Archive for May, 2008

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My New Alexa Ranking Is Getting Me More Traffic

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Free Traffic From Alexa Rank Page

I noticed of recent my new alexa ranking is getting me more traffic. As Nigerian webmasters visit the Alexa website, they get curious about my  postion as one of the top 100 most visited websites in Nigeria.  That curiousity makes them click-through to my site.

I know that a lot of debate has been on to determine the reliability of the Alexa Rank System in rating the popularity or worth of a website. I am not one to join in the arguments because the factors being examined are too technical for me and I do not have the patience to learn the details.

However, I have observed that as my Alexa Rank improves more and more Nigerian webmasters are visiting me right from the Alexa website. The number of visitors referred by www.alexa.com has suddenly become significant in the past three day. That got me curious and I decided to read more about the Alexa Ranking and its usefulness. I have learnt some useful tips since then.

Also, I decided to investigate the source of the recent increase in referral traffic I have been getting from the Alexa website. This is what I discovered. My blog is currently rated as number 99 among the first 100 website in Nigeria (that is quite significant to a newbie like me, my global rank is 53,106). When fellow Nigerian who are webmasters visit the Alexa site to check their statistics and they find the name NaijaEcash, they get curious and click thru to my site to see who is this new guy. So I end up having another visitor (thumbs up for Alexa for the free publicity).

Some Nigerian webmasters have gone ahead to mention me in their post just because of my Alexa statistics. The most interesting one is the post by Phil, she really flattered me as she named me a new WHIZ-KID (my daughter must hear this) among the SHAKERS and MOVERS in Nigeria (boy, I could get arrested for that title 😉 ). She even listed my site before the NewNigerian forum (a forum where you can meet Nigerian internet veterans). Nairaland has been there a long time. Nairaland is the most popular Nigerian Forum, it is where Nigerians and lovers of Nigerian meet to discuss issues about Naija (Nigeria). I am happy that I am named alongside those website.

So, my conclusion is, Alexa has contributed positively to the progress of my blog. Since the gurus are yet to provide a better alternative for those of us that are not technically oriented, I will continue to say ALEXA rocks. Call me whatever name you like, I am enjoying the fame and I will do whatever is legitimate to even push my rank higher. I will love to be close to Nairaland which is ranked number 13 among the first 100 websites from Nigeria. The site deserves the new rank because of the number of visitors it receives daily.

If you are desirous of improving your Alexa Rank, I have some tips which will be of help to you, 5 Tips for Improving your Alexa Ranking without cheating. They are simple enough, but they work (and they are accepted practices). Cheers.

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Posted in Blogging, Tips & Tricks | 21 Comments »

A Lesson On Patience

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

I got this story in my inbox, a real life lesson on the need for patience! Enjoy.

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car.
Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat Disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound BIBLE, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a BIBLE?”, and stormed out of the house, leaving the BIBLE.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a Telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the still new BIBLE, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the BIBLE and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse,
As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the BIBLE. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words…PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? I trust you enjoyed this. Pass it on to others. Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for…

If your gift is not packed the way you want it, it’s because it is better packed that way!

Always appreciate little things; they usually lead you to attachments!

LET THIS GREAT LESSON FLOW

God Bless You as you obey Him and wait

Cheers Power

There you have it. Patience is a virtue you cannot do without. If you are always in haste, you will miss out of the beautiful things in life. Do not jump to conclusion, do not judge the content based on the appearance of the container, a piece of diamond can be wrapped in a worthless napkin. Be patient! Cheers.

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Posted in Ramblings | 7 Comments »

Ask And You Shall Receive (Networking Online)

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Yesterday, I posted an article Self-Promoting Your Blog For Traffic. In the post, I mentioned in passing that I want to have new friends. In less than six hours after publishing the post I got a comment from Carl the webmaster at Carl Discovers The World. He gave a generous offer that I could not resist. He offered to be my friend and render whatever assistance I may need with my blogging activities. That was more than I was expecting (remember I am a Nigerian 😉 ).

I must confess to you that I forgot my manners due to over-excitement, so I went right ahead to ask if he was willing to help me out with CSS and CGI script! He answered in the affirmative and that was it 😉 (maybe I was just trying to unconsciously check if the offer was genuine). It is unusual and very wrong to start asking for favour right at the beginning of a new relationship. You should be willing to give without any string attached. That is what builds credibility. Well the blunder has already been committed. Worse still I have not put the request together to send to him. However, the good news is that he is waiting for me to get my acts together and send the problematic scripts to him (that is so encouraging) ;-).

Well after getting over the excitement, I visited his site yesterday. It is quite a lovely blog with great contents that I can learn a lot from (as a non-tech). I also visited again today (remember you must visit your friends, that is how relationships are built, stop Bootlicking) and I saw the Entrecard Contest he has put up. He is giving 3,500 Entrecard Credits away by 20th May, 2008. The first person will get 2,000EC, the second will get 1,000EC while the third will get 500EC. That to me is a good offer and I am game. I encourage you to participate, just click the link Entrecard Contest and it will take you there.

I have another offer for a free Blog review by a fellow Nigerian, Solomon the webmaster of Nigerian Curiousity. He is an older blogger with more experience. He read my post The Nigerian Entrepreneur Second Month Progress Report where I mentioned in passing that I want to have a blog review. He dropped an encouraging comment and offered to do a free review of my blog if I will be willing to reciprocate. To me that is not trade by barter. His blog is older than mine. He has more traffic and is actually a Google PR3 ranked website. So, the offer is tilted in my favour. Am I going to take up the offer? Of course yes. I will do a review of his blog. I have been a reader of his blog long before I started this blog. So it is a pleasure all through.

Okay, enough of my stories. The point has been made. If you are in need of HELP just go ahead and ask. If you are in need of FRIENDS, just shout it out, someone may hear and respond. I love blogging, I love the online community and I remain proudly Nigerian 😉 If you want to be my friend, let me know, I will hop down to visit you whenever I am online. Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

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Posted in Blogging, Ramblings, Tips & Tricks | 10 Comments »

Self-Promoting Your Blog for Traffic

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

There are over 50millions blogs out there, and more are being created as I write this post. Yet each blogger wants to be known. Everyone wants Traffic! That according to Rich Schefren is “endless demand for attention…” Everyone wants attention! Since 24hours/day cannot be extended, internet users are learning to be on guard, they have all manner of automatic filters programmed into their brain to filter out unwanted websites. They unconsciously rank older websites with high level of patronage as being more trustworthy while new websites are treated as suspects.

That is quite a big hurdle for every new blogger. How can people establish trust in me when I am not even given an opportunity to show that I am trustworthy? (I should be given a fair hearing first before judgment is passed 🙁 ). Unfortunately, that will not happen! The verdict has already been passed, “New websites and are not to be trusted until they prove they are trustworthy.” The verdict was passed before I have an opportunity to present my case!

That is the reason some blogs have thousands of visitors per day (great website traffic 😉 ), while some newbie bloggers can scarcely boast of 10visitors in a week(poor website traffic 🙁 ). As a newbie, this can be demoralizing. After investing so much energy and resource into a blog (setting up a beautiful layout, providing quality content), it is depressing to notice that nobody is coming around to visit. So what can you do?

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Posted in Blogging, Nigerian, Tips & Tricks | 16 Comments »

NaijaEcash – The Nigerian Entrepreneur Second Month Progress Report

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

This blog is two months old today. I started the blog on March 6th this year. My goal for starting the blog was stated clearly in my post The Nigerian Entreprenuer Seeking to Make Money Online.

My first month progress report can be found at NaijaEcash – First Month Progress Report
It is time again to take record and evaluate my performance so far.

My blog statistics for the first month showed the following:

  • Numbers of Visitors – 1,445 (Page Views 2,520)
  • Number of Posts – 14 (Comments – 43)
  • RSS Feed Subscriptions – 11
  • Alexa Rank – 437,823
  • Compete Rank – 826,662
  • Technorati – Rank 874,116, Authority 9
  • Google PR – n/a

The second month statistics is better 😉

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Posted in Blogging, Nigerian, Ramblings | 15 Comments »

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