I Wish I Was a Real Boy...
A recent announcment on the official BLogExplosion blog states the following....
Just a quick note that because of extemely heavy userload the main BlogExplosion server has been loading slower than we want it to. After making several changes to our databases today BE is responding much better now. There is a huge level of traffic on the site right now, but our server farm is responding well and everyone should notice the site loading much faster now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Today's Alexa ranking and traffic status shows this.....
Userload? Ummm, ok....
Just what site is Jeff reading their stats etc from? According to the traffic, it's sort of in a slump and it looks as if BE reached their peak a long time ago.
BETA BlogExplosion Sale Part 2
BoycottBE has in his possession snippets of the BlogExplosion pdf package that they're sending out to buyers and what a read it is. It seems Jeff has once again managed to "exaggerate" numbers which is looking quite bad, especially since they're starting bids off at $100,000. Major rip off, especially when you look closely at the real numbers. Others seem to agree with that sentiment too.
The most interesting read, was the part that states there are NO OTHER blog community/sites online today. I guess the likes of BlogMad, BlogAdvance, BlogClicker, BlogSoldiers, BlogCrowd, BlogMosh, VirtualLoop are all a figment of our imaginations?
If memory serves me corectly, BlogClicker was recently sold on Ebay of all places for $7,500 and it had a standing member base of just under 10,000 members and it had only been online since January last year and yet here is BlogExplosion that has been around 18 months and they "claim" to have 50,000 members, but yet the buyers package states NEARLY 50,000. Just under 40,000 is near 50,000 if you're rounding up to the nearest 10,000 that is closet to half 100,000.
Also it seems the "real" truth is surfacing as to why they're selling, it's not beacuse they're builders as they claim, but it actually seems that they can't afford to run the site anymore. Jeff quoted that he had spent 10,000's out of his own pocket to build BlogExplosion and if you look at the monthly income that is in my previous post and put it againt their expenditure, that even in the buyers package isn't the "whole" truth.
they say their expenditure "averages" at $1500 a month, but they didn't count in the scripts they have been buying, the hiring of 3 new people to help code and design all the new "toys", money to Rachel who was being paid surely, how much, who knows, but she wasn't working all those hours for nothing.
It seems Jeff and his partner have ran out of money to keep BlogExplosion running as their monthly income over 18 months for their alledged 50,000 members is quite bad for a site that they claim to be on such a grand scale.
Also in the package it claimed to have 46,000 blogs in the directory, but on signing into BlogExposion, I took a screen capture of the following not more than 5 minutes ago. What happened to the almost 10,000 blogs that aren't listed that they claim to have? Are they stealth blogs that come out at special times?
What also is a telling point of the downfall of BE, is the users online. You're lucky to have 30 people online at any given time, while the new BlogMad averages 100 users online at all times of the day. Check the BlogMad homepage for those statistics, they're there in b&w. Even BlogExplosion's radio, that they have to pay the liscence for. (I guess they forgot to add that into expenditure) Has had a maximum 9 users that I have ever seen using it. Just tonight there current users is 1. Again shocking for such a large community isn't it? 
If you google the sale of BlogExplosion, you will see many blogs out there talking about the sale and they all agree on one thing, BlogExplosion isn't worth what Jeff and his partner are wanting. You can fool the average mommy blogger, but you can't fool people that look at the facts and not the sunshine that comes out of Jeff's ass.
Read what others are saying:
Process designer
Syntagma media
Population statistic
Beta version of BE selling.
We have contacted a couple of people to potentially broker and provide advice for the sale of BlogExplosion. We will be sending out a PR early next week with a two week window for companies interested in purchasing BlogExplosion.
Its been three weeks since the sale of Blex was announced and still nothing other than a number of new additions to the service.
But we are builders. We like to build new stuff. I am not sure we have the internal drive or motivation anymore to take it further as we have given it our best. We are very proud of what we have accomplished.
Does anyone else, other than the people who emailed me the same question, think its funny that a company that is up for sale is still adding new features to the site. Its like buying more furniture for a house that you are selling with the furniture already included and you don't add more things to the house thats up for sale unless its a really shitty house and you think the extra furniture is going to make it look more attractive and maybe hide the stained carpets.
If you look at their famous numbers because Jeff is all about numbers, you will see that their best month was in 2004 and it was $5872.50. That total includes everything. The credits bought and the advertisements but I wonder if expenditure was taken out of that such as programmers/wages/new tools/designs/scripts, etc. Not that it matters as their good month with their 50000 member base means that on average every member is worth 11 cents and their rapidly deteriorating totals don't look all that good from a buyers point of view.
October 2004 - $1365.00
November 2004 - $3695.00
December 2004 - $5872.50
Januray 2005 - $5577.00
February 2005 - $4692.00
March 2005 - $4453.00
April 2005 - $3372.00
May 2005 - $4482.00
June 2005 - $5416.00
July 2005 - $5284.00
August 2005 - $4778.00
September 2005 - $4695.00
October 2005 - $4066.00
November 2005 - $4203.00
December 2005 - $3877.50
January 2006 - $4132.00
February 2006 - $4234.50
Currently all members are worth 8 cents and during the silly season they were all worth 7 cents. In 17 months they've made $74195.50. Now theres a booming business someone please pass me my check book. Others are interested in this too judging by this post in the blog Technology Architect & Projects.
The prospective buyers package went out on March 19th and after Jeff letting us know about three interested buyers who seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth now you have to wonder where they are. Maybe they weren't offering enough for what is very obviously an overinflated piece of not much, so now Jeff is looking for a sucker. I hear they have had offers of between 75K and 100K so Jeff is looking for a special sucker who will pay the brokerage fee and pay jeff and thomas back the tens of thousands of dollars they poured into the site from their own pocket.
I wonder if the sale of Blex will be pulled at the 11th hour and it will be business as usual for Jeff and his merry flock of sheep as they can continue on their wacky adventures through the Blogverse where they tell other people what to do on their blogs and deactivate people at a whim.
Questions
I want to link this as I think its important that people be able to find this easily.
I logged into my email earlier on and there were 33 new emails from people who had questions about the sale of BlogExplosion that they want answered and I have collected most of these questions and I put them on here in the hope (ha ha ha) that an authoritive figure from BE will answer those questions. Perhaps Orange Haired Boy can answer them seeing as he has nominated himself as someone important who can squash nasty rumors about BE. I will link to Orange Haired Boy seeing as he is a brown nosing whore and he'll notice the link and come sniffing around.
1) just what exactly is the real reason behind the sale? Could it be a difference of opinion or failing partnerships between Thomas and Jeff?
2) why hire new staff 2 months ago just to sell? Will these people lose their jobs?
3) Blogcharm was talk of the town and boasting about how individuals would make money from it and yet now they are selling, when just a few weeks ago they were promoting the March 1st release date of Blogcharm from beta. Why?
4) why talk about a brand new redesign if they are selling?
5) the lottery that Jeff has been talking about for months, the big plans and the tireless efforts of his staff looking for a suitable script oops I mean the tireless efforts of his staff hand coding the script. Why start off something like that if you're going to sell? We're still waiting for that to be released and yet come March we are still waiting. Does this mean no lottery?
6) how come there are 27362 members on the forum and only 37117 blogs in the BE directory but Jeff is saying there are 50000 members? The number of blogs is not an accurate counter as one member can have more than one blog registered under their membership, so where did Jeff get this figure?
7) from such a big blog exchange company BlogExplosion is making an average of $4000 per month. This looks like a wonderful figure except when you take into consideration that there is (according to Jeff) a 50000 strong membership base.
I've been having a look around and according to information on the helpme blog from October 2004 to February 2006 BlogExplosion have made $74193. Not a bad figure, but it adds a new slant to the actual selling price of BlogExplosion.
To me, that is not a sign of a booming and prosperous exchange site and is mediocre at best.
On a lighter note, Rachel the cunt has changed blog address and you will no longer find her at Bitchalicious and you can now find her here. Pop on over and say hi.
BE for sale - A deja vu post
It is with heavy heart that I write this post. Seeing as it may well be the last post I ever create for boycott be I have decided that I am going to go the same way as Jeff and be overdramatic and exaggerate things a little.
So the word is out. BE is up for sale but I've been saying that since September so no surprises there. I will say the timing is odd, seeing as BE just recently added three more staff members. It seems wrong to hire new staff when word out on the street is that the sale of BE has been in the pipeline for "weeks" and by weeks, I mean days.
The last week has been rather interesting. Lots of people have been sending me lots of little tit bits and I've been reading Jeff's impassioned speeches both in the helpmeblog and from his newsletter that was kindly forwarded to me by a number of people. You all know who you are. Thank you.
I have also visited the BA forum and after mentioning the sale rumor, had it out with some crazy fuck who can't speak english properly and it seems all the brown nosers from BE are going into damage control about the sale. Orange Haired Boy is now running around squashing rumors and I don't think I've been this amused in a long time.
There are a lot of questions that need answers and I will address those towards the end of this post but lets take a look at Jeff's newsletter which is in fact a letter to BlogMad.
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Message from BlogExplosion
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In this Special Release
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1. BlogExplosion is Up for Sale! aka Dear BlogMad
2. Daily Lottery and ShoutBox Enhancements
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1. BlogExplosion is Up for Sale!
Dear BlogMad
With very heavy hearts we are announcing that BlogExplosion is going up for sale. After much internal debate we felt that a larger company can take BE to the next level. We want to see BlogExplosion grow even bigger and be more successful in the future.
You can read all about the upcoming sale here
htpp://wow.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/
Internal debate. Key words there Reader. Key words.
We have already received dozens of warm and encouraging email from members thanking us for providing such a quality service. We appreciate hearing from all of you which makes it all the more worthwhile for us. We have always maintained that BlogExplosion members are the best and we have been very fortunate to have such wonderful members since we launched the site.
Some people have also wrote in and said nasty things including being scared of upcoming competition. We can tell you definitely that is NOT the case. BE still has the best traffic exchange scripts (cannot be cheated), has the best in terms of QUALITY of traffic, and the most feature-rich options available to members. Demand excellence no matter what site you use!
Perhaps you could set up a page of all these emails you're getting. A fitting tribute for the king leaving the masses and we can all read them and share in your trials and tribulations. If BE members are the best then show them your appreciation and publish their emails and link back to their sites like a good blog exchange owner would. As an ultimate fuck you, why not publish the nasty ones too and make a point of telling everyone how you're not going to link to such non BE trash. That would be a pretty dramatic leaving present Jeff. Think about it.
For that reason BlogExplosion is a difficult site to manage. There have been lots of negative things said about us just because people have nothing better to do than to be negative or because we have kept spammers, cheaters and people with nothing good to say off of BE. When using competitive sites make sure they provide full stats (not just counters) and make sure they provide quality traffic for your time on the site.
The negative things that have been said about you have all been true. There is evidence everywhere of your dealings and how you treat your members. It also appears that you have issue with competitive exchanges in that even as you leave the blog exchange arena like the little bitch you are that you still can't resist putting in one more dig about competitive sites.
Your non cheat timer issues a credit the first time you click a wrong number. Do your other members know this? I've had reports from a few members who have pointed this out on your non cheat script. Its also been mentioned numerous times that your 30 second timer can be cheated by as much as 4 seconds. Exaggerating again Jeff.
Games and puzzles are cute but do send you quality traffic? Do they offer all of the features that BE does? Can you surf by category? Can you flag sites for profanity or mature content? Can they be cheated or allow auto-clicking programs to work? Do they display all of their traffic numbers on the site and tell you the whole truth? Are they still in perpetual BETA?
You're talking about BM here and let me tell you that is a sweet site. It took you four years to get a surf by category option open Jeff and BM have only been around for seven months and their site is getting better. There are options for profanity and mature content and even those features aren't infallible on your exchange Jeff. I heard about the blog you had on your rotation where there were naked women in compromising positions with sporting goods. Sexy stuff there Jeff and that blog was marked as profanity or mature content. It is also hard when a site that is owned by one of your staff members is responsible for turning what is normally a nonprofane blog into an ass page by not letting previous blog owners regain their sites. Kind of iffy ground there Jeff and I'd step back from that potential can of worms if I was you.
Displaying all the traffic numbers on a site are no good when you lie. On your blog you're talking about 50,000 members yet on your integrated forum the number is nowhere near that figure. Now when you said that the forum and the traffic exchange are integrated, that meant that the number of members on your forum corresponds to the number of members on your traffic exchange. Which display of numbers is the whole truth Jeff? How many of those members are people you have banned or deleted Jeff? When people sign up for blogs and are rejected does the number drop down again Jeff?
BETA. I cannot believe that you mentioned this. Half your site is in perpetual BETA and you're a laughing stock in that you just can't make that final push into making it all real. In the past couple of months all you've done is update and upgrade and even then its all still in BETA. Step away from the BETA accusations Jeff. You're potentially walking a tightrope there.
Keep track of your blog stats. See where that traffic is actually coming from. Keep track of unique percentages, time per blog visit. Demand the best return for your surfing time. Ratios dont mean a thing if the quality of traffic is not there. Stats never lie and you should always keep them for your blog.
I think we have taken BE as far as we can and want new blood to come in and take over where we left off. We will be looking for a company with the same fiery determination to make BlogExplosion that much better. We are the biggest and the best and we want a company to take over and keep it that way.
Anyone else could make this work better than you. Your skewed perception on what makes a company great has been your downfall as biggest does not make you best. You have this fact slammed in your face time and time again and still you are all about the (fake) numbers. The numbers mean nothing when you buy the traffic. The participation levels are what is important and you don't have it. 50,000 members and how many applied for the jobs you had on offer and while we're on the subject whats going to happen to those new employees?
When you hired them were you aware then that you were selling? Seeing as you've known for weeks that the sale of BE has been looming. Do you think it was right to open a blog platform that offers bloggers the chance to earn money when you're not going to be around to fulfill that promise? How do people know that the new owner/s is going to stick to that policy? They don't have to as once they buy the site they can do, delete and deny anything they see fit to.
Interesting questions, no?
There are already 3 parties interested in buying BlogExplosion. They are all companies with definite and sizable -internet assets- which means that the company that does eventually purchase BE will have lots of firepower to grow BE much faster than we ever could. This is great news for BE members as a larger company can build the memberbase quicker, have more marketing and promotion resources and have the ability to build smarter features.
What happens next?
We will be sending out a PR by the end of the week that announces the sale of BlogExplosion. From there we will have a two week window period to find a potential buyer.
Why are you sending out a PR and why will there be a two week window period to find a potential buyer when there are already "3 parties with definite and sizable -internet assets-" pounding on your door wanting in on it? Or is this like VH1 and your "partnership" that's not really a partnership and more like an affiliation.
Have any of them asked for solid proof of your numbers? Can you "cook books" on the internet? I hope all potential buyers are asking for solid proof, like legitimate bank statements to see all this wonderful money you're talking about. As an investor, I'd be mad if I found out that a site I just spent thousands of dollars on was actually nothing but an empty site with only a few hundred operating members and a whole lot of worthless junk accounts.
Again you can get all of the details surrounding the sale of BlogExplosion here
htpp://wow.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/
Hopefully 10 years from now we can show our children what we built and be proud of our work on BlogExplosion. We have given it our all and we have done our best to make BE the best it can be for members.
That is so dumb. "Show our children"? You're not fucking Schindler and you didn't save thousands of people. If anything you will be held responsible for releasing most of the shit blogs out there about babies and cats and poopy diapers into cyberspace and your alleged children will pretend they're not related to you. I'm no psychic but I don't think there will be any children for you (wink)
Thank you members of BlogExplosion for your support of what we tried to accomplish here. We have made many good friends here and these are very difficult days here realizing we will be walking away. We know a bigger company will have the resources to make BE that much better and to keep the BE legacy alive!
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2. Daily Lottery and ShoutBox Enhancements
Things are still business as usual here as we continue to develop BE with our usual determination.
For ShoutBox we should have Frenzy and Trivia working by end of the week and we program the action scripts to make the messages pop up properly in ShoutBox.
Also Daily Lottery will be done by end of week where Rocket and Battle of the Blogs require 20 second visits and go towards a daily lottery where members can win bonus traffic each day.
So both of these features are scheduled to go live for the end of the week and should make BE that much more fun to visit.
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With the sale of BlogExplosion we expect to see interest in the site much higher than normal. Since we announced the sale on our blog we have been receiving a record number of new sign-ups (approvals are slow as a result)
This is an exciting time to be a BE member! Anytime a company is about to sell it create alot of extra attention from people that usually do not visit our site. Please come say hello and celebrate our last couple of weeks with us.
Again a sincere thanks from the bottom of our hearts for making it all worthwhile.
Keep on blogging!
Thomas, Jeff and the entire BE Team
:-)
I'm enjoying the fact that you make a big deal of games, puzzles and other things that would be counted as gimmicks yet you cap it all off with your enhancements to a lottery, the rocket and battle of the blogs. Gimmick things. Funny one there Jeff.
According to my BBE source the real reason BE are selling is due to the partnership not being as strong as it has been claimed to be.
Jeffs past behavior in his shoutbox and in other peoples blogs has proven that Jeff clearly isn't the brains of the operation so its obvious he's not the coder and the person that keeps it running. Jeff and Thomas have allegedly put tens of thousands of dollars into BE but if one person wants out then the whole project is scrapped and it is strange that they made all those expanding noises, like hiring more staff, adding new features and fine tuning things and then to just up and sell like that.
We must all look stupid to believe that. We all must have the attention span and memory of a dimwitted goldfish to believe that BE has been contemplating selling for quite some time. Jeff claims that BE is his "baby" and yet here he is selling it now. In a hurry too. A big hurry. Whats the rush Jeff? Who really wanted out Jeff?
Some months ago this poor pathetic loser had to have a competition held to pick a nickname for him. Jeff has the unfortunate affliction of having zero personality so it was hard to think up something that made him unique yet after all of this, a nickname for Jeff is relatively easy. With his penchant for lying and exaggeration and with half his site in BETA which is virtually computerspeak for "not really real yet", it's obvious his nickname should have been Pinocchio.
