BlogSoldiers Blog Traffic Group
What does this have in common with Word of Mouth?
(Gotta look below to see who's featured!)
On Monday Afternoon I received an email from John Bambenek, the new owner of BlogSoldiers.
As of yesterday he now owns this blog traffic service. You can read his Blog post about it here.
I have been very slow at adding blog traffic services to my blog, because I wanted to have a good look at the services before I add them. I also have to be certain I can do what is required of me to reap the rewards in the form of hits on my blog.
I added BlogSoldiers to my blog quite recently, and I was a little surprised to get an email titled "From The New Owner". Thank goodness I know how to look at properties of an email without opening it, or I may have just deleted it! Did you get one of those emails and delete it yesterday? Upp! Now you know what it was!
John Bambenek has provided a link for an Info Page on his history. If you want to read it click here.
(Yeah I know he is a very critical writer........eh, and I am pro EVERYTHING<place rainbows and pom poms here beside the liberal masonic ring of my hubby and the bra I burned while I was talking to the dead>. Takes all kinds to make the bloggosphere go round! Our opinions and 97cents will get you a crappy cup of coffee.)
Enough about me, on to what you care about, the future of Blog Soldiers. First, the name will remain the same I have no intention of changing it. Second, I have some big plans in store introducing new features, but first things first. I'm starting a huge membership drive. I've heard (and shared) the complaints that the variety of websites in Blog Soldiers has been less than ideal. For that reason, I'm introducing the following incentives for all members:
1) 50 referral credits for all new members you refer.
2) 50 bonus credits on surfing 50 sites for new members who join.
3) Surfing Contest for the month of August, the Top 10 surfers will receive up to 500 credits for having the most pages surfed between Aug 15 and Aug 31. Top surfer gets 500, 2nd gets 250, 3rd 150, 4th and 5th get 100, 6th-10th get 50.
4) Membership contest. In ADDITION to the referral bonus, the member with the most sites referred will get 500 credits with the same bonus structure as above.
5) REDUCED PURCHASE PRICE FOR CREDITS! I have reduced the price on purchasing credits for THIS MONTH ONLY! It is now $8 - 1200, $14 - 2500, and $24 - 5000.
6) If you post on your blog about the purchase and relaunch of blogsoldiers, you get 50 credits IN ADDITION to any referral credits that post generates. (Please open a support ticket, send me the permalink and your username).
I know that incentive time is the best time to become a member to anything! Offers like these will fly away and go bye bye in a very short time.
Today is our chance!
After the original correspondance with me, yesterday, Mr. Bambeneck said he would monitor my blog if I wrote about the new ownership.
I have asked him to monitor my comments and I will ask you guys to tell us all in my comments what you like and dislike about Blog Traffic Services, and what your dream Blog Traffic Service would have set up for you.
Tricia's Musings uses the most creative blogrolls to entertain her mind, and she doesn't limit herself to one blog. She has created several themed blogs for all her muses.
Charles Ravndal uses ingenious games to amuse his commenters. By doing so he can also show us he has great Blog Page Design Services that he is very well known for.
Ron Allan has a complicated mind and he writes about all different things that make him wonder, worry and cheer about the world, informing us all of new things.
Laurie Leehane is the funny rant lady. Who draws very funny illustrations to meet her mood or story! She is also an artist and you can link to her gallery through her blog.
Ron (Rat) is the funny and gumpy blogger who tries to help everyone answer all their burning questions about why their "dumb blog" isn't working right.
Knit Owl's blog shows her daily life interests which are mostly with her cats and crafts, plus it is a forum for her to exchange info with other knitters and toy designers, and shows us that she has a little business going for her crafts.
Wytchwood Ramblings tells the stories of a very funny woman in an isolated outport in Newfoundland.
John Wilder tells us the funniest stories about his family and their life in Fairbanks Alaska!
Mother Of Invention tells about her life at the edge of Cottage Country in Ontario in her blog Spilling Out.
Osquer uses her blog as an outlet for her creative poetry and passionate eye for pictures.
RennyBA does a great commentary about life in Norway, and how it is probably different from where you live.
Chumly writes very interesting essays. All with a bit of humour, but certain to teach us something.
Pud interests me because he is intelligent and into IT like my Son, and likes Metallica like my Sons, and plays the same video games as my Sons. And he is darn funny!
Jules writes about her life as a Working Mom, and her passions for sport, and her interesting views on life.
Snarfalicious is the founder of the very first hit generator I ever tried (and there is always the most special place in a bloggers heart for their first...). I found Snarf through their Signifiacant Other- Deb who has Tarot Blog. These two are great bloggers and I read their blogs for months before I tried their group BlogAdvance. I joined BlogAdvance because the founder was a blogger writer that I liked, and I was sure they would have alot of blogs on their service that I would like. Through their service I found Tricia's Musings, and from Trish I learned alot. She is a good blogger and a loyal blogger, and I grew interested to try stuff she tried. Which brings us back here to BlogSoldiers.
Why did I put these folks on my page today? They are the perfect example of a group of people from all over the world who share a similar style of blogging to me. We talk about our life in general and we give everyone snippits of our passion and hobbies. How did we all meet to become the Blogging network we are today? (leaving almost daily comments to cheer on our buddies) Most of us were generated from a type of list. Whether it be a blogroll or a random hit from our host, or from a blog traffic service.
The Blog Traffic Providers like BlogSoldiers provide us with a quick run of a bunch of blogs we may never see otherwise. We can read the front page and look at the pics to see if the particular blog is of interest to us. We pick the one's that really appeal to us and we begin the exchange.
In the end it is all about the exchange. Blog ettiquette implies that if you get a comment on your blog, you respectfully use the blogger's link to look at their blog. When you have read as much as you can read, you comment. When you go to comments you respectifully read the other commenters comments. If you like what they say or they say something you would like to reply to, you click their comment link and respectfully go see what they are all about. If you all like the blogs and find them your kind of read, you will keep going back, and the commenting cycle begins.
This is Word Of Mouth Baby! Yet is usually starts with that random hit from a Traffic Exchange. It is the fastest way to find bloggers with interests similar to yourself. Some of the bloggers are savvy with the Memes and the Meta Tags and the Blog Rolls, but they are only good if someone is lookin for you or the kind'a info you are "pimpin". In the end it all comes down to that First Impression we make when someone sees our work on the Random Traffic Roll.
(If you know I read your blog and I didnt mention you it is not because I dont like you. I only picked the blogs to feature that I exchange comments with several times a week. I have a list in The Very Important Place in my margin if you want to see all the blogs I try my best to pass by each day. My real-life friends are in their own section. I have new blogs showing up on my
Linky on the Special Blog Roll Participation Days too!)
(If you are a blog traffic service and want me to write about you, you can email me via my blog. I am an equal opportunity "Pimper")
Ok so here are the Questions I would really like you to answer in Comments today. And Please oh Please comment.....
1) What do you like about Blog Traffic Services?
2)What do you dislike about Blog Traffic Services?
3)Is there something specific to BlogSoldiers that you would like changed?(please reply to this if you currently use BlogSoldiers)
4)Tell us what kind of perks you have received with blog traffic points? ( Please do not say a service name on this answer. You can tell the number of points required for a perk, but don't say which service gave it to you) This is the FYI for newbies like me.
As of yesterday he now owns this blog traffic service. You can read his Blog post about it here.
(no not this...go farther!)
Maybe some of you have seen the little "chicklet" icons on other blogs and wonder what they are all about and why bloggers use them?---->This is a chicklet------------------>I have been very slow at adding blog traffic services to my blog, because I wanted to have a good look at the services before I add them. I also have to be certain I can do what is required of me to reap the rewards in the form of hits on my blog.
I added BlogSoldiers to my blog quite recently, and I was a little surprised to get an email titled "From The New Owner". Thank goodness I know how to look at properties of an email without opening it, or I may have just deleted it! Did you get one of those emails and delete it yesterday? Upp! Now you know what it was!
John Bambenek has provided a link for an Info Page on his history. If you want to read it click here.
(Yeah I know he is a very critical writer........eh, and I am pro EVERYTHING<place rainbows and pom poms here beside the liberal masonic ring of my hubby and the bra I burned while I was talking to the dead>. Takes all kinds to make the bloggosphere go round! Our opinions and 97cents will get you a crappy cup of coffee.)
(The good stuff is still coming)
The following is part of the email messege you may have missed:Enough about me, on to what you care about, the future of Blog Soldiers. First, the name will remain the same I have no intention of changing it. Second, I have some big plans in store introducing new features, but first things first. I'm starting a huge membership drive. I've heard (and shared) the complaints that the variety of websites in Blog Soldiers has been less than ideal. For that reason, I'm introducing the following incentives for all members:
1) 50 referral credits for all new members you refer.
2) 50 bonus credits on surfing 50 sites for new members who join.
3) Surfing Contest for the month of August, the Top 10 surfers will receive up to 500 credits for having the most pages surfed between Aug 15 and Aug 31. Top surfer gets 500, 2nd gets 250, 3rd 150, 4th and 5th get 100, 6th-10th get 50.
4) Membership contest. In ADDITION to the referral bonus, the member with the most sites referred will get 500 credits with the same bonus structure as above.
5) REDUCED PURCHASE PRICE FOR CREDITS! I have reduced the price on purchasing credits for THIS MONTH ONLY! It is now $8 - 1200, $14 - 2500, and $24 - 5000.
6) If you post on your blog about the purchase and relaunch of blogsoldiers, you get 50 credits IN ADDITION to any referral credits that post generates. (Please open a support ticket, send me the permalink and your username).
I know that incentive time is the best time to become a member to anything! Offers like these will fly away and go bye bye in a very short time.
(Ready!? You will see it soon!)
Very Rarely do we the bloggers get an open forum to Pow Wow with the new owner and tell him what our dreams of the perfect Blog Traffic Service would be.Today is our chance!
After the original correspondance with me, yesterday, Mr. Bambeneck said he would monitor my blog if I wrote about the new ownership.
I have asked him to monitor my comments and I will ask you guys to tell us all in my comments what you like and dislike about Blog Traffic Services, and what your dream Blog Traffic Service would have set up for you.
I am getting compensation for this. I am getting some traffic points. Honestly I dont know what I can do with them, because I am so green at this. So maybe some of the more seasoned Bloggers can tell us what kinds of things they have been able to do with their traffic points. Us GreenHorns would really appreciate it.
(TaDa! Just for YOU!)
Oh there will be some folks who say. "She is sellin-out to the Man". I don't sell-out to anything, but I certainly do believe that the best advertisement is word of mouth, and reciprocation when it comes to blogging. Blogging has changed the rate of word of mouth information forever. We each "pimp" (to coin Charles Ravndal's great word for generating your own blog traffic) our blogs our own way, and alot of us use traffic sevices to help us find new blogs to read. The most interesting bloggers I have found are from my daily blog surfs. Some have absolutely amazed me with their ingenuity: (I have linked them up so you can visit if you wish)Tricia's Musings uses the most creative blogrolls to entertain her mind, and she doesn't limit herself to one blog. She has created several themed blogs for all her muses.
Charles Ravndal uses ingenious games to amuse his commenters. By doing so he can also show us he has great Blog Page Design Services that he is very well known for.
Ron Allan has a complicated mind and he writes about all different things that make him wonder, worry and cheer about the world, informing us all of new things.
Laurie Leehane is the funny rant lady. Who draws very funny illustrations to meet her mood or story! She is also an artist and you can link to her gallery through her blog.
Ron (Rat) is the funny and gumpy blogger who tries to help everyone answer all their burning questions about why their "dumb blog" isn't working right.
Knit Owl's blog shows her daily life interests which are mostly with her cats and crafts, plus it is a forum for her to exchange info with other knitters and toy designers, and shows us that she has a little business going for her crafts.
Wytchwood Ramblings tells the stories of a very funny woman in an isolated outport in Newfoundland.
John Wilder tells us the funniest stories about his family and their life in Fairbanks Alaska!
Mother Of Invention tells about her life at the edge of Cottage Country in Ontario in her blog Spilling Out.
Osquer uses her blog as an outlet for her creative poetry and passionate eye for pictures.
RennyBA does a great commentary about life in Norway, and how it is probably different from where you live.
Chumly writes very interesting essays. All with a bit of humour, but certain to teach us something.
Pud interests me because he is intelligent and into IT like my Son, and likes Metallica like my Sons, and plays the same video games as my Sons. And he is darn funny!
Jules writes about her life as a Working Mom, and her passions for sport, and her interesting views on life.
Snarfalicious is the founder of the very first hit generator I ever tried (and there is always the most special place in a bloggers heart for their first...). I found Snarf through their Signifiacant Other- Deb who has Tarot Blog. These two are great bloggers and I read their blogs for months before I tried their group BlogAdvance. I joined BlogAdvance because the founder was a blogger writer that I liked, and I was sure they would have alot of blogs on their service that I would like. Through their service I found Tricia's Musings, and from Trish I learned alot. She is a good blogger and a loyal blogger, and I grew interested to try stuff she tried. Which brings us back here to BlogSoldiers.
(Thanks Guys! You are All Fandabulous!)
Why did I put these folks on my page today? They are the perfect example of a group of people from all over the world who share a similar style of blogging to me. We talk about our life in general and we give everyone snippits of our passion and hobbies. How did we all meet to become the Blogging network we are today? (leaving almost daily comments to cheer on our buddies) Most of us were generated from a type of list. Whether it be a blogroll or a random hit from our host, or from a blog traffic service.
The Blog Traffic Providers like BlogSoldiers provide us with a quick run of a bunch of blogs we may never see otherwise. We can read the front page and look at the pics to see if the particular blog is of interest to us. We pick the one's that really appeal to us and we begin the exchange.
In the end it is all about the exchange. Blog ettiquette implies that if you get a comment on your blog, you respectfully use the blogger's link to look at their blog. When you have read as much as you can read, you comment. When you go to comments you respectifully read the other commenters comments. If you like what they say or they say something you would like to reply to, you click their comment link and respectfully go see what they are all about. If you all like the blogs and find them your kind of read, you will keep going back, and the commenting cycle begins.
This is Word Of Mouth Baby! Yet is usually starts with that random hit from a Traffic Exchange. It is the fastest way to find bloggers with interests similar to yourself. Some of the bloggers are savvy with the Memes and the Meta Tags and the Blog Rolls, but they are only good if someone is lookin for you or the kind'a info you are "pimpin". In the end it all comes down to that First Impression we make when someone sees our work on the Random Traffic Roll.
(If you know I read your blog and I didnt mention you it is not because I dont like you. I only picked the blogs to feature that I exchange comments with several times a week. I have a list in The Very Important Place in my margin if you want to see all the blogs I try my best to pass by each day. My real-life friends are in their own section. I have new blogs showing up on my
Linky on the Special Blog Roll Participation Days too!)(If you are a blog traffic service and want me to write about you, you can email me via my blog. I am an equal opportunity "Pimper")
(please write a comment guys!)
Ok so here are the Questions I would really like you to answer in Comments today. And Please oh Please comment.....
1) What do you like about Blog Traffic Services?
2)What do you dislike about Blog Traffic Services?
3)Is there something specific to BlogSoldiers that you would like changed?(please reply to this if you currently use BlogSoldiers)
4)Tell us what kind of perks you have received with blog traffic points? ( Please do not say a service name on this answer. You can tell the number of points required for a perk, but don't say which service gave it to you) This is the FYI for newbies like me.
13 comments:
I think I joined blog soldiers since I first started blogging but completely forgotten it. I think I will check it again. And ooooohhhh thanks for plugging me in here!!! hehehehe
one thing about blog traffic services is that they provide what people want is an opportunity to have people explore and fine new blogs. the thing i don't like about it is that i feel that sometimes, they are basically link farms and really don't provide too much value besides being a link. maybe if they combine this with a rating system or a categorization or even a tagging system so that it's not just click-for-click, blindly sending people to different blogs just for the clicks. good luck on this lynn!
Charles thanks for makin the first comment!
I was in a real pimpin mood!
Thanks for answering the questions.
Thanks Paul!
Paul is a perfect example of the ettiquette I speek of. He has left an informative and respectful comment. He has something to say. So now we will all go visit Paul and leave him a comment!!
This comment is really informative Paul.
EXTRA!!
So Paul's blog is No Milk Please. You can click on his name underlined and you will get the info page of his blog. Scroll to the bottom and look on the Blog space and click on it! Voila!
Hey Lynn! I checked the yellow pages here and also in the net for your friend but it's weird that there are no returns probably he moved to Sweden perhaps? Coz even prepaid phones here can be searched with just a name alone.
Hi! Thanks for the link - and your post about blog etiquette. I think most people follow some version of this, but it all depends on how much time they spend doing whatever it is they do on the Internet. Some days you really want to surf and run around looking for new things, other days you feel like you've neglected somebody or something, and really could have used a few more minutes of free time :o)
I've formed some great friendships from the random click phenomenon - both them randomly clicking in, and also my own random clicks and comments. The blogosphere is a fascinating place :o)
Thanks Rhelynn,
The time thing was the whole reason I was not sure I could fulfill the requirements to be part of a blog traffic service.
It isn't like I have no time for the browsing. I dont want to make it all consuming.
Some days when I am trying to figure out a new web thing, it takes me all darn day to accomplish what I want in little bits and pieces.
Then I feel I wasted the day on one thing.
I am trying to plan this blogging use better. I am experimenting for sure with the blog services, but I dont think I can go through reems fo lists in one day.
So I need to divide the tasks up somehow.
I am ever-trying to make it all balance.
Hummm,
I be he is using a mobile from Kiel for trucking.
Thanks for tryin.
Wow Lynn, thanks for the mention- Twice! I'll have to spend some time and check out all the other sites you listed. Good pluggin' ;)
lets see, since you spent so much time creating this great post I'll try to answer some of your questions:
1. What I like about blog traffic services is - as you said- I get to find blogs that hold my interest, ones that I want to visit regularly to see what the blogger is saying or what they've been up to. I've also spent a lot of time commenting on blogs or at least on posts that I enjoyed and by doing that I've met some very interesting people, made some friends and uh occasionally get my site plugged (bonus!!!). LOL
Some of the services have a few other features that I enjoy such as contests to earn more credits, bonus credit hours or days, and some games that help earn credits too (I enjoy battling on one of the sites for some strange reason).
Some sites contests can earn you some money ... like being a top surfer of the week or month or getting the most referals.
2. What I dislike about the services is that sometimes it feels like it's an endless cycle of increased surfing just to build up credits so that others can see my sites. As I surf I see the same sites over and over and that gets kind of mindless. It also makes me wonder how many times others are seeing my site repeatedly and if they are just tuning out as they surf. If people are tuning out then all that surfing is pointless.
3. On blogsoldiers the education center could have more info on it. When I first started using blogsoldiers I was trying to figure out if I earned any credits when some one signed up via my referal link and couldn't find an answer. I also have yet to figure out what the different levels are and what they mean, and do we get any bonus credits when we achieve a new letter or complete a word. Theres nothing in the education center about this. I'm pretty sure that we do get credits once we reach certain levels as my stock of credits seems to build a bit more than I think my surfing alone would account for.
Perhaps a forum where we could discuss problems that are occuring with blogsoldiers or just to talk about blogging issues or blogging in general. This would start to build a community at blogsoldiers if the members were aware of a forum.
I changed the amount of credits my sites use per day a few weeks ago. Since my blogs are approved I thought I could just change it and move on, but when I changed the amount of credits per day (CPD) I had to wait for the change to be approved. Which meant my sites went out of rotation as I waited (about 8 + hours). I think that if we make simple changes like that to a site that's already been approved it shouldn't affect the blogs rotation.
4. Perks ... well I've already mentioned a few - winning contests on some of the traffic sites has earned me a small amount of cash and or bonus credits. I've also done some posts to promote some of the traffic engines and earned credits doing that too.
Other perks ... hmmm, well, when I've had a build up of credits I've been able to hold contests on my site, and or I've also earned some credits by entering contests on other bloggers sites. When I've held contests I've sometimes seen an increase in traffic to my site, and I've created a few regular visitors to my sites when I've done that.
I can't think of any other perks specifically right now. Was my answer the kind of info that you were looking for as far as perks go?
I agree with you that word of mouth is the best way to get traffic to your site. Don't go spamming a bunch of blogs just to leave your link there. You need to find blogs or at least posts that you are interested in and leave a relevant comment about the post or the blog in general. Site owners often do visit the sites that have left comments on their blogs and sometimes they like what they see and come back again to see what you are blogging about, some even become regulars.
There are lots of ways to get traffic to your site (being on blogrolls, participating in memes, traffic engines, carnivals, and being listed on all the major search engines and all the blog related search engines and directories), but posting regularly about topics that you are interested in and commenting on other sites is one of the best ways to end up getting return visitors.
I've got to go and work on all those wedding photos that I took so that I can start posting some of them! Photoshop needs me now. :) Thanks again for the plug! Very sweet of you to say such nice things. Hugs
Thanks Tricia,
I think you did a great job explaining the details to us greenhorns.
I agree with you on the comment spam. The idea of blogging is that you create a network of folks who have a similar style and personality to you, so we all can compliment eachother in a blogroll.
Only certain folk will like our blog style. I guess we are all kind of the "Essay Journalists". Our lives are divided into different phases and each can be a topic....and we like to play with cameras, and we appreciate stuff in a big way. All of us can take a fleck of positive and turn it into a mountain of fun!
It is great to hear that the systems do have rewards in them. I know that bloggers that read today were waiting to see more comments, because they really wanted the scoop! Bet they come back tomorrow to read the last posts.
The stuff you talk about from the traffic providers end has to be very good information on a startup of a campaign to shift the focus of a blog traffic service.
I am sure that all of the controllers of blog traffic services could really benefit from what they can learn in a forum.
Hey everyone! Didn't I tell you she is a very dedicated and loyal blogger!?
Thanks So Much Tricia!
Zeroeth,
Blush.
1, - I used them for a while, it was nice to get some hits starting out,
2, but very few of the folks tended up being repeats.
4, nothing, really, but "random hits".
John, I found you through a random hit through the blogspot roll.
I was up one night really late and I read all your past posts I could muster.
I woke my husband up laughing so hard.
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