Bla.st Advertising: A Month in Review
Written By: Posted On: April 10, 2007 Tags:
A little over a month ago I stumbled across a cool idea that expands upon the original million dollar homepage. First off, bla.st is a unique domain name. If you can’t afford a premium TLD, you might as well take advantage of some creative thinking and a unique domain extension. We’ve seen this with del.icio.us and many other web2.0 start-ups lately.
Anyway, 29 days ago I started advertising on bla.st. I paid $.49 a day for 30 days just to get a handle on what kind of traffic I might get from this self-proclaimed “visual card directory and advertising network”. $.49 a day secured me a decent position on the front page of bla.st and top positions on several other categories including blogs, design, web design and a few others. The idea is to catalog these small business card-sized advertisements in to pertinent categories where potential customers can look through these and hopefully pick your card out of the line up.
The top cards also get listings on the bla.st network. This network consists of bla.st affiliates and other sites owned by the bla.st parent company.
The idea is somewhat of a yellowpages/milliondollarhomepage hybrid. The only problem with the bla.st model is the fact that you need traffic before you can deliver traffic to your sponsors. Sites like MDH relied solely on media hype and the World Live Web to get traffic to their advertisers. To receive any kind of return on investment, the directory you’re listed in must be useful to the ones seeking content, and unfortunately bla.st isn’t there quite yet. The mix of a creative and directory type advertising model is interesting, though.
Out of the 29 days I advertised on bla.st my card received a little over 8,000 views on the bla.st site and close to 3,000 views across their network. Out of these roughly 11k views I was only able to collect 58 click-throughs (0.05%). These 58 clicks cost me about $15.00.
8,000 views just isn’t enough, but they are growing and maybe the idea will be huge before we know it. I don’t mind shelling out $15.00 to support someone with an awesome idea, and the audience I advertised to over the last 29 days was fairly targeted, I guess. It wasn’t a good means of advertising for me, but it was worth the offering to bla.st. Support good ideas and strong minds!
Even though cards are ranked based upon how much money the card holder spends, you can always add your card to the directory for free. Click the link below for more information.
Add your card below
Hi Scot,
Thanks for your comment on my blog. It’s much appreciated.
I signed up to bla.st about three months ago. If you blog about the website, Tim will add a few cents onto your card so it’s not WAY down the list with the others. You probably already know that though.
Interesting to read about your click-through rate. Thanks for posting that.
David
thanks for the info.. I always like to now peoples progress..
David,
Welcome to the party! Haha. What is your click-through like? Mine doesn’t matter so much to me because I didn’t sponsor it just for the visitors– I think supporting good ideas in your community is always a good idea.
– Scot
Hey Scot,
I have been using Bla.st for my site(s) as well. For my paid advertising, I have had about 10,500 impressions and 80 click throughs in 44 days. Not too bad! I am really impressed with the service so far though. It’s going to take a while to fully take off, but it will definitely be worth it once it does.
On a plus side, I found your blog through Bla.st, and I have been reading it ever since. Gaining a few frequent readers is definitely worth $15
John,
You are absolutely right. The service is top notch and Tim has even agreed to do an interview with me. Tim seems to be a good guy overall, and I respect what he’s doing for the community which is why I support bla.st
.
And, thanks for being a frequent reader. I will check out Citrik Acid as well! I’ve seen the card for your “Creative Binge” site and you are right — $15 is easily worth a few new dedicated readers a month.
Thank you for your input John!
– Scot
Hey guys, thanks for your kind comments and the review. I have to agree bla.st isn’t quite there yet, although we have lots of ideas up our sleeves. Keep an eye out!
Regards,
Tim
I like Bla.st a lot. It’s a great idea and a clean easy interface to use. I put a free card up there just to check it out. I’ve probably gotten a couple dozen clicks from it.
[...] expire already! How do I still have advertisements running across their network?! Apparently since my bla.st review, Tim has taken it upon himself to hook me up with an extra month of bla.st advertising for free. [...]
Tim,
Thanks for stopping by. I see bla.st going places!
Shane,
It is a great idea, and the interface is easy to use. I agree– nothing wrong with free traffic!
– Scot
Bla.st is a great site that’s already starting to get truckloads of traffic. My reasons for joining Bla.st are because I think the site is fun. Besides, I absolutely enjoy sites with dark backgrounds.
I also wrote a review in my blog also. It’s titled One of the worlds most creative website’s is bla.st
2 of my cards are on the Bla.st humor page if you want to check them out.
See you around.