Today I tried out a new blog promotion service that I’ve been hearing a lot about: Blog Explosion. They offer a unique combination of rewarded surfing with multilevel marketing (pyramind) schemes. The payout, though, is not money, but traffic. For every 2 blogs you visit through their site, they send one visitor to your sites. And for each referral that you get to sign up on Blog Explosion, you get 10% of the traffic they generate, down to a maximum of 5 levels deep.

They’re not stupid about doing this, either. They give a page full of banners you can use to promote blog explosion, most of which are well done, but unfortunately animated. Here’s a still of one of them:

After surfing 100 blogs I’d never seen before, I found some neat, interesting things:

• Saint Isidore, patron saint of the Internet
• A hilarious appeal for a date, and overall amusing site
• The survival guide to homelessness
• A proud US marine’s wife’s blog
• Some mystical poetry by Yeats

That’s the real benefit to the Blog Explosion system: getting to meet new and interesting blogs. Of course, for every good blog you meet, there are some bad ones:

• Profit center: sate your greed
• Michelle of garish and aliased fonts
• A scary tale of babies and ceiling fans…
• Inane personal family blog
• More inane family thoughts
• Cluttered designs and slow loading layouts
• No Comment
• Blogs that are too personal
• Blogs that are too personal and very hard to read

My friends, there is more chaff than wheat. Still it’s an idea worth checking out, especially if you sign up with this special link! Probably, you’ll find some neat blog ideas and blogs, find some stuff you hate, and get a few more visitors. It’s a sophisticated enough system and idea that it’s worth a try–and it’s free.

7 Responses to “Blog Explosion”

1. orangeguru says:

   12/14/2004 at 9:42 pm

   I have spent so much time looking at so many other peoples blogs that I had enough for a lifetime – there are way too many bad examples out there. After each blog ‘travel’ I feel surrounded by a low level of conformist diversity and mediocre home publishing. Somehow good sites seem to come to me – so now prefer passiv research and survival of the fittest meme (creators).

   Reply
2. JErm says:

   12/15/2004 at 12:09 am

   I found your blog thru blogexplosion.. and maybe one of these days you’ll find my blog thru there too!

   Reply
3. Mobile Homemaker says:

   12/15/2004 at 10:59 am

   Thanks so much for the positive review and link to my site. I often wonder if I am not just wasting my time with BE, but then I get a mention like this and I am hooked again.

   Reply
4. Carson says:

   12/15/2004 at 12:52 pm

   Abusive? Really? And a bad blog? Hmmm, good thing I’m not relying on internet feedback for my self esteem.

   Thanks for the link back though. I guess as long as you spell the link right!

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5. Elliott Back says:

   12/15/2004 at 1:13 pm

   Sorry Carson, but a tale of mashing a baby’s head against a ceiling fan is quite more than I take!

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6. Carson says:

   12/15/2004 at 4:45 pm

   As long as you don’t find me inane, I can deal. But I dare you to find a parent who hasn’t bonked their child somehow! I wouldn’t say I mashed it, either, more like brushed it. Like I said on the blog, there were 3 small scrapes, no bruising at all. It wasn’t like the scene from Indiana Jones when the guy meets the airplane propeller face first. I don’t think I’m a person of interest to CPS over it. (No need to reply that you did find me inane after all, but thought abusive was the worse charge.)

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7. Elliott Back says:

   12/15/2004 at 5:37 pm

   I’m only 20, so I haven’t had any kids of my own yet. But I certainly remember my little brothers and sisters getting banged around in various accidental ways as children. Often it’s the little one’s one doing too–kids aren’t too smart that way…

   “Abusive” is overkill, but trust me. That blog post has incredible shock value, especially for a new visitor! I’m sorry for mislabelling your accident; best of luck blogging…

   Reply