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BlogExplosion- July Contest Winners, BE blog and hiring at BlogExplosion... Back to archive
In this BlogExplosion Update
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1. BlogExplosion will be hiring!
2. Our own BE blog in development
3. Recent Slowdown Traffic Delivery
4. Updated BE Search Now Working
5. July Contest Winners (10,000 credits!)
6. July Traffic Lottery Winners
7. July BlogRocket Winner
8. New Reward System in Development
9. Changes in Battle of the Blogs and Blog Rocket
10. BlogExplosion V2.0 Re-Design Update
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1. BlogExplosion will be hiring!
With the new re-design of BlogExplosion well underway and the launching of several new features under development we expect the site to grow by the end of the year (traffic delivered) to jump somewhere between 2-4 times current traffic levels. That is huge growth that we need to prepare for here right now.
Today according to Traffic Rank: BlogExplosion is ranked 10,646 and at Alexa we range anywheere from 6000 to 30,000. How accurate those numbers are there we are not sure but it sure shows how fast BlogExplosion has grown over the last year.
We try our best to keep blogs tagged properly with the correct flags, keep updated thumbnails for our entire memberbase and keep active blogs in our system to make your experience the best one possible.
With upcoming growth expected we realize that we will need additional help.
In the next 60-90 days we will be looking for help in the following areas
- BlogExplosion blog moderators
- Potential Podcast Area Specialist
- Moderator for an upcoming new feature
- Potential help with blog approvals
We are currently evaluating from an admin standpoint what scripts we need to program to actually have the ability to offer help positions functionality wise.
NOTE:
- How we compensate, what we compensate? No idea. So please be patient as we figure out ourselves what is involved here.
- Again no emails please regarding hirings etc.. as we still are looking at ways of handling this properly and professionally.
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2. Our own BE blog in development
Many people ask why BlogExplosion does not have a blog of their own? How can a site that offer blog services not even support a blog itself?
We have always wanted to have a blog for BlogExplosion but realized there was certain functionality we wanted to include beyond a basic blog offering and the secondly the features we needed to develop first on the site that complemented what we could offer for members as a great blog on the site.
As a result we have tested most blog scripts out there over the last year trying to pick out the good and bad features each of these scripts have incorporated and what we ideally need. Patience has probably been a good thing now where we think we have the right script and we hope to have the BE blog ready for the new design and part of our new site moving forward. We will be potentially looking for moderators (where it makes sense) and will need general help getting the BlogExplosion blog off the ground.
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3. Recent Slowdown Traffic Delivery
With expected growth we also realize we need to keep optimizing how we rotate credits in the system. As numbers get bigger with a bigger base of members (currently 27,000 plus) you can see start to see established trends of activity emerge and wee where the current system can be improved on.
With the launch of the surf by description feature
http://www.blogexplosion.com/members/surfdesc_main.php members have been able to surf by the category of choice and read the blog description before visiting the blog over the classic surf for credits feature. In order to have enough sites in rotation we had to make changes in the system to allow for surf by description type functionality. Then shortly after we reduced the minimum auto-assign percentage to 50% from the old setting 75% minimum auto-assign for all of the credits you earn to be delivered as traffic to your blog to help balance the system again and ready for the next script edit.
A few days ago we made a major change in the traffic delivery system where we deliver traffic (credits) based on percentage of un-used credits versus total credits assigned. This is updated on an hourly basis and has improved the mathematical formula to how we send the best quality of traffic possible where more blogs are indexed as a whole resulting in less repeats. Kind of like going back to math class again but so far the numbers look good.
Members over the last few weeks have complained about slower traffic delivery but the BlogExplosion system is designed to self correct itself to optimization. The important numbers we track here are moving in the right direction and system levels are improving daily. Also as the slowest time of the year in terms of online activity means seasonal volume will see an increase in the neighourhood of 25-30% over the next couple of weeks as well.
Bottom line we are now delivering a better overall blog rotation resulting in an improvement in quality of surf traffic delivered and with the recent changes volume is improving daily and will surpass older levels with the optimized code having a chance to take hold in the system. This is a good thing not a bad thing so please be patient as numbers normalize over the next couple of weeks.
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4. Updated BE Search Now Working
Members we have completed the new search script and is now indexing blog titles, urls and descriptions much better. The new search feature looks to be much faster than the old script and is indexing everything nicely where search results are pulling much better listings now.
We will now be looking to index member profile listings as well where members can search member profiles by keyword and find blogs that you are interested in for the second update to search. We are from where we need to take search on BlogExplosion in general are still have a minimum of 5 separate upgrades left to the search script and working to provide for the best search results across the site in the future.
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5. July Contest Winners (10,000 credits!)
Every month 10 lucky BlogExplosion members win 1000 credits in our monthly contest. Here are the winners for the month of July!
scott
tori927
PamelaDevine
suej224
quodlibet
NathanMorris
publiusnexus
teikkin
thissoundscool
bigdocmcd
We do it all over again for the month of August.
How do I qualify for the contest?
- During the month of August all you need to do is surf a minimum of 20 member blogs to qualify!
Does it cost anything to enter the contest?
- No. The contest is 100% FREE to join. Again just surf 20 sites during the month of August to qualify.
To enter the August BlogExplosion contest and a chance to win part of 10,000 credits visit our Contest page. Good luck!
http://www.blogexplosion.com/members/contest_august.php
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6. July Traffic Lottery Winners
Every month BlogExplosion holds a Traffic Lottery where three lucky winners are selected randomly to win the BlogExplosion Lottery.
You must buy at least one ticket to be entered in the competition each month. For each ticket you buy you get one entry in the drawing. Each ticket can win! We will draw three random winners each month. The more tickets you buy the bigger your chance of winning is. We pay out 90% of the total credits entered in the competition where the winner get 70%, and the two others get 10% each
Here are the lucky winners of the July BlogExplosion Traffic Lottery:
18852 credits won by crazyj
2694 credits won by rob88888
2694 credits won by MarieB
The August BlogExplosion Traffic Lottery is now underway. Enter now!
http://www.blogexplosion.com/members/lottery.php
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7. July BlogRocket Winner
The winner of the July Blog Rocket monthly prize
1000 credits won by dushan
Remember the BlogExplosion Blog Rocket is giving away Mystery Credits each day of the month in addition to the monthly prize, so please take a look and see how much fun it is!
http://www.blogexplosion.com/members/rocket.php
Also note that email notifications for Blog Rocket are now optional as well!
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8. New Reward System in Development
Is BlogExplosion is thinking of giving away iPods and other fabulous prizes ?
Well hopefully .. As part of the re-design or shortly after we are looking to add an additional reward module to BlogExplosion along with Mystery Credits.
We are currently investigating how contests with actual physical prizes are handled from a legal standpoint as there are many restrictions and regulations involved in conducting online contests.
More details to follow..
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9. Changes in Battle of the Blogs and Blog Rocket
Just a quick notice to let members know both Battle of the Blogs and Blog Rocket will soon have manditory 30 second visits like regular surfing.
This will be tied into the above new reward system where additional rewards will be awarded for members using BOTB and Blog Rocket.. No complaining until we get everything working ok! Seriously we think the new system will be greatly appreciated by members and make Battle of the Blog and Blog Rocket that much more entertaining to use.
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10. BlogExplosion V2.0 Re-Design Update
We have made really good progress over the last week here on the re-design of BlogExplosion and will include a brand new look and re-designed members area.
Along with our own BE blog coming out members will be able to post articles and tuturials on the site and everyone should be looking forward to trying out several new features and tools that are in rapid development here. Some very cool stuff in the pipeline that we hope you will enjoy ...
FINALLY -- A COURTESY REQUEST TO ALL MEMBERS
Members please be nice to other members when leaving comments on a blog or chatting on the ShoutBox. If you need to be critical with another member then do so constructively and try to remember there is a real person on the other end of that blog and computer. End result is real bad karma for everybody involved and in the end there is no real need to be nasty when using BlogExplosion. We have a great core of members here that are trying to make the site a fun and exciting place to be on the internet and want to keep it that way.
Have a great week!
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