Generally Thinking

For about 6 total weeks now, I’ve been using the Adgitize service to increase the traffic coming into this blog.  I spend hours researching and writing these articles, so as you can imagine I’m quite keen for people to actually read them.  Adgitize has been an effective way to bring visitors to Generally Thinking, to the tune of about 100 visits per day, but it’s not without its drawbacks, as I’ll explain.

What is Adgitize?

Adgitize is a network of bloggers who share traffic between each other.  At the time I write this, there are two 125×125 adverts on top of my sidebar – these link to other blogs on the network, and change every time the page is loaded.  Each of the sites on the Adgitize network is required to place these ads on their webpage (you can have many more than the 2 I’ve gone for).  So by joining, I instantly get incoming links from hundreds of other blogs.

Sounds good.  But, the majority of the traffic comes from people on the adgitize network themselves.  Why?  Because there are incentives for us to do so.  If you log in to your Adgitize account and begin browsing blogs on the other networks, you get points, and points translate to money at the end of the month.  You also get points for posting articles to your blog, having more ads on your blog, how much traffic you get, and so on.

Won’t this blast my bounce rate into the stratosphere?

My thoughts exactly.  If people can get credit simply by clicking onto my site, and then more credit for immediately clicking away from it, I’m definitely going to get more visitors but potentially very few will actually read my site!

It’s kind of like traffic from Stumble Upon – a large network and an easy exit procedure makes it harder to get people to actually stop and read; it makes them pickier.

But let’s look at the stats and see what they say.  Here’s the trailing 3 months of my bounce rate, according to Alexa:

The increase from the middle of May to the middle of June was the first ad I ran on Adgitize, and the increase at the start of July is the second one.  As you can see, bounce rate was decreasing after the first ad finished, and hadn’t returned to its previous level when the second ad started.  There’s no doubt about it – Adgitize increased my bounce rate.

I’m honestly not too bothered though.  The question turns to whether the increased bounce rate is balanced by finding genuine visitors and the cost of the product, and since a one-month ad costs only $14, I can handle a little bouncing.

One idea I had was to put the ads below the fold?  That would force people to at least scan my recent posts and categories lists.  But I think they look good at the top, they bring a bit of colour and I like seeing what different images people have come up with.

How much traffic do you get?

As I said before, my traffic increases by approximately 100 visitors per day when I have an Adgitize ad running.  The number of visitors I get fluctuates, but it’s around 100 extra a day on average.

Bear in mind, that my ad is pretty crappy.  Here it is on the right.  It’s just text, that rotates between “personal development”, “positive psychology”, “generally thinking”, and other stuff.  Hey, I’m from the guy that just enthusiastically discussed a graph of his bounce rate, what did you expect?

Point is, you may do better with a prettier ad.

I do think some of this is quality traffic, and I’m sure I’ve gotten at least a few new readers who are actually interested in the articles here, and not purely coming for the points.  Here’s why I think this:

• At least one person mentioned me in their own blog, saying they found me through Adgitize
• After the first ad expired, my traffic reduced, but not to the level it was at previously – so some people are definitely coming back even when I’m not on the network

But let’s look at another graph (and why not?):

No doubt about it – Adgitize increased my page views.  In fact, I’m not even sure I’d have any stats on Alexa if it wasn’t for Adgitize!  This is awesome as it gives me more graphs to look at.

Are there good sites on Adgitize?

Yep.  I’m not interested in most sites, but that’s because I don’t read many blogs in general, apart from a few psychology and blogging/SEO related ones.  But even I found a few sites I like!  Here are a few I read occasionally:

Forced Green – Excellent blog on green issues.  I especially like all the different technologies that are becoming available!  Really good site and highly recommended if you’re interested in green stuff.

Nipplelicious – ‘Nippsy’ is a very funny, brutally honest writer.  She writes about kids and PMS and family stuff, possibly the three topics I hate the most, and yet I still stop by occasionally.  I think she writes really well and I hope it rubs off on me.

Strong and Fit – A good site on health and fitness.  Only just found this one but it looks good so far.

How much can you earn?

Adgitize isn’t really a money making scheme.  It’s more for traffic building.  I think the top earners get around $50 or so per month, which would cover the cost of the ad running, and give a bit of pocket money on the side.  But the real benefit comes from greater exposure and more traffic.

Pros:

• Very cheap at only $14 per month
• You’ll see a load of blogs that you might like
• You’ll pull a decent amount of traffic into your site
• It’s a good way to mess around with ad placement/sizes to see what works best
• You get to look at your stats on Alexa!  Woohoo!

Cons:

• Only a small amount of your impressive stat increases will be ‘quality’ traffic
• Your bounce rate will increase

Verdict:

Adgitize take the shotgun approach to building traffic.  Yes, that means that some traffic you get isn’t going to be high-quality, but it’s best not to focus on this.  It’s a necessary part of the process that brings new, interested readers.  For only $14 for a one-month ad, it’s very cheap and you don’t have to plaster your page with ads to get the traffic either – as I mentioned, I only have two 125 x 125 ads.

If you have a spare $14, I recommend giving Adgitize a try – particularly if you’re blog is new and you want to kick start it.  If you’re already established and getting lots of visitors, I’m not sure the benefits would be that great.

I’ve tried to give a balanced review here, so you can make your own choice, but if you decide to give them a try based on what you’ve read here, please use one of the links from this page to sign up – they are affiliate links so I’ll get a little pocket money back from it. Cheers!