A bubble can develop when the supply outpaces the supply. For example, if a banana republic cranks their printing presses and floods the market with money, it causes hyper inflation, that burger which cost $5 before, might cost $100 now (due to the drop in the value of money). It leads to a crash in the economy.

There’ve been a number of bubbles in history, from the Tulip bubble (where people speculated in tulips), a run on semiconductors, real estate, and more recently the dotcoms in 2000. Is BR headed for the same?

For one, I hardly think a widget is going to have the same level of social impact as the dotcoms. So please drop the doomsday scenarios already.

Secondly, let’s look at the mechanics of the system.

You earn a “syndication credit” (which you can trade for a reciprocal link display on someone else’s blog).

Each time a blogrush widget is displayed, it lists 5 other headlines.

So the net effect is that you “earn” one credit and 5 credits are “used” when the other members headlines are displayed.

The net effect is that one new credit is brought into the system and 5 credits are taken out. Net effect: 4 credits are “burned” in the process.

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So what about potential pyramid/ponzi effects of earning credits from 10 generations of your downline?

Again, look at the payout structure, I believe it’s a 1:1 payout for the 1st and maybe the second generation, from then on, it drops to something like 1:8 for the 10th generation. (ie you “earn” 1 credit for 8 credits that your 10th generation downline earns).

I didn’t work out the stats on this, but it would appear sustainable.

Lastly, if you choose to use blogrush, do remember that you are earning page impressions with your credits, it’s NOT clickthrough traffic. If you’ve used adsense or adwords, you’ll know the mechanics at work here. An impression is not the same as a visitor.

EDIT: I was chatting with IM Sweetie Alice Seba about her BR experience. She’s earned 30,594 credits and used about 8,000 resulting in 39 clicks. (about 0.48% CTR rate).

I suggested to Super Affiliate Amit Mehta that if you want to get the most mileage out of an impression-based system like blogrush, my advice would be to spend 5 minutes coming up with the headline.

A flat headline like “How To Get Started in Internet Marketing” will not get as great a response as a benefit-laden one.

Tools are just tools after all. I’ll address this in my Friday Podcast.

The idea is that each BlogRush widget displayed earns you a syndication credit, which in turn earns you a reciprocal ‘widget view’ on another blog within your category. As far as I’m aware, traffic is NOT guaranteed. You’d still need to put some effort to come up with a great headline and quality content.

What’s blogging maestro Jim Kukral’s bone of contention with BlogRush? Read: Don’t Waste Time With BlogRush, It Won’t Work.

Jim’s point about low traffic blogs not benefitting from the network (which functions as a type of exchange) is certainly valid (and likely not to get much traffic)…Unless you’re buying credits as John points out in the comments section of “BlogRush is a smart idea, for John Reese”

BlogRush works well as a cornerstone lead generation for John’s Income project – It builds a huge database of prospects who are pre-qualified as wanting to blog and possibly wanting to make some Internet income.

If anything, BlogRush is the Yahoo! MyBlogLog’s social networking widget blown up to close to its commercial potential.

Rather than adopt the follow-me implementation of BlogCatalog, it’s leaped light years ahead in terms of feeding into the traffic/money making impulse of some bloggers.

The network-marketing element comes in where you build a downline up to 10 generations deep and they help you build traffic in the same way blog traffic syndicator BlogExplosion (of which I’m a member) helps you build credit.

This obviously has had some greedy Internet Marketers foaming at the mouth and firing unrelenting salvoes to their list, pushing the benefit of “free traffic”. [Do note that of the two dimensions – I think traffic quality is much more desirable than traffic quantity alone.] – I don’t have a gripe if you understand it and have actually used it. But as a list owner, if you’re merely promoting it in the hopes of getting traffic and because a big name is promoting it (rather than because you want to help your list members), you’re not putting your lists’ interests first…

While you might certainly get traffic by “doing nothing” as the BlogRush ads claim, I doubt you’d get more than a trickle if you really “do nothing”. You might as well set up a PayPal account and hope that some dummy accidentally transfers funds to the wrong account.

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So we’re back to looking at BlogRush – It could be worth looking at if you aren’t already active in other communities such as MyBlogLog or PlugIM or BumpZee. I don’t think you should spread yourself further than 3 networks (seems silly to join 10 networks and never have time to participate in any of them actively).

I’d suggest that if you are serious about building your brand and expanding your content distribution, you will get better mileage out of applying to and getting accepted at a top-tier blog network like 9Rules,B5Media, Gawker or one of the established networks listed over at Blog Network List.

Or over at my friend and blogging supremo Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind.

If you’re not willing to put in some effort to generate the right kind of traffic, then I guess it doesn’t really matter which widget you put on your blog…

• Secret Blog Weapon
• Ultimate Affiliate Weapon

Most questions center around:

• Why did you choose them?
• How much did you make?

Here’re the replies:

I chose these 2 products on the basis of:

Secret Blog Weapon (ok, the creator calls it WordPress Adsense System which sounds very scientific): This is a fresh blogging package by Malaysia-based blogger Gobala Krishnan. Gobala has been in Internet Marketing and specializes in blogging.

The contents of the package are listed in my previous post: At last, a blogger’s path to making Internet Marketing money!

The product was launched a few days ago.

First adopters will reap rewards in traffic, Google PageRank and increased Adsense revenue. Gobala’s system is based on sound principles and will stand the test of time.

Do you need it? If your Google PageRank is currently 2 or below and your Alexa is above 100,000, Gobala’s system will definitely give you a leg up.

If you have no idea what your Google and Alexa rankings are, you definitely need this product!

Ewen’s Secret Affiliate Weapon is one of the craziest buys at $9.97. In case you missed it, here’s the previous post: Ewen Chia the Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing guru

Ewen is widely known as a “super affiliate” having regularly topped the top affiliate marketers list of Internet Marketing luminaries like Marlon Sanders, John Reese and the Internet Marketing Center. This product also contains access to his secret blog which contains the solution to the recent ‘Google slap’ (which affects Adwords and Adsense revenue).
How’ve my results been?
I’m using a combination of SecretBlogWeapon and UltimateAffiliateWeapon for my affiliate marketing campaign.

In four days, my net earnings amount to $220. The income came from various affiliate marking products. The numbers are actually better than they look when you consider that my blog links (especially the sales links) were inaccessible for a day when I was applying Gobala’s optimization routines on my WordPress blog.

Should you get it now?

Definitely! You’d help me.

But here’s how you benefit.

I’m offering access to my Internet Marketing insider forum for any purchase of either SecretBlogWeapon and/or UltimateAffiliateWeapon.

You will need to buy through one of these links so my order tracking system can capture your particulars.

What will the Internet Marketing insider forum contain?

I’ve compiled a long list of resources which will complement your blogging, adsense and affiliate marketing efforts. These will give you a further advantage over other Internet Marketers.

I will share advanced Internet Marketing strategies which my team has developed recently and you’ll be the first ones to put them into action.

In fact, I found it was very funny how you will be paid to put some of these strategies into action, while simultaneously generating backlinks to your blog or website. Backlinks will help pump up your Google and Alexa rankings.

Will you have money rolling through the door?

If anyone says you will make big bucks overnight, stay clear away!

If you’re focusing on building a sustainable, consistent and ethical business, you will see the reward in a matter of time, depending on the effort put in.

I’m opening up 20 places in the forum. This may not sound like a lot.

However, my team will be working with each of you to help refine your blog or website. My technology development team is creating additional WordPress tools which will help enhance your results. You will have priority access to these tools.

I’ve already received feedback from some of the buyers that they aren’t interested in the forum and they just want to do casual blogging.

This means there could be much less than 20 people in the forum.

Is this good news?

Heck yeah! I’ll be happy if there is 1 participant in the forum.

It means I will be working in depth with you.

Please don’t take up the forum offer unless you are committed to grow your business.

Ultimate Affiliate Weapon buyers will receive a 3-month access (worth $30) to the Internet Marketing insiders forum, and Secret Blog Weapon buyers will receive a one-year membership (worth $120). If you buy both products, you’ll receive a 18 month lifetime membership (priceless!).

Does that sound fair?

I plan to close this offer once we’ve hit 20 members, or early next week. Whichever comes first.
This will give me time to execute our Keiretsu Marketing campaign next week.