Hippo Web Solutions

Two and a half months ago my Alexa rank was around 7 million; today it’s a shade over 335k. Unless my maths is way off, that’s a two thousand percent gain! And the good news is it’s still rising - the “official” Alexa rank for a site is an indication of its average traffic over the past three months, but they also show a one week average - this site’s is a little under 200k.

So how did I do it? Extensive link building? Premium content? Long hours? Well, yes actually (I’ll leave you to be the judge of the content) - but that’s not what I attribute this rise to, at least not directly. In actual fact, it took all of about 10 minutes two and a half months ago to sow the seed that is now beginning to bear fruit - I’ll give you a little hint:

That’s right, I simply installed an Alexa traffic widget.
Continue reading ‘How I increased my Alexa Rank by 2k percent’

A couple of weeks ago I outlined my strategy for strategic commenting - go ahead and read it if you haven’t already - the key for me is building relationships with other bloggers. Taking over the world one blog at a time, if you want.

But with any strategy, even a good one, there’s normally room for improvement, so while last time I spoke about my philosophy of commenting, today I’d like to mention a couple of tactical tips you can apply to maximise the benefits of your comments to your blog’s authority and traffic. They’re actually closely related - I’ll give you a little hint: neither involves nofollow links…
Continue reading ‘Strategic commenting, part 2′

Blogging is at least as much about building your network of relationships as it is about producing great content. Of course quality content is a necessity - without it no amount of marketing will get you very far. But it’s not sufficient by itself, not when there are literally hundreds or thousands of other blogs competing for the same audience as you.

Image courtesy of pshutterbug

Now, one of the most common techniques for gaining exposure and building traffic is commenting on other blogs. Nothing new there - you’ve probably heard the same advice plenty of times already. But today I’d like to examine this in a little more detail, to maximise the benefits to you and your blog.

Continue reading ‘Strategic commenting’

This whole month I’ve been struggling to get this blog to show up on Technorati. I’ve been pinging them every time I’ve done a post; I’ve even pinged them manually, all to no avail. Every time I’ve checked their blog directory, I’ve been greeted with this put-down:

Continue reading ‘Difficulty getting listed on Technorati?’

Following on from my last post on Social Bookmarking, I’d like to talk today a bit about one of my favourite Social Bookmarking sites - StumbleUpon. Apart from the usual system of content submission and being able to vote items up and down, StumbleUpon has one fairly unique feature: its toolbar, and in particular the Stumble button.

Continue reading ‘Stumble your way to a Rush of traffic’