This is my second weekly goal update, and I’ve already realized it is pretty boring. I’m going to move this to a monthly post and make it much more entertaining from now on. I apologize in advance for the lameness of this post, and wouldn’t blame you if you stopped reading right now.
Alexa Ranking: Goal – 200,000 or lower; Current – 372,072; Last Week – 471,259
I set this goal at 200,000 because that’s the minimum I need to reach to complete the Yakezie Challenge. Of all the goals I’ve set, this is the one I’m most confident I’ll reach. My Alexa ranking is a three month average of web traffic at my site. I got a big boost a few weeks ago when FB at Fabulously Broke gave me a shout out. I was so happy I wrote her a song. But my traffic has shrunk since then, so I gotta figure out a way to get it back up so I hit this goal.
*Note: Alexa tracks visitors by people with the Alexa Toolbar. Your visits to my site don’t count towards my Alexa ranking unless you have the toolbar, so if you really want to help me out you can download and install it here. With that being said, I hate stupid extra toolbars and completely understand when you don’t do it.
Unique Visitors Per Day: Goal – 100 or more; Current – at least 25 every day; Last Week – at least 50 every day
So I’m hoping to get at least 100 people a day on my site, and there’s a very obvious pattern of traffic steadily dropping over the last three weeks. I think it’s because I get more traffic when I release awesome videos, which I haven’t done in a while. So, I’m going to make sure I work on more videos and try to drive that traffic back up to where it used to be.
Feedburner Subscribers: Goal – 300; Current – 51; Last Week – 58
Subscribers are my favorite people because they want to read my stuff every day and I love them more than fat kids love cake. My subscribers went down a little last week, so if you haven’t subscribed yet you should help a brotha’ out! Here is my feed.
Comments: Goal – 40 on one post; Current – 15; Last Week – 15
Very simply, I want to have one post that is so awesome that lots of people decide to comment. I love comments because it lets me know people are reading and that they find the topic interesting. If you’ve been reading but not commenting, I WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
Visits in December: Goal – 5,000; Current – 1,945 (in October)
To meet this goal, I’ll have to increase my traffic by 2.5 times, even when my traffic has been declining for the last three weeks. All I can do is keep putting out content and hope people come read.
Views for Haven’t Made a Budget: Goal – 1,500; Current – 610; Last Week – 583
You know how parents won’t pick their favorite kids? My music videos are like my kids and I don’t care, I’ll pick my favorite. (I only have two so it’s pretty easy). Haven’t Made a Budget is a really good video and I believe it can get people interested in personal finance and budgets. The video is here and if you wanted to share this with your friends, I’d be more than okay with that.
Total Upload Views: Goal – 5,000; Current – 1,273; Last Week – 1,198
I haven’t had many new upload views this week, but that’s because I haven’t put out a new video. However, I’m feeling a little creeped out, like my apartment has some “Paranormal Activity” stuff going on. I think I’m going to set up some camcorders tonight and see if I catch any ghost stuff happening. If I do find something, I’ll definitely upload it.
MoneyCrashers Rankings: Goal – Top 200; Current – 385 (out of 395); Last Week – 380 (out of 390)
These rankings are at MoneyCrashers. This sucks because I have no idea how to raise this ranking. I think I need more links and I need some of these ranking websites to find my site. If you know what I can do to have my site recognized by Technorati or SEOMoz, leave a comment below PLEASE!
Total Goals Met – 0/8
I still don’t really expect to hit any of these goals until December rolls around, but I’m gonna have to do something to get my traffic up. I’m thinking more videos. Maybe I should start vlogging? Here’s my question to you: Do you prefer reading blogs, or would you like to watch vlogs (video blogs)? I need to know because I want this website to be a place where everyone’s dreams come true.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
skip the vlogs since they are blocked at most workplaces, no streaming video or audio. Same with photos unless you upload to webserver, they are blocked too
I’ve never heard of photos being blocked at work. Interesting. It’s a good thing to keep in mind. Thanks.
No vlog. I never click through to watch them on any of the other blogs I read. Also of you want your readership to go up, then write about something other than blogging which isn’t that interesting to anyone that doesn’t blog. Why would I want to send people to a personal finance blog where many of the posts are about the blog :). I think you have the right idea – entertain and educate. If you write good stuff then those blogs that do weekly round-ups on their blogs might link to you and help increase all the blog stuff you are tracking.
Good point Cat. As I was updating my goals this weekend I realized how boring it was, which I why I’m only going to do it once a month from now on (and always on a weekend instead of a weekday). I’ll have to start hoping to be including on those roundups.
Sorry buddy, I tried 🙂
You still gave me my best traffic day by over 2x. No need to apologize. 🙂
Kevin, I love these goals. I think it’s a great idea to set goals and I think it’s awesome you’re focusing on so many different metrics instead of just one. If you ever have any questions, like with things to work on to move up the top blogs list, email me anytime!
On my Idea…Google search runs on the number of ways to pick which sites shown on first page from the results. There are a few steps to improve your placing.
Boost the wide variety of backlinks of this website using key terms as key phrases.
Many of the most common methods to build backlinks are:
Directory submissions, Forum Participation (forum signs), Commenting on blogs, Creating of social bookmarks as well as networking sites, Link Exchanges with relevant sites, Article advertising Etc…
Best Regards
Mark
Website Promotion Consultant