John Reese Shuts Down BlogRush

Another .com idea has come and gone.

BlogRush, the widget-based traffic exchange concept for bloggers, has closed its doors. The creator, John Reese, wrote in a post on Wednesday that the click-through-rates have been on a steady decline for several months now. Originally launching in September 2007, BlogRush spread virally over the Internet, with thousands of bloggers installing the widget in the first couple days of its launch. The widget served up about 3.4 million headlines in its lifespan and could still be found on blogs all the way up to its departure.

John Reese also says that he was approached with offers to buy BlogRush, but has decided not to go that route and simply let things be. It’s also noted that he will take a small loss with the project, but that was his personal choice.

I was one of first adapters to install BlogRush on this blog and had it run for about 6 months before removing it. The big bloggers were the only ones to gain traffic from the idea, as it was based on a credit system relating to how many hits your site received. Although I did notice a spike in traffic during the first couple weeks.

It’s always sad to see an online service shut down, but that just gives the developers another opportunity to come up with new and innovative ideas. John Reese is a very bright guy and I’m sure whatever he comes up with next will catch on just as quickly and fiercly as BlogRush did.

Tweet This Post!