Web Surfing, Blog Hopping Addiction?
I’ve found two neat resources to enhance your web surfing/blog hopping experiences:
- The first is StumbleUpon. Download the toolbar (IE, Netscape, Mozilla/Firefox), select the topics that interest you, and “stumple upon” pages recommended by like-minded people who share your interests.
- The second… I signed up for BlogExplosion. I admit, I’m not a fan of ‘traffic exchanges’, but, Lynn Terry gave me the ultimatum of “join BlogExplosion or run around the block in those jeans that make your butt look awfully wide.” (just kidding - lol!)
I prefer BlogExplosion because you’ll almost immediately see an increase in traffic after you start surfing the member blogs… I’m curious of how many people actually *read* the entries and not just surf to rack up the credits.
They’re both free, so give ‘em a spin!
8 comments:
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BE is like a drug… the surfing function is very addictive. I think most people start surfing other sites, only to rack up points — but if you find something you like, than you keep reading. Exposure will only get you so far.
Certainly can’t speak for others — and the lack of comments after over a hundred BE hits on my site is a bit disconcerting — but I find myself sticking around for at least a full index page read at about 1/3 of the sites I visit (and that’s, what, 12 good reads tonight out of just under 40 or so?).
What bothers me is that, like many traffic-community tools, BE seems likely to get “worse” as the masses out there find their way in. Is that too technocratic of me? So be it. But when the average high school level blogger — of which there are many more than the bright stars I’m currently finding as the norm on BE — find their way to tools like BE, what’s to keep the average quality up…and therefore the reason to use to the tool up as well? It was this that killed weblogs.com, I think — we all ping there still, but don’t get many hits, right?
I actually do read the BlogExplosion sites. I think that’s the fun of it. I really could care less about the credits! hehe
Oh, I surfed to your blog via BE. hehe 
I read! See?
Hi madame: )
It certainly *is* addicting! And yes, the key is to have great, always updated content. That’s where the ‘blogmark’ function comes in handy because with a good blog, you’ll eventually build up a list of regular readers : )
~ Carmen
Welcome, boyhowdy!
I’ve blogmarked a handful of sites with great content and blocked even more because they were just… scary. I’m not kidding.
Since BE already has a directory broken down into categories… a great new feature would be if we were given the option to select which blog category(ies) we want to surf.
We should suggest this… Thomas and Jeff seems to be very responsive to member feedback.
~ Carmen
Hi Lisanne,
It’s fun being exposed to so many blogs you wouldn’t have visited if it weren’t for BE. I’ve blogmarked a few sites that I don’t think I would’ve knows about otherwise.
However, I think the majority of people join BE to increase traffic. But, it has to be give/take. If you want people to visit and read your blog, you’ll have to take time to read the blogs you visit.
Like the good ole Free-For-All Links pages, if members start surfing just to rack up the credits without actually reading them, the majority of traffic we receive via BE would be useless.
But, it would remain a great tool for casual readers like yourself : )
~ Carmen
Hi Michael,
Yes, I see : ) Welcome to my blog!
~ Carmen