BlogGlue is a project that opened in 2008 to allow blogs to connect and promote each other’s content through a related post type setup… much like YARRP (Yet Another Related Post Plugin.) In fact, the very author of YARRP recommended in an earlier update to use BlogGlue. The system is built to improve conversion for blogs.
So, when you sign up, you enter your blog’s info and To be a free member, you get 5 free partners who had the ability to recommend your posts. The posts they recommend would appear in an unordered list format, much like YARRP with the title and link out to all the posts that the partner recommended.
Also, BlogGlue only crawls 400 blog posts and puts them into their system to potentially be recommended by any partner.
BlogGlue has 3 different packages: free, basic for $9.97, and Unlimited for $19.97.
So, I took a month to test the Unlimited package. Before taking on the challenge, I had the free package for a while, but felt it was extremely limiting… even for a novice blogger. While I am no novice, the 5 partner limit leaves little to be desired. It would mean being very picky on who to partner with and changing partners to get better ones with better traffic. This is not a nice way to network.
While BlogGlue did crawl my site and I got to accept more partners, there really was not much of a change in traffic to my site. Also, when I went to look for relevant partners, there were a lot of repeat users and spammers in the mix. There were sites listed in categories that were not relevant to their sites and it was just a pain to carefully sort through to find true sites interested in networking, instead of ones who failed to grasp the concept of BlogGlue. Also, I found from time to time that the posts recommended were not related in any manner. YARRP is sometimes like that and I wonder if sometimes it is based on specific keywords relevancy. For example, maybe general terms were used instead of what the article was truely talking about.
As for the SEO Checker that is optional to use, I found it quite buggy. I am not sure if it was conflicting with my WordPress SEO plugin, but it was not picking up the correct title. So, obviously, that needs to be looked into by BlogGlue developers.
BlogGlue really reminded me of banner exchange sites. It is better to personally network outside of paying $19.97 per month. Truthfully, I think that should be a yearly price instead to at least have some worth.
While I am not totally against using BlogGlue, it really is not worth the investment at this moment. Perhaps they may be worthwhile in the future, but it needs some tweaking to the system as well as moderating. Also, BlogGlue could benefit (and their users too) by writing more articles to educate users on how to use their system to their advantage. BlogGlue definitely has some potential to do better, but at the moment, it really is just
Your review was very frank… I too feel that the price is a little high and if the links go to a wrong site, there could not be much gain. The concept is interesting though.
Agree with your comment. I just know about this site for a month ago – nice concept but they need more sophisticated management.
Got that one – they can give more benefit to involved parties and for sure they’ll be a lot of people who wanna join despite of high prices.
I also agree with what you’ve said Nile. I signed up to BlogGlue and felt it contained very few blogs of any quality. The whole thing looked like a spam-fest to me. I’ve seen improved traffic by signing up to Bloggers – you get a snippet of your blog posts sent there – not the whole blog post. It’s also free.
This kind of concept is very interesting..Thank you for sharing it!
I am glad that I decided not to bother with paying for the BlogGlue service. The way I see it, the free account should have been a decent “teaser” for the paid services – which it was not.
Your review summed up my thoughts on the service very well.
Hi Nile, I’m Mezzo.
Thanks to the work of people like you, everyone else can reap the benefit. An enjoyable post and I will be following more of your work, if you don’t mind. If you would like to read the party blog that I work on, just email me.
Thanks for the review, I just found BlogGlue on my YYARP control panel of my website.
I then do what i usually do, a google search and check some of my fav forums, not much was mentioned in the forums.
So google it is. Glad I found this sites, i will NOT be installing BlogGlue.
Thanks Jason
This information has given me so much about BlogGlue. I have tried this and it works perfectly with my blogs but the unlimited prices are too high. You can use this site for promoting blogs if you already earn so much these past few years.
I just installed YARPP after pulling my hair out trying to code a manual related posts solution. Gotta say, YARPP is pretty awesome (though I still get a little wary of having so many plugins).
After I installed it, I saw that add for BlogGlue. My thoughts on a system like this:
– While it can direct people to your site from other sites, it isn’t like the authors of those sites are actively recommending your posts or giving them anchor text. The title and the authority of the blog your links are on are the only things they have to draw people in. Personally, when I see “related posts” links that will take me to other sites, I steer clear. Maybe this is because I’m more jaded than the average visitor and know that related posts aren’t actually curated by bloggers, but rather automated – but still.
– Remember that you’re giving people even more ways OUT of your own site with this – and these ways (again) aren’t ones you’re actively recommending – they’re just put there automatically
– This system is like the old Triberr – except on your actual site. What shows up is almost an endorsement – and you have no idea what it might be. I’d rather have control over what I link to.
Hi thanks you guys…was about to ad the blogglue to my wordpress website but after reading you comments…will not be yes you guys are right better to know how is linking to you…and as you say the links are not worth much.. and there is there add
thanks …
Thanks for the post Nile. I found as I was wondering if I should fork out for one of their subscription plans but think I will look at laternatives instead.
I do think that the free package is VERY limiting and even the lowest price one seems a bit limited with only 15 partners