Creating Powerful Friends: Samurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge
There’s a fun hypothesis saying that you are the average of the closest five people around you. I believe this to be true, do you? What’s interesting about the blogosphere community is that anybody with enough intention can start a website. Some are interesting, some are not, but regardless we can all compete with the ProBloggers and the Huffington Posts of the web in our own niche way!
Alexa is a dynamic website ranking and information company owned by Amazon, which has over 40 million users world wide. The tool bar is free, and easy to download. The Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge is straight forward. If you’re outside of the top 200,000, get in the top 200,000 within 6 months. I can’t even name 100 sites, let alone 199,999 sites. Can you? If you’re already in the top 200,000, get in the top 100,000. And if you’re already in the top 100,000, get in the top 50,000.
There are some who poo poo the Alexa ranking system, and I recognize their two main arguments: 1) The system only tracks visitors who have the Alexa Toolbar installed, and 2) There are cases where some websites with bazillions of users have a worse ranking than sites with less users. We don’t know why, because we don’t fully know what goes into the calculations. It may be because readers don’t visit and just read off their RSS. That said, the Alexa ranking system continues to grow, and is the best system we got. At least 40 million webmasters around the world think so, and there has to be something to it if Google, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube are ranked #1, #2, #3, and #4, respectively.
Since starting this site, I’ve been rejected as a guest poster, didn’t even get responded to, let alone make it as one of the 7 finalists for one site’s staff writer tryouts, denied admission to a personal finance blog network, and even got my first carnival submission rejected. But through all the rejections, I took comfort in my friend, Alexa, who is always by my side motivating me to keep going. I’m sure many of you have been rejected as well. Here’s your chance to create our own network of powerful friends by joining in on the challenge!
BENEFITS OF BEING IN THE TOP 200,000
* You’ll get to compete for a spot on the top personal finance blogs list (Yakezie Network) and be on the first page Wise Bread’s Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs ranking. I’ve heard some publishers in the Top 100 don’t even bother to associate with others outside page 1. Oh, the snobbery! But seriously, if you’re on page one, opportunities start coming to you, because this list has become the default ranking in the community, and the default ranking in the community uses Alexa. Remember the 80/20 rule. There are 440+ on the list now and I’m sure it’ll just continue to grow. The bigger the list grows, the harder it will be to reach the Top 100.
* Motivation. Unless you’ve got an established blog already, writing gets very lonely and discouraging sometimes when not many people come to visit. You might say you are writing for yourself and don’t care, but if that’s the case, why make your writing public? Witnessing progress is fun!
* If you love books, you’ll get approached by authors and publicists looking to send you tons of free books to review and giveaway. You may even get a catalog of a publisher’s entire library of books from which you can choose from. In fact, you will have opportunities to sample many free products if you so choose. You know how movie stars get all those goodie bags of stuff to sample at the Oscars even though they’re already rich and don’t need more free stuff? It’s kinda like that, a virtuous cycle of people who provide mutual benefits. If you someday wish to write a book, you now have direct access to the very people who reject hundreds of authors everyday!
* Advertisers will flock to you, and ask you to pimp things you’ve never heard of. Some of them, could be gems, but many will be junk traps. The Top 100,000 ranked sites on Alexa (top 0.25%) earn 72% of all revenue, hence you can potentially earn a good amount of lunch money from your site over time. I have been very disinterested in advertising over the past the past six months, but I’ve recently had an “a-ha” moment. Part of the money generated from this site will be donated to charity to help others more in need.
* Other big sites who never bother responding to you, suddenly take notice and give you the time of day. Those comments you leave asking for feedback or help actually get addressed. Cut them some slack though, because I’m sure they get inundated. You can also join plenty of “exclusive” networks if you wish.
* If you want to earn a partial living as a staff writer, you have a much higher chance of getting accepted. Furthermore guest posting and having others guest post on your site will be easier.
* You cultivate a competitive edge, get inspired and appreciate those who are way up the rankings. I used to think watching golf on TV was extremely boring. After I began hacking it up on my own, I now find watching golf extremely fascinating! Same thing with a website. You truly start to appreciate the marketing geniuses of some bloggers out there, and therefore strive to better yourself.
* Girls or guys, depending on your sex and preference, will love you when you say you have a “top” website at the bars. For a brief moment, you can escape your mundane day job and pretend you are someone really important. You could try saying, “Hi there good looking, I am the the CEO & Editor of X, America’s #1 personal finance site” for example, and you’ll immediately be whisked away into la la land.
TIPS ON BREACHING ALEXA TOP 200,000(Please share more if you have any!)
* Badge & Toolbar. Download and install the Alexa toolbar and put the badge on your site. The Alexa toolbar is fascinating because it shows you so much detail about other sites you visit. The badge will naturally peak interest as well. The ranking is dynamic, and motivating.
* Content. Nothing else really matters, and that includes doing all that SEO stuff. I had no idea what a site-map was, or what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) even stood for the first 4 months. If you write something you feel strongly about, you’ll do great. Try and write with a thesis. Whether you are right or wrong is besides the point. What’s more important is to get readers thinking about the topic at hand. Write what you know, too, because if you try to fake it, people can tell.
* Content Length. Did you know that the average person spends just 7 seconds on a resume? The point is that people have short attention spans, and if you write in huge paragraphs, with no breaks in the post for categories, you’ll likely lose readers. After the 1,300th word, people’s eyes start glazing over, unless it’s superbly written. This post violates this rule with 1,650 words, so I need to practice!
* Personality. Realize that you can’t please everybody all the time. If you write with no thesis, no conclusion, no personal spin, then what’s really the point? The great thing about the internet is that the market place is so huge, if our friends in America aren’t stopping by, maybe our friends from Australia will!
* Frequency. If you can post 2-4 times a week, that’s good enough! You can try posting everyday, but you increase your chances of burn out, and you’re not getting maximum exposure for the articles you’ve written. Notice how comments fade from your post after a new one comes, even though the older article is only a day or two old. Instead, use the days off to visit other sites, comment, build relationships and let your articles percolate.
* Branding. Get an image that one can easily recognize as you. Go to Gravatar.com, and use that image in many things you do. There are a lot of Davids, Johns, and Jims in the community. Instead, sign off as a variation of your site, or your site itself because nobody has a monopoly on your common name, and you may confuse others.
* Read & Comment. Actually read an entire post and get the concept. If the post is too boring, skip it, but if it’s interesting enough, share your thoughts. Comments inspire writers, because it shows that someone is listening. There will be reciprocity.
* Twitter. Twitter is probably the best micro-blogging tool out there, which I don’t do enough because it’s off during the day. I’m amazed how some have thousands of followers, and can also follow hundreds of people as well. Make sure you have a widget that will allow others to retweet your content easily.
* Guest Post. I’ve only done only one guest post, and that was with Wise Bread six months ago. I would have done another, but my second guest post got rejected because it was deemed too controversial. Surprise! Since then, I haven’t guest post for another site and have diverted all my attention here. The rejected article hasn’t been published here just in case you’re wondering, but it will. If you can write quality content on bigger blogs, while producing quality content on your own site, that’s probably the best way to go.
Update: The rejected article is now up: “How To Get Your Super Motivated Boyfriend (SMB) To Marry You”
* Promote Others. If you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in the rankings, be selfless and promote others relentlessly. Even if you are doing OK for yourself, promote others freely. That includes re-tweeting and highlighting other articles on your own site. The higher ranked sites will be appreciative and eventually return the favor.
* Don’t Think About Making Money. Because it will likely take a year or so if you’re lucky to earn over $1,000/month from your blog, the money you receive may demotivate you. As soon as you start writing for money, you start losing your soul and it’s not as fun. Write what you want to write, and the money will come.
CONCLUSION
If you just focus on two things, focus on content and promoting others. We’ve taken the initiative to start something on our own, so we might as well give it our best shot. Like all ventures, it’s not easy maintaining the intensity and team effort goes a long way. If we’re all in the top 200,000 by summer, we’ll be quite an influential bunch! Just think about all the things we can do.
Once you break your particular Alexa benchmark, you can officially call yourself a Yakezie (pronounced yah-KAY-zee, and not to be confused with Yakuza). Fail to achieve your goal in six months and you don’t have to chop off your pinky! Who’s in?
TO JOIN THE YAKEZIE ALEXA RANKING CHALLENGE
1) Install the Alexa toolbar if not already and comment what your current Alexa ranking is, so we can keep track.
2) Write consistently 2-4 times a week on your own site and consider guest posting around the community including on Yakezie.com to raise your profile.
3) Install the Yakezie Challenger Badge.
4) Announce on your blog that you have joined the Yakezie Challenge.
5) Selflessly promote others and build relationships.
6) Stay committed and consistent over the next 6 months! Whether you are a huge blog or a start-up, everybody most go through a 6 month Challenge period to ensure that we build the best relationships possible.
7) Come introduce yourself on the Yakezie Challengers Forum and get to know your fellow Challengers and Members.
8) Once the 6-month challenge is over, let us know how far you’ve come in the forums, on your blog, and via an e-mail. If you’ve developed good relationships, broken 200,000 in Alexa, and are ready for the next step, we will invite you to submit a form and write your Yakezie Member Post and become an official member.
Keiju,
Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”
Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our RSS feed.
Yes the 200,000 Alexa mark is a nice milestone in my opinion. Alexa takes constant effort because you’re basically competing with others.
My goal now is to break 100,000.
Sorry, forgot to mention… my latest ranking is 169,216.
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I have a LONG way to go…374,478 here, but I don’t do any of the things you said. I rarely to never guest post, I never submit anything a carnival (although I do host a few), and I never tried to join a group.
The only thing I do a lot if comment and I think that is an ego thing since I assume everyone wants my opinion
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@20smoney
Nice! I’m sure you will break 100,000 in 6 months!
@Evan
374,478 is actually not really that far away for a 6 month period. I’ve only submitted to two carnivals, am still not part of a group, and have only done one guest post so don’t worry. But, I’m starting a group right now!
I think commenting is not so much an ego thing, but a sign that you are interested in participating in a community. It’s like speaking. We speak all the time during the day.
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You’re right, it can get lonely out here in cyberspace if you don’t get any feedback for your work. And this is a very timely post for me as I did a guest post and created a gravatar just yesterday. (Please excuse my rudimentary artistic skills if it appears alongside this comment – you’re the fist site I’m testing it on) I’m interested in installing the Alexa tool bar if only to see how close to ∞ I can rank (that’s infinity if the html doesn’t work right) Thanks for all the great tips Sam!
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@thriftygal
Your Gravatar is cool! Good job guest posting, and your Alexa ranking is right now 5.4 million :) That’s great, because your progress will be in the hundreds of thousands with each update, and you’ll have a lot of fun!
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Right now I’m at 682,918, but over the last month its 371,965, and the last week it’s 287,354. I attribute that to guest posting and submitting to more carnivals. I’m interested to see if I can build on that and keep it up. I don’t see myself decreasing much, so being solidly under 200,000 seems very realistic for 6 months from now.
.-= Daniel´s last blog ..Free Bill Optimization Giveaway! =-.
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@Daniel
Sounds great man. Top 200,000 or bust! I’ve tried to highlight a lot of posts from new bloggers like myself over the past months (vs. always highlighting stuff from the big guys), and I think it’s now time we create our own sphere of influence!
If we grow up together, then won’t forget where we came from if we make it big!
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Okay, so as you pointed out, there are lots of other things to worry about besides Alexa that I focus on, but I agree with you that there are so many things affected by that ranking. So with my measly 916,827 ranking, I take your challenge. In fact with over 2 billion websites that deal with life insurance, ranking well will only help me crush them even harder. Hopefully then people will understand there is a better way.
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@admin
It’s funny actually. I didn’t realie you were a “new blogger” until about two months ago. I had been reading since August or September, but the quality of the writing and the way the site was set up was good enough to fool me.
I stopped linking in the big guys and focusing on the posts I really liked from the smaller, newer ones. There’s no need to highlight what people have already read. I’d much rather be shown a link to something interesting that I haven’t already seen.
.-= Daniel´s last blog ..Free Bill Optimization Giveaway! =-.
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@Aaron @ Clarifinancial
Yep, sounds good Aaron. But, most people who have beef about the Alexa ranking are basically not highlly ranked, or are selling products with good price points directly to consumers and don’t need that kind of traffic. But, I’m telling ya, you get offers left and right once you break 200,000. Every publisher, publicist, author, advertiser I’ve asked regarding how they found me either said through the WB list, or through an Alexa ranking screen.
@Daniel
Sorry for fooling you Daniel, but the archives are plain as site for all to see! That said, I would venture to guess 99% of all blog-type sites out there are less than 3 years old.
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I’m down! I think this will help me stay consistent in my posting. I’ll add the toolbar when I get home tonight. I think I cleared some top 100 list (Twitter maybe?) and I hadn’t been blogging consistently for months! This will be fun to see the progress.
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As I’ve said before, your Alexa is remarkable for your age of site. Well done Sam!
I’ve plunged back down again having breached the 200K mark the other day. Grr.
Got to cut back those 1300 word articles! ;) I also think maybe the 5 posts a week thing is counterproductive, as you say.
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Thanks, for the info!
I was starting to get discouraged. After upgrading my wordpress version from 2.86 to 2.91, my alexa ranking dropped to around 4,000,000 it was under 1,000,000 for a while (currently it’s 2,101,818; still sucky but better than 4 mill).
I’m not entirely sure what I did wrong, but apparently it was bad. Surprisingly, my US rank only dropped to 262,538 (less sucky, a little).
I like your idea of posting every other day. I find that I like commenting on other pf blogsites, it makes me feel like I’m part of the pf gang. Plus I think I have a lot to contribute! :)
I haven’t decided if I’ll install the alexa bar or not yet… In my case, it’s kind of like saying “Hi, I suck”… Until I get under 1 million again, I think I’ll leave it off. Hopefully, my alexa ranking gets under a million again (It’s halved since Jan.).
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Another great idea, just the kick in the pants I needed to start writing more regularly. Evan and I have been creeping up the ranks and I’m right behind him at 159 with an Alexa rank of 380,048. A long ways to go but not bad considering I was 2,000,000 a few months ago. Evan and I will see you on the front page next July :-)
I added the WP Users Online plug in and another that automatically updates Twitter when I make a post and can see a jump in visitors on the site every time I make a post. I still don’t really get Twitter, but it’s a great way to attract traffic. I do the same thing with Facebook and get a little traffic from there as well.
I also get about half my traffic from oversees so I added the Google Translator plug in which a few people use. I purposefully didn’t add the Alexa badge because my ranking was astronomical but 380,000 is a respectable number I guess.
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@Jason @ MyMoneyMinute
It really is fun to see the ranking progress. More fun than anything, and that includes looking at Google Analytics, which I haven’t checked in months, and any advertising revenue. What’s your ranking?
@Monevator
Thanks mate. The progress has petered out, so I need new motivation from the community to try and keep forging ahead.
I figure I’d write a 1,700 word article here to balance out the 200 word article on Being Yourself this past Monday!
@Don@Moneyreasons
Don, you don’t have to install the badge on your site just yet if you don’t feel comfortable about your ranking. But, you should install the toolbar on your own browser to check things out and keep you on track imo. Gluck!
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@David @ MBA briefs
Sounds like a fun race you and Evan got! I put the badge up when I was at 3 million I think. So fun to see the progression.
The translator plug in is a good idea. What’s yours called? I’ll have to look into it!
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Every has had to start somewhere. Almost all bloggers may have started with little to no readers at first. I had no idea about the Alexa toolbar. I’m going to install it now as well. Great idea!
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Formerly known as “Jesse” would like to know how many books you have. What a bonus!
I actually aim to be in the bottom of my friends. That way I’m always challenging myself to learn more and grow. ;)
One of the biggest draws on our progress can be our own friends. What about everyone here – how have their friends changed over the past 5, 10, 20 years?
Everyone advocates rebalancing your financial portfolio annually, I’m planning to hop on the Lean Life Coach http://www.CarnivalofDebtReduction.com bandwagon and discuss how rebalancing your “Friend-Folio” can actually help you eliminate unnecessary debt.
I take the cake as bottom feeder with “No Data” currently
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BTW David. Thanks for all the tidbits – I plan on looking through these tonight.
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@admin I think it’s just the Google Translator, I’ll double check when I get home.
The best thing about Alexa is its easy to use and accessible. I’m still not in Technorati and am trying to figure out Compete.com, but with Alexa you just add the toolbar and you’re off and running. It’s also good to know that by visiting your friends with the toolbar installed you’re helping them out. We’ll have Jesse/FinEngr moving on up in no time (us engineer types have to stick together).
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@FinEngr Add Comment Luv, that’s how you see everyone’s last post after their comment.
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Glad I could be of some small help to you, anytime!
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Ha Ha I wasn’t sure if you were going to really start the Financial Samurai Yakuza in mean Yakezia. I will take your challenge. Deliverawaydebt is currently at 829,940. I think we should all make it our duty to try and take the pebble for our Shogun’s hand. That’s right, who of us little guys can over take the Samurai?? No Jim @bargaineering you don’t count, you are already crushing us at 31,659.
Good luck Yakezia!!!
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Sam, how did you manage to climb the ranks so quickly? Very impressive.
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Just read it again and have 2 comments:
How come you don’t have an easy way for people to tweet your posts?
I have been posting 5-6 times a week but have been considering taking it down a notch to about 4. I sometimes feel the good posts get mixed in with the mediocre ones just so I have something new up there. And as you mentioned, more time to comment and interact with other bloggers.
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@FinEngr
Yo Jesse! Nice Gravatar! I like it. Good you have an engineering buddy in David to provide particular support!
I’ve tried to do more Carnivals.. but I often don’t seem to have enough time. Go for it! I will try and follow your lead!
I’ve got about 6 more free books on my shelf that I have an option of reading and giving away if I decide to review them. It was getting way too much, so I stopped. But yes, I could fill a whole bookshelf full of free books if I wanted to now. It’s kinda nuts!
The best friends are the ones who grew up together with nothing and stay humble. I’ve got several of those, and I cherish them the most.
@David @ MBA briefs
That’s right David. B/c I have the Alexa toolbar installed, every time I visit your site and Jesse’s site, it helps improve your ranking!
@jim
Thanks man. Good luck in the Shorty Awards!
@Jeff
Nice man, I love it! But, you are already dishonoring the Group.. cuz it’s spelled Yakezie, not Yakezia! ALthough… that has a nice ring to it too! Is it me, or do you also think of Jay Z wrapping “Yakehizzay” when you hear the word? This ain’t a competition Jeff, but a COLLABORATION towards achieving a greater goal! And that goal is to triumph, and have a powerful group of friends who’ve come from nowhere!
@20smoney
Donno man. All I know is what I’ve shared in this post. I’ve had more than my share of REJECTIONS in the beginning, so it wasn’t for my lack of effort! I figure b/c I’m pretty blind when it comes to responding/helping others, and there are a lot of new folks like me too, might as well offer up this challenge!
@Daniel
Hmmm, donno. Any suggestions? There is the Tweet button in the top right, and the “Sexy Bookmark” plugins on the bottom where you can also Tweet. What do you suggest?
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@admin
I assume that icon in the top right is for twitter…blocked for me at work…makes more sense now.
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@admin
Sorry about the spelling, I’m left handed and dyslexic not a good combo sometimes. I was thinking Jay-Z the first time I read the name.
A Collaboration toward excellence is a much better way to state it. Thank-you
Take Care Young Samurai.
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Since starting this site, I’ve been rejected as a guest poster, didn’t even get responded to, let alone make it as one of the 7 finalists for one site’s staff writer tryouts, denied admission to a personal finance blog network, and even got my first carnival submission rejected.
All that’s good, Sam. But I have had entire discussion boards (more than one!) formed for the sole purpose of ridiculing me. One of these now has had over 100,000 posts put to it. I’ve also had several large discussion boards burned to the ground as a means of keeping people from reading my stuff. The Bogleheads.org board is the largest investing board on the internet today. That board was formed for the sole purpose of escaping me (the group that founded it used to post at Morningtar.com and Morningstar.com was not willing to go along with their demand that I be banned from the discussions there).
That’s rejection! The good people at The Guiness Book of World Records have already assured me that I have won the listing in the next edition for “Most Times Banned From a Discussion Board or Blog Without Ever Once Putting Up An Abusive Post.” There’s no one else even close. When it comes to rejection on the internet, I’m a winner!
Your Alexa rating is a lot better than mine. I’ll give you that one in the event that it offers you any consolation.
Rob
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@Daniel
Yep correct.
@Jeff
No worries Jeff. At what age can I be considred Old Samurai?
@Rob Bennett
Wow, now THAT is impressive! You haven’t done anything wrong here yet, so feel free to share your thoughts however you see fit.
I’m truly impressed if it’s true about Bogleheads and Morningstar. You’re famous! Use that to your advantage!
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Very good info, sensei.
Does it matter if it’s US or Global?
Regardless, I choose to believe that I am the number one blogger, read by all those people who don’t have the Alexa toolbar?
Why banish delusion when you can embrace it?
I’ll leave you now to ponder the penetrating depth of my wisdom.
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Hello,
I have spent some great time to go through this wanderful blog.
I love your original presentations. This is one of the best blog I have ever seen. Congratulations
Very Elegant. Incredible informations. Very usufull.
MY TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS:
1- KEYWORDS
Watch position and density in every section of yuor content.
2- CONTENT
Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. BACK LINKS
Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link.
All of these above are increadible inter connected.
LAST but more important tip:
THE FIRST TOP LEFT PORTION OF THE SCREEN is the section of your web page where you need to concentrate your space for; keywords, related content, links.
Pasquale
seo expert montreal
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@Matt S.
The Alexa rank is a global rank. It also gives a rank of where you rank the highest in a particular country.
Better to remove the veil of dillusion than carry on.
BTW, I think “The Genius” question whether you are a woman in a comment after your comment in the last book review.
@SEO expert Montreal
Hello Pasquale, thanks for your tips to The Yakezie Group. All fascinating stuff which I have had no idea about, and don’t consciencly ever focus on over the past 6 months. I may try and structure my thoughts more, but not at the expense of “freewriting.”
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Samarui-san or should you be called Sensei?
I took your advice with Alexa several months ago and it was spot on. It is a great motivator to see your rankings continue to improve even in the face of erratic traffic.
I’m currently at 251,692 and creeping my way to the top 100 on WB.
I found a great deal of success participating in the carnivals. There is no way we can all be accepted with everyone of them and we probably shouldn’t be. It would only dilute the impact. So my approach is to use use a shotgun and try for as many as I can every week.
However, as a novice host, please please please follow the rules of the given carnival. It’s a crappy job to have to wade through 30 submissions that don’t meet the expectation.
I never realized how much effort goes into one of these but after having the honor of hosting both the http://www.CarnivalofDebtReduction.com and http://www.festivaloffrugality.com/ I have gained a new found respect for our fellow bloggers that manage and host these events.
The other key that I think may merit some research is NoFollow links. A few places in the web create a link that search engines will follow and give your site more credibility. Most blog platforms are set up as nofollow meaning the link gets no credit.
If others have more knowledge on this, I’d love to learn.
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@20smoney
I’m one of the ones complaining about Alexa’s utility since it ranks sites with less traffic higher than sites with more traffic. Either way, I’m not doing too badly. About a year ago I was up at #59, but despite my traffic growing steadily, I’m now at #109. It would be nice to break back into the top 100 again.
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@LeanLifeCoach
Good stuff. Hosting a Carnival must be A LOT of work b/c so many people don’t follow instructions. Creating The Samurai Fund had some folks give me real stock picks too ;)
I will try and participate in 1, once a month and see where it goes.
@MoneyEnergy
I wonder why Alexa does this? Actually, I think I know. If you have 1,000 RSS subscribers you built up over the years, and none of them visit your site, you will have a lower ranking compared to one site with only 100 RSS subscribers, but who all actively visit and partake in the dialogue.
I think that’s the main thing…. that must be the answer. Even if you are a new blogger, but your posts have the ability to move the RSS reader to come visit, then you will rank higher. Watcha think guys?
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Inspiring! Thanks for posting about post frequency. I feel like I have to post daily, but it’s sometimes hard to make sure my posts are intelligent when I’m rushing to get everything accomplished.
P.S. I’d love to read your “controversial” guest post that got declined!
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@Little House
Sure, I’m still deciding whether to highlight that it was a rejected post or not… hmmm. I don’t find it offensive, but the problem with me is I don’t find many things offensive. My tolerance is quite high, and I realize there are A LOT of sensitive people out there.
Definitely don’t post daily. Every other day is good enough. Spend the other days developing relationships and promoting others.
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Installed and hooked!
I shall follow thy decree, master :)
Being a rookie, this will save me from heartbreaks in the next few months as I already anticipate the rejection :D. Probably will print out this page; the comments are helpful too especially with the carnival sites mentioned by LeanLifeCoach.
Great motivator indeed! Thanks for the useful information.
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Ps. Untemplater is having this great post about social media (http://untemplater.com/business/social-media-and-abstracted-societies/). I must say it reminds of the textbook I read for the Politics of Media subject I took years ago but it is really thought-provoking.
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cool! I’m pretty clueless when it comes to how things work on the internet. I didn’t even know what a subdomain was until your post about domain names. (great post btw) I may just have to go create my own little corner in cyberspace. Your tips sound great!
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@Bytta @151 Days Off
Sounds great! Welcome aboard the challenge. Don’t worry, whatever you do, I’m SURE you will improve because you will get hooked with your progress. I have a feeling that hosting a Carnival is way more effective than contributing b/c hundreds of people who want to join are forced to submit and contact you. It takes effort, a lot of it to host indeed!
@Charlie
I learned A LOT from the Domain Name post as well! Good luck with starting your new site. I’d just go on wordpress or blogger, or hire some young fella to hook you up. It’s easy!
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I decided to jump in too, alexa has been installed. My current alexa number is 2,101,818.
Good luck to you, hopefully you’ll crack the wisebread top 10 this year! You’ve already come far in such a short time!
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Opps, the 2,101,818 number was for the last 7 days… My real alexa number is 1,432,262… It’s late :)
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Cool idea! I share your hesitation about the shortcomings of Alexa since the Alexa rankings skew towards the tech audience and I can say from first hand experience that I have/had sites that have/had Alexa rankings that were in the high 6 figures that made 25X the money and had 10X the traffic as other more tech oriented sites that were in the low 5 figure Alexa range. All that to say count me in though! The Alexa ranking for CreditCardChaser.com is 192,757 today so let’s see where we can get it by the end of the contest!
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@Don@MoneyReasons
Sounds good Don. Get ready for the Alexa addiction to start! There’s no way in hell I will crack the Top 10 on WB b/c just look at the Top 10. Mega conglomerate sites like Consumerist, Wise Bread, and granddaddies like TS and GRS make up 4 right there. I’ll be happy if the site can break the Top 25 or Top 20, but I’m being realistic b/c this is just fun for me, and I don’t do it for a living. It’s hard getting up the rankings the higher you get, so enjoy your move up!
@Credit Card Chaser
Good stuff Joel! Congrats for getting on page 1 this week! Thanks for the insights. Yes, webgeeks and techies skew the rankings b/c they’re all into that. I’m the most UNSAVVY tech/internet dude out there, but I’m learning quick. I figure if we can get all the regulars here to sign on, we’ll grow into a powerful force and make our own darn rules. We can leverage off each others connections, and really blow things up!
My hypothesis is that sites with less traffic have better alexa rankings simply b/c their readers visit more and interact, instead of just read from an RSS. Whatcha think?
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Count me in FS!
My Alexa ranking is a whopping 324,054! Man have I got some work to do. LOL
Your Alexa ranking is awesome man! I am jealous! :)
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I just got all excited and pumped up reading this! I can’t say no to a competition. Having just crossed the 1 million mark after about 1 month I’m ready to hit 200k within the next 5 months.
I hope the Hawaiian babes enjoy hearing about the CEO of planting dollars. I’d also be interested in getting some free books to review and gaining a staff writer position to help the mobile living cause… it’ll be an interesting year…
Thanks for the idea Sam.
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@Brad
324,000 is great! You’ll be in the top 200,000 in no time! With all you and J are doing on the east coast, should be a no brainer.
@Ryan @ Planting Dollars
Glad you’re pumped up Ryan! The more you gain, the more you will want to gain. I’m sure the Hawaiian ladies will love to hear you as the CEO of your big bad website!
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Glad to see your growth and success!
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Hey Sam,
Yesterday my Alexa ranking was 829,940 today it’s at 821,764 that’s a 8,176 jump in one day. At this rate it will take 90 days to break into the top 100,000.
I can dream can’t I :-)
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@Patrick
Thanks Patrick. Happy to see the success of others!
@Jeff
Jeff, you don’t have to dream man. It will be a reality! It’s all simple math really, and like you’ve just done, looks like you’ll get there within 6 months! Let’s just hope that within this time period, there’s not another movement by a ton of bloggers who also want to ratchet up the ranks, as in the end, there are only 100 spots in the top 100. Go Jeff!
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This thread just won’t quit. So I’m happy to report I’m already up about 20k places. And if my last week is any indication, getting in the top 500k should be a cake walk. It’s about that last 300k push.
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Alexa still tracks me but I have no tool bar. I did install the code onto my site.
Thanks for the Alexa ranking info. I might give some of these a try. Good luck moving on up even higher than 74K! :)
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admin Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 8:52 am
Money Funk – In order to join The Yakezie in 6 months, you need to have the Toolbar installed! :) Honestly, my chances are low to reach 50K, but might as well try with the support of the group!
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Great content as usual. It’s good to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m trying to learn as much as I can about this blogging thing but it seems like there is still so much to learn.
My current alexa ranking is 508,492. So I’ve got some work ahead of me. I look forward to the follow up to this.
I’d also be interested to see how many blogs fall off. I feel like there is a lot of people that just don’t stick to blogging. They want to but life happens and they just fall off.
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I am sooooo in…she said in her best “valley speak.” This is a fun idea, Sam, Thanks!
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@Evolution Of Wealth
EOW, you have like a gagillion Twitter followers, you’re just being humble. I see no reason why you can’t get to 200,000 in 6 months!
It’s true, maintaining the consistency is tough. Hence, if we have a group of like-minded achievers, the idea is we’ll be able succeed more easily, b/c we’ll have each other to support!
@Tracy
Glad you’re joining! Nice Gravatr! I like the yellow!
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I’m always up for a challenge and I love the concept.
I just started my blog around Thanksgiving. My current alexa ranking is 1,048,997. Is that a good start?
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Best part about starting at the bottom is the progress in leaps & bounds. When I first started I was somewhere around $9.5 mil and after this post it looks like now I’m up to $7.8 – BALLER!
FS – replied to your old SUV comment over on myjourneytomillions.com
ALL Readers – wrote an interesting topic on the Berkshire Split last night. Please hop over and check it out. I have 0 experience in options and wouldn’t mind someone who knows something to QC it for me.
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@CJ Bowker
Sounds like a great start! I know 100% for a fact you will make progress.
@FinEngr
Wow, you even put a dollar sign next to 9.5 million and 7.8 million… you’re definitely a baller! Will check out myjounreytomillions.
Nice post on the Berkshire split. The Samurai Fund is a shareholder of BRK-A!
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Ha, sorry. So used to the $ prefix…..I meant 9.5mil ranking
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Hey, it’s working… My last 7 days number just dropped from 2,101,818 to 1,754,419. I still don’t understand why my numbers popped back up to 4 million temporarily… Go figure…
Next step, putting the Alexa badge on my site! :)
Say, Is this one of your longest comment chains?
.-= Don@MoneyReasons´s last blog ..Lemons to Lemonade Series #2 – How To Stop Drinking Pop =-.
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admin Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Don, good work! Definitely one of the longer ones.. but just look a the “Be A Sloth and Don’t ROTH Post” down the home page. It just surpassed 100 comments!
http://www.financialsamurai.com/2010/01/11/be-a-sloth-and-dont-roth/
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@admin
Just downloaded the toolbar. I’m solidly in the top 3 million LOL! Nowhere to go but up!
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Well since my last comment here a couple of days ago, my rank has gone from 5.4 mil to 5.2! Yay go me!!! The only way is up from here! :)
And you don’t need to install the tool bar to check your ranking, you can just hop on over to their site and enter your url.
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Hi Sam,
I’m In! Have a ways to go but I notice that the advancement when still in the boonies is rapid. Alexa is a stat I have become addicted to (I check certain stats at the start of my day – which is a major improvement over several times a day). In three month’s I have advanced from 800K something (wasn’t keeping tab at the time but a visitor commented on the ranking) to 438,480 as of this morning.
I think that the higher (lower?) the position, the tougher it gets to keep moving up as you are getting funneled into an ever narrowing group of bloggers who are serious about their blogging (whether for fun or profit). Top 100! Wow! There must be a lot of jostling going on there and very tough to break into.
200K … in June…. Going for it all the way!
best…………..valentina
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I’m in! Somewhat disappointed in my current ranking of 349,079, but hoping to break into the top 200,000 by mid-year as outlined! :)
Thanks for running this challenge!
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@Jason @ MyMoneyMinute
3 million is big balling! Nowhere to go but up!
@thriftygal
Good stuff! You don’t need the toolbar to check your ranking, but installing the toolbar will help your ranking, and will help your friends when you come visit b/c when you visit a site without a toolbar installed, your visit doesn’t count in its algorithm. Furthermore, it is a prereq to join The Yakezie Group in 6 months! lol
@Valentina
Hey Valentina! Where you been? :) Yes, it definitely gets tougher and tougher once you breach the 100,000 market. Hence, I’d LOVE for everybody to kick my a&& and I can just call you guys my friends and kick back. 200K in June or bust!
@Wojciech Kulicki
Good stuff Wojo! 349,00 is great. You’ll definitely improve now that you’ve joined the challenge!
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Wow, good insight. I made it onto that top 100 list and didn’t notice a difference one way or the other but perhaps I just wasn’t looking…I’m in for breaking through 100K. I’ve been pleased with the progress of Darwin’s Finance far outpacing my first blog Everyday Finance which had been around for years earlier.
The secret? Jumping from Blogger to WordPress. While there’s not a direct correlation and Alexa is probably blind to platform, WP is so much more versatile that given the choice, bloggers put so much more blood, sweat and tears into a WP blog. If you’re on Blogger, make the jump, you’ll see a huge improvement in everything from traffic to monetization, and indirectly, your Alexa rank will jump.
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My current ranking is 62,474 – and you can do it too!
Seriously, anyone can get an Alexa rank that low and lower. All you need is a group of people like this regularly visiting your site with the alexa toolbar installed, and your rank will slowly drop – like mine did. Mine seems to be dropping still. So – keep visiting all the sites and you’ll be helping each other.
Samurai, your site seems pretty low already – 74k! Congrats.. Love your site and stuff – just left a review for your site on alexa – i’d appreciate if anyone left a review for my site as well! :)
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admin Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:06 am
Hi Pete @ BMM – Sounds good man. Our challenge is to break 50,000 in 6 months. I think it’s probably going to be quite difficult, despite it only being 24,000 away for me. Just the law of numbers. Thanks for the review. Totally forgot about that! Will do a review of yours when I get back from Tahoe!
Everybody review everybody! :) I think Daniel is going to put together a list of the participants of the challenge. Should be good!
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Here’s an interesting site I found that supposedly has estimated traffic counts based on alexa rankings. Check it out.
sillyjokes.co.uk/alexa/index.php
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@Ryan @ Planting Dollars
Hey Ryan, that’s a pretty cool graph from the link. As we can see, the traffic increase is logarithmic, which also means climbing the ranks when you’re already up there is quite difficult. I know I’ve hit a wall in the 70,000…. so I’ll just have to see if I can count on the group to continue. Should be fun for us all!
Webmasters and techie types will all know Alexa. It’s their type of thing. We just need to increase awareness.
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lol, I like the “people of the opposite sex will flock to you”. Nothing like bringing it up a notch!
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Hmm my Traffic rank is: 2,686,807, but in Canada it is: 75,166
(Er.. should we have “lowered expectations” in Canada?)
I had heard about Alexa in the past, but didn’t really understand it… so thank you for your super informative post!
I will take you up on the challenge, hopefully the numbers will look a bit better in July lol! =)
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i just thought about something else…. you know another way to get your Alexa ranking up? You blog about Alexa ranking! ;)
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admin Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Money Funk – You think so? Maybe! But how do we know or prove it? Maybe it comes up in the search engines or something… I donno. Guess I will be reading about your next post on Alexa and how you discuss the Yakezie Challenge!
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I’m in!
Current reading: 906,392 (ouch!)
Off to write a post to get myself moving.
Thanks, Sam!
-Austin @ Foreigner’s Finances
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Yo yo yo my good sir – I shall play in this game too:
Current reading: 106,946 (according to Wisebread…gonna go and get the toolbar in a sec)
Also, You know i like some controversy over at BudgetsAreSexy! You’ve got a secured place to post there anytime my man :) Bring it on.
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Oooh, I want in!! I’m hovering around 100,000 but would love to lower my number!
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@Austin
Welcome aboard Austin-san!
@J. Money
See you at 50,000 in 6 months! And even not, at least we tried!
I’m too scared to submit any guest posts anymore after my rejection after writing the whole thing out. The rejection has given me SO MUCH energy to work on my own site, that ironically now I don’t want to get accepted to write any guest posts b/c i may lose that motivation. Weird huh?
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@FFB
Welcome aboard! And do let us know what the latest is with BRK-A in The Samurai Fund page up top from time to time. Best, Sam
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Oh! can I join in your challenge? I have a very young blog. I blog about personal finance but being based in London, UK it’s actually quite tricky as for some reason UK doesn’t have that many PF bloggers! How can I join in?
…gone to install the toolbar and the badge
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