Does a High Alexa Ranking Mean Success for Webmasters?
June 24, 2007
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To measure their success webmasters often rely on their Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, when comparing yourself with the competition, Alexa is not the greatest guide to success.
For those of you who are not familiar with Alexa, it is owned by Amazon, and ranks each website, according to the amount of traffic visiting that particular site. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well it would be, but the problem is, it only measures the traffic that has the Alexa toolbar installed on their browser, and usually, it is only webmasters that have the toolbar installed.
I was curious when one of my low traffic sites had a much higher ranking than one of my higher traffic sites, so I decided to remove the Alexa toolbar. Although the traffic to my sites remained stable, it didn’t take long for my Alexa rankings to tumble. Not surprisingly, when I reinstalled the toolbar, my Alexa ranking soared. So, it is pretty obvious that by just visiting your own website on a regular basis, you can increase your Alexa ranking. In fact, if you got a few of your friends to visit your site on a regular basis, your Alexa ranking would probably rocket.
Why on earth do webmasters rely on this useless tool so much, when it does not give an accurate guide to the success of their website at all? Well, some webmasters sell ebooks and information products on internet success. Telling consumers to install the Alexa toolbar works wonders for them. These newbie webmasters see their Alexa ranking rise rapidly, and believe that the information product they bought has helped them increase traffic to their website.
Others who achieve success through their Alexa ranking are those who are selling their websites, and those who are selling advertising space on them. A high Alexa ranking will ensure a higher price for both.
Unfortunately, the voice of those who promote Alexa ranking as an indicator of website success is louder than the voice of those who don’t.
My advice is this: if you must use an Alexa toolbar, because you can’t resist frequently checking your rankings, compared to your competition, take the results with a pinch of salt. In order to be successful, anyone who has a website needs to see what traffic they are getting to their site, and where it’s coming from, so that they know what marketing efforts have been successful and which ones have bombed. You can use Google Analytics, or SEO Elite to do this. SEO Elite is far much more than just a means to measure traffic to your website. Webmasters can achieve genuine success by using this search engine optimisation tool which will help them to get on the front page of Google for their chosen keywords.
Is Rosalind Gardner Really a Super Affiliate?
June 21, 2007
Rosalind Gardner has made a fortune online, as an affiliate marketer (she sells other people’s stuff). She is also the author of the popular ebook: : The Super Affiliate Handbook
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to get started with an Internet business, because you don’t have to buy stock, or ship orders - you simply making money by recommending other people’s products on your website. But, can you really make money from Affliate Marketing, and is Rosalind Gardner the Super Affiliate she claims to be?
Rosalind was making over $450,000 a year just from selling other people’s stuff when she first brought out her ebook. And a few years later, she says she is making far more.
Now, there’s a few people out there who sell ebooks promising to help you make a fortune in affiliate marketing. But here’s why I believe you’ll have far more success with Rosalind’s Super Affiliate Handbook.
She doesn’t promise it’s going to be easy. There’s a heap of Internet marketers out there promising to make you rich overnight, and Rosalind isn’t one of them. She’ll be the first to tell you that becoming a successful affiliate marketer doesn’t happen overnight, and you will have to work hard.
She shows you how she did it. Unlike some of the hucksters out there who are happy to show you fake earnings reports, to prove that their ebook is “worth it”, Rosalind can actually show you some of her successful sites. Rosalind has only a few websites and you only need to take a glance at her dating site: http://www.sage-hearts.com/ and her brilliant travel blog: http://www.roamsters.com to see that she’s a truly professional affiliate marketer.
One of the great things about Rosalind is that she reaches far beyond her ebook to help affiliate marketers who are just starting out. Recently, a post she wrote in her forum inspired me to tackle a business problem that I’d been putting off for ages.
For these reasons, and many more, I would recommend Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook before any other ebook, to anyone who is thinking about starting an Affiliate Marketing Business.
Finding a Gap on the Internet
June 19, 2007
Thinking of starting an Internet based business, but haven’t got a clue where to begin? Don’t be tempted to jump in with the first idea that comes along. Every week, hundreds of people are launching new websites. Sadly, many don’t even bother to check whether there is an actual demand for what they’re offering.
Your business should provide a solution to people’s problems. But, how do you go about finding what people are looking for on the Internet?
First, try browsing forums. What are your hobbies or interests? Browse forums on those subjects, and observe what sorts of questions people are asking. and what you could do to find solutions to their problems.
Next, armed with your basic topic and some ideas, use Wordtracker to find out what related phrases people are typing into the search engines.
Business Turnaround
June 15, 2007
My top small business website of the week goes to Business Turnaround.  We all want to get repeat business and heaps of referalls, and this blog provides some invaluable information on providing customer service that delights. Today’s post gives some brilliant ideas on how ordinary businesses can go the extra mile to encourage word of mouth marketing.
Going the extra mile is vital to any business. Many small business owners are under the illusion that just doing a good job will be enough to encourage zillions of word of mouth referals. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Customers like to talk, and they love to talk about interesting things. If you own a garage, a customer may mention to a friend who is looking for a reliable mechanic, that you did a good job when you repaired her car. However, if you also valeted the car for free, she is more likely to say to her friends and family, “Guess what, ABC repairs fixed my car today, and when I collected it they’d valeted for free.”
For more ideas on things you can do to encourage your customers to rave about you to your family and friends, be sure to check out Business Turnaround.
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