I’m pretty sure this issue has been explored quite a bit, but here’s my two cents worth anyway. If you’re reading this post, you most likely came from either one of these blog traffic exchange networks. And why do I know this? Because this blog is a new blog. For that very reason, all my initial traffic will thus arrive from these two sources simply because I have no other source of traffic, yet…

That’s the crux of the argument involving traffic exchange networks like these. For relatively new blogs, any traffic at all is a bonus. Until search engines spider and index your blog, unless you have tons of friends or acquaintances informed or you trackback popular posts from other blogs, the traffic BlogExplosion and BlogClicker will give you is probably all that you will receive, especially if your posts aren’t pure gold (like most posts are). Even if it was, someone or something would have to notice it, right?

From your trigger-happy BE and BC visitors, there will be a bunch that actually reads your blog. If you are lucky, they might comment or better, link to your posts, discuss them on their own blogs and therefore, expose you to even more traffic. Technically, more incoming links to your blog is always good since they raise your page rank on search engines like Google. If not, well, at least your (visible or invisible) page hits counter starts rising. You might get a few cents from Adsense (or whatever CPM/CPC advertising your blog has) too.

Realistically, quite a number of your visitors to your blog from BE and BC aren’t going to stay for long or ever return (unless through BE and BC again, of course). In fact, they might not have even read your blog’s title. Let us remember that most members are surfing to get credits for their own blogs. If they are voting for BE’s Battle of the Blogs, their getting credits for it too. The same with Blog Rocket. Well, the less time you spend on one blog, the more blogs you can visit. You might be doing the same too.

What about special schemes like BlogExplosion’s Rent a Blog? At first glance, it seems tp have the potential to be a great marketing tool. But if you take a look at Rent a Blog campaign statistics for many blogs, you’ll see that clickthroughs to rentee’s blogs are generally low. People just aren’t interested in “just another” thumbnail of another blog placed on your sidebar.

Of course, for the really excellent Rent a Bloggers, who ensure that they accept only related blogs and post a strong recommendation on their blogs for their rentees, Rent A Blog becomes a true gem. But this is fundamentally the same as a standard referral from a blog in your niche. The only difference is that “just another” thumbnail on the sidebar.

Overall, for all the effort you place in getting credits for your blog, you might not be getting a great deal. The key is the content: Unless your blog has good stuff, all the forced traffic from such link exchanges is worthless. I know I’m stating the obvious, but I have to remind myself after all. Need good content….

blogging, traffic, blogexplosion, blogclicker

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