Blogging Update with Revised Goals
April 22, 2010 by Mrs. Frugal
When I launched this blog a little over 3 months ago I had no idea how to run a blog or measure it’s success. I just had a story and a new frugal lifestyle that I wanted to share with others. Three months later it’s safe to say that I still don’t know that much about running a blog, but I am learning.
I would say one of the smartest things I’ve done with regard to this blog is to sign up for the Yakezie Challenge, an effort lead by Sam of Financial Samurai to help lesser known Personal Finance blogs, like Cool to be Frugal, increase their Alexa rankings. Alexa is a website ranking and information company. Their rankings are used by Wisebread.com to determine their Wisebread 100+, one of the definitive lists of top Personal Finance blogs.
When I joined the Yakezie Challenge on March 10, 2010:
- My Alexa ranking was 3,989,292
- I was not listed on the Wisebread 100+
- I only received a handful of visitors each day
- My Google page rank was 0
One month and 11 days later (April 21, 2010):
- My Alexa ranking is 231,061 – I’ve moved up 3,758,231 places in a little over a month!
- I am # 148 on the Wisebread 100+
- As of this week I am averaging around 100 visitors a day
- My Google page rank is 1
- Cool to be Frugal is ranked #30 in Technorati’s Top 100 Finance Blogs
I know without a doubt that without the support of my fellow Yakezie members my stats would be closer to the March 10th numbers than where I stand today. It demonstrates the value of a support network to push you further towards achieving your goals.
Speaking of goals, I had set the following at the beginning of the year:
- Post daily (except weekends)
- Develop readership of 1,000 subscribers and 10K visits per month (note: I have no idea if this goal is realistic. It may be shooting too high or too low, but I wanted to give myself some sort of target to push me forward.)
- Generate additional income from the Personal Finance Blog to put towards paying down debt and savings
When I set those goals I knew nothing about Alexa and didn’t even know about Google page ranking. Now that I have a little more knowledge, I think it’s time to reset my goals based on what I think it a more accurate measure of success for Cool to be Frugal.
- Post 4-5 times a week
- Break 100K in Alexa by the end of the year – I will need to move an average of 520 places a day to achieve this.
- Average 10K visitors per month – I think this is achievable but requires that I more than triple my readership.
- Increase my Google page rank to 3
I think by focusing on these revised goals I’m laying the foundation to achieve the next goal of building a consistent revenue stream.
I enjoy writing this blog more than I could have imagined and I’m grateful to each of you that visit. You keep me motivated and inspired to look at creative ways to approach our finances on our journey to financial independence. I hope you’ll stick around!
Yakezie Posts
- Monday Mixtape 9-6-10 By zachyounkin
- Ant Wars: The Battle of the Front Stoop By funny
- Buy Back My Clothes Experiment & Giveaway By WellHeeled
- Webster Bank Checking up to $100 Banking Bonus By MaximizingMoney.com
- How To Thoroughly Backup Your Wordpress Blog By Mrs. Accountability
Great progress! Careful not to burn out, as this is one long race. It’s OK if you don’t post 4-5X a week if you feel it gets to much.
Best of luck to you and hope to see you around more often.
Rgds, Sam
Thanks Sam. I am still trying to find my groove as far as how often I post. It helps not to feel pressured to post every day.
Looking forward to the next phases of the Yakezie Challenge!
Mrs. Frugal, YAkezie.com will launch August 16th, and we’re looking forward to your contribution in a member post to tell us more about yourself. We’ll take it slow for the first two months to build our bond and get to know each other even better!
Financial Samurai´s last blog ..The Four Different Ways To Spend Money By Milton Friedman
Piece of advice: make a list 50 topics to discuss. Learn how to use Reddit and StumbleUpon, too. And keep those awesome goals up!
Thanks Christine, I’ll definitely do that!
I still consider myself noob too, although this will be my 6th month. I’ve learned a lot, but I’m sooo behind in other things!
For instance, I can’t seem to get Technorati to include my site in the finance group for some reason… I’m not sure what I did wrong, but it bites!
You are going great, and your content rocks, keep up the great work!!!
Thanks MR! I appreciate it.
As far as Technorati, I wish I could offer some advice but I have no idea what I’ve done to get listed and to achieve my ranking.
Awesome goals and even better progress! Celebrating your success with you!!
Thanks Jason!
Great job! Keep up the good work! I’m right behind you on the Wisebread 100!
Just keep plugging along and we’ll both reach the top.
No doubt we’ll get there together!
Go Yakezie!
What great job… how inspirational.
Thanks Roshawn!
Way to go — glad you enjoy being in the blogging world!
Thanks Nicole!
This is outstanding progress… My blog has benefited hugely from Yakezie too. My visits have always been high but Alexa was very poor and the community was not there… Now it’s coming together.
Thanks Forest. You’re very close to breaking into the top 100. That is awesome!
Yeah I am teetering on the edge…. hoping in a week or so I break it
Wow nice update and goals. I love posts like this. Also congrats on your success, you have really been flying!
Thanks MFO!
Hey Mrs. Frugal,
I’m so inspired by this post. Our Yakezie post is going up tomorrow or Thursday, as we have a couple others already scheduled. What inspires me the most is how quickly you were able to crack the top 150 in Wisebread’s list. We’ve been live for about a year now and there’s obviously a few things we could improve on to do better. One, which I see you’re doing, is building more personal relationships with other personal finance enthusiasts and bloggers with a common goal.
So, I just wanted to say hello, great work, and thanks for the inspiration.
Cheers,
Guy
P.S. definitely let me know if you’d be willing to help us out or give us a few pointers. Talk to you soon.
Thanks Guy and welcome! The best advice I can give you is to fully participate in the Yakezie group. This is a group of stellar bloggers that are very generous in helping little guys like me. A couple things:
1. Get on all the Yakezie lists including the one hosted by Credit Card Chaser (you can find them in the google group)
2. Actively support your fellow bloggers by commenting, tweeting, promoting, linking, etc.
3. Sign up to host a Yakezie carnival.
4. Take up fellow members on their offers. Example: Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme hosts a daily short carnival. Submit your posts.
Participate and support others and you’ll see the results. Hope this helps but feel free to email me as well.
Thanks for your advice- I’m part of the Yakezie challenge but I cannot find how to get on Credit Card Chasers list. I couldn’t find it in the google groups, any suggestions?
This helps me understand where I can be too, since I was at 3 million a few weeks ago and so far am at 471,000. I always get excited to see it go down every day!
Hi Jaime and welcome!
Go to the Discussion Page and look for the thread “The Yakezie – Re: NEW: Page w/ Most Recent Post, Twitter Handle, Rankings for ALL Yakezie Members”. I just bumped it up so it should be near the top now. Just give Joel the info he requests and he will add you.
Thanks so much! I appreciate it.
I also maintain several blogs to earn money online. sometimes it is hard to keep your daily earnings to stable levels…*’