BlogRush isn’t without controversy, but I am one of the folks who has decided to stay the course with it while keeping tabs on what the detractors have been saying.

As with any new approach, from using time out with your child to testing the effectiveness of a new ad campaign, you need to stay with it long enough to be able to monitor progress before abandoning the tactic.

If you are still using/testing Blogrush, have you checked out the kinds of sites your blog is linking people to?

Loosely Speaking has a modest Google Page Rank of 3 at present. So, while not an example of towering success, I’m fine with that rank. When checking out the path that BlogRush’s widget takes me on, I find that all the sites I am linking to have no Google PR at all. So, isn’t this program helping others but not helping me in return?

Here’s an experiment. Two, actually.

1. Try Blogrush as a variation on StumbleUpon
Click on one of the links on your Blogrush widget and scrutinize the site you end up on, making note of that site’s Google Page Rank while there. Then repeat and see how far this takes you. See if you ever come across a site that is displaying a widget containing a link back to YOUR site.

Comment: I have yet to find a site that displays a post from Loosely Speaking. While I found some interesting sites, I found quite a few whose quality and content I’d rather not be linking to.

2. Try different categories.
Go into your blog’s setup on Blogrush and look through the categories you are able to choose from. Select new category, confirm it, then return to your blog and refresh the page to get a sampling of what this new category serves up. Then, repeat experiment #1. Finally, select yet a different category and repeat the whole thing.

Comments:
The list of categories you have to choose from is too short and not broken down into enough subcategories, so in some cases you’ll have to choose something close but not exactly your niche.

I’m not exactly clear on the function of this list: is it used to syndicate your own blog posts out there where they belong? (That seems to be the explanation in the BlogRush FAQ). If so, and you choose “blogging success” as your category, you have to realize your own content will be pitted against all the A-listers in that niche,decreasing GREATLY the chances of your posts popping up on someone’s widget.

OTOH, if you select a potentially less populated category in which you might hope to stand out (career success, or goal setting, for example), the types of links that show up in your own BlogRush widget may be of a lesser quality.

Blogrush’s FAQ does acknowledge that their quality control approach consists of manual review of every blog that is submitted, and that, as a result, they have experienced some cheating. I guess it’s that humble acknowledgment that has kept me onboard so far.

John Reese discusses the startup challenges Blogrush has endured on his blog Income.com.