Getting targeted traffic to your blog is an incredibly nice goal to have for a blogger. And what if you could get this for free?

Yes, BlogRush is a free service that is all the rage in the blogosphere. It is kind of a multi-level pyramid scheme and the whole setup is explained by Maki by DoshDosh very well. And the blogs your content will be shown is supposed to be contextual. So, if your blog is about making money, then your posts will show up on similar money making blogs.

As a short overview of how it works,

• Sign up for a free account
• Install the BlogRush widget in your blog
• Your blog will be shown in relevant blogs as many times as your widget gets seen in your blog (credits)
• Refer someone to signup and you get their credits on top of the credits you earn from your blog (up to 10 levels)

From reading things around the blogs, this seems to be catching up like wildfire. I have installed it in my blog and you can see it in action here in the sidebar as well.

You can use my referral link below to sign up (and show me some love) or click on the widget in the sidebar to show some love to Blog About Your Blog.

Free BlogRush Signup

Even though there is no guarantee to getting huge traffic, any free traffic is good. But, for a free service you have nothing to lose in testing how this works.

[via Chris at Blog-Op]

Trusted Places is a website where you can find new places to eat, drink and hang out. The recommendations are based on other members of the community who have been there. You can post reviews of places you live or visited, like London. If you plan on visiting London, and want to look for a London bar you can find one here. I was very disappointed though, that they didn’t have any reviews of places in San Diego.

Garry Conn recently wrote a post on his views about private voting networks. To sum it up, he’s not for them. He feels that it’s basically cheating, or thats what I took away from the article. If bloggers aren’t going to help bloggers grow, who will?

These networks are based through IM’s or E-mail and basically alert a group of people of new things to vote on through social media websites. How is that different from building a “power profile” with many different friends and getting them to vote for you that way? Just because it isn’t run through that site, shouldn’t be looked down on.

With these “secret” networks you don’t have to necessarily do the hard work, however you do. I don’t know one network that can do all the work for you. No network is going to write the article for you. As well the networks can’t succeed without participation. Even then a network usually can’t get you to the front page of the social media site, you need to have a quality article and other factors.

My Network

I don’t know if Garry’s post was to me or not, however yes I do have a network. I built this list from BAYB’s members and expanded it to several other people. The list has grown to over 100 bloggers. Cash Quests mentioned a long time ago how we could really pull together and get some posts noticed through social networks, because of our community blog. I’ve always wanted to put something like this together, and I wish I would have sooner. Now that I have, I am glad I did.

Everyday I send out great articles from a variety of people, who are looking to promote their articles and their blogs. It has been a great way for everyone to find new and different blogs.

The Benefits of Voting Networks

In these type of networks you don’t HAVE to vote. No one will know if you didn’t (because its secret!). I’ve had people tell me they pick and chose which to vote for and I think that is perfectly fine. Why promote something you didn’t personally enjoy?

Garry Conn made out these networks to be a terrible thing to do. As well complained about “stumbling articles every morning”. The plus side about these networks is that you can easily opt out, especially in mine. Why send emails to someone who isn’t going to vote?

Besides the obvious traffic, the voting networks make it easier to start building your own network. If you notice the same people voting and stumbling your articles, you can branch out and build relationships with them that way.

Essentially, who is going to help out bloggers, but bloggers?

The “Conn’s” of Voting Networks

There are a few possible cons with these voting networks. It’s hard to get in the loop if you don’t know someone first. These groups can become very select and exclude many bloggers who would want to utilize such a powerful feature.

The other obvious problem is “gaming” such social media sites. However I don’t see much of a difference asking people to “digg this” at the bottom of every post, yet a strategical email isn’t right?

I’ve brought up some great discussion points and I’d love to hear everyone’s take on it, especially Mr. Garry Conn. I personally think Garry is doing a great things for bloggers and is a great blogger himself.

So I guess my “secret” voting network isn’t so secret anymore?

After our earnings update for August, I offered part of the revenue every month. Hoping to attract new authors, and reward our hard working ones, I figured it would be a great idea. However, after offering to pay you to blog, I got little to no response! I want to continue doing this every month, but I can’t if there isn’t any participation. Let me tell you about it again.

35$ is to be given away to our 3 top contributors. To determine the three it will be the traffic sent to their articles.

The top author will earn 20$, second will receive 10$, and third will receive 5$.

So far this month, there has only been ONE article not from me. It looks like Mark is sitting on a cool and easy 20$.

Remember this offer is open to anyone, so if you aren’t an author please contact me. I would like to know what type of articles you will be contributing, etc before I will add you as an author.

What is Blog about your Blog, if no one is blogging about their blogs and articles!?

Comment Friday had a nice response of comments. Very happy to see our number get back up to over 30. There were some very interesting responses about what everyone is blogging about. If you are looking for some new blogs to read, definitely check out everyone’s comments.

There are a lot of worthy bloggers and comments, but I want to give some exposure to a new blog, Link and Earn. The blog is trying to cash in on the popularity of blog contests. There you can basically “brag” about the contest and prizes you’ve won. I don’t know how successful this will be, but who doesn’t love to brag? Congrats to Link and Earn for being the blog of the week.

I also wanted to mention Jennifer’s blog, Life of a School Bus Driver. She has been posting blogs of the day as well, so maybe if you bribe her, she will feature your blog next.

I was heading to bed until I remembered, it’s friday!

If this is your first comment friday, the idea is pretty simple. Leave us a comment about anything you want. I will select one lucky commentor that really stands out, and I will give a free link to them. Not only that, but they will get a one week free blogroll spot.

This week I’d like to know what you have been blogging about recently. What has your interest at the moment? A new blog, making money, etc. I’ve got a few things on my mind, making another top blogs list is one of them.

I rarely get personal on any blog, but I didn’t have much to write today besides reviews, so I thought I’d let everyone know what I’ve been doing.

On a new episode of LA Ink, they try this master cleanse diet, in which all you do is drink this lemonade mixture. The mixture is lime juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup, and water.

Weight has become a real issue with me. I used to weigh under 150 pounds in highschool, and after my dad died I ended up gaining a lot of weight. I didn’t do much for a while after that but drink and basically remove myself from life. My body and habits caught up with me, I think my heaviest point got to 230-240. Being 5’7-5’8 the weight didn’t look very flattering on me.

After doing a few different things I ended up losing more weight (no soda!) and yesterday I was at 208. After a day on this lemonade diet I’m at 205. My goal is 180!

Rid Your Body of Built-Up Waste and Toxins

Comments are more than welcome on this topic!