John Reese released TrafficJam yesterday, the companion site to BlogRush. You can see my BlogRush widget displayed on the right.
BlogRush takes your blog posts and displays them on other BlogRush widgets across the “blogosphere.” TraffiJam now lists the top BlogRush posts (based on how many people click through to a post after seeing it in a widget).
You have to have a BlogRush account (free) and display the widget to have your posts syndicated on TrafficJam.
One of the nicest things about BlogRush itself is that bloggers with less traffic receive bonus credits in the system so that they have the opportunity to get their posts out there as much as bloggers with established readerships.
Within your BlogRush stats panel, you’ll see which of your posts received the most clicks. Since the widget displays the headline of your post to entice those clicks, it’s a study in what headlines create interest.
I’ve found headlines with numbers tend to produce more clicks, and longer headlines tend to produce less. Also my recent post titled “Weekend Fight & A Birthday Party” did well, I can only assume it’s due to curiosity. “What was the fight about?”
Adding TrafficJam to the mix should make for even more opportunity to reach new readers.
Are you displaying the Blog Rush widget? Why/why not?
I like the part about where you spell out how trafficjam works. That the headlines getting the most click thrus will be the ones to show up on trafficjam home page.
That part was unknown to me before because trafficjam seemed like a sort of digg clone where you vote on them (but cant submit of course).
Also the tips about numbers in headlines and shorter headlines doing well is excellent.
It’s amazing what technology and the internet have become. I remember a short 10 years ago chatting on the newly discovered internet (by me anway) on a text screen divided by two with no hopes of graphics and no dreams of “emoticons” lol. And today, we even get cool widgets on our blogs 
It’s so great that web traffic is becomming available for everyone, even beginners. This kind of reminds me of the music industry, 10 years ago not every artist could release an album, it was very expensive and you needed a label supporting you. Today, technology has changed in such a way, that an independent artist can produce and release his/her own album without the help of a label.
It seems like headlines that may attract clicks in BlogRush may not work as well in an RSS reader. ProBlogger and others have said that numbers in titles likes top 10 reasons to…, 3 ways to.., etc are always good titles.
[...] discussed Blog Rush & Traffic Jam in a recent post, and Andy Beard has followed up with a comprehensive pros-n-cons look at the [...]
I’ve recently started using BlogR ush and the widget for it. But I’m wondering how exactly can one “track” visitors going to your site via BR.
February 25, 2008
Dave - just log in to your BlogRush admin panel and you’ll be able to see which of your posts got clicks (and therefore visitors to your site) and how many.
Just curious, what’s your results with BlogRush? Care to share?
Thanks for highlighting this. I am coming at this a little late, so how has it worked so far?
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