How I Got Alexa Under 100K In Less Than 4 Months
I know that a lot of people do not think much of Alexa however I have grown quite attached to the Alexa Toolbar and the little graph it produces. I have grown a little attached to the numbers as well, watching them come down. Those numbers came down pretty quickly to start with but just lately they have been only little drops, the last being only a drop of around 5000, but a drop is a drop.
As I write this my Alexa rate is just over 90k, 90661 to be exact. Four months ago it was around two million so the drop has been fairly rapid. The question I get asked occasionally is how have I managed to get it so low so quickly. The truth is, I really don’t know. However I will reveal what I have been doing and perhaps it will help to shed some light on it.
There are many articles around that describe how to get your Alexa rank down. I saw one that suggested you advertise your blog for sale. Another method is to use a redirect through Alexa for your links. I am not sure how that works but it is meant to add visitors who do not have the toolbar installed. If there is a problem with using Alexa as a measuring tool it is the non inclusion of visitors who don’t have the toolbar.
For those who are unaware, Alexa tracks visitors to sites, all sites whether they be blogs, website, forums or any other web entity. The tracking is done through a toolbar installed into browsers. As mentioned, this distorts the results as it doesn’t measure visitors who do not have that toolbar. Certain types of web entities, like blogs, attract visitors who are more likely to have the toolbar installed. Casual internet users are less likely to use the toolbar.
The general consensus seems to be that users who have a strong Digg leaning don’t tend to have the toolbar while those who prefer StumbleUpon will most likely use it. In a way, I guess that answers my posts title question. The traffic I get tends to come from Stumblers and from social sites like BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. The real surprise to me is the traffic I am starting to get from BlogRush.
BlogRush has been maligned a lot in the past and I was one of them. However the new BlogRush seems to be starting to deliver traffic. Not in huge numbers, but I am now getting between 10 and 50 visitors per day depending on which post appeared on the widget. If BlogRush could make one change, it would be to allow me to select which posts were allowed to appear in the widget.
So how did I get under 100K? First, I have cheated just a little. I have written some fairly good post titles - for example, ‘How I Quadrupled My Blog Income‘ (16 comments) which have helped to drive extra traffic. I have also been blogging to a campaign - the Anti Whaling Campaign (90 comments and still growing) which again has helped drive traffic. I also ran my 10,000 Entre Card credits contest (25 comments) along with a couple of lists which were popular; 140 Adsense alternatives and 100+ Bookmarking Sites (15 comments each).
Those posts all did reasonably well in the stumble game - none have done much good with Digg. Given that Stumblers are more likely to use the Alexa toolbar, it seems that is way you want it. Just to finish off with StumbleUpon, as I mentioned I have ‘cheated’ just a little in that I have ‘bought’ traffic from SU. You can buy 100 stumble visitors from StumbleUpon for the princely sum of $5. I find these are ideal ways to give my traffic figures a good boost. Whilst you may be paying for the 100 visitors, it only takes a few to give the post a thumbs up and the number grows just like any normal stumble. I don’t see how buying traffic in this manner is any different to buying traffic through Google or any other advertising.
The other traffic generator has been Entre Card although whilst it started with a bang it has dropped off considerably. Over a period of a month I probably received 1000 visitors just from Entre Card. This last month has only seen about 500 visitors. Again, Entre Card users are more likely to have the Alexa toolbar.
My biggest traffic generator on a regular basis where the blog reviews that I undertook last year. These provided a very steady flow of visitors (the reviews will most like be back again soon). I ran out of steam at the end of 2007 when it came to these reviews and I noticed a significant drop in traffic once the reviews stopped. The traffic has picked up due other activity but it has not been as steady. (If the reviews where helpful, let me know).
Conclusion. To get your Alexa down to need to attract traffic. How you do that is up to you. You can buy it, you can attract it or you can bribe it - just be sure it is the type of traffic that will be using the Alexa toolbar.
Is it important? In a single word - No! It is however a nice boost to the ego to see your rank come down to this level. I look at other factors. I am in Australia, and, whilst it is again not complete list of Australian blogs, I am now ranked in the top 30 here. With Problogger in number 1 and Skellie at number 7, I am quite happy to be ranked number 26.
They are all numbers, a bit like PR which I have seen here at 4 before dropping to zero (paid reviews - slap my wrists Mr Google - ooh - do it again). Are they a reliable measure of your popularity? I think not. The most reliable measure of your popularity is through the number of RSS subscribers you have and the number of regular comments you receive. I know I have a regular group of readers (and I do thank them for their visits and comments). Whilst they are just numbers - they can be good for the ego. Every blogger has their own opinion as to what is important - and that is the joy of blogging - viva la difference.
How do you gauge the success of your blog? Do you bother to measure it at all?
March 14th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Great advice thanks.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Greetings:
Thanks for this insightful information.
My Alexa ranking 5 months ago started off, if I remember correctly, at just over 4.7 million. A few weeks ago I noticed that it was just under 1 million(955,689). Was this ever a boost to my moral. Then just yesterday I noticed the ranking shot up passed 1 million to 1,156,318. What happened there?, I said to myself.
Any ideas? Also, just yesterday, I learned that if a reader of your Blog doesn’t have the toolbar installed, this information will not register with Alexa. So the more people that have the toolbar the better. I think the key here is to promote the use of the Alexa toolbar and inform your readers of the advantages of having it installed on their desktop, such as making your Blog attractive to potential advertisers because it is your Alexa ranking they look at to decide whether to advertise on your Blog or not.
Once again, thanks for the information.
Prosperous Regards
Robert Drysdale
P.S. Have a Fosters for me downunder.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:31 am
How do I gauge it? I guess I don’t, even though I know if I paid attention to the marketing of my site, I am sure it would rank higher.
A pretty high percentage of my non-stumbleupon visitors go to more than one page. I feel that is some measure of success. A huge percentage of my 5,000+ visitors each month come from search engines so they read what they were searching for and then leave to go on to the next result. Occasionally a post will get stumbled a few times and that can bring a spike in traffic. But I find most of the stumblers view only one page and don’t comment.
I am not a fan of toolbars because of the screen space they take up. I prefer single buttons that can all be put on one toolbar. Also since Alexa only counts people with the toolbar installed and I would guess 99% of internet users don’t have it installed, I question the value of a good Alexa rank. But what do I know about it? LOL!
As I type this and think about your question I come to realize there are at least 3 or 4 types of visitors that stand out to me:
1. My core group of about 40 faithful readers, a few of whom comment regularly.
2. The 29 RSS subscribers. Seems like a pathetically low number, but think about the vote of appreciation they have given me by subscribing when they have millions of other RSS feeds to choose from.
3. Any first time visitor who leaves a comment.
4. The reader who leaves a comment but no link to a website of their own. This is a reader who is on the internet solely to look for information that interests them. When they take the time to comment for no reason other than the subject matter having caught their attention, I am flattered.
-Will
March 15th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Nice job! I got hit mine last week and its now 89k
March 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am
You hit the nail on the head with the title!! People judge a blog by its cover, I mean title, so give it a good one and they will come.