First Massive Links Commission

A bit over a month ago, I removed the AdSense ads from my web directory, and replaced them with Massive Links ads instead. I've now made my first commission from these ads. Still haven't installed a banner rotator promoting the various web directory affiliate programs yet, though. Of course, it doesn't help that a lot of them don't actually have banners in the size I want to use there.

NeoBux

I've just joined another Paid to Click site, NeoBux. NeoBux has a $2 minimum payout threshold, and apparently pays out all payment requests immediately, which would be a nice change.

I Made a Sale

I've just made my first sale of a product promoted through my WeeklyPLRArticles list building site. The product sold was Content Rewriter Pro software which is designed to help make rewriting articles much easier. Now, I haven't received payment yet - should be received via PayPal in about 30 days or so - and the total number of subscribers on the list is now 79.

BlogRush Shut Down

BlogRush has been shut down. Here's the message that was sent out regarding this:

After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service. If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.

When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web. Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web. During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 Billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world; even up until the moment we closed down the service.

BlogRush didn't grow without its fair share of problems -- from security issues to abusive users trying to 'game' the system to much lower click-rates than expected. We also had some problems with trying to fairly control the quality of the network, and in the process made many mistakes in deciding what blogs should stay or go. All of these issues, ultimately, limited the service's full potential.

Our team worked very hard to try and build a service that would truly help bloggers of all sizes get free traffic to their blogs. This was our primary focus. Not once did we ever try to monetize the service with ads or anything else. BlogRush never made a single penny in revenue. We wanted to be able to help our users FIRST and then worry about monetizing the service later. Unfortunately, the service didn't work out like we had hoped. (It happens.)

I want to say "Thank You" to all of the great bloggers that at least gave BlogRush a test to see if it would work for them. We sincerely appreciate you giving the service a try.

We have received several offers & inquiries about acquiring BlogRush, but we are choosing not to go that route. While many might think this is crazy, we truly feel it's the 'right' thing to do for our users. Believe it or not, it's not always about the money. In fact, BlogRush will have lost a small fortune when it's all said and done, and it was by choice. There were many things we could have done to monetize the service but we wanted to make sure it was going to benefit our users first.

Last but not least I want to say that I hope the failure of this service doesn't in any way discourage other entrepreneurs from coming up with crazy ideas at 4AM (like I did with this one) and from "going for it" to just try and see if something will work. Without trying there can be no success. And as we all know, ideas are worthless without action. The Web wouldn't be what it is today without entrepreneurs trying all sorts of crazy ideas.

On behalf of the entire BlogRush team, we wish the best of luck to everyone with their own blogs, ideas, and crazy ventures.

myLot Payment Threshold Reached

As expected, the myLot payment threshold was quickly passed this month. Payment will be received on or before December 15th for the total earnings from October and November, so the total could go quite a bit higher.

MochiAds October Earnings

MochiAds October earnings are in. Total earned for the period was $0.21, mostly from publishing my own flash games, only one of which so far have I really distributed. Still, much better than the nothing I used to earn for the same effort.

Kongregate October Earnings

Kongregate earnings for October are now in. Total earned during this period was $2.12, the majority from the Mars Slider game.

myLot Earnings for October

myLot earnings for October are in. Total earned was $9.19, mostly from referrals. This is just under the $10 payment threshold, which will probably be quickly reached in November.