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Follow-up on my BlogCatalog sponsorship
July 29th, 2008I made a post recently about sponsoring a category in BlogCatalog and I’d like to make a follow-up on that. So first of all, I’m a sponsor for the SEO category of BlogCatalog and this ensure me to always be in the top 5 ranking for this category. Wow, that sounds great with a reach of over 45 million visitors annually, doesn’t it? Well, let’s have a look at how this little thing performs.
Always and forever #5
First of all, let’s start with one of the thing I hate about being a sponsor in BlogCatalog. While BlogCatalog assure you to be in the top 5 ranking for the category you sponsor, it is based on a first-come first-served basis. What does that mean? This simply mean that I was #5 to buy the spot and for this reason I’m #5 in the ranking. What’s that? I mean, the #1 pays 12$ a month and I also pay 12$ a month, why would the other website get a better ranking? Oh yeah, that’s true, the guy subscribed first! That’s ridiculous from my point of view and there should be something to rotate the websites across the top 5 spots. If there’s such an algorithm it must really suck as I haven’t seen my website above #5.
The price ain’t bad
I must admit the price ain’t bad. Depending on the category you want to sponsor, the price can vary between 8$ and 25$. The SEO category is currently 12$/month and it’s not that bad for a reach of 45 million visitors annually on BlogCatalog.
What about the traffic?
I’m getting traffic from BlogCatalog for sure, but I doubt it’s because of the sponsorship. Most of the traffic I get is from the friends and also because I get involved in the community a lot. I haven’t noticed a significant increase from BC in the past couple of days and I’m really disappointed with the service.
The directory doesn’t bring traffic
The reality with BlogCatalog is that people don’t usually reach your site via the directory. I mean, who’s browsing the damn directory, it’s a 10 years old technology! The real BlogCatalog traffic comes from friends, neighborhood, broadcasts and groups so it’s no surprise being a sponsor for a category doesn’t give you that much exposure.
I was expecting that kind of results and I mentioned it in my initial post. I analyzed other websites sponsoring categories and by looking at their public stats, their traffic didn’t seem to sky rocket because of BlogCatalog. I really wanted to try it, but I don’t think I’ll pay for another month.
Worth it?
No. With 12$ you could do so much more for your website. With a little 12$ you can pay someone to submit your website to like 750 link directories or something like that. It’s a much wiser investment to be honest. I had to try it but now it’s done. I’ll probably give some more feedback at the end of the month as now it’s only been a couple of days but I don’t think this will get better. Bottom line: invest that 12$ elsewhere.
19 Responses to “Follow-up on my BlogCatalog sponsorship”
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Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
great post! i especially found it where you stated.
Thanks!
Great blog! Interesting post, as it happens I came via Blog Catalog because you were added by one of my friends (and have now read the whole page and subscribed!) Look forward to reading more in the future – thanks!
Thanks a lot freelance superstar!
Thanks for the honest and comprehensive assessment Ben!
JR
No problems JR!
It’s true that BC gets all ove those visitors but many of them really have no penchant for what SEO is and what it’s uses really are. You make an excellent point on the decreased value of the directory. I myself only use the BC to make social networking connections from other users too.
Great post!!!
Good deal, I love the fact that you tried it out and came to your own conclusion. This just means I don’t need to try it out for myself
I do love blogcatalog, much better than mybloglog. I need to get a lot more active in some of the groups I’m in, the opportunity to meet new people on there is amazing…hey, matter of fact…didn’t we meet on there?
Yes, we definitely met on there!
BlogCatalog is really a powerful tool and I’m only starting to use it as a power user (And trust me it’s worth it). Really full of potential!
Nice writing and very nice blog!. I have subscribe your feed and looking forward to read it everyday. =)
Thanks Hazel, I’m glad you like the blog and thanks for subscribing!
I sponsored a category. I received NO traffic. Not a single hit. A complete waste of $12. Like you, I did it as an experiment. One I won’t repeat.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one and thanks for sharing this Stevo. BlogCatalog should really reconsider their paid services because they are all a waste of money!
I recently looked at that site and wondered about sponsoring a section so this basicly made my mind for me, thank you for your clear review, infact today upon fininding your blog i havnt half learnt a lot more about seo and traffic boosting so thank you, will be back
Tyrone: Excellent, I’m glad this post helped you! And I’m looking forward to seeing you back!
Very nice traffic building information.
Thanks for the article..
great post, blogcatalog is my favorite hangout when i am not in blogging. maybe i can sponsor a category there.
Sweet! i was tempted to sponsor a category for my travel blog (http://agiledeals.com), and am I glad I read this post first! Thanks!