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Tonight, I’m joining the Yakezie Challenge!
I finally decided to join the Yakezie Challenge tonight. Â For those that are unaware of what this is, it’s a challenge from Sam of Yakezie (personal finance bloggers network) and Financial Samurai.
Essentially the challenge is to crack the Top 200,000 of all websites as ranked by Alexa within the next 6-months.  Game on!
As you can see, I’m currently at 516,885 in the US, so I’ve definitely got some work to do. Â Here’s my strategy to work my way down past 200,000 by April 8th, 2016:
Create More Content
I plan to post at least two posts per week (minimum) on this site, which is double my current pace.  My plan is to write one technical article on how to do something, and one miscellaneous piece focused on more abstract ideas around money, such as psychology and personal development.  Other ideas for content are featuring different perspectives and stories from other personal finance bloggers, or even everyday readers and their financial challenges.  While I’m at it, I’ll probably post updates around this Yakezie challenge to document any changes.
Engage & Build Relationships
I will continue to read content from other sites within the PF (personal finance) community and engage with comments regularly. Â I plan to network with other PF bloggers and find a mastermind group to join. Â I was really bummed I couldn’t hit FinCon this year to network with other bloggers and PF thought leaders. Â But, I’ve already made a promise to myself to get there next year and I definitely will have no excuses since it’s coming to my home town of San Diego!
Promote Others Selflessly
As I continue to engage within the PF community, I plan to make a concerted effort to promote others and listen to their views (even if I don’t agree with them). Â I see a lot of great content being produced and in addition to mentioning the larger sites, I will seek out smaller unknown sites that have great content going out and share it with others. Â I’d also like to feature some other bloggers on my site to better understand their stories. Â Everyone has a unique lens they view their finances from, so it will be awesome to understand what drives them.
Tweet Value
So here’s something ironic. Â I used to own a tech company, yet I only started using Twitter a couple of months ago! (I finally know what a hash tag is for!) Â I plan to continue building my twitter presence through thoughtful activity and meaningful engagement.
Let’s connect!  You can add me on twitter @FinanciallyALRT.
Guest Post
I have goal to land a least a couple of guest posts on larger authority sites within the PF community.  I believe I have got a decent story to tell, so I’m hopeful I can provide some valuable content and in turn generate some reciprocal traffic.  Likewise, I will also setup opportunities for others to guest post within my site.
A quick shout out to Dom of GenYFinanceGuy and Alexander of Cash Flow Diaries who are doing all the right things to grow their young sites consistently and with integrity.  Both are fully transparent with their growth and an inspiration of what is possible in a relatively short amount of time.  Upwards and onwards!
Readers, would you take on this Yakezie challenge, why or why not? Â What else do you think I could do to improve my chances of reaching the goal?
My extended goal is to help you find your personal path to financial independence, and to enjoy the entire journey along the way.
More about me
- Finding FI Interview #44: Flying Free with Captain FI - July 24, 2023
- 8 Things About Money that I Wish I Knew In College - May 17, 2023
- It Pays to Pay Attention: How Diligence Can Save and Earn You Money - April 24, 2023
23 Comments on “Joining the Yakezie Challenge!”
Cool, cool being a 1 f Jef, I know how particular I can be with my name :O
Oh well that’s a damn good effort, agreed keep plugging away, possibly more about the destination than the journey!
Nice Mike (hope you don’t mind being called that, if yes I’ll definitely call you Michael 🙂 ),
Well done on all of the above strategies, looking forward to hearing how you went in roughly a months time 😉
Cheers!
Either works Jef. As of today I’m at 656,585 (Global) and 158,826 (US). It’s been a bit flat lately, but I’m still pluggin’ away!
Hi Michael, congrats on taking on the challenge! I just joined today after reading this post- thanks for the motivation! I look forward to following your progress. We are shooting for retirement by 35 (in 9 years).
Congrats Preston! Taking the challenge is no small feat, but a worthy battle of self discipline lined with hidden treasures. I’m sure you will be able to hit your retirement goal if you play full out. I look forward to following your success along the way.
Last Friday I found an article of mine featured on Rockstar Finance for the first time. This gave me a mini explosion of new hits. So, tonight when I checked Alexa, I was excited to find that I’ve moved down to 1,656,983 (global) and 234,633 (US). I’m not sure if there is any correlation with the new traffic yet, or if it’s simply Alexa picking up new links (17 now), but I’ll take it!
So, the total links are still off, but Alexa is finally counting 9 (instead of 3 previously). This has pushed me down past the 2M mark to 1,980,532 (global) and 370,264 (US). Progress!
Alright – moving along, slowly but surely. Latest rankings show 2,091,057 (global) & 435,334 (US). This challenge has definitely been motivating me to push harder to become a better blogger.
The strange thing is the Alexa backlinks are way off. Anyone know how often these get updated?
Not sure how it gets its backlinks or any other information. It has my audience geography completely wrong and while it has changed a couple times in the last several weeks, it’s still way off. I wish I had a better understanding of how they acquire the information.
Yeah, I’ve heard of other peoples’ geography being off too. Strange. Not too long ago all the data was much more transparent and you didn’t have to pay to get the advanced analytics.
Great post Michael! I’ve joined the Yakezie challenge myself recently. Good luck with the challenge and see you on the other side! I’m looking forward to your posts and love your writing style!
Have A Great Day!
Thanks for stopping by Peter! I’ll definitely drop by your site soon. Best of luck to you as well as we attempt to crush the Yakezie Challenge! 🙂
Absolutely! It’s so funny how increasingly getting a better Alexa number works so motivating! It’s like a fun little game! I added your site to my “Yakezie” community bookmark and will definitely try top stop by as often as possible.
I’ve learned so much in the past few weeks from talking to other bloggers. Am absolutely loving the community! Good luck and stay in touch!
Peter
Good luck in the challenge Michael. I’m sure you’ll do great if you stay committed to it and remain consistent in your efforts. That’s really all there is to it!
Laura Beth
Thanks Laura Beth! I appreciate your encouragement. 🙂
Congrats on joining the challenge, Michael! In my 4 months so far I’ve moved from 3.2M global ranking to just under 1M…lots of progress but still a long ways to go. This year was my first FinCon and I have to say it was very valuable!
Awesome, thanks for sharing Gary! What was your favorite takeaway from FinCon this year?
I’d have to say that until FinCon, I didn’t realize how large the PF blogger community is, and how much energy, enthusiasm, friendliness, and helpfulness they all bring to it. I learned so much that I’m honestly still trying to wrap my head around it all.
This is great Michael! This is going to make you try harder and you will definitely improve. I have made significant jumps in the rankings since I started tracking this in late August. Here are my numbers that I have tracked so far with dates:
08/28/15 – 772,192 Global Ranking
09/06/15 – 610,402 Global Ranking
09/24/15 – 440,970 Global Ranking
10/08/15 – 355,904 Global Ranking 106,382 US Ranking
I wasnt previously keeping track of my US ranking until just today but I like what Im seeing here. Im just going to keep doing what Im doing and hope for the best.
That’s incredible Alexander! Thanks for sharing. You definitely made some huge strides in just over a month.
Congrats on taking the plunge. It has now been over 6-months since I joined, and at the time I was ranked something like 26,000,000…at my low I got to 319,000. I have not been able to crack below the 300,000 mark yet, but this challenge instilled the right blogging habits.
Looking forward to see what you can do over the next six months. The guest posts are huge in building your audience early on in your blogging adventure. At least they were for GYFG.
Thanks for the shout out!!!
Cheers
Thanks for the insight GYFG. 26,000,000 to 319,000 is super impressive ratio (even if you didn’t crack the official 200k)! I’ll bet the 6 months fly by quickly, right?
Yes, in a blink of an eye!