Goodbye BlogRush, Hello TopSpots!

It was time for the Monetizer to kick that BlogRush widget to the curb. BlogRush seemed like a helpful widget at first, but Entrecard is a better idea. I've seen better traffic, an increase in subscription rate and networking opportunities all thanks to the Entrecard widget. On the other hand, BlogRush is only good if you had a good wave of traffic coming through. That's just my belief, because it gives you more credits. More credits gives you more times your headline shows elsewhere. So a John Chow, ShoeMoney or ProBlogger would have headlines showing everywhere, and that's just fine. Some people are swearing by BlogRush. Others claim Entrecard isn't so great to use. It's all a matter of personal opinion. I've seen good things from Entrecard and nothing much from BlogRush. So 1 widget survives the cut and the other must go.

In the absence of BlogRush, I have now added the "TopSpots" widget, available from Scratchback.com. You've seen this popular item on several other blogs, where it allows you to pay to add your site's link onto the blog's top spots. It's a good idea for those who want to get their blog or site noticed more. I've set the starting price at a very reasonable $5 on a Monetizer blog that has steadily improved in terms of Alexa traffic, PageRank and subscriber count. It's up to you to make that investment and your link will display for a full 30 days. So if you're interested head to the sidebar and grab your top spot, while it's still priced low!

If you'd like to add your own Top Spots widget to your blog, head over to Scratchback.com and sign up! You can choose from several colors and styles of widgets including seasonal holiday themes. There's also an option to download a Photoshop template of the widget so that you can customize it for your blog. Several other blogs have taken advantage of this such as 45n5.com, ZacJohnson.com and now The Monetizer. They also offer a blog directory, yet another way to get listed and get noticed!

Special thanks to Jim Kukral for helping me get the widget customized and up and running!