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How to Jump 90,521 Places in Alexa in 10 Days

by Maren Kate on February 17th, 2010
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Wow, so I just noticed something radical while I was contemplating my naval messing around on Alexa.com instead of getting work done. My site www.Escapingthe9to5.com (you know, the thing you are reading) has jumped 90,521 places in Alexa in 10 days AND I went from having 8 other sites linking in to having 78!!

This is a major accomplishment for me! Less than ten days ago I wrote this post tracking your blog’s success on Alexa where I bemoaned my paltry Alexa rating and swore to you all come hell or high water I would increase my traffic to this site in the next year by lots. Well, heck, I guess it’s working! Now you may be thinking Maren, I don’t care about your stupid site’s ranking, all I care about is MY stupid site’s ranking - understandable. So let me keep your interest a few moments longer, in this post I am going to tell YOU how YOU can attract LOTS of sites to link in to your site in no time fast!

Drum roll please… it is called the ‘free gift’ a concept I got from Seth Godin’s amazing book Free Prize Inside.

So about a month ago I set my goals on producing something that had lots of value and was free for anyone to see that I’d host on this blog… my thoughts were that if it was really awesome, or even just really long or something, people would put a good amount of ‘value’ on it and link back to it from their blogs. Surprisingly, I was right (that never happens trust me) and 70 people linked back from their sites after I launched Start Up School. S.U.S. is a 9 part course me and my assistant put together over a month’s time that helps anyone start up a business be it online or off.

I think this massive free offering attracted a lot of link backs (I guess it would be called link bait).

Making Link Bait

To make link bait you have to put out content that is REALLY really worth something to a few someones.

If you are a therapist doing a therapy business maybe a free eBook on how to overcome childhood issues. If you are a car mechanic, maybe a portion of your site called the “Do It Yourself Mechanic’s Guide” where you outline 25 typical car problems and how to fix them yourself. This generates great reciprocity as well as lot of link love back to your site.

Creating Value

Another thing that giving away something valuable for free on your site does is create a loyal following of readers. Because if I know a blogger I read always puts out good, valuable stuff for free I will check their site more often and probably sign up for their RSS feed. I just don’t want to miss free goodies that specifically relate to me.

Highlighting Your Achievements

This may seem self promoting and it is. But as a blogger, business person, small business owner or entrepreneur you have GOT to be self promoting. Because if you don’t self promote who the heck will? Today I was in a meeting where I quoted my prices for each service they wanted and got the dreaded “that just seems pricey” reaction. This while I sat in a multimillion dollar building they owned in expensive leather aerodynamic chairs. So instead of crumbling like I used to and saying “Well maybe I could just… uh… take it down a bit” I responded “the price may seem high but you get what you pay for with Oracle Launch and we always deliver A+ results”.

Self Promote

When I get a big check I usually put it up on my blog & explain in detail how I landed the deal, I just had a client who signed a website redesign contract for $9,999 bucks a week ago. It was an AWESOME and scary feeling, but cashing in that down payment check was worth all the pain!

I say this to say that a lot of people online are full of crap, they can be because there is no way to monitor truthfulness. Some bloggers like Glen of Viperchill.com and Pat of SmartPassiveIncome.com are not… they are heroes to me and I appreciate their candor. Be like them, not like the cheesy “I made $1,000,000 online in 5 months” people. Be sure to add value to your readers lives, add content that they can benefit off of for free and showcase how you are actually DOING all the things you preach.

Tagged as: alexa ranking, entrepreneur advice, Entrepreneurial Tips, escape the 9 to 5, escaping the 9 to 5, how to blogging, link bait

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  • nice, the hard work is always at the beginning, after reaching a wide audience it will be little easier!
  • Thanks of the article...I have been thinking about doing that same thing for a while, and have seen others have success with gifts. I guess I just will have to put my creative cap on!
  • Thanks for this mini-plan here! It really made me think about what I have to create a really high content piece that's worth linking back to. Will have to start incorporating some of your ideas in the way I develop my blog.
  • Neat Steve, what is your blog on?
  • Pretty similar to your site. Creating the life that you want. Escaping from the grind of a 9 to 5 job. With a bunch of personal development/growth articles thrown into the mix.

    I've had success in other online businesses, but this is my first real attempt at creating a blog, so I have to overcome a pretty significant learning curve. I just found your blog (and a few others), which have some great content to help me get started. Specifically, I plan on going through your Start Up School. It looks like you've got some high quality info here.
  • Archan Mehta
    Maren:

    Wow, looks like you are really making progress. I feel happy for you. Congrats.

    I like it when people share their personal stories with me just like you do.
    Yes, some people are only interested in themselves, and that's fine. Who am I to judge anyway? But for me, it's great to see people making progress.

    When people work hard, they should be able to get results and achieve their dream. For example, Rocky is one of my favorite movies because it inspired me.
    Watching Sly Stallone's character achieve his dream brought tears of joy to my eyes. So, keep on moving forward and never, ever give up. And share.


  • Thanks Archan, I love Rocky too, great analogy for anyone who needs motivation!
  • Really finding some interesting stuff on your page, and it's thanks to CommentLuv, haha.

    Great stuff here for a beginner like me. Thanks!


    Thomas @ MMA.BS
  • Thank you I know I like commentluv too!
  • matthewneedham
    Maren, I've not read Free Prize inside, but I have read a few of Seth Godin's books and a lot of what you say resonates well with me. I've just finished Ideavirus (one of Seth's other books) and it seems like you've launched your own with SUS. I'm going to check it out now,it sounds awesome.
  • Thank you matthew :) tell me how you like it?
  • Congratulations - this is a significant accomplishment considering you had a great rank to begin with! As I'm sure you've noticed it becomes much trickier to improve your Alexa rank as it continues to improve :)

    I've also read Free Prize Inside and found it to be a great book. Seth Godin has some amazing books - I haven't read one that I didn't like. One of the really cool things was that book was originally in a milk carton!

    Glad to hear you've figured out pricing - I think every entrepreneur goes through this at one time or another. I've heard of pricing referred to as the holy grail of business as it's tricky and elusive.
  • yeah... the best advice I've gotten is ALWAYS price higher than you think its worth... because something about our human anatomy we tend to associate higher prices with quality.
  • Interesting. I had read and learned about the psychology of pricing in business school, but hadn't heard about always pricing higher than you think it's worth - but it seems to make sense though. In addition to associating higher price with quality, pricing higher helps offset unknown risks that crop up during a project.

    While serving as a technical project manager we had a running joke that whenever submitting bids to management we had to multiply the original estimate by Pi (times Pi or 3.14) to account for the original budget being knocked down or reducing the risk of scope creep on our end.
  • Nice post Maureen on how you were able to have a better Alexa ranking with your blog. I think it's always a good idea to show others that your blog has good content - something that is worthwhile for others to read instead of wasting their time with something that may frustrate them. I agree that blogging isn't a get rich quick scheme and shudder at sales pages that say, "I've made $100,000 in 6 months. You can do it too with this system!" Thanks for reminding us that we need to add value to other people's lives rather than try to always take it. :)
  • Thanks Hulbert for the comment!
  • Maren, really love your energy, which is why I read just about all your stuff. Couple of points:
    1. 10k Check---Sweet action girl!! :-)
    2. Like you, my Alexa rating has been improving despite the youthful nature of my blog(well, not quite at the pace of yours though). But I have found also that there are people with 200,000 Alexa ratings that only get 20-30 visitors a day, while there are others that have a 200,000 rating with 700 visitors a day. (Both mentioned here are friends of mine)...I guess my point is, how much of a focus should Alexa be considering it's such a shaky indicator? Don't get me wrong, I check mine daily and want to go lower and lower, but why is the thing such an inaccurate reflection at times?
  • Hi Marcus - Something to keep in mind with Alexa - not all traffic is created equal. The Alexa rank consists of two parts - number of visitors and time on site. It is possible to have a better rank with much fewer visitors if those visitors stay on your site a long time and not 'bounce'. I suspect in Maren's case that her jump in rank not only had to do with more visitors, but those visitors sticking around much longer - due to compelling content.

    Alexa's not perfect, but seems to be a good predictor of popularity, especially as you increase in rank. For example, there is no doubt that Google is #1, while Facebook is #2 and so on, however things may not be as accurate in the millions. I've found other traffic ranking sites but keep coming back to it due to simplicity.

    I hope this helps.
  • Yeah John, that was really helpful...much appreciated! :-)
  • Wow! Thanks John, i didn't know this stuff AT all :) I was wondering though... thanks so much for the info!
  • Maren & Marcus - You're welcome; happy to be of assistance! Feel free to contact me if you need additional information.
  • James Ward
    Great info! I will have to check out Alexa.com. Thanks once again for all the great info! Your site really rocks! I have learned alot from the short time I have been reading.
  • Thanks James that is really encouraging :)
  • Great stuff Maren,

    You really are on your way up, which is great to see. Interesting how have your enquiries, sales and comments reacted? I presume all this has gone up too?
  • Yep for sure, though I get my business in a combo on/offline model of networking
  • Making Link Bait is the way to go. Absolutely amazing post and useful. I have been busy but its about time I implement this. Besides, it always good to learn from the actual result, thanks Maren
  • I know I was SOO surprised that in 10 days that many sites linked back! It was super encouraging and in the future will tempt me to make even bigger give away's to attract more links and more eyeballs. Let me know how your link bait goes!
  • Congratulations on your $9,999 deal! I'm totally excited for you. It's great to see another blogger succeeding, just motivating to myself in a way.

    You SUS is definitely a good course, and I'm thinking to do one for my own blog as well. Copyblogger also has a great course on authority blogging and I totally dig it.

    Keep up the awesome work!
  • Gotta check out copyblogger's course, is it free? If so I should take some tips from that as well!
  • Yeah it's totally free (no email needed). You can read it online or download the pdf file. Here's the link: http://authorityrules.com/
  • Ok, you are my new internet hero.

    Nice! $9,999 DOWN payment.
  • Lol, better than the money is that my goal for over 6 months has been like a mantra I say all the time, "10k a month, 10k a month" so this month I'll actually make it! Yay :)
  • Yst
    You're so funny...... :-p
  • ha thank you, as long as you don't mean "funny... looking" because then i'll be sad!
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