I moved my blog hosting from New Zealand to the USA because it makes sense to host my blogs in the USA as I’m keen to connect with readers in North America.
According to Google Analytics I’m on target with that because 50% of my readers are in North America (hooray!) so hopefully hosting it there will help make the site download even faster for them. Not that I’ve had any complaints about slow download times, but it’s something I want to make sure is as fast as possible.
I’ll use my other blog Get In the Hot Spot as a case study here. It has readers in an amazing 162 countries and after the USA and Canada my readers are concentrated mainly in Australia, the UK and New Zealand which is brilliant. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that I’ve lived in all these places (I’ve lived in then USA too – Connecticut and Georgia) or just the natural order of things because my blog’s in english and these are all english-speaking countries.
I’m also hoping hosting my blog in the USA might also help my Google search engine ranking and my Alexa ranking.
Alexa Who?
I registered my blog with Alexa about 6 months ago because I heard advertisers use the Alexa ranking as an indication of how well read a blog is. I don’t have any ads on my blog now but I might go down that track in the future so I thought I’d sign up with Alexa. It’s an interesting experiment and my Alexa ranking has increased since I registered my blog with them.
In case you don’t know, Alexa ranking is in numerical order so the site with a global Alexa ranking of 1 should be the most visited site in the world, and a site with an Alexa ranking of 4 for the USA should be the 4th most popular website in the USA. According to Alex the top three sites globally today are Google, Facebook and YouTube in t that order.
While my humble blog hasn’t reached those lofty heights it is rising throught the Alexa ranks as you can see from these statistics:
7 April 2010
Global: 167,917
United States: 59,382
Australia: 4,741
9 July 2010
Global: 80,945
United States: 45,042
Australia: 4,331
It’s interesting to chart this progress but the other thing I love about Alexa is that I can install their tool bar at the bottom of my browser (I use Firefox) and quickly get a good indication of how popular a blog or website is. This is useful when I’m working out blogs to guest post on. The Alexa traffic stats and page views gives me a good indication of how well visited a blog is compared to my own.
If you go to the Alexa site you can either download the tool bar for quick reference whenever you come to a new site or use the site info area to put in a website address and see how it fares. Not all sites have information for them which could be because they haven’t been registered with Alexa, but always makes me think they must be quite sparsely visited and not much use for guest posting purposes where high traffic blogs are better.
I Love Women
Not in the biblical sense but I think it’s time to confess I do aim to have a strong female readership here which is what I want. Of course, all you lovely males are more than welcome to join us ladies, but I’d like Get In the Hot Spot to be a place where women have a strong voice and presence and it looks as if I’m succeeding with this goal. There are still many more men in business and blogging than women, and I’d like to think my tips here will help balance out those numbers.
According to MailChimp who I use for my email newsletter, and judging purely on a first name basis, 54% of the last 85 people to subscribe to this blog by email were female – hello Traci, Shanna, Layla, Bev, Tammy and co, it’s great to have you on the team.
Alexa also has an “audience snapshot” which give you some idea of who’s reading your blog. For example, Alexa tells me:
“based on internet averages, successfulblogging.com is visited more frequently by females who are in the age range 18-24, have no children and browse this site from home.”
I’m not sure how accurate this information is but it’s interesting to read things like:
“Relative to the general internet population, people who went to graduate school are over-represented at successfulblogging.com.”
As they say, it is only a snapshot but, based on my interpretation, what Alexa is saying is that Get In the Hot Spot readers seem to be a smart group of women and men who read this blog at home and are aged 55 and under, and that sounds sensational to me. You’re all very welcome here no matter what age, gender, shape or color you are.
Thank You For Reading
If you’re new here make yourself at home and check out some more articles. I hope you like what you see and will take a moment to subscribe to Get In the Hot Spot. It’s a brilliant way to stay motivated and inspired plus it’s totally free. Subscribe now by email or to choose the RSS Feed for updates in your feed reader.
If you like my blog don’t forget to spread the word by emailing, Tweeting or liking or sharing it on Facebook because that helps me connect with new readers and stay motivated to keep writing. You can use the little buttons below to make it easier for you. Thank you, my readership is growing thanks to you and I really appreciate your help.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Annabel,
I guess your reader stats put me in the minority. That’s ok, because I still like what you have to say, and I can blend in… I like some chick flicks too!
I recently submitted to Alexa as well. Never really thought about it before I guess, but I’ve noticed a rise in page rank over the past couple of weeks and it is kind of cool to see that happen. Cheers!
Hi Joshua, Sean and Baker, it is good to chart progress with Alexa although the number of incoming links they list to my blog is completely wrong! It’s been stuck on 100 for ever.
Glad to have you here lads. I think it’s good to have a focus audience but also a broad range of readers. Diversity is desirable and I love minorities.
I have got a lot of young male connections on the Internet which worried me – not really into the cougar thing! But I saw a webinar with Penelope Trunk and she said career women should hang out with young males as they are hungry for success so you can help each other get to the top. Makes sense to me so you are all definitely more than welcome here:)
Josh,
I guess I’m in the minority with you as well.
Annabel,
I have known about Alexa rankings for quite some time now. Don’t know why I never thought to register with them. Thanks for the updates.
Sean
Hey Annabel,
I guess I am the second reader in the minority. hehe. But, that is wonderful that you have a good ranking with Alexa. I haven’t really looked into Alexa yet, but will do soon. Awesome blog and I’m glad the transition went very smoothly for you!
Warm Regards
Hey Annabel, I love women too! (and not in the biblical sense) although my daughter did recently tell me (and 17 year olds are in the know) that if your Facebook page says you’re “interested” in women that only means one thing. The biblical thing. Anyway, who knew? Regardless, I love your site. I haven’t been able to log on for a while, very slow load up for me, today, so I’m not sure why. I don’t know if I’m the only one. Hopefully, you’ll get some feedback. Love your vibe and congrats on all your success with guest posts. I’m going to check out Alexa.
Hi Katie, that’s funny about Facebook! I’ll have to check my interests there:) Oh dear, we do have to be careful online as it’s so easy for people to misinterpret but I’ve decided being careful is so boring and some people will always read things wrongly or not read them properly and get the wrong end of the stick so I have to stop worrying about that. I am a bit irreverent but this has to be fun for me.
Thanks for the feedback on the site. It should be faster for you now as you’re in Canada! Maybe the changeover was slow. Please keep me posted. I hope it will be quicker from now on:)
Annabel, I agree women rock and am delighted by your “confession.” Like you, I’m happy to see a mix of folks visiting here too because differences spice it all up.
Congratulations on the changes in your Alexa rating. Thanks for the introduction to Alexa, haven’t gone there or done that yet so this is valuable information for me.
Hi Sandra, yes a mix is good. As I said to the guys at the top. They’re still wanted and lovely to have them here. I don’t want everyone to be the same, variety is definitely the spice of life:) Glad the Alexa tips are handy.
Hi Annabel,
Congratulations on the “virtual move” to the U.S. with your host server. With all the host server companies out there, how did you decide on one? My one “non-negotiable” was that my server had to be located in Canada, so that reduced the choices a bit, but I found a great host server and was even more impressed by the fact that they donate a percentage of their profits to an anti-poverty organization.
I’d love to see more women who are 40+ and venturing down the entrepreneurial and/or blogging roads have a greater presence online and specifically in the blogosphere. As a group, I think this demographic would have some very different ideas, experiences and insights about business, personal development and even “lifestyle design” than younger bloggers (of either gender, really). It’s great to learn from people of all walks of life–and it’s also valuable to hear from your age group peers when they seem to be underrepresented.
Keep on writing those great posts! Your combination of common sense, humour, practicality and a positive outlook is a great inspiration to many of us, regardless of age or gender, of that I’m sure.
Cheers!
Hi Sue, we were looking for speed, security, reliability. It’s the same company we use in Australia so they are tried and tested – crucial paradigm. It’s great to use a company that supports charity too. Thanks so much for all your kind words. It’s true that I do want to inspire and motivate anyone who wants it:) I suppose some people will relate to my writing irrisepective of their age, gender or background which is great. I think the travel angle is a great bonding point and means we have a lot of adventurous readers here.
Hi Annabel,
Thanks for the info on Alexa. I have never heard of this site/tool before. It looks really useful and we will definately sign on.
Trish
Hi Trish, oh good, I use it almost every day to nose around into a site’s background:)
Welcome to the good old US of A!
If your site is hosted in Seattle then we are neighbors – stop by for a latte and we can watch the rain come down! No need to dress up, a pair of cargo pants, fleece pullover, and euro clogs will be just fine.
Hi Corey, lol, oooh, Seattle doesn’t sound like my cup of tea! No idea which town my site is hosted in but I’d probably go for California or Florida, maybe New Mexico:) Anywhere hot! Definitely into not dressing up and was sporting my Euro clogs this morning. Think Simply Now are your neighbours in Seattle though so I have almost paid a visit via my guest post there:)
I’ve been aware of Alexa for years, but I’ve never really bothered with it. I suppose I should fill in a few details.
I’m very anxious to see how to can leverage the value of your popular blog and it’s (possibly not) mostly female readership into some serious income. I suspect that the usual ways other bloggers promote for making money don’t work as well as they say they do.
(And I know it’s been almost a month since I promised you a guest post. I’ll get to it. I really will.)
Gip
Hi Gip, I have to start making money from my blog to show you how it can be done. I believe it can be but haven’t really tried properly yet. My feeling is obviously you need to build up readers first and then go for several revenue streams – affiliates, self-written ebooks and advertising too. I have to start being more money focused – it doesn’t come naturally to me though! Yes, looking forward to that guest post. When you’re ready – I will be here. If anyone else is interested in writing for GITHS there are some guidelines in the Write For section below:) Thanks!
I did set up my Alexa account. So you have inspired me.
I’ve been reading carefully some posts by bloggers who use the affiliate, ebooks and advertising model and when they are willing to reveal their income, it doesn’t look good.
I know it can be done, but there’s a piece of the model I’m not yet considering. Please… show me what it is! A few bloggers make it work, so it can be done.
Gip
Annabel,
I have known about Alexa but for some reason I never made an account. This post inspired me to make one.
I guess I am in the minority with some of the other commenters
Thanks
Sean
Well done Sean:)
Awesome Annabel, you have a great ranking, now you have to get below the 50,000 limit
Sorry for being a male reader here. I have never checked the audience snapshot, until I read this post:
Based on internet averages, marsdorian.com is visited more frequently by females who are in the age range 18-24, have no children, received some college education and browse this site from home.
Question: where I are my fan love letters ?
Hi Mars, for global under 50k – good idea, I like a challenge, I’ll go for it. Not quite sure how to go about it though, all I’ve done so far is get incoming links through guest posting but hopefully if I carry on doing that it will keep improving. Lol, I’m sure the fan mail from your lady readers will be pouring in soon. I expect they’re quietly checking you out to make sure you’re authentic and influential enough to be worthy of their attention first. I know you’ll win them over:)
It’s interesting that you say there are more male bloggers than female – for some reason I would assume it was the other way around.
Hi Connie, I guess there are lots of female bloggers but all the majority of the biggest and most successful bloggers are men.
Hi Annabel,
Is this a new Theme? Seems like I remember something different – anyway, I like it either way. Glad to see you making such great progress. I’m here after stumbling upon your guest post on MaxBlogPress – you’re a really busy lady!
Keep up the great work!
BTW- you’re welcome to guest post on WeBlogBetter anytime!
Hi Keisha, thanks for revisiting:) Yes, designed the blog properly and went with Thesis. Still heaps to be done but you know what it’s like:)
I’d love to guest for you sometime and thanks for the invite! I’ll put it on my list. Have to say I’m completely overwhelmed at the moment – still recovering from school hols and a house full of visitors but things will get back to normal:)
you sound so positively positive in your post! your enthusiasm for what you do and how you do it is infectious…i love the power generated when women gather. i am just one foot in the process of gathering momentum and will start tracking my ranking down the road (when i’m not the 300th million blog
)…i didn’t know you could add the toolbar. thanks for the info (and you look so pretty in your tropical pix in a green tee.)… later!
I’m happy to see that your transition went well. Those sorts of things can be a little scary sometimes. Of course, you have the geek to help!
I have that same Alexa tool on my firefox and use it all the time. It is a great little gadget!
Oh My Anna..I do have a lot to learn about blogging form you. I did give alexa a look sometime back…and i dont even remember if i registered etc…but i found the whole looking at numbers really not my thing.
BUt since you say its important for readership…then i guess i need to give it a go. I actually prefer paying attention to my readers..than to numbers…but I know its important. I have to get into it someday if i want my blog to be as you say “lofty”
Lots of love,
Z~
Hi Zeenat, I know I shouldn’t but I really need to see some signs of improvement for motivation. More comments, visitors, better Alexa… whatever it takes to keep me blogging:) Lovely to see you here again!
Annabel,
Definitely more than arm-candy! Hey, I’m the old male-animal in the mix, but still as famished for success as the young roosters. Also, glad yer not a cougar – too many of those rejecting me these days !!!
Good article, however, I was a bit puzzled at the April – July 2010 comparison. Those figures appear to decrease instead of increase.
Best,
Jerry, the Word Guru
Hi Jerry, great to see you here. With Alexa you’re aiming for 1 – that’s the highest so they do go up:)
Thanks for sharing, it will be of great help for me in the future
It looks like you’re growing your skills for reconnaissance
To serve thy customer, you gotta know thy customer … good job.
Try SEOBook.com, they’ve got lots of good ways to see the true popularity of your blog, everything from amount of incoming links to how often your page is indexed in Yahoo, to Alexa, to other tools. It’s free. I’ve used it for several months and found it to be extremely useful, also in terms of finding keywords that you use for your blog.
Sincerely,
Mazarine
@Mazarine,You can try “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” by Darren Rowse.
A really good tool for monitoring your progress online is quantcast.com. You add a bit of code to your site and Quantcast does the rest, revealing where your readers are coming from, how many you have, and what their demographics are. And because the code is recording all your visitors, rather than people who have installed the Alexa toolbar, it’s relatively factual information.
Are you using any techniques to help your Alexa ranking or are you just letting Alexa work its magic? The reason I’m asking is Alexa for the most part requires the addition of the Alexa toolbar to be on the visitors computers and is largely considered an inaccurate metric because of this and because it can easily be manipulated with Entrecard and a few other “tricks”.
Right now, it looks as if about 12-15% of the people worldwide have the Alexa toolbar meaning the figures presented are extrapolated to give what they “think” is the true ranking.