Blog Rush Really Knows How To Pick “Quality” Blogs.
Yes, I was banned from Blog Rush, after only having the widget on this site for a week. Am I bitter? A tad. I’m not upset at the loss of 1000s of visitors, (please, insert sarcasm here), I could have received, it’s the fact I wasn’t given a specific reason, other than their now famous list:
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. I have 3 years of posts- did anyone look at the archives? How much more unique can one get when discussing rednecks where she lives? Doing so has made many a reader chuckle. I’ve given advice, shown my geeky side and given my insight and opinion on many things.
- 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. I took a month and a half break. Considering I have been blogging almost every day for 3 years, it was a well deserved break.
- The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted. Can I stress 3 years enough?
- The blog’s primary contain must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs. The last time I spoke, it came out as English, albeit with a Southern accent. Is this a slam?
- 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. Let’s see, considering a majority of the blogs I have seen with BlogRush widgets have more advertising than a cheap porn site, and my sidebar has a few, and I don’t write that many paid posts, I don’t see this as a problem.
- 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. If I was doing anything for search engine ranks or PR, I wouldn’t have signed up for BlogRush to begin with.
- 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. Other than Bea Arthur dressed in leather, I can assure you none of this exists on my blog.
Now, mind you, many good blogs were “banned” from BlogRush. Take John Cow, (not CHOW, COW), for example. He was banned as well and made it clear on how upset he was. Well, what do ya know, John Reese himself comments on his blog apologizing and said reviewers clearly made a mistake. This is where I become a wee bit furious and begin to understand the concept behind BlogRush. If I had posted the minute I received the email, that I had been banned for not having a “quality” blog, I can guarantee you no one from BlogRush, much less the person who started the service, would have stopped buy, much less giving a crap. But since a select few who are deemed “influential” by standards I have yet to comprehend, they go running to cover their butts. Call it good PR or ass kissing-it’s all the same. Of course, John Cow was accepted and guess what? He was accepted even though the title of his latest post, (as of this writing), uses one of the most degrading words one can say to a woman- it starts with a C and ends with T. Is this the quality that BlogRush so desperately seems to want? Way to go-good, quality blogs for the masses to read.
Ick. I hate that crap. Certainly not a site I’ll be looking to join, even though I certainly could use a few (more) readers.
At this point I don’t care about not being accepted- it’s the fact the email stressed the quality assurance test the supposedly did- then they allow a blog in where the owner uses a word in a post title that is degrading to women- I mean really.
I’m not impressed with blogrush at all. I’ve barely got any traffic from it and all the rules about where it should be placed and bloggers getting cut like yourself is just nuts.
You know, I can understand wanting quality blogs, but outline the “requirements” before cutting over 10,000 blogs, many of which ARE quality in my opinion. If one does get banned, (even thought they’re saying we aren’t banned, but let’s face it I’m not changing my blog to suit them), then at least give them a full explanation, not a copy and pasted email.
Just to let you know, the post was edited and the C word was not intended to offend anyone. It’s just a matter of cultural differences.
It gets used a lot over here and has little meaning. Same as Americans seem to love the F word.
No hard feelings?
John: It’s fine. The heading really struck a nerve especially after going through page rank drops and then an email telling me my blog was worthless. I don’t like the F word either, for the record.
I didn’t get the dreaded “Sorry but you’re not good enough for BlogRush email” but I did do some investigating. Basically, the widget is useless. Every time I refresh my page I’m getting the same headlines and when I follow those headlines I noticed that those blogs had the same ones. Hmm. Also, another blogger got the axe and her post about it showed up on a widget at another blog. Ha!
Too much hype and not enough umph. Not worth it I think.
Lizzie: I noticed when I had the widget installed that I was seeing not the same headlines but the same blogs over and over. I’m all for blog promotion but I wouldn’t want mine shown all day every day.
My blogs got banned too, but I figure it was because I eventually got the brilliant idea to add another one that was too small. I expected them judge your blogs individually if you have more than one, so I didn’t expect them to ban my main one too because the other one was too small. And now I see THIS blog and that it was removed and wonder what they’re possibly thinking at that crazy little place called Blog Rush.
I don’t care if I ever get it back anyway…I counted 7 hits from Blog Rush in about a month…any questions? LOL
John: BlogRush isn’t thinking- that’s the problem. It’s a classic case of yet another service which promises a lot but delivers little- yet they believe they hold the power when it comes to “cleaning up the blogosphere.”