I wanted to put this section into the first lesson of the upcoming e-course on finding your blogging direction. However, I thought I’ll share it here since Alexa is often taken for granted but rarely used for what it really is – research and analysis.
So how can Alexa help you brainstorm your new blog if you’re just starting out?
If you have a site, Alexa is a free service that provides a great way for you to participate with a large audience who too are sharing their statistics in traffic, rank and keywords with you. In addition, you’re provided with a means to track, aggregate and organize incoming as well as outgoing traffic from your blog.
What does that mean?
Think of it as many individuals and organizations voluntarily allowing themselves to compete with you. Any site’s stats can be seen. Now don’t let that scare you. Once you go live online, understanding who else is out there can do a lot for you in terms of competition, trends and creatively unlocking unique means to stand out in a market that may or may not be saturated.
Thus, if you have the knack for researching how you can better influence your audience or readers on your particular chosen topic, Alexa is one of those sites to keep under your wings. Their stats are one metric which veteran and newbie bloggers eyeball as a way to engage with for potential engagement.
That leads me into my next reason.
Alexa is so powerful because you can give advertisers another reason to work with you. Through seeing who’s the best of the best, who’s trending and whatnot, they can better decide how you fit into their portfolio of sites to promote on. Hence, there are opportunities here when you participate in a nice, global source where website owners who actually view and analyze their traffic streams interact.
As a registered user of Alexa, they make it easy to see what it is you need to know to make your next move. Now, let’s take a look at what the service gives you, the benefits in joining it’s community and even how you can go about connecting with other bloggers.
Looking Through the Top Sites
Alexa sorts all the sites that have registered with them into three choices:
- Global
- By Country
- By Category
This is helpful to narrow down sites which you can peek into and research for any incoming ideas, especially on how to start your first blog for instance.
Since the stats are all there, you just have to decide:
- what name to call your blog
- the valuable keywords you can target it with
- the services to register them on – Alexa provides all this, minus the services to purchase your blog.
So once you figure out what it is you want, go on over to a domain registrar such as Namecheap (aff) to see if the name is available and buy it. Then purchase a hosting service like BlueHost (aff) to store your blog’s content on. I suggest these services because they provide reliability and quality care at an affordable price.
Read more about domain name tools and hosting.
Now you can see that the process here is quite simple. The hard work can be done for you just from browsing through the top sites on Alexa. You’ll see exactly who is dominating the market, what keywords they are ranking for and how you can get a part of that traffic.
Thus, niche or mini sites can be created this way as well. That’s why Alexa makes it very handy for make money online enthusiasts to target specifically who it is they want to work with, and seeing the top sites are helpful because knowing more about other blogs stats can help you decide on the little things they are not utilizing.
I must say though, that it takes an eye to look for these concepts, much like searching for discounts at your nearest local market. So imagine what you can do with the information that is already given to you.
If you have some idea of what you want to do, but aren’t really sure yet of where to target it to, browsing through the Top Sites on Alexa can give you plenty of ideas to start. Nonetheless, you can’t be wrong when all the data is given to you.
Site Information Advantages
Looking more in-depth at the information of a site, one can see the:
- traffic stats
- search analytics
- audience
- available contact info
- reviews
- related links
- clickstreams
These are all information which Alexa provides for you to look through and see specifically. Thus, as a site owner, you get a lot of details which you can take away to improve or give to potential advertisers who would want to work with you.
Personally, my favorite sections are the traffic stats, audience, clickstreams and definitely the reviews. As a registered member, reviewing other sites can give you potential exposure. Another reason why is because there are barely any reviews done.
Check out the writing an Alexa review article to learn how to do that.
Basically, I see reviews as potential for growth, especially for beginners who are just breaking out online. When you share your opinion of your favorite sites, much like commenting, you will enable the site owners to connect with you directly, and what’s awesome about that is there’s really not much competition to fight over.
So you’re practically hitting it straight into the blogger’s radar, and unlike comments, you get to be seen every time they check their stats!
Seeing What’s Hot
Much like Google trending topics and other search engine trends, knowing what’s hot around the Alexa neighborhood can also be advantageous to you. This is more so for niche site builders or bloggers who are in the market to target the individual articles they write.
For personal bloggers, this might not appeal much. Unless you are in the thrill for market research, there can be interesting keywords to watch. Site owners who are aware, can easily find something trending and perhaps create an article that may pick up steam to become viral.
Point is, you want to keep your mind on timeless topics. Trends will come and go but if you find something that is repetitious, it can quite possibly be a potential evergreen stream.
With a little implementation on search engine optimization combined with article marketing as well as list building tactics, products from affiliate marketplaces like the popular ClickBank, Commission Junction, PayDotCom and even Amazon can make part-time income a reality.
Keep in mind, you are only seeing trends and not really their searches.
In that case, utilizing Google’s Keyword Research Tool can help you narrow down your target keyword further. After all, if making money online is your motive, competition must be within reach. Moe does a great job at explaining how you can use Google’s Keyword Tool.
Utilizing the Alexa Toolbar
Contrary to checking out Alexa‘s Top Sites and seeing What’s Hot, you can also install their toolbar which allows you to see if a site is part of the network. In addition I also recommend the WebRank Stats toolbar which lets you see the numbers of indexed pages and backlinks found in the search engines as well as Quirk’s SearchStatus too.
With all three, you can have an in-depth view at how a site performs. At the moment, the first two are only for users of the Mozilla Firefox web browser. The third is also available for Google Chrome.
Now this doesn’t mean you ignore sites that aren’t part of Alexa’s network, it just means, if you interact with one, you’ll both gain. Thus, this is great for networking with other bloggers who are within the same interest as yourself. You’ll find out that it will be essential as you go deep to share a bit of what is know as your ‘link juice.’
Hence, we’re treading into SEO territory here.
Just know that enabling your links to be dofollow will benefit your site to rank well when you comment often. What’s more, for each user who installs the Alexa toolbar and are a registered member of the community, their site will constantly rank well as well.
So it’s a win/win on both sides.
Remember, your blog is your flagship once it’s live. How you want to go about it online, even to compete with other bloggers might not be in your best interest to start. But somewhere down the line, you want to know how you can make your site better. Alexa can help you with that and what’s more, it shares your growth with other competitors to make you within reach.
I’ll say that’s a nice kick in the rear and worth the insight to improve your blogging to become a valuable member of the blogosphere. What are you waiting for, check out Alexa and register your site if you have one already.
Join the majority who are finding each other online each and every day.
What are your thoughts on using Alexa as a research tool?
Twitter: realscooter1
says:
have you try to make some backlink using alexa?? im looking for some tips related with alexa. such as how to use it to find the related websites ..thanks
adnan@mopedscooter
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Twitter: thublogger
says:
hi adnan, I’ll be sharing an Alexa tip in a week or so. stay tuned!
It’s amazing to go to see this web page and reading the views of all friends concerning this article, while I am also keen of getting know-how.
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Excellent. Till now I have just used Alexa for competitive analysis only. After reding this post, I came to know about various usage of Alexa and how should we use it constructively. Thanks for the share.
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Alexa is just for the information provider about your website not the other meaning of Alexa.com
Is this your only blog on this matter? If you have any more blogs or anything on this can you please let me know? I found this blog very enticing.
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Twitter: cbgpfmpo
says:
I have never viewed Alexa as a research tool but all I do with it is to gather some information about my site and see how well I am doing. This new idea of research tool is truly fantastic.
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Excellent information. I don’t know much about Alexa till now, but I desperately wanted to know more about it. I am really happy to see this post. I learned a lot form this and hope you post more information on this. Thanks for sharing.
tomsprice
Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your web site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles.
Interesting, how you can use Alexa not only for site information but also as a reserach tool. I like the hot topic feature. Will definitly use it in the future.
Great article.
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i still dont get it! how is alexa rank calculated? any help much appreciated
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Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your web site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles.
Sometimes Alexa is helping me to explore my own websites, their condition!
I have a tech blog named as gotechmax.com ,and i also install Alexa rank tool in my browser ,and i check my back links of blog ,tool bar see 5 back links only.but my site have more than 10 back links ,why this sir?
Is Alexa even accurate these days? I heard that there were a lot of consistencies as to how they come up with the data. I wonder if any of these rumors were true?
Addictive for checking stats and rank.
very interesting information, I came to know about the usefulness alexa.
thank you
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I am using Alexa to track my stats and spy my competitors. I love to see what keyword they rank well and where I get a lot of traffic.
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website alexa is really helpful. And more important is that, it is a free service. And thanks for that toolbar option, i didn’t knew about it. It is very easy to use
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Alexa can also be used to keep an eye on your competitors strategy. I also have been using Alexa for competitive analysis most of the time. the best part about alex is that its free of cost. thanks for this post for updating us more about Alexa.
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These are genuinely great ideas in concerning
blogging. You have touched some pleasant points here.
Any way keep up wrinting.
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Everyone loves it when folks come together and share ideas.
Great website, continue the good work!
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Awesome post with nice explanation. This post is very nice and helping material for newbie bloggers. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
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Thats awesome… Thank You for the great post! A wonderful idea that I can also use for my site. . Just i waiting for your next post. Well, thanks again for the lovely post.
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Keep up the good work! You understand, many individuals
are looking around for this info, you can aid them greatly.
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Nice post. Alexa is a great tool for knowing about our site and our competitor site details. By using alexa you can find your competitor back links.Thanks for share this post with us.
Excellent information. I don’t know much about Alexa till now, but I desperately wanted to know more about it. I am really happy to see this post. I learned a lot form this and hope you post more information on this. Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your web site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles.
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Your post give me some really good ideas thanks for the useful post.
I havent thought about using Alexa this way, great info..personally i used to use majestic seo
Breaf Article on Alexa… Good Effort
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Wow great information on alexa. Very much useful
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This is an excellent idea. I will most definitely be trying all the things you have mentioned and hope Alexa can help me research ideas for my blog.
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Nice post.I know about alexa but i don’t no these details about alexa, alexa.com will helps a lot when you do competitor analysis and knowing about your competitor.
The article is great, but how can researching the top blog help me to get more traffic. I mean, if I use the keywords of the top blog in my blog, my blog will always show up second.
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Super idea, more over I always use Google Analatyics to find out new blog ideas and seed keywords.
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yeah nice post, using Alexa as a tool to research once blog idea is okay, thanks for sharing this post.
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I like you Article to Read it publish your book
Thanks Thu! Now I know a new way to get ideas for my blog posts. It’s AWESOME way but I didn’t realize.
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I’m not sure where you’re getting your information,
but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
Thanks for fantastic information I was looking for this information for my mission.
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Twitter: VIT University
says:
First of all… I like reading your blog.. its so practical and beautiful how you explain things so beautifully… I just love this blog
I like to use a plethora of tools for researching … with all the free tools around the web you just have multiple options for everything … be it keywords or backlinks
The main problem lies with the non-uniformity offered by each of these tools… one tool may show one thing and at the same time another tool may show entirely different thing
Thank you for this report. I never knew Alexa provded so much information. I installed their tool bar. You say ” for each user who installs the Alexa toolbar and are a registered member of the community, their site will constantly rank well as well. ” How does the toolbar affect rank?
Twitter: thublogger
says:
Hi Mary Ann,
Alexa is a community of web sites, so as long as you’re constantly publishing content, it recognizes, just like Google, traffic. Moreover, I cannot say for sure how they measure ranking because it’s more of an analysis service helping you to compare yourself with similar sites.
The bottom line is these stats can help you predict how your site can potentially perform better through leveraging similar site stats.
Hope that helps!
Good day! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group?
There’s a lot of people that I think would really enjoy your content. Please let me know. Cheers
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/VehiclesWorld
says:
Hi Thu Nguyen,
Thank you for your nice post. I’ve added my site into alexa. But I wondering to know how much time it’ll take to show my site review on it?
I hope you’ll show it on your next article.
Cheers!
thanks for this nice info….i will check it out what this features brings to me…..
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