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.
I am in! I just posted the update on my blog Looking forward to being officially added to the group.
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I have found that many of those badges make my blog run slow so I had to remove them. not sure i’d like to add another one. this would be my ONLY reason for not trying this. :/
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JoeTaxpayer Reply:
March 28th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Self hosted badges (i.e. not loading from elsewhere and containing no code) shouldn’t be an issue.
.-= JoeTaxpayer´s last blog ..A Living Large Roundup =-.
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admin Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 11:39 am
No worries FB. You can take your time and consider, and perhaps join in the future. If your blog is running slow, that’s a good problem to have as it means you are getting a good amount of traffic already! Cheers
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Well, I’m a little late to the party, but I look forward to meeting more personal finance bloggers and improving my Alexa ranking also!
Best,
Rob
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admin Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 10:25 am
Hi Rob, welcome aboard! We look forward to seeing you around town. Cheers, Sam
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Stats: my Blog, Upside of Money ranks a loser #2,948,598 on Alexa (not surprised) but I am happy to report my Personal Finance column for Examiner.com San Francisco ranks #552.
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admin Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 10:27 am
ONly winners here Barbara! There are a lot of great female Yakezie challengers too, and I’m sure you’ll get to know a lot of nice folks.
That’s awesome you have a Persona Finance column on the Examiner! Pls share with us your link!
Best, Sam
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Still subscribed to this post after 3 pages of comments! Hard to believe.
To everyone noting themselves as “losers” or “poor performers” with multiple million rankings, many of us started off in the same bracket. I myself was a staggering 9.8 million something when I first started.
Don’t feel disheartened or discredit your work! Those rankings will be easy to shed and in no time you’ll be looking back laughing. Keep chugging along!
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admin Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 10:25 am
You’re right FE. NOBODY is a “loser” here! The challenge is for the little guys looking to gain a voice! I just remember getting smacked left and right in the first 6 months, so I figure we’ll have a bunch of fun, and create our own little club here on the web. Yakezies unite!
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Hello all, I have to join my friends and jump in. My worldwide Alexan raning is 448,950 and my US rank is 136,677. I got some ways to go!
Tomorrow will be my blog announcement.
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admin Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Welcome Bucksome. Good to have you and congrats on the new addition to the family!
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Hey Sam,
This is Craig from http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com – my Alexa rank is 309,449 do I need to do anything more than install the badge and the other requirements or do I need to be officially accepted as part of the club?
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admin Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 10:23 am
Hey Craig – Welcome aboard! You still in Papua New Guinea? I liked your work from home post on Ryan Patrick’s site. Let us know when you make your announcement. Cheers, Sam
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Craig Ford Reply:
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Sam,
Yes, I’m still in PNG. Just enjoying the warm tropics.
I made the announcement. – http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com/special-announcements-yakezie-roundup/
.-= Craig Ford´s last blog ..Special Announcements, Yakezie, & Roundup =-.
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I’m in! With 600 readers, I have an Alexa rank of 574,938. Pretty sad right? I’ll be posting about the plunge on Friday!
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admin Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Sounds good Adam. Good luck! 600 readers sounds like a lot to me!
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Adam Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Oh, I’m REALLY proud with my 600 readers. I thought it was just strange that I have such a bad ranking.
By the way, do reviews on Alexa help? That’s the badge I chose and I am going to ask for reviews on Friday from my readers.
.-= Adam´s last blog ..Packing Lunch For Work Just Got Easier =-.
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admin Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
600 really is a ton. I think partially why your ranking may not be better is b/c your readers just read your content from your RSS and don’t interact as much in comments? This is how we rectify the discrepancy between blogs with fewer readers with higher Alexa rankings vs. those with more readers and lower (worse) Alexa rankings.
I don’t think reviews can hurt!
I love a challenge! This is a great idea so thank you so much. I just checked and my blog Eventual Millionaire is ranked in the 3 millions… so I looked up a few ways to increase my Alexa rankings.
This article was really interesting, though we’ll see if any of them apply to personal finance!
http://www.doshdosh.com/20-quick-ways-to-increase-your-alexa-rank/
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Hey, I’m in! My busy life has caused neglect to fall on my little piece of the web, but most of that busy-ness was caused because those parts of my life were ending (College, etc.). Now I can start a new chapter and really focus on my writing, something I really love to do.
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Hey guys, I am definitely in. I wanted to bring up my Alexa ranking a little bit before the challenge, and now have a 3 month rank of 800,000 and 1 month rank of just over 400,000… so I’m improving!
I installed the badge and will announce on my Blog!
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admin Reply:
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:38 am
Sounds great Smarter Spend. Looking forward to your involvement in the group!
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Okay, so I know – my blog isn’t specifically a PF blog, but I do deal quite a bit with frugality, saving money, preparing for the future, etc.
Regardless, I have to say that although I initially took on the challenge as a stretching-exercise, I’m pretty impressed. I kind of thought it was a bit of bunk, but it’s the only system we have, and as one who hires out her SEO, writing, and photography skills to others, it was worth submitting to myself.
When I started, my rank was 3.408.601 – dismal. In the last few weeks, I’ve bounded up to (drumroll, please…) 1.969.297
Still quite a bit lower than my ultimate goal, but I’m impressed that it really does seem to make a difference. Now to parlay that to others in my sphere of influence… ;)
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I’m in! I went to my own domain from wordpress.com last week, so my rating is pretty crazy – 9,614,087. I’m hoping to break 1,000,000 by July. I’ve installed the toolbar, added the Yakezie widget, and I’ll post about it later this week.
My blog is a frugal mom’s challenge to make the most of meager means and save my quarters – not just the shiny coins, but a quarter of my income in 2010 for an emergency fund equal to a quarter of the year’s expenses, and our home and household that comes from the discord of poor money management.
Now I’m off to read the blogs from other commenters. Is there a blog roll somewhere?
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admin Reply:
April 6th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Hi Saved Quarter, sounds like a great goal to save a 25% of your income this year! Check out Credit Card Chaser’s site (link on the right of my home page for the blog roll).
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Hey Sam, I thought that I have joined the group, but I had not seen my name on the list over at Credit Card Chaser. I just wanted to make sure I was on it:)
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admin Reply:
April 6th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Hi MFO, definitely ping CCC (Joel) and ask him to add you on. Cheers, Sam
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I’m in too, finally! I’ve installed the badge and made the announcement. My starting Alexa ranking is 413,948.
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admin Reply:
April 6th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Sounds great Jackie! Sorry for winning the first round of FMF’s March Madness. If it pleases you, I got bageled in the second round :) BTW, I did respond to your comment on why Democrats are against charity btw. Hope you see it.
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Ok I’m taking up the challenge. I’m not sure why other people are complaining about their rankings, because I’m at 12,480,245!
However, hopefully this will put me in a position for the biggest increase! Looking forward to climbing the rankings, and being part of the blogosphere.
Good luck everyone!
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Hey, we’re taking up the challenge at Cash Flow Sherpas. We’ll be putting the badge u on our page, and promoting people posts on our site.
Our current Alexa Rank is 491,088, and we’ll be pushing to climb up! Please let us know how we can participate. We’ll do the badge and promotion, anything else we can do to help?
Cash Flow Sherpas
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admin Reply:
April 6th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Hi Ashley, welcoe aboard! Contact Greg-san from Eliminate the Muda (see bottom of post) if you’d like to join the Google Groups where we have a tone of activity and initiatives we are planning. Look forward to seeing you around!
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Love it! I just drastically fell in the Alexa rankings despite having better readership over the last few months. So I am definitely up for the challenge.
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I’m seeing a cool widget on some of your blogs, linking to other Yakezie blog posts. Anyone know where I can find that?
I’m posting my welcome-to-Yakezie post tomorrow, but I am already down from 9,614,087 to 5,259,797 since last week, and I have a US rank (didn’t have one a week ago) – 665,952. Awesome!
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Bucksome Boomer Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I found out where to download it from the google group where we share a lot of information. You can get the invitation by contacting Eliminate the Muda (it’s in Sam’s post towards the bottom).
.-= Bucksome Boomer´s last blog ..4 Career Tips for Success from the Military =-.
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The Saved Quarter Reply:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Awesome, I’ll join the Google Group. Thanks!
.-= The Saved Quarter´s last blog ..7 Meals from a 6 lb. Pork Shoulder =-.
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I’ve been watching from afar, in total fascination for weeks. Thanks to some encouragement from Rainy Day Saver, Conquering PF and Beating Broke (all found by following the Yakezie group), I’m throwing my hat into the ring.
My current Alexa ranking is 159,413 – it’s been heavily fluctuating the last few days. The 3 month average is thrown off by a very popular contest I ran in January that resulted in a huge spike of traffic. It was, unfortunately, not sustaining which I think speaks a lot to that type of promotion.
Anyway – count us in!
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admin Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Hi Heather, I don’t think I replied to you yet. Welcome aboard. Have you written a post or put up a badge yet?
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I am still on the fence about this because of the comments from others that it slows down your system, but I am checking into it, and still considering it. I am a new personal finance blogger, so my learning curve to drive folks to my site is pretty steep, although I have a lot of great posts already on my blog.
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admin Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Hey no worries ConsumerMiser! Come back to us end of year and let’s revisit. I’m sure you’ll do great on your own. Best, Sam
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Bucksome Boomer Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I did have a problem running the badge as is. I uploaded the image to my media folder and it works fine.
.-= Bucksome Boomer´s last blog ..4 Career Tips for Success from the Military =-.
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Hi- I am almost joined!! I loaded the badge, but can anyone help me in loading the alexa toolbar on my site? (think about explaining it to a 2 year old!) I’m a master at personal finance, not so much with webmastering!!
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admin Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Hi Barb – I think what you do is once you are registered on alexa.com, it’ll spit out an html code where you can copy and paste into a HTML or TEXT WIDGET on wordpress. Place the widget where you want it to go on your site, and they past the html code from Alexa into the widget and it should pop up. Best of luck! Sam
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Hey,
I have seen about 5 posts on other blogs about the Yakezie Alexa Challenge and finally clicked on one of them. Thanks for the challenge, the great tips on how to rank well, and…
We’re in!
Our Current Alexa Ranking – 341,465.
I’ll talk to our writing and tech team about announcing we’re in on the challenge and installing the badge.
Thanks again,
Guy G.
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admin Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Sure, let us know when the announcement post is up!
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Sam, thanks for the encouragement, I’M IN!!! I’ve got the badge up and the alexa widget. Here’s my rank: 2,215,648. My US is in the 150 k range. I’ll blog about it this week. (already tweeted).You are so POSITIVE!! and inclusive, I love it!! My middle name is “tenacious” and after 6 weeks blogging, I’m hugely enthusiastic about sharing all of my years of personal finance education and experience! love to promote others too, & I have a big shout out to Len Penzo dot com for encouraging me to join.
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After reading this post, I became inspired to participate as well. This is a great idea. I already uploaded the badge and annouced my participation on my blog. I can’t wait to get involved!
Current Alexa Ranking: 526K
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I’m a little late to the party but I’d still like to dance, I am so in. I have the badge, announced my participation and can’t wait to get going! I love the enthusiasm that I see here and I am excited to share with my readers the great posts that I am reading on the other sites.
My current Alexa Ranking is 5,717,428…. like to break 1,000,000. by July. Good luck everyone!
Ingrid
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Most honorable Samurai-san, I humbly join the Yakezie Alexa Challenge. My search rank is far from great since I had a broken laptop and neglected posting for a while so I’ve fallen quite a bit. I join today with a ranking of 2,885,904 and U.S. ranking of 927,455. I’m on the top of page 4 of Wisebread’s ranking and my hope is to get to the middle of page 3 and make some friends. Arigato.
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admin Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Hi Sandy, sure, let us know when you’ve made your announcement. Cheers.
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Hi-I’m in! Check out my post, ( http://barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com/the-yakezie-challenge-how-to-write-the-perfect-article-make-the-perfect-investment/ ) my ranking intl is just above 2,000,000 and about 150,000 in USA. But I’m going to be MOOOOVING on down!! How do I do one of those “small Yakezie Carnivals” which I’ve seen on some of the member blogs? Thanks for getting this competition going!
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admin Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Welcome Barb! Read your post and I’m looking forward to seeing you around.
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I’m in! (I hope)…I actually tried to post here last week but it disappeared into moderation limbo so I’m tryin’ again. Made the announcement post on my own blog last week.
I would be honored if you’d let me join the ranks even though it’s late in the game. I still want to break 200k by July! I think this community is great and look forward to promoting everybody. Thanks for setting it up.
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Woohoo, my rating is down from 9,614,087 to 930,000 in just 3 weeks, and from 665,000 in the US to 83,000! That’s a crazy jump! Big thanks to everyone who has linked to me and visited. :)
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Hey, we’re all set up.
Here’s a link to the post.
http://howtomanagemoneytips.com/how-to-manage-money-tips-has-joined-the-yakezie-challenge/
Current Alexa rank is about 345,800. I don’t know if it’s too ambitious by July 4th, but our plan is to be better than 150,000 by then. Lot’s of work to do, but definitely up to the challenge.
Look forward to meeting and networking with you all.
Cheers,
Guy
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admin Reply:
April 29th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Sounds great Guy! Welcome aboard and hope to see you around the Yakezie group!
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Is your dance card full? I am in!
I am a pitiful 3,443,893. Guess I have some work to do!
.-= Mysti´s last blog ..Finding your Bliss Wednesday =-.
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admin Reply:
May 1st, 2010 at 7:15 am
Let us know when you’ve made your announcement & follow the rest of the instructions and we’ll getcha in! Cheers
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Mysti Reply:
May 2nd, 2010 at 8:59 am
http://diggingoutfromourmess.blogspot.com/2010/05/jumping-on-bandwagon.html
I am in! Thanks!!!
.-= Mysti´s last blog ..Reality Check =-.
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admin Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Welcome on the bandwagon as you put it! Hope to see you around the Yakezie more often, and don’t be a stranger! It’s great we have more women on board such as yourself and Cheapskate Sandy :)
I’m in! Posted at http://yesiamcheap.com/index.php?/archives/160-May-1st-Check-In.html. Thanks again.
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admin Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Welcome Cheapskate Sandy! As you are joining so late, please make the extra effort to get to know members in the group. There are some 72 of us, so it will take time. Don’t be a stranger and have fun in the process!
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I have been reading a lot about this and I’ve seen the badge on more than a few sites …I read the comments and you guys all seem like a cool bunch, so I’d like to join; please count me in!
I will write a post for Friday.
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Kevin@InvestItWisely Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Here is my announcement: http://www.investitwisely.com/a-wise-challenge/ (it will be active from 5am tomorrow). The badge will also be up tomorrow.
My current Alexa rating is 3,664,945; hoping to hit 1 million by July!
.-= Kevin@InvestItWisely´s last blog ..The Negative Impacts of Addiction, and Overcoming Them =-.
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admin Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Sounds good Kevin. I think you’ll hit 1 million by end of this month now that you’ve joined!
As you are joining so late, please make the extra effort to get to know members in the group. There are some 72 of us, so it will take time. Don’t be a stranger and have fun in the process!
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Could you please direct me to a comprehensive list of the Yakezie members? I’ve been trying one that’s updated, alas, to no avail. Thanks in advance!
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JoeTaxpayer Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
http://www.creditcardchaser.com/yakezie/
currently showing 77 members.
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Jolyn@Budgets are the New Black Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
How do I get on this list? I’ve had the button and widget, etc, for awhile now and thought I had done everything I needed to do!
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admin Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
We’ll get you on. Have you contacted Greg-san yet from Eliminate the Muda? Pls contact Joel at CCC as well. Also, try to stop by more often if you can here, or elsewhere, as it helps us keep track. Out of site, out of mind in a way, so definitely look forward to seeing you around.
Hello!
I just officially joined, thanks to Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff website. When I first saw her Yakezie Challenge badge and downloaded the Alexa toolbar, I was at over 4,000,000. Now on May 7, I am at 2,033,930–a great bump all ready from just be more aware that Alexa exists!
Thank you for hosting this challenge. I look forward to breaking 1,000,000 and beyond by July 4th. I will be posting about this on my blog over the weekend (most likely today), and have all ready downloaded the badge.
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I wanted to be in, but I have twice tried installing the badge on my wordpress.org site, and both time, all my text links disappeared and the badge will not appear, no matter what I try. I have no idea what is going on. It must be a personal problem since I have not read about it from anyone else.
So, I am joining in spirit. I do have the toolbar and I will visit the sites listed in the challenge!
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sue Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 3:11 am
Hey Kris –
If you need help with the badge, I can help you. Installing WP themes and tweaking them is part of what I do for a living, but I’m happy to help you as a Yakezie Challenge mate. Hit me at suetalbert AT gmail DOT com. Put “Yakezie button” in the subject line so it doesn’t get sent to my spam folder, k? :)
.-= sue´s last blog ..tasty tuesday: monkeying with magic mix =-.
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Bucksome Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 3:48 am
The same thing happened to me. Instead of linking to the image, save it in your own image folder.
.-= Bucksome´s last blog ..Help Stamp Out Hunger =-.
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Kris Reply:
May 10th, 2010 at 5:02 am
I tried saving the image in my own folder and pointing to that and the text links
disappeared again. Argh. I guess it just is not meant to be for me.
.-= Kris´s last blog ..Monitoring Your Net Worth – Just Organizing Your Information Can Bring Benefits =-.
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Hello There,
WE ARE IN! We have a lot to do, so much so that our blog isn’t even ranked! We have installed the tool bar and the badge. This is a great opportunity and an excellent idea!
Thanks,
Timothy
Wealth Artisan Team Member
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I am in for the long haul. I have the post with the badge already set up and have made the public announcement to my readers. I am very excited to participate in this challenge with you guys!
.-= Odysseustoday´s last blog ..Yakezie challenge =-.
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Bit late to the party but would like to join in. Alexa toolbar installed with an Alexa rank of 2,766,488. Yakezie badge installed.
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RetirementInvestingToday Reply:
May 10th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
and I’ve now added the blog announcement here http://retirementinvestingtoday.blogspot.com/2010/05/proud-member-of-yakezie-challenge.html
Do I have to do anything else to obtain membership?
Looking forward to engaging with others from the Yakezie challenge.
.-= RetirementInvestingToday´s last blog ..Bulls, bears and the 200 day moving average =-.
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Happy to say I cracked 150K on the way down. Another 10K and I’ll be back on WiseBread’s top 100.
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admin Reply:
May 10th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Good stuff Joe! Definitely great for you to get back in the top 100. I find your analysis and insights on taxes extremely insightful! Your contribution to the “Be A Sloth and Don’t ROTH!” post was excellent.
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I’d like to join the challenge if it’s not too late! Alexa toolbar installed, I just added the badge, and will do a quick post later to talk about joining!
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I’m definitely late to the party, but I’m also up for the challenge. I’m weighing in currently at 578,098 with the Alexa toolbar installed. Thanks for the Challenge FS!
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It would be extremely helpful if on the Yakezie challenge page it showed the last time it was updated. Being a new blogger it feels like I might be late to the game and that the Yakezie challenge has gone fallow.
If I am wrong that’s great!
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RetirementInvestingToday Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Hi Odysseustoday
Definitely hasn’t gone fallow. I just joined Monday (see notice a couple of comments above) and I’m already up 360,000 rankings.
.-= RetirementInvestingToday´s last blog ..Bulls, bears and the 200 day moving average =-.
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I’m quite late to the party, but I’ve joined as well. My ranking is 9,455,581. I’ve got a long ways to go, but I’m working hard.
Jeff
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I’ve been observing the challenge from afar — and I know they say, “Better late than never!” — but I think I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and come back after I’ve got a few months under my belt. It’s very cool seeing how supportive of a community that’s been built up here. I’ll check back in after the 4th of July, see if I can keep up. ;)
Blessings,
Chris
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Just joined the challenge. Put the badge up on my blog, and made the announcement!
Better late than never, that echos what a few others say. I agree!
I’m looking forward to being a part of this. All the best to everyone.
.-= Squirrelers´s last blog ..Yakezie Challenge =-.
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I am way late to the party but count me in :) Hope I can help someone else in the process!
Cheers!
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I hope I’m still able to join. I put the badge up and I’m excited to get started. I’m currently ranked 1,059,759 and hope to reach 900,000 by July 4th. I look forward to getting to know everyone.
.-= Kevin´s last blog ..Friday Night Likes =-.
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I know here is johnny come lately… Investor Junkie just joined.
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Kevin Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Welcome, I just joined too so don’t feel bad.
.-= Kevin´s last blog ..Don’t Miss Out On Easy Savings Chapter 1 =-.
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This is interesting. I didn’t realise that Alexa ranks were so important to people. You just wonder how accurate these results are outside say the top 1000.
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Coming really really late to the challenge. I have added the badge, installed the toolbar and also announced it in my blog.
http://www.wealthinformatics.com/2010/05/29/joining-the-yakezie-challenge/
I am currently ranked 7,773,156. Long way to go! Coming way late to the party, but better late than never I guess. I am super excited and proud to be part of this group. Looking forward to highlighting my fellow members posts and working together! Thanks for setting this up! Could someone tell me what else I should be doing?
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admin Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Welcome aboard Suba! Don’t forget to contact Greg at Eliminate the Muda and Joel from CCC. See ya around!
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Suba Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Thanks a lot for the welcome, Sam! I am glad I found this group!
I have contacted Gred @ Eliminate the muda and Joel @ CCC as well. Could you tell me how to submit a carnival post or how to volunteer to host a carnival? I tried searching but couldn’t find it. Sorry!
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I entered some information I do not want posted the the entire Internet, in response to questions on Alexa’s application form. Yeah, I know that was naive and I should’ve given them disinformation, but it’s a bit late now for the “don’t be stupid” response.
The site allows you to change your contact information, but it doesn’t actually change it. Got any ideas, other than siccing a lawyer on them, for how to get these people to fix this?
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admin Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Hi Funny – I don’t quite understand what you’re asking? Alexa is revealing your private info? I’m sure if you get them on the phone, they’ll take it down, but I’ve never had to deal with any privacy issues with Alexa. They just have a website ranking algorithm.
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Im joining the challenge. Im ranked 602,510 right now.
I had issues installing the banner from the code given. doing so wiped out 3 of my widgets… they vanished. data lost. good thing I had backups. I had to ftp the banner to my site for it to work.
lets see how this goes.
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thanks for creating this btw… very cool idea. Wish I had thought of it. :)
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I have added a custom google search to search the Yakezie member blogs. If I have missed anyone please let me know.
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Hi, This is Victoria from http://www.doawaywithdebt.co.uk – my Alexa rank is 5,764,237 do I need to do anything more than install the badge and the other requirements?
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ok, so I only just found out about this and it is only 1 month until it’s done, but I will join anyway. I have been working hard on getting a better ranking, so this is great.
I have been reading through so many of your blogs too and they are awesome. Lots of good advice and personal stories.
My blog is about my goal to become a millionaire as a sahm of 2 within 5 yrs. The ultimate goal is actually higher, but $1,000,000 seemed more achieveable and has a nice ring to it, lol.
.-= 1milchallenge´s last blog ..9 Things I’ve had to learn the hard way =-.
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Hi, I just joined the Yakezie Challenge. I have installed the toolbar and badge. My ranking is 1,031,137.
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w00t! I’m in! Talk about jumping on the bandwagon as it’s rolling away! Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, Jackie at Money Crush, and Mrs. Accountability have all been urging me to join…hope it’s not too late!
When I installed the Alexa Toolbar, FaM’s Alexa rating was a little over 235,000. Today it’s at 212,377. Can’t wait to see that number drop into the five-digits.
BTW, Sam– Alexa finally changed the data in its settings that I inadvertently published to the entire galaxy. It takes two or three days for changes to take effect.
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Financial Samurai Reply:
February 27th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Funny about Money, how are things going with ya? I’m just reviewing all the older comments, and it’s been a great and fast 8 months!
http://yakezie.com/10181/personal-finance/welcome-yakezie-beta-class
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Uh oh… P.S. I see the little link-love widget didn’t pick up the requested post.
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I just joined the challenge. I’ve been watching it for a while and it is definitely working.
I wish I would have read the comments about installing the badge and having all your text widgets disappear before I tried to install the badge. Oh well, I had been needing to update my widgets anyway. Downloading the image to my computer and hosting it on my site works.
My current Alexa ranking is 444,332. That is about 100,00 higher than it was last week. It should rank even higher now that I’ve joined the challenge.
.-= Andy Hough´s last blog ..I Joined the Yakezie Challenge =-.
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Hello! I posted a question earlier about having issues with the Yakezie badge on my site. I have tried many workarounds and such and cannot get it to work without deleting my text widgets. Mr. Samurai, can I please join even if I can’t put the badge on my page? Please? I promise to follow all the rules of the Yakezie!!
Thanks
Kris
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Well, I too am late in the game in joining the challenge today. My blog is about saving money, going green, and having fun. I really do appreciate any of your help in getting my Alexa count up as well as my subscribers. I currently even have a subscriber challenge which any of you can enter. My current Alexa count as of today is 1, 722, 015. I post the PEP (Prairie EcoThrifter Picks) every Friday which include all the great personal finance and frugal reads of the week that I have had a chance to check out. It is my way of supporting fellow bloggers. I wish you all the best of luck and thanks for letting me participate.
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I am finally joining the challenge!! At the moment my blog is at 337,894…
The toolbar has been installed and I’m placing the badge on my site right now. I’m excited to use the challenge as a new source of motivation to keep me focused…and I’m looking forward to interacting with other participating bloggers as much as possible.
Thanks Sam!
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admin Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Hey Earl – Sounds good man. Welcome to the club. We’re looking forward to your insights as a lifestyler! Make sure to contact Greg at Eliminate the Muda to join the Google Groups. Cheers, Sam
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Okay, I am in. Current Alexa rank: 126,334, added the yakezie and alexa badges, made the announcement at http://personaldividends.com/news/admin/friday-round-up-and-carnivals-june-18 and looking forward to meeting great bloggers and interacting with all of you.
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Hello,
I’ve joined the challenge with MaximizingMoney.com and am excited to participate.
My current Alexa rank is 162,558, and I’m hoping to get that into the top 100,000.
I’ve installed the Alexa toolbar and I’ve installed the Yakezie badge on my site (see right side-bar toward bottom).
I’ve also just posted about joining the challenge on my blog.
I regularly Tweet, Stumble, etc. other finance blogs and will continue to do so, plus I’d be glad to participate in any other way possible if anybody is interested, please feel to contact me through my blog.
Thank you so much and looking forward to joining the top 100,000.
Max
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I have been allowed in to the Yakezie Challenge, even though I cannot get the badge to work properly (therefore, it is not on my site).
When I started following the principles of the Yakezie on May 7th, my Alexa rank was 632,075. When I wrote the Yakezie intro post on my site today (http://everydaytipsandthoughts.com/commentary/happy-fathers-day-and-i-am-now-a-member-of-the-yakezie/), my rank was 203,076.
Thanks in advance to anyone that stops by my site. I have so enjoyed visiting other Yakezie member blogs.
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I know it’s late, but I just joined the challenge. What’s the best way to promote other blogs on my site?? My Alexa Ranking as of today June 21, 2010 is 2,378,181 so I have a LOOOONG way to go.
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I’m a new blogger that’s just getting started. My current alexa ranking is 6 million +. Am I allowed to participate too?
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So curious – where do we stand on the challenge? It’s after July 4 – are we continuing on?
If not, I appreciated the challenge, no question. :) I just wonder about our Alexa rankings at this point: if we all visited each other’s blogs with our toolbars intact, etc., that’s great, right? But isn’t it artificial rank-inflation that would necessarily end when the challenge ended? The average Joe reading our blogs probably doesn’t have the toolbar installed… right? :\
I’ll be curious to see what others of you think – this has been crazy-helpful and instructional for me, but I’m curious about the long-term benefits (if there are any) and how to keep our mojo, well… mojo’ing. :)
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admin Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Hi Sue, post coming up next week. It’s all about relationship building. Hopefully you have built some good relationships over the couse of the challenge, which should help propel you forward. Stay tuned.
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After reading the recap, I’ve decided I’d like to be involved.
My current rank is 533,108.
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We’d love to be included.
We have uploaded the badge, included a blog entry and have checked out our alexia ranking…
10,207,000 I’m afraid.
Please let me know how we can be included.
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I am one of those that started blogging a while ago, but got off track and took some time off. I am back to blogging semi-regularly and looking forward to the challenge.
Current stats show that I have a 629,450 world wide ranking and 141,435 US ranking. Will post my ‘coming out’ article this week.
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I would love to be a part of this challenge. I thought it was too late until I read the recap and see that it is just beginning!
When I first installed the toolbar (sometime last week, I think) my rank was 1,704,000 (rounding the last 3 digits). Today it is 828,363.
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Ok, I just posted my Yakezie article.
http://knsfinancial.com/joining-the-yakezie-alexa-challenge/
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Hi,
Had been hearing alot about the Yakezie Challenge, super excited to be a part of it.
Cheers,
Danny
FrugalQuack.com
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What a powerful and compelling post! You kept my attention right through to the end. You’re so right about the money. You can’t care about it. What’s really interesting is that as soon as you give up trying so hard to meet financial goals, the money starts coming in faster. What could be better than that? The more fun you have at your job, the more money you make! The hard part is surviving the first two years financially. While not signing up on the challenge, I’ll definitely be installing the toolbar and watching your progress!
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Hi,
I just wanted to give you a quick update. Last week we signed up for the Alexa challenge with a very poor 10,000,000 ranking. This week we’re at 3,595,786, a massive improvement. Thanks to everyone who has visited our site.
Aside from visiting the blogs of the people who have commented here, is there anything else we should be doing?
Thanks.
Please follow us on Twitter: SEOpod
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Missed the first round, but looking forward to joining everyone in Yakezie now in the next phase!
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