Hi all,

Recently I launched a new site, New Blog Finder, a recommender system for
blogs.  Much like StumbleUpon, Netflix or Amazon’s recommendations,
you rate blogs that you’ve read and enjoyed and it will suggest new
blogs that you may like based on those ratings.

A big part of the idea behind this is to provide a way for site owners
to generate free, targeted traffic.  Because users will be shown
appropriate sites, they’re very likely to find something they like and
hopefully will become regular readers.  The recommendations are based
on something called collaborative filtering
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering) – it
recommends things that "similar users" have rated highly in the past.
This means, the users being sent to you from this site have similar
tastes to your current users, and are therefore very likely to enjoy
your blog and stick around.

Users simply go to the above URL, sign up for free – with an e-mail
address and password.  They rate some blogs – either some of the
initially suggestions or enter the URL for other blogs that aren’t in
the system and they’ll be added.  Under “Your Recommendations” on the
Home page it will provide the 5 blogs you’re most likely to enjoy.
The ratings are a 5 star scale, ranging from 1 star (bad) to 5 stars
(great).  The system will give the best recommendations once you’re
given some blogs high ratings and others low ratings.

Ratings aren’t displayed to anyone – not even in the aggregate – so
don’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings with a low rating.

How can you help?  I'm glad you asked!  I'd love it if you were
willing to post a message about this site on your blog.  Why would you
want to do this?  The users you send from your site obviously like
your writing.  Having them using this system will create a bunch of
profiles of users who like your blog (and each will create an
individual taste profile based on which blogs they rate and how they
rate them).  Each of these profiles will be funneling new users,
similar to those you sent to the site, back to you.  You can see my
post from today for an example of what this could look like:
http://www.moneytimeblog.com/l…..r-website/

All in all, this should hopefully be a way to help all of our users
find other blogs they'd enjoy.  Just because a user starts reading
some new blogs, doesn't mean they'll stop reading ours.

I’d be very interested in any thoughts and feedback on this site, both
from a user perspective and as a way to get traffic to your blog.

Thanks,

John

BTW – I can generate a unique URL that will send users to the site
with your blog as the first thing they rate (probably highly).  They
are shown your site both before and after they register on the site.
For example, if you go to https://newblogfinder.com/rate/7?next=/rate/7 you'll be
shown my Money Time Blog to rate.  I've created such URLs for everyone
who has posted recently in these forums – if you're not here, please
respond to this message and I'll create one for you.

Moneystepper:  newblogfinder.com/rate/2?next=/rate/2

Personal Finance Utopia:  newblogfinder.com/rate/66?next=/rate/66

Financial Samurai:  newblogfinder.com/rate/9?next=/rate/9

How To Get Rich Slowly:  newblogfinder.com/rate/25?next=/rate/25

Money Smarts Guide:  newblogfinder.com/rate/67?next=/rate/67

The Frugal Millionaire:  newblogfinder.com/rate/68?next=/rate/68

Debt Free Divas:  newblogfinder.com/rate/69?next=/rate/69

Real Simple Finances:  newblogfinder.com/rate/70?next=/rate/70

We Retired Early:  newblogfinder.com/rate/71?next=/rate/71

Good Financial Cents:  newblogfinder.com/rate/72?next=/rate/72

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance.com:  newblogfinder.com/rate/73?next=/rate/73

Wealthy Turtle:  newblogfinder.com/rate/74?next=/rate/74

Color Me Frugal:  newblogfinder.com/rate/75?next=/rate/75

The Frugal Toad:  newblogfinder.com/rate/76?next=/rate/76

One Cent At A Time:  newblogfinder.com/rate/77?next=/rate/77

The Student Loan Sherpa:  newblogfinder.com/rate/78?next=/rate/78

Super Saving Tips:  newblogfinder.com/rate/81?next=/rate/81

Money Is The Root:  newblogfinder.com/rate/82?next=/rate/82