Every blogger wants to increase traffic to their blog. The majority of traffic that bloggers receive comes through search engines, social media, and direct referrals (and traffic is usually in that order).
Another way to drive traffic to your blog is by using a traffic exchange. The rise in popularity of social media has contributed to the decline of traffic exchanges being used on smaller blogs; though I have seen a resurgence of them on high traffic blogs over the last year or so. The most obvious example of this is large blogs and news websites linking to each other through links in the related posts area underneath articles. This illustrates that traffic exchanges can still be effective if done right.
Rise Forums member Enstine Muki recently announced the launch of his new blogging network BroadedNet. The service still has the beta tag attached to it, however many blogs are using the service actively already.
The concept of BroadedNet is simple. Every member of the network displays a widget on their website. Your articles will be displayed on the widgets placed on other websites and their articles will be displayed on yours. The concept is very simple, however it can be an effective way of bringing new readers to your blog.
BroadedNet supports text and banner advertising. Text campaigns are restricted to blog posts, however with banner advertising you are allowed to link to your home page, product page, and some affiliate pages (though they note this is moderated). Supported banner sizes include 300×250, 250×250, 468×60, 160×600, and 728×90.
Each campaign has to be assigned to a category. This ensures that your URL is only promoted on websites from a similar niche. There are 27 categories available in total, however at the moment most campaigns are related to internet marketing. The top three categories are blogging (142 campaigns), make money online (23 campaigns), and mobile (12 campaigns).
This highlights that the network is a great match for anyone with a blogging or making money online blog. Unfortunately, there are many categories, such as family and fashion, that have no current campaigns. I have no doubt that Enstine will be actively targeting blogs from other niches before the service gets out of beta. This will address the current imbalance in the blogs being promoted on the network.
The network uses a credit system. You can 100 credits for joining BroadedNet and another 5 when someone clicks on an article on your widget (though the amount depends on how much the member offers). They are also offering 8,000 credits for only $25 (though this will soon go back up to $50). That means you will get around 1,600 clicks to your article for only $25. Without doubt, that is fantastic value for money.
Once you have created a campaign, you can integrate the BroadedNet widget into your website using HTML code or a WordPress plugin. Both methods allow you to change the number of articles you list in your widget and the colours that are used to divide them.
At the moment, the manual method of inserting HTML code does not appear to be available. This is something that will likely be addressed during the beta phase.
BroadedNet is currently being used by blogs such as Blogging Tips Today, Jeff Sollee, Sherman Smith’s Blog, Smart Marketerz, Be a Money Blogger, Social Media Rush, Be a Better Blogger, Webmaster Success, WorthBlogger. Check them out to see BroadedNet in action.
My Initial Impression of BroadedNet
Traffic exchanges will always have their critics, however I believe they are a useful way of attracting new readers to your blog who might not have found you through search engines or social media. I love the minimal approach of their blog post exchange and the way it integrates seamlessly into the current website design.
I also like the fact that I can specify the exact blog posts you want promoted. Other blog networks in the past have been set up to pull the latest article for a blog from the RSS feed. This means that the latest article is always promoted, even if it is a short news post or small news post. With BroadedNet, members will only use the service to promote their best articles. This means that not only will your best articles be promoted, the standard of articles listed in the BroadedNet widget will be high too as every member is promoting their best articles too.
All in all, my initial impression of BroadedNet is good, however I have not used the service myself. The service is still in beta too, so please do not consider this announcement post as a conclusive review.
I have submitted a campaign and I am currently waiting for it to be approved. I do not currently have any advertisements on this blog apart from a few links to Rise Forums, therefore I am not sure about placing the BroadedNet widget on this blog just yet. What I would like to do first is purchase credits and use the network to promote a few articles. If I see a good return, I can review whether it is best to use their widget or simply promote articles by buying credits (or a combination of both).
If you have a blogging or internet marketing related blog, I recommend checking BroadedNet out. Once the network has more blogs from other categories, it could be a great traffic service for every type of blog.
Check out the BroadedNet for more information about the service.
Thanks,
Kevin