Shaz.am is community-based networking tool designed to connect sites together based on similar interests. The concept relies on a mutually beneficial link sharing mechanism that helps harness and direct exploratory readership. At the end of the day, websites belonging to the same category create exposure opportunities and traffic creation.

The Blog Barrel was a traffic networking tool based on the same principles as Shaz.am. As part of the acquisition, all Blog Barrel account holders will automatically become Shaz.am account holders, along with all their data and website information.

There are some differences between both services, however:

• First, Premium Blog Barrel accounts will have their subscription canceled. The renewable advantages of position are no longer applicable, but there are still ways you can improve your standing within the network, through on-the-fly purchases. During the switch over to Shaz.am, Premium membership holders will automatically get three stars (for 30 days.)
• The calculations that automatically repositioned websites within their network have been altered to extend the link availability. Instead of showing links from just 5 levels above, for example, all sites above you can potentially be shown. This means more exposure for everyone.
• The click count is no longer cumulative. Instead, Shaz.am counts only the last 30 days of activity. This helps keep the network up-to-date and better reflects the positioning.
• Shaz.am adds the ability to add "stars" to your link, to help draw attention to your link and ultimately increase your visitorship.
• More categories! All the Blog Barrel categories carry forward, but we will be adding categories specifically for MySpace and other social environments.
• Signing in to Shaz.am requires your e-mail address instead of a username. The password has not changed, and so an existing Blog Barrel password is the same as your Shaz.am password.

Your traffic rises as the network underneath you grows. If you send more clicks than other sites at your level, you will move up the network, leaving more sites below you to feed you traffic. Also, as you move up, you will improve the chances of your link being shown. There are also ways you can improve the chances of a reader clicking on your link, including purchasing attention-getting stars, adding bonus clicks to temporarily raise your position, and of course, placing the Shaz.am widget in a more prominent place on your website. Since we are not responsible for the link description or the contents of a site on the network, we cannot provide any traffic guarantees.

You could change the amount of stars you have, but with each new transaction you nullify any previous transactions (with the exception of bonus clicks -- these purchases are additive.) You pay for either one, two or three stars, and that amount carries for 30 days. In other words, if you add one star then subsequently add another one, your account will only recognize the most recent purchase. Unfortunately we cannot offer any refunds for star or bonus click purchases.

We typically credit new accounts with a star and a random amount of bonus clicks that count for 30 days, just to get you started.

Normally the widget displays links from the sites above you in the network. If you happen to be at the top, there are no links above you. The widget will then show a selection of sites below you, instead. You will still be at the top of the network, but now you can help out the less traffic-endowed sites, rather than show an empty set of links.

Remember, Shaz.am counts the last 30 days worth of clicks, in order to provide an average level of activity. If your count is dropping, it may be because you had older activity that is no longer being counted. If you find that your position is dropping, other sites in your traffic network may have increased their activity, moving ahead of you.

If you have just signed up, you are starting at the bottom of your network. Unless you enhance your standing by buying bonus clicks, your position and traffic builds gradually over time, depending on the dynamics of the network. The good news is that as you progress, the results should come faster and faster. See the "How can I improve traffic to my site?" question for tips on accelerating the process.

For various reasons, Shaz.am allows only one site per account. If you have more than one e-mail address, however, you can create another account.

Your link will be visible to more and more readers (and thus traffic available to you) as you climb your traffic network. If you do not place the widget on your site, there will be no mechanism to add clicks to your account, and you will continually be at the bottom -- and your link will not be shown.

The code you add to your site does not include any styling, in order for it to take on whatever styling already exists in your website. However, if you are familiar with stylesheets or HTML code, you can envelop the code with styling parameters to tune the formatting to your tastes.

The information you provided is kept on our servers for identification and participation purposes. We respect your privacy -- we will absolutely never share this information with a third-party without your consent. By signing up with Shaz.am, however, you agree to keep your account private and to abide by our terms and conditions, available upon registration.

We have built in spam protection that prevents counting of repeated clicks from the same individual or location. We do our best to make sure the traffic is legitimate, and we will refuse access or cancel accounts of those violating our terms of use.

You can send us an e-mail at support@shaz.am. We will be happy to help you get the most out of this service.