The One Where I Blog About Blogging
Recently, I followed the herd and joined the unofficial "Blogger Support Group" otherwise known as Blog Explosion. Blog Explosion, or BE as I like to call it, is simply the latest in a long line of blog related bonuses created in the hopes of wooing some attention-starved folks like myself (and perhaps even yourself) into the its shallow fold of followers.
For those of you who don't know anything about it, here's the 411. BE is a blog search engine of sorts, only it is built on the premise that your site will get more visitors- guaranteed. It would, if it could, be called a money back guarantee. But it can't because no money changes hands since it's free.
It works like this. You log on to BE and you surf member blogs. The more member blogs you surf, the more people there will be surfing yours. So now I guess that means it's all's fair in love, war and the land of blogging. The trick is you have to stay at one site for a whole 30 seconds before you get a credit for being there. Once in a blue moon you also get the chance to win mystery credits. I've heard of some people winning up to 100 credits. I'm not one of these people.
So far I have only found a few personal glitches with the system:
1. It's every blogger for himself.
Like I stated earlier, you have to stay at a site for 30 seconds before earning your credit and moving on. But once that 30 seconds is up, you can go on your merry way. When you think about it, 30 seconds is nothing. Within 5 minutes, if you're a faithful surfer, you could have easily visited 10 new blogs and have gotten 10 hits to your blog in return. And this is precisely what most bloggers do. The system is set up so that you can introduce your blog, but not without visiting others first. So people "visit" but rarely stay around long. It's a get in, get out, wham-bam-thank you-mamn-kinda-situation. If you are a member of BE don't lie, you know you've done it, so don't be a hater, k? The reason why this happens is simple and also happens to segue perfectly into reason #2.
2. Not all blogs were created equally.
I've decided blogs are a lot like children; none are as so great as your own. That being said, a lot of people have a hard time being impartial and as a result, think their blog is the bomb. Even those people that don't think this don't care because quite frankly, they're still craving attention and feedback. It's the pick me! syndrome from gym class all over again, only in this scenario gym class is actually the wonderful world wide web.
3. A Comment On Comments
Many BE users comment via BE's site and not the person's actual blog. I find this to be annoying. A fair, impartial review is one thing. A generic comment is also acceptable. But the problem herein lies when you want to visit or even blogroll another members blog, you can't because the link comes up as Blog Explosion. In fact, unless that person comments on your blog, you might as well kiss the publicity factor goodbye. Unless of course, you know something I don't know, which of course, is always possible.
4. Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?
I realize that every single day the blogging community grows. So then I wonder, why do I often run into the same blogs on BE time and time again. Are there really not that many blogs to sift through or do these people merely surf too damn much themselves? Inquiring minds want to know.
5. Assigning Credits
I think I got this one down, but I'm still not sure. As far as I can tell you can assign credits to other blogs. I guess this works if you personally have more than one blog. I can't think of another scenario where this would work though. So I don't really understand why you have to change the settings to assign credits. I might not be living up to my BE potential and just not know it.
And As A Bonus For Getting This Far...
You can also get extra credit points if someone joins BE and mentions you referred them. So if you got this far in my post and haven't joined BE yet, forget everything negative I said. Just go join and be sure to say Janet made you do it.
For those of you who don't know anything about it, here's the 411. BE is a blog search engine of sorts, only it is built on the premise that your site will get more visitors- guaranteed. It would, if it could, be called a money back guarantee. But it can't because no money changes hands since it's free.
It works like this. You log on to BE and you surf member blogs. The more member blogs you surf, the more people there will be surfing yours. So now I guess that means it's all's fair in love, war and the land of blogging. The trick is you have to stay at one site for a whole 30 seconds before you get a credit for being there. Once in a blue moon you also get the chance to win mystery credits. I've heard of some people winning up to 100 credits. I'm not one of these people.
So far I have only found a few personal glitches with the system:
1. It's every blogger for himself.
Like I stated earlier, you have to stay at a site for 30 seconds before earning your credit and moving on. But once that 30 seconds is up, you can go on your merry way. When you think about it, 30 seconds is nothing. Within 5 minutes, if you're a faithful surfer, you could have easily visited 10 new blogs and have gotten 10 hits to your blog in return. And this is precisely what most bloggers do. The system is set up so that you can introduce your blog, but not without visiting others first. So people "visit" but rarely stay around long. It's a get in, get out, wham-bam-thank you-mamn-kinda-situation. If you are a member of BE don't lie, you know you've done it, so don't be a hater, k? The reason why this happens is simple and also happens to segue perfectly into reason #2.
2. Not all blogs were created equally.
I've decided blogs are a lot like children; none are as so great as your own. That being said, a lot of people have a hard time being impartial and as a result, think their blog is the bomb. Even those people that don't think this don't care because quite frankly, they're still craving attention and feedback. It's the pick me! syndrome from gym class all over again, only in this scenario gym class is actually the wonderful world wide web.
3. A Comment On Comments
Many BE users comment via BE's site and not the person's actual blog. I find this to be annoying. A fair, impartial review is one thing. A generic comment is also acceptable. But the problem herein lies when you want to visit or even blogroll another members blog, you can't because the link comes up as Blog Explosion. In fact, unless that person comments on your blog, you might as well kiss the publicity factor goodbye. Unless of course, you know something I don't know, which of course, is always possible.
4. Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?
I realize that every single day the blogging community grows. So then I wonder, why do I often run into the same blogs on BE time and time again. Are there really not that many blogs to sift through or do these people merely surf too damn much themselves? Inquiring minds want to know.
5. Assigning Credits
I think I got this one down, but I'm still not sure. As far as I can tell you can assign credits to other blogs. I guess this works if you personally have more than one blog. I can't think of another scenario where this would work though. So I don't really understand why you have to change the settings to assign credits. I might not be living up to my BE potential and just not know it.
And As A Bonus For Getting This Far...
You can also get extra credit points if someone joins BE and mentions you referred them. So if you got this far in my post and haven't joined BE yet, forget everything negative I said. Just go join and be sure to say Janet made you do it.
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