Alexa Rank Challenge (Week 1 Update)

Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 7:09 pm

Well it’s just over a week ago now since I set my goal of getting my Alexa rank down to 500,000 or below, and I’ve seen a big improvement in that time. Much more than I expected for the little work I’ve put into it.

If you check my last post I posted a screen shot which was taken on 17th September 2009, which was just over 1 week ago. And my Alexa rank was 908,199.

Here is my latest screen shot taken just moments ago:

Alexa Ranking - Paul-Lear.com 25th September 2009

It’s now 656,630 !!!.. I’m quite amazed at this, I really didn’t expect it to come down that fast. At this rate I should smash the 500,000 goal easy, unless it starts to slow now for some reason?

Funny thing is, I can honestly say that I haven’t really been doing anything much in the last week to try and get it down either! I have actually been feeling down all week, I suffer with recurrent mouth ulcers and I’ve had them pretty much the whole of September. It all started when I bit my lip, and it’s gone on from there and now I’m just getting rid of one on my tongue.

And don’t know if you’ve ever had a mouth ulcer, most people will have had one of these awful things at some point in their life, but they’ve got to be one of the most depressing and painful things I’ve ever had to endure. And I get these things several times a year!

Anyway enough about that!

The point is, all I have done this week is comment on a few peoples blogs, done a little networking on Facebook, and added a few people on MyBlogLog. That is all I have done in the last 7 days to try and generate traffic. So just goes to show how well these methods must work.

I’ve also managed to find some good looking tips that I plan to use, and you can too, to help us with our Alexa rankings. I will go over these tips/methods in another post on Monday. I would include it in this post but it will be better for SEO if I make a separate post with a targeted keyword phrase in the title.

So try and pop back over sometime next week, and the post should be there where I’ll share these tips with you.

Thanks for reading.

Paul.

P.S.

Remember, if you want to improve your own Alexa rank, the best thing you can do is install the Alexa Toolbar. Just visiting your own site daily with it installed, will help with your Alexa ranking.

Tagged with: Alexa Rank Tips • alexa rankings • alexa toolbar • alexa traffic rank • blog commenting • download alexa • facebook • mybloglog • Paul Lear

Filed under: Alexa Rank Tips • Traffic

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

30 Comments

Paul Wilson says:

September 25, 2009 at 7:26 pm

Hey Paul,

Nice one mate! I bet that’s all the times I have visited in the last week…LOL

No seriously, nice work!

I hope your ulcers clear up soon, I have never had them but I can imagine how painful they are!

I look forward to your post on Monday

Take care,

Paul
Paul Wilson´s last blog ..So what have I been up to lately…?

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 25, 2009 at 9:16 pm
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  Thanks for visiting so often I appreciate it mate. I’ve been visiting you daily too, you’ve probably seen from the MyBlogLog widget? I’ve noticed you on mine.
  
  Thanks about the ulcers, I didn’t want to mention them in the post really, I mean it’s not a very nice thing to talk about is it? But they have set me back a bit as I’ve not felt like doing much. So I I thought I might as well mention it, after all a few people will probably be able to relate to having them.
  
  And yes, I will be back with those tips on Monday.
  
  Thanks for commenting,
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
James Howard says:

September 25, 2009 at 11:32 pm

Hey Paul,

I was over before to check if you had any updates,looking forward to the tips on Monday. your ranking just keeps going down or up depends on how you look at it.

Since my last comment I have gone from 936,894 to 770,146 and I have been slow on the comments (again)

I think I need to get round to a few of your fellow members blogs as most are installing the Tool Bar.

Cheers,

James
James Howard´s last blog ..Making The Most Out Of Your Article Marketing Campaign To Build Your Link Popularity

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 25, 2009 at 11:55 pm
  
  Hey James,
  
  Yep my ranking just keeps getting better, as does yours, you’re very close behind me. I’ll have to see if I can manage to stay in front of you now, that can be another challenge for me. Your challenge can be to overtake me.
  
  And yes, definitely get round to a few of the AJ & DH students blogs. I’m only on the Alex Jeffreys coaching, but I plan to start visiting more of Dean Holland’s students too. Might as well, because we’re all going on the same journey, learning the same things. You can always ask them in your comment if they have the Alexa toolbar installed, that’s part of my next plan to get more people installing it.
  
  I’m really getting into this social networking, and these blogs are turning into our own little social networking hubs, I’m really enjoying it.
  
  I can’t believe you’re not even on the coaching, I was always under the impression you were. That is how good a job you have done at slotting yourself in, and aligning yourself with us. You should give yourself a big pat on the back for that mate.
  
  I refuse to believe you’re not one of the students anyway, as far as I’m concerned you’re one of us, James.
  
  Thanks for the visits you’ve giving me too, I think you’ve been by a few times this week haven’t you? I’ve been doing the same with your blog.
  
  Take care,
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
  - James Howard says:
    
    September 26, 2009 at 9:30 pm
    
    Hey Paul,
    
    Thanks for the comments that means I must be doing something right as there is a couple of others have said the same sort of thing.
    
    Since you posted that you would be going round the blogs I thought I would pay you back the same way,
    
    I pop over each day just to build your rank up,but with an 80,000 lead on me and a challenge set I might not be back for a while lol.
    
    Time to play catch up mate,
    
    James
    James Howard´s last blog ..Making The Most Out Of Your Article Marketing Campaign To Build Your Link Popularity
    
    Reply
    - Paul Lear says:
      
      September 27, 2009 at 12:33 am
      
      Hey James,
      
      Thanks for coming back, yes you’re definitely doing something right, or should I say doing several things right?
      
      The challenge is on then I see, now you have got me worried. I think I’m going to have to work hard to stay in front of you.
      
      Don’t worry though, I’ll still visit your blog as often as possible, it’s the only way to keep an eye on you.
      
      Paul.
      
      Reply
      - James Howard says:
        
        September 27, 2009 at 12:51 am
        
        Not only do you have a head start but as soon as I put that comment in I realised something.
        
        I’m away monday to friday don’t know if my wife will be allowing laptops but I won’t use that as an excuse, should be fun and also a nice goal for both of us.
        
        I’ll be back,
        
        James
        James Howard´s last blog ..Making The Most Out Of Your Article Marketing Campaign To Build Your Link Popularity
        
        Reply
Joe Fier says:

September 26, 2009 at 12:16 am

Hey Paul,

Your Alexa ranking is dropping like a rock!!

Since I read Rob Canyon’s post about working to lower you Alexa ranking, I’ve been keeping track of where I’m at…

Just 2 weeks ago I was ranked 966,792 and today I’m down to 649,598.

Now I know that the ranking is a mixture of traffic, backlinks and other stuff, but it’s hard to tell what I’ve done. I’ve been focusing more on participating in forums than anything, which adds a backlink each time, so who knows.

I’ll be checking back to see how you’re doing!

Talk soon,
Joe

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 26, 2009 at 1:15 am
  
  Hey Joe,
  
  Yours is also dropping pretty fast then too. You’re just slightly in front of me now.
  
  Well Alexa basically rank you on how many people have visited your site who have the Alexa Toolbar installed. They do take some other things into account, but they don’t disclose what those other things are, so who knows?
  
  But most likely as you say, those forum links will be playing a part in your rank dropping, because a lot of people on forums like The Warrior forum are webmasters and will have the Alexa Toolbar installed. And most likely some of your traffic will have come from there? I know I’ve had a bit of traffic from The Warrior forum.
  
  Thanks for stopping by, Joe.
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
  - Joe Fier says:
    
    September 30, 2009 at 12:31 am
    
    Hey Paul,
    
    Thanks for clarifying that Alexa algorithm (at least what we could understand of it).
    
    I have yet to see too much traffic from the WarriorForum yet, but I’m hoping for more soon! In the meantime I’ll be posting over there like crazy.
    
    As for my ranking, I’m down to 508,633 (that’s down over 100k in 3 days). I see yours went down to right around there, as well.
    
    So keep it up, Paul. We’re both doing something right!!
    
    Joe
    Joe Fier´s last blog ..Go VIRAL! Learn to Retweet Your Blog Posts
    
    Reply
Jacinta Dean says:

September 26, 2009 at 5:31 am

Hi Paul,

OK the challenge is on, I am joining in!! Even though I am a JT student.

Re Alexa Toolbar I think I have it installed, I will have to recheck. The plugin I have been checking my ranking on is from “search status” with in the firefox browser.

Re Mybloglog. I have noticed that on a few people’s blogs but have no idea about it so will look into that one.

Re Facebook. Thanks for the suggestion on my blog re the business account. I thought Facebook only wanted you to have 1 account so am a bit confused on that one. Did you have to tick anything different?

Re Alexa Ranking. In the last 3 months, my site has gone down slowly from @19,000,000 to 770,738 as of today! One massive jump! I have found the tagging, commenting on other blogs, having people commenting on mine and starting to backlink from Twitter and my personal facebook account is what has worked so far. Plus making at least one post a week.

Re Monday. I am looking forward to your suggestions!

Cheers

Jacinta

P.S I hate the mouth ulcers! I used to get really bad cold sores, they used to cover most of my chin, so can definitely relate to the depression associated. I find these things are common around the change of weather season.
Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..Creating My Business Online Daily Tasks!

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 26, 2009 at 4:02 pm
  
  Hi Jacinta,
  
  It doesn’t matter that you’re not an AJ student, this challenge is for anyone who wants to improve their Alexa rank.
  
  And just having the search status plugin is enough I think, as it sends data to Alexa.
  
  I’m getting more and more traffic from MyBlogLog every day now. It helps to join the limit of 15 communities a day, people start noticing you and some visit your blog to get their face shown.
  
  All I did with facebook was just make a second account for my IM activites, I didn’t tick anything different, no. A lot of people make a separate account for business.
  
  Thanks for sharing what has worked for you to get your Alexa rank down, and congrats on getting your rank down by such a huge amount. I bet mine must have been at that level when I first started, but I didn’t have the toolbar installed back then.
  
  I get the odd cold sore too, but I stop them before they start these days with some cold sore cream, works a treat.
  
  Thanks for stopping by,
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
  - Jacinta Dean says:
    
    September 27, 2009 at 1:50 pm
    
    Hi Paul,
    
    I have installed mybloglog as you know!
    Quick Q? The people that approach you as a contact, do you allow them to be a contact? I am a bit confused in this area purely for privacy reasons. I have my personal data set as private but am unsure on how the contact side of things works. Re the communities. Should you join as many as you can?
    
    Idea Maybe write a post about the use of Mybloglog!
    
    Will set up the other Facebook account, and let you know as soon as I do.
    
    Thanks for the input!
    
    Jacinta
    Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..Creating My Business Online Daily Tasks!
    
    Reply
    - Paul Lear says:
      
      September 27, 2009 at 4:46 pm
      
      Hi Jacinta,
      
      I think the contact thing just means they are able to send you messages, I just accept anyone who adds me as a contact. I also add a few people a day to my contacts, as I find they sometimes visit my blog when I do, you can add as many contacts as you like, I think?.. Hope that helps? I’m not 100% sure about the privacy side myself though, but I doubt they can see your email address or anything. I will try and find out more about it, and include any info I find in a post soon.
      
      With the communities, I’ve just realized you can only join 15 per day, so yes, join as many as you can each day. I’ve seen my traffic double since doing this.
      
      Thanks for the post idea, I’m already one step ahead and already have it on my “To Do” list for this week. I had the idea when I saw how much traffic I was getting from there!
      
      Paul.
      
      Reply
      - Jacinta Dean says:
        
        September 28, 2009 at 3:19 am
        
        Cool Cool Cool!
        
        See. Great minds think alike!
        
        Jacinta
        Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..Creating My Business Online Daily Tasks!
        
        Reply
        
        Paul Lear says:
        
        September 28, 2009 at 4:21 am
        
        Very true
        
        Finally installed the smilie plugin, lets test em…
Vance Sova says:

September 26, 2009 at 6:08 am

Hi Paul,

Good job on your post and Axa ranking.

I’m at 649,398 right now and have the toolbar installed almost from the beginning of my blogs existence (August 05, 2009). The reason I came to your blog is that I saw you commenting on 2 or 3 blogs of high rank that I went to comment on.

On one of them I kind of contradicted the writer and my comment didn’t get approved, yours did.

When I saw your name I vaguely remembered that I must have seen it at Alex Jeffreys Student forum.

It seems that you’re doing much more than I am now so your rankings should overtake mine.

I’d really like to know how significant Alexa ranking are. I’ve seen blogs with great Alexa ranking and no Google rank and vice versa.

I hope you feel much better now with the problem healed.

I like your blog and will likely visit once in a while.

Vance
Vance Sova´s last blog ..List Building Steps, Step 2 – Make Free Opt-in Offer

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 26, 2009 at 4:23 pm
  
  Hi Vance,
  
  I’m glad to see the comments I’m making on those higher traffic blogs are having some effect, for instance if you hadn’t of seen me on those blogs you probably wouldn’t have visited me today.
  
  Some people will value your site if it has a high Alexa ranking, and some don’t think it holds much value. If you are looking to sell advertising space on your blog then Alexa rank is what the person paying you will look at. The higher your Alexa rank, the more money you will get for selling the advertising space. But obviously it would also depend where abouts on the site the advert was displayed, for how much you would get payed.
  
  For me, I’m not really looking to sell advertising space, but I still want a good Alexa rank. Because people will be more likely to want to comment on a blog that appears to be getting a lot of traffic, and to determine that, one of the things they will look at your Alexa rank. I know I do that with some blogs I comment on, I doubt I’m the only one. I see what you’re saying about google rank, I look at that too.
  
  Google rank is not something I’ve looked at yet, and I will admit I don’t understand google page rank at the current time. But it is something I will be looking into, and trying to improve upon soon.
  
  My problem is nearly healed now, and I do feel much better, thanks.
  
  Thanks for visitng,
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
Ralph says:

September 26, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Paul–Sometimes the best advice is that simple: download the Alexa toolbar! I used to use it but for some reason uninstalled it so thanks for the tip!
Ralph
Ralph´s last blog ..Starting with Marketing Academy Week Five Review: World Wide Winners!

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 26, 2009 at 10:55 pm
  
  Hey Ralph,
  
  No problem mate, glad I could be of help.
  
  Thanks for stopping by
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
Karen Kalata says:

September 27, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Hey Paul,

First I want to say I hope you get better real soon – we need you here online and on Twitter!

My Alexa dropped down to 381,485 since the challenge. And like Joe said, I am not totally sure how it got down that far, but I recently found out that I have 632 backlinks to my blog.

Check out http://www.backlinkwatch.com if you have a free minute, it’s really cool and run your URL through it. I’m sure you must have tons of backlinks to your blog by now.

Take care,
Karen

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 27, 2009 at 5:10 pm
  
  Hi Karen,
  
  Thanks, I’m feeling much better now, I’ve just got a dodgy internet connection now, it keeps cutting out every 10 mins… urrrrgh!!!
  
  Backlink Watch doesn’t seem to be working properly for my URL, it says I only have 19 backlinks all from MyBlogLog? I know that’s not true.
  
  According to Yahoo Site Explorer, I have 1262 inbound links to my site, inbound links is just another word for backlinks. So that’s pretty impressive for just over 3 months being online.
  
  Thanks for the link though, Karen. I’ll have to try it again sometime and see if it works for my site.
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
Norene says:

September 27, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Paul,
Way to go! I have to say that Alexa rank can become addictive to check on! I started tracking my Alexa rating two weeks ago and in that time I went from more than 2.8 million to yesterday it being 846,692. Really cool! -Norene
Norene´s last blog ..Three Great Research Tools

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 27, 2009 at 6:02 pm
  
  Hi Norene,
  
  You are absolutely right, there isn’t a day goes by now when I don’t check on my Alexa rank.
  
  2.8 million to 846,692 is a great acheivement, especially in just 2 weeks!! Well done…
  
  I think it’s really good that we are all improving our Alexa ranks together. Our blogs are doing better than some other active blogs that have been around for years, and we’re getting more comments than them!
  
  Be sure to come back tomorrow, I’ll be sharing some tips I’ve found, that could help us improve our Alexa ranks even faster!
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
Syed Akram says:

September 27, 2009 at 8:38 pm

Well done Paul.

Mind not going much but at least it’s getting better from times to times for now it still around 995 hundred K rank.

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  September 27, 2009 at 9:48 pm
  
  Hi Syed,
  
  Thank you, and 995,000 isn’t bad you know, considering that rank is out of a possible 190 million websites or something like that.
  
  I’ve heard anything under 1 million and you’re doing OK, if you keep commenting on peoples blogs it will drop faster. This is because when you visit someones blog, they will usually come and visit your site. This is especially true of your fellow students, like me.
  
  I’m off to visit your blog now!
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
Doug Champigny says:

October 2, 2009 at 11:56 am

Hi, Paul!

Congrats on building your traffic so quickly, and thanks for commenting at my blog. As you know only targeted traffic is worth having, and by raising your profile commenting on related blogs you’re able to keep your additional traffic highly targeted – kudos!

In my own case, I have 7 or 8 different blogs all within the IM niche, so my traffic is spread across those and each ranks more poorly because they don’t all get updated as often as they would if every post was on the same blog.

But that’s offset by the tighter focus of each blog, since one is IM, one is affiliate marketing, a PLR blog, a traffic blog, etc. That focus gives a slightly better SEO ranking for targeted keywords for each, so it’s 6 of one, half-dozen of the other as they say.

The main thing is that you’re taking positive, concerted action to build targeted traffic, which almost always results in an increase in earnings as well. So congratulations too for taking massive action towards a set goal – something everyone talks about but so few actually do.

To your continued and increased success…

Doug.
Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Learning From Your Mistakes May Be Your Biggest Mistake

Reply
- Paul Lear says:
  
  October 2, 2009 at 7:03 pm
  
  Thanks for the great comment, Doug.
  
  Yes, targeted traffic is what matters, I’ve been doing my best to comment on as many blogs in the IM and related niches as possible.
  
  I hope to get around to them all eventually, and then keep commenting on the ones that are bringing me the most traffic.
  
  Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment, I know how valuable our time is, so I appreciate anyone who uses their time to comment on my blog.
  
  Paul.
  
  Reply
BeTaRe says:

October 23, 2009 at 4:45 am

It’s a good, reasonable goal you have for getting Alexa under 500,000. Nothing is really going to move quickly. Since Alexa is based off the 3 month average you have to keep consistent to drop quickly.

That’s a problem we’ve had with our site. We hit tremendous traffic spikes (usually by getting the scoop on new tablet info and getting picked up by the tech blog trifecta) and then hit lulls in traffic. That plays havok with Alexa. We’ll have some days where we’re under 50k. Then our one week average will begin creeping up to 200k or so.

I only state that to show I know your pain. Keep up the good work. It’s nice to see someone posting their Alexa progress. It will be a good tool for other blogs that are starting out.
BeTaRe´s last blog ..Podcast: Recap of this week’s tablet news and rumors 8/22-8/29

Reply
Unlock Wii says:

November 30, 2009 at 9:24 am

I have to say I concur with most of what is being said here. I’m gonna have to have to grab the rss so I can keep tabs. on what is going on here.

Reply