kinds of other Wiki pages to it as well.
Vlad (7 comments.)
17th September, 2007 at 7:32 pm

No way. Your comment was not a spam. Just a little link love back at you.

The image and the historical figure of Vlad Tzepesh (aka Dracula, aka Impaler) is very distorted by Hollywood and generally by the western history “writers”. Vlad stood up against Ottoman Empire - people in Transylvania (present Romania) regard him as a hero.
Maurice (TheCaymanHost) (60 comments.)
17th September, 2007 at 8:29 pm

All pertinent observations as usual Josh.

I decided to give BlogRush a whirl and it’s brought in a few visitors already after just a day, but whether it will be a long term benefit only time will tell, as you say. I had a lot of space in my sidebar so it’s going to be allowed that space for rent and I’ll track the results.

As for DealDotCom I signed up under Andy Beard after reading his post. It probably is over hyped but as with most things, nothing ventured nothing gained

I must get round to sorting Vlad’s link out for him too, I was reading his post very early this morning. Maybe in my next post - I’d hate to be impaled!
Vlad (7 comments.)
17th September, 2007 at 10:52 pm

Guys I am giving the BlogRush a try as well. But to be honest it reminded me of BlogExplosion. I do not expect of this service a lot.
Josh Spaulding
18th September, 2007 at 3:15 am

I didn’t realize he was so misunderstood, but I definitely believe it. These types of stories always seem to get twisted over time, especially but us Americans. Having a German wife, it irritates me to hear “hitler” being mentioned every time Germany is mentioned in the U.S.

Maurice, I don’t think you’ll hurt anything by trying both services, after all they are free. I’m really curious to see how they both turn out.
lucia (14 comments.)
22nd September, 2007 at 8:56 pm

I think for DealDotCom we all need some sort of plugin that both shows the ad for the current product and replaces it with an ad for something else when the product sells out! (I saw the plugin that lets you advertise earlier.)

Of course, the alternative to detecting it’s sold out is to make the ads vanish after they run 8 hours.

I’m giving Blogrush a week. . .
Josh Spaulding
22nd September, 2007 at 10:37 pm

I’d say The DDC guys will come out with something similar. If they don’t, they’re leaving money on the table! I got the wp affiliate pro plugin they ran the other day and it seems to be pretty beat, although I haven’t tried it out yet.