Monday, May 08, 2006

The Rent My Blog Analysis

As many of you know I participate in a Blog Explosion program called Rent My Blog. Rent My Blog is pretty neat idea and I think BE does a great job with it. There has recently been some more debate over Rent My Blog because of the amount of credits some people are asking for.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time we have seen some outrageous amounts being asked for. Right after my expose’ on Battle of the Blogs I decided to do something similar on Rent My Blog, because back then there were some outrageous amounts being asked too. So I came up with the idea of accumulating 25 rentals from bloggers and analyzing how they were as landlords purely through a method I think is fair. If you don’t think so… well then I challenge you to come up with something better.

The Formula

Here is basically how I figured out the formula for Rent My Blog. You can purchase BE credits for about $.01 per credit, based on buying 1,000 credits for $10.00. Each credit when translated into traffic equals 1 visit or “hit”. Now it is not uncommon while surfing to run across the same blog a few times, although BE is really good about you not seeing your own blog.

I think the real attraction to Rent My Blog is not the prospect of traffic… it is the prospect of reading what someone thinks about your blog. See, as one of the ideas for “landlords”, it is suggested that they do a post introducing the person who has “rented” space on their blog. So how do you judge a person’s entry about someone else’s blog? Well I had a few different ideas… like crediting per word… or perhaps crediting per link… but ultimately I have decided to credit $.25 per blog entry where there is a mention of the renter. Counting words gets slightly tedious, and there are some people who link to their renter’s somewhat secretly (sort of like my Ooogle Monday post pictures).

So here is how people will be analyzed. They are getting $.25 per blog entry, $.01 per unique click, and an additional $.005 for the difference between clicks and unique clicks. That will be compared to the number of credits paid out translated to $.01 per credit. Does this sound complex yet?

It really isn’t. So now comes how we will be breaking people down into categories. There are the Slumlords who are not worth the bandwidth it takes to download their blogs because they force you to live in filth, the Landlords who give you at least a 75% return on your credits, and the Royal Hosts who exceed a 200% return on your credit investment. One thing I would like to mention is that this is regarding the experiences I have had only. It is very possible that someone I may categorize has done better in their past rentals, and that perhaps I hit them in an off week.

So with all that in mind, here is what I found:

These are the hostesses (or host) with the mostest! Whether it be cheap rates, lotsa mentions, or plenty of clicks, these folks are worth at least twice every credit you spend:

1. The T Stop- With a 10 credit cost, 3 mentions, 20 Unique Clicks out of 28, I got a 995% return on my credits… what a palace!


2. When We Were Liars- Another 10 credit cost, 2 mentions, 6 Unique Clicks out of 12, I got a 590% return on my credits


3. Gidget Bones Diary- Another cheap rent of 10, 2 mentions, 6 Unique Clicks out of 8, gave me a 570% return on my credits


4. Warped- With a 10 credit rental, 1 mention, and 3 Unique clicks out of 7, resulted in a 300% return


5. Faerytale Dreams- 15 credits to stay with the corset queen, 1 mention, and 11 Unique Clicks out of 27 providing me with a 293% return on my credits


6. Full Metal Attorney- 25 credits to stay, 2 mentions, with 2 Unique Clicks out of 7 gave me a 218% return… of which he DID NOT get a third

These guys are able to provide you with a non-leaky roof over your head and 3 square. What more can you ask for?

1. Meltwater, Torrents, Meandering, Delta- A 55 credit rental, 3 mentions, and 19 out of 29 Clicks were Uniques, gave me a 180% return on the river


2. Stupid People Shouldn’t Breed- 25 credits to stay, 8 Unique Clicks out of 20, and 1 entry gave this “typical guy blog” a return of 156%


3. Tricia’s Musings- 55 credits to hang, 28 Unique Clicks out of 40, and 2 mentions gave me a return of 153% on my investment


4. Within Reason- 20 credits to crash, 1 out of 2 Clicks were Uniques, and 1 mention gave me a 133% return


5. Film Cutters Anonymous- 20 credits to watch some movies, 1 out of 2 Clicks were Uniques, and one mention gave me another 133% return


6. Tiny Voices Inside My Head- 75 credits to stay with the Miztress, a whopping 54 out of 86 Clicks were Uniques, and 2 mentions gave me a 126% return on my investment


7. Unsettled- 50 credits to stay, 13 out of 23 Unique Clicks, 1 mention provided me with a 86% return


8. Understanding Eli- 35 credits to stay, 3 Unique Clicks out of 3, and 1 mention gave me an 80% return on my credits


9. Psychobabble- 10 credits for the week, 7 Unique Clicks out of 8, but not even a word of me being there had me scraping bottom with a 75% return on my credits

Leaking roofs, shoddy electricity, and rampant crime caused the robbery of these credits by these people:

1. The Newsbitch Chronicles- 15 credits, 7 out of 13 Unique Clicks, but she couldn’t even say my name (*SNIFF* *SNIFF* and I like her too) gave me only a 66% return on my credits


2. The Plumbutt Chronicles- 150 credits, 10 out of 32 Unique Clicks, and 3 mentions which were fabulous, but still only a 64% return on the amount of credits spent


3. Bloggin’ Bizatch- 60 credits, 24 out of 52 Unique Clicks, but she was another one who couldn’t say my name (another *SNIFF* *SNIFF* because I like her too) which resulted in a 63% return


4. The Design Perch- 50 credits, 1 out of 2 Unique Clicks, and 1 mention gave me a 53% return


5. Sometimes In My Head- 45 credits, 8 out of 8 Unique Clicks, but no mention which resulted in a measly 18% return


6. The Daily Dildo- 50 credits, 6 out of 8 Unique Clicks, and no mentions resulted in a real deep dicking with only a 14% return


7. Banned Breed- 30 credits to hang with Raine, 4 out of 4 Unique Clicks, but no mention gave me a 14% return and a tire track on my back


8. Futile Soul- 40 credits, 4 out of 6 Unique Clicks, it was futile to think they’d make a mention and that I would get better than the 13% return I did get


9. Perspectives of a Nomad- 40 credits, 1 out of 1 Unique Clicks, and I’m not political enough so I don’t garner a mention which resulted in a crumby 3% return… even George W. Bush has a higher approval rating than that!


10. Chicago Poker Club- 45 credits, 0 out of 0 Unique Clicks, 0% return on my credits which is still better than their combined winnings at the table


11. Life As It Goes On- 20 credits, 0 out of 0 Unique Clicks, 0% return on my credits… keep moving on if you see them renting


12. Dear Abbyliqu- 20 credits, 0 out of 0 Unique Clicks, 0% return on my credits… and here’s the sad part… this is someone who considers themselves a “writer”… writer’s read folks… and she didn’t even have the decency to click on me herself... bitch

The Fine Print: Just as a side note, there are 27 blogs listed here because I rented from Luin and Gidget twice… their best showings was what I used and I didn't want to leave anyone out. Also, if by some chance I missed a mention of my blog while I was renting from you then I apologize and just send me a message with the link and I will gladly change the information to reflect you correctly

So there you have it… the Rent My Blog Analysis. For those of you wondering how I compiled the data, I used an Excel spreadsheet with Blog Name, Credits Cost, Clicks, Unique Clicks, # of Entries (mentions), derived a Value [=(CX-DX)*0.5+DX+(EX*25) with X being the row #], and figured out the Percentage (FX/BX and formatted to a percentage).

Tips When Choosing A Blog To Bid On

• Be sure to look not only at past campaigns but at the person’s blog. Do you see a mention of current or past renter’s? No previous mention will in all likelihood result in no future mentions either


• Bid on blogs in the same category as your own. By bidding a Personal Blog on an Entertainment Blog you will probably get less clicks no matter how hard your host tries to "pimp" you


• Finally, understand that there is a risk in this, and the possibility of a bad week may happen, so be prepared for that possibility and don’t try to blame the blogger or demand credits back. You knew the risk, now accept the consequence

Tips When Renting Out Your Blog

• When deciding on an amount to rent your blog out for, try to be fair and just. You know your traffic better than anyone… or at least you should


• Take a post to introduce your renter. A brief description of what attracted you to accept their bid is worth more than a Unique Click… in fact it is worth more than 24 of them


• When you link to their blog in the post, be sure to use the hypertext link from BE. The last 5 numbers change with every renter so be sure to check it and use the right one. Not only will this in all probability increase your Renter’s Unique clicks, but it will increase your overall value as a Landlord

In conclusion, Rent My Blog is a fantastic feature to become a part of at Blog Explosion. With most other community based features it is dependant on the individual to make it the best they personally can for it to shine as a whole.

Posted by New York City's Watchdog :: 5/08/2006 01:24:00 PM :: Permalink :: 22 Bones Added to the Pile

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