Like most bloggers I’m always looking for ways to increase traffic to my blog. I’m not obsessive about it, but since this is my business, not a hobby, I take traffic growth seriously.
This is why I’m intrigued by a new program – 23Blogs.com – FREE Blog Roll TEXT Link Exchange.(1:10). This is a free link exchange program that offers you links – and clicks – based on the number of clicks other blogs get from your site.
When you register with 23Blogs.com you are given HTML code to post on your site. This code creates a live ad box containing links to ten other blogs. Each time someone clicks an ad from your site, you are credited one click. The system then owes you one click. The more traffic you drive to other sites, the more often your ad appears on other blogs.
You have a choice of ten different styles of boxes to add to your site. The format of the different styles is the same, but the colours vary widely so you should easily be able to find one that suits the style of your blog.
When you first join you get 1000 credits in your account. This will start you off so you appear on other blogs even if you haven’t sent a single click to another site. Hopefully this will help you build traffic so by the time you’ve used up the initial 1000 credits you are generating a good number of credits on your own.
A key feature: you can choose which category of blogs will show your link. This is important because I don’t know that I’d want The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur to appear on the Filipino Hunks or Adult Dating blogs.
On the down side, I’m wondering how much new traffic this tool will generate. A quick look through the sites listed on some of the 23Blogs.com sites I visited showed that most of these blogs don’t seem to be high-traffic sites. On the other hand, since membership is free, it might be worth a test run.
My biggest complaint with 23Blogs.com is the lack of contact information on their site. They don’t have an email address or even a form for contacting them. This anonymity always raises a red flag with me.
Overall, I think 23Blogs.com – FREE Blog Roll TEXT Link Exchange.(1:10) is an interesting concept and is probably worth a test. If you do decide to give it a spin, be sure to keep careful track of your stats – clicks from 23blogs.com plus overall traffic to your site. If you don’t see noticeable increases in traffic after a few months, delete it and try something else.
Andrea J. Stenberg
