It seemed like a good idea at the time. Allow bloggers to place a widget on their blogs containing the titles of related blog articles and this would lead to people visiting other blogs, which, in turn, would result in heaps of free traffic for bloggers all round.

And you know what? BlogRush - the brainchild of John Reese - captured the imagination of literally thousands of bloggers around the world. In the words of John Reese:

“When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web. Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web. During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world…”

Only it didn’t work.

Sure, plenty of bloggers used it. But it didn’t generate the huge volumes of traffic those who participated in the network had hoped for.

Bloggers tended to put their BlogRush widgets at the bottom of their blog pages. And of those blog readers who actually saw the widgets, very few actually visited the other blog articles appearing in the widget.

We could attempt to deconstruct the failure of BlogRush further. But a single article wouldn’t do justice to either BlogRush or the failure of BlogRush. And forgive me if I haven’t fully explained how BlogRush was supposed to work. It wasn’t just a blog referral widget – there was (among other things) some kind of credit system that I could never really get my head around!

According to John Reese, there were security issues and abusing users who tried to ‘game’ the system. There were also ‘quality control’ problems in terms of whose blog was - and wasn’t - allowed in the BlogRush network. Meanwhile, John Reese and his team never got around to monetizing the service and, despite offers, decided against selling it.

Together, these - and presumably a host of other - factors all conspired to cause John Reese to shut down the service last week.

But if you think the failure of BlogRush is a testimony to the wisdom of those who said it couldn’t be done… or to those who just love saying “I told you so”… think again.

While BlogRush may well have cost John Reese a small fortune, he should look back at the service with pride.

BlogRush is an example of thinking BIG. Of the entrepreneurial spirit at work. Of an idea that went beyond regurgitating what everyone else was doing in the Internet marketing space, to doing something DIFFERENT.

And ‘failure’ is, perhaps, unduly negative. BlogRush didn’t work. So what? Doesn’t mean John Reese didn’t learn a LOT about his target market or glean powerful insights about how something else might work in the future. While I don’t know John personally, I suspect he’ll be taking all the lessons learned from BlogRush to the bank.

I stress this because it’s important – indeed, CRITICAL - for YOU, as an entrepreneur, to be willing to fail or ‘find out what doesn’t work’. If you’re not out there failing, you’re not trying hard enough. Which means you’ll never achieve the success you seek.

There are players and spectators in business, just as there are players and spectators in sport (and life). Spectators sit comfortably on the sidelines and never get hurt or suffer defeat. Players endure hard training… get their fair share of injuries… and suffer many defeats.

But only PLAYERS get the chance to win, and to reap the rewards of victory. Rewards that may well be an Olympic medal… a multi-million dollar business… or a fulfilling personal life.

John Reese is a player. In terms of BlogRush, he may have lost the game. And if he’s a typical entrepreneur, BlogRush is unlikely to be the only game he’s lost or will lose in the future. But indications are that his wins more than make up for the occasional losses. And, chances are, BlogRush will be nothing more than a blip on an otherwise exceptional business record.

So be a player. Try your guts out and be willing to lose. Because that’s the only way you’ll ever win big. And trust me: I practice what I preach!

Source: IMNewswatch, “BlogRush Is Shutting Down”, IMNewswatch, October 30, 2008