It's been just over a month since the Samurai Alexa Ranking Challenge was announced, and I'm pleased to report we've made tremendous progress! With 35+ members strong, we are actively helping each other achieve our respective goals. I'd like to use this opportunity to recognize several Yakezie members for their achievements and initiatives in helping the team.
* Daniel-San from Sweating The Big Stuff took the initiative to compile the list and keep track. His efforts have in turn created a home for us members to visit once a week and get pumped.
* @Elle_CM from Couple Money has been amazingly selfless in retweeting my posts and many other posts. She is exactly the type of member the Yakezie Group seeks. @FinEngr created a Yakezie Twitter Group to keep track of us and follow. Pls follow so the group can follow you back.
* Monevator, The Amateur Financier, Evolution Of Wealth created weekly wraps to specifically highlight posts from the Yakezie Group. Meanwhile, Money Funk wrote a derivative post on how to increase your Alexa ranking.
* Eliminate The Muda and Planting Dollars have busted through their 200,000 goal and should obviously now shoot for top 100,000!
THE RULES HAVE CHANGED AND WE WILL ADAPT
At some point over the past several weeks, all of us got dinged by 2 spots on Wise Bread's Top 100 PF list because of the addition of two new blogs in the #1 and #2 spots. Congrats to those two blogs for being able to piggy back off their respective major platforms. The Atlanta Journal and The Star Tribune of Minneapolis and rocket straight to the top.
I liken the scenario to a situation at work where you struggle for a long period of time to get promoted, only to find out your manager hires someone laterally or from outside the firm to fill the spot!
Others have mentioned it's like some who get into prestigious schools simply due to their connections, while the rest of us just make due with what we have. Guess what team? Life isn't fair, and Wise Bread can do whatever they want. We are not going to complain. Instead, we will simply try harder!
It's important to realize that in 5 months, to get on Wise Bread's first page, reaching 200,000 will no longer be enough. The 100th ranked blog will probably be ranked around 165,000 by then.
Furthermore, Wise Bread might start adding other piggy back blogs from major publications which will impede our progress further. Once again, we must do as much as we can to help each other out. Never surrender!
New Initiatives
* Guest Posting UP: I ask that all those in the Top 100,000 allow others who are outside the Top 200,000 to guest post if they want to. There is a mutual benefit to guest posting where the guest writer gets to reach out to the host's readers, while getting a link back to their own site.
Meanwhile, the host blog receives content. The guest writer really benefits most, because many of the bigger sites already have a ton of content in the pipeline already. The host blog will actively promote the guest post on Twitter and elsewhere.
* A Playful Dance: One of the great ways to get to know each other better is to write a post in response to a post from one of your members. You see Ryan and Planting Dollars and Wojo at Fiscal Fizzle plays this out with the topic on “Is There Really Such Thing As Passive Income”. That exchange has created a fantastic amount of insight for the readers, and I'm sure Ryan and Wojo's relationship is better because of it.
* Carnival: Another major initiative is to create an ongoing Samurai Alexa Challenge Carnival each week or two. We are small enough where we can highlight a post from each challenger, thereby helping promote their content, while promoting yourself since everybody will visit your site and read your content as well.
You don't have to highlight a post from every site, however, please do your best to highlight as many as possible. Just check out the comments at Evolution of Wealth's Rodeo. We've already got three lined up!
Other Updates From The Alexa Ranking Challenge
* Ranking Host Rotation: Daniel-san has benefited by keeping track of the group's progress, as he should. What we are proposing is to allow a new member to host and update the rankings for every month of the challenge.
I think we should discuss this proposal below, and get an idea of whether people like this idea, and would want to host the ranking as well. With two things in motion (weekly wrap and ranking), we can share the wealth further. Or, we can keep the ranking at Daniel-San's site since it's already there.
The host's duty is to obviously update the rankings, check back on the original challenge post to see if new members would like to join, and add, while highlighting any big changes.
* A New Go To Ranking: Finally, at the end of the 5 month period, I plan to either bring the ranking back home to Financial Samurai or let the ranking float forever once a month. The plan is to morph Samurai's Alexa Ranking Challenge into the go to personal finance ranking page. This will purely consist of individually run personal finance blogs that do not piggy back off other major publications.
We will create a entirely apples-to-apples comparison of the best PF sites in the world. If anybody has any programming skills to create a page where entries will be automatically updated, please let me know. When the rules change on us, we have the power to make our own rules!
The Alexa Ranking Challenge Is For Everyone
You may think this challenge is just dedicated to a community of bloggers. In reality, the Samurai Alexa Ranking Challenge is a case study on how to improve all our lives, readers and writers alike!
Our personal real-life goals can range from finding love to early retirement. What we want to show is that through the selfless promotion of others, continuous teamwork, and an unwavering commitment, we will succeed despite setbacks. This is The Yakezie Way.
** Update Feb 25th: The Atlanta Journal and Star Tribune blogs which took up the top 2 spaces in WB's rankings are no longer there. Maybe this post made a different, maybe not. Regardless, this is a positive for all of us, and should serve as a reminder that the rules can and will change. We need to continue being diligent in our efforts.
Further Reading
Here's some further reading for the week.
- Forgoing A $50 Million Fortune For The Love of Football!?!
- Does Bernie Madoff Win In The End?
- Simple Pleasures Are What Make Life Worth Living
- Why I Can’t Bank At Wells Fargo
- Family Gets Award For Paying Off Debt & Jumps Right Back In!
- The Katana: Must Read Articles of The Week Ending 9/26
START A MONEY MAKING BLOG TODAY
It's been over eight years since I started Financial Samurai and I'm actually earning a good multiple six figure income stream online now.
I never thought I'd be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build.
If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom in your life, see how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes.
The actions you take today help create your future. You never know where the journey will take you!
I’ve been hearing and seeing alot about the Yakezie Challenge. How do I sign up?
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your response. I definitely will make time to get to know everyone. I checked out Wisebread and I don’t think that I qualify at the moment as a personal finance blog. How I look at personal finance is very comprehensive and my site reflects that. I don’t have enough of the personal finance articles up yet (50 sitting in draft mode).
I’m also swamped with tax reviews at work and trying to keep a worthy government program from being cut.
.-= moneyandrisk´s last blog ..Averting the Next West Virginia Mine Disaster =-.
The Yakezie Alexa Challenge certainly caught my attention…good job Samurai. I also noticed your comment about guest posting and I would like to extend an invitation to all Yakezie members to pitch guest post for Moolanomy. I’ll be happy to take a look and host the good ones.
.-= Pinyo´s last blog ..Can a Prepaid Credit Card Help Your Credit Score? =-.
Hi Pinyo, good to see you stop by! I think this is your first comment, which is exciting. Thnx for your offer on the guest posts. But what about the “bad ones”? :) Best, Sam
I think this is a wonderful project and kudos to everyone who is participating and working with each other.
I stumbled upon one of the challenge sites a couple of weeks ago and tracked the idea back to here. There seems to be a lot of wonderful colleagues for me to discover (assuming I can cut back more on sleep.) I’ve read a couple of sites and enjoyed it very much. I just wished I had more time to indulge.
I’m still in beta and only a little over 2 weeks old but thought I would check out my Alexa ranking for fun. It was exciting to see it go from 14million to 5.9million in 2 weeks. However, Brazil likes me enough to put me at 66,000 LOL.
I wanted to participate in the challenge but it requires adding the Alexa counter and my marketing manager did not approve due to code conflicts and concerns about viral rewrites. I did not go into more details with him since I’m so swamped with tasks already for the site outside of my regular business. Each article takes 2-8 hrs so I’m not sure how everyone else is doing all this.
.-= Kim Luu´s last blog ..Six Critical Things To Do at Layoff =-.
Hi Kim, good to hear from you. You don’t have to add the Alexa counter if you don’t want. I think it’ll help, but not necessary. There is a badge Greg-san put up, and if you’d like to announce your desire to join on your site, that’s great. The idea is to just familiarize yourself with the community as much as possible. Best, Sam
I just joined the challenge today, so pardon me if this is a dumb question — but where is the list the the Challenge members are maintaining? Thanks, and looking forward to meeting more of you!
.-= Peak Personal Finance´s last blog ..Joining the Yakezie Challenge =-.
To help facilitate guest posts, I can create an excel sheet that can be place in Google Docs
What I’m thinking is something like this
Those in the top 100,000 already that want to participate list their site.
Potential guest posters can select sites they want to submit to. Of course there would be a few more ground rules for this to work, but if its something the group is interested in I can try to work it
.-= Lakita (PFJourney)´s last blog ..Manners & Money: Tipping =-.
I never installed the badge but I’m adding it today, and will be sharing my success on my blog. I have moved up 100K in the rankings in a month!
I’m super excited to crack the front page.
I also would be happy to host a carnival, and every Wednesday I am hosting a guest post, so if anyone wants to write for the Centsible Life, shoot me an email (contact info is on my blog).
WOOT!
Ummm… Maybe this is too obvious, but I didn’t realize you actually had to sign up for the Wisebread listing – I thought they just scooped up the movers & shakers out there.
So – in case anyone else in the challenge wasn’t aware, you’ve got to submit an application to wisebread for inclusion in their list.
Under the groups section, I noted the Yakezie.
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Financial Lessons From Engineering =-.
Ah, as always, it seems like I’m the last one to the party. I like all the suggestions, FS; the carnival seems to be off to a nice start, and I like the idea of keeping up on the rankings even once the initial challenge period is over. It’s good to have so many people all trying to improve their sites, and working together to boost each other up.
As for why there are so many offers to host guest posts and so few offers of guest posts, I’m guessing that much like myself, most bloggers find themselves so occupied by their own blogs, as well as day jobs, personal lives, and things like sleep. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to do so. Plus, that playful dance thing sounds like fun!
.-= Roger´s last blog ..Weekly Round-Up: Alexa Challenge Heats Up! =-.
Hi, Sam,
I just visited your blog for first time and I want to enter to the challenge…
I already downloaded the Alexa toolbar, I obtained the badge but I am still trying to figure out how to install it permanently in my blog.
For now, I am publishing a post informing my readers about my entrance to this challenge , linking it to your original post and including the challenge badge
I will post twice a week while promoting others..
Thansk for the initiative!
All the best,
Boris
.-= Boris´s last blog ..Two halves don’t make a whole… =-.
Great progress here. I’ve seen my alexa ranking improve to 126k recently which has been encouraging. I’m not in the top 100k but I’m more than willing to let other folks in the group guest post on my blog —
In the meantime, I’m going to go through the list and find some good posts to link to and promote!
.-= 20smoney´s last blog ..The Importance of Effective Time Management =-.
Is there a full list of the participating blogs that we can use to add them to RSS readers and such? It also would be cool to have a RSS widget that showed the last (X or XX) articles from the Yakezie challenge…
.-= Beating Broke´s last blog ..Whoops. Forgetting to Pay Bills = Bad! =-.
Come check out the latest rankings on my site. The link is in my last blog. You’ll be added by Sunday.
So will Single Guy Money, Girl With a Red Balloon, One Money Finance…am I missing anyone? We’re filling up quick. Once we reach the limit (where Google Docs literally doesn’t allow that many calculations…), we’ll have to implement a rule that removes uncontributing members out.
.-= Daniel´s last blog ..Samurai Alexa Challenge Update =-.
Yeah, the other thing is that he didn’t have the decency to tell me the post was up and give me the opportunity to defend myself. I only found out about the post because of the traffic that was coming over from the post. (A couple of my readers emailed me about it later). I thank him for the traffic but I think he was a little harsh. I would NEVER do a post like that about another blogger. If I didn’t agree with a post they did that’s one thing but you’re right, it was a direct attack. I was a little offended at first but then I got over it. That dude knows nothing about me; only from what he’s seen on the blog.
Thanks again for letting me join the group. I look forward to working and interacting with you guys.
New Members:
I’ll update the twitter list sometime this week. If you don’t have an easy to find icon on your website, email me your handle if you could. Thanks.
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Maximizing Value, The Opposite of Earn More Spend Less =-.
Regarding your question on whether it’s OK to attack others….. perhaps with some snark and a playful point, but I would never do so to the extent that Tough Money Love did. However, if anybody wants to attack one of my posts or thoughts, I HIGHLY welcome them to start the debate. If there’s a stance I feel strongly about, I will debate them until their ears bleed!
Know that it’s not okay, was more wondering if its something “common” or you’ve seen before. Was guessing not often.
Yes, that what was so surprising to me. It wasn’t attacking the fallacy of an argument, but quite literally SGM as a person. Glad to see SGM posted a comment himself to “clarify” things.
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Maximizing Value, The Opposite of Earn More Spend Less =-.
This is great; forces me to revisit my rank and see how I’m doing when I see this pop up in my reader. I’m pretty psyched – 122K now with a nice improvement since last time you posted. It makes me wonder, with all of these PF bloggers moving up on the list like we are, who are all the blogs dropping back?
I’ve kind of become accustomed to moving up several thousand per month during this slow trudge to 100K (my milestone goal), but you can’t move up forever, especially as an individual author. So, eventually the honeymoon will be over and I’ll steady out or decline some weeks; just hope it’s at like 80K instead of now…
.-= Darwin’s Finance´s last blog ..Double-Digit Returns in Any Market – Update 2 =-.
You pose a good question Darwin. If you look at those on page 2, you’ll notice some who have been surplanted from page 1. You’re right regarding the climb not lasting forever, and that is why we are making a new go-to ranking at the end of the challenge where it will consist solely of individual PF bloggers. All about creating an apples to apples playing field.
Looking forward to some help from your site as well!
Best, Sam
.-= admin´s last blog ..An Opportunity To Speak With Consumerism Commentary =-.
Wow this is an awesome idea and I can’t believe I didn’t see anything about it until yesterday. I’d love to join if it’s not too late. I’ve already added the badge. :-) Some of the blogs here I am familiar with but I look forward to finding new blogs to read and hopefully, you guys will enjoy my blog as well.
.-= Single Guy Money´s last blog ..The Bachelor’s 5 Point Mini-Guide to Investments =-.
Sounds good man! Welcome aboard, and don’t let that guy from “Tough Money Love” push you around now ya hear? That was a kinda ruff post he had against you. If you have any trouble, let the Yakezie know.
Looking forward to seeing your support of the group, and around the community!
.-= admin´s last blog ..The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams =-.
Was looking up some “code” and unfortunately does not look like bushido allows
that.
“Samurai usually would rather fight alone, one on one. In battle a samurai would call out his family name, rank and accomplishments. Then he would seek out an opponent with similar rank and do battle.”
Good news is got an idea from that. From the last part, what about hosting verbal sparring matches (old-school debate club style)? Two honorable members of a similar ranking would “do battle” on a PF topic of the group’s choice.
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Maximizing Value, The Opposite of Earn More Spend Less =-.
Whoa…just searched for the post and finished reading. I’ve never seen a direct attack like that on another site.
Veteran members – atypical or what?
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Maximizing Value, The Opposite of Earn More Spend Less =-.
Sign me up! I want to punch my Alexa Rankings in the face!!!!
.-= Ninja´s last blog ..Do I have to change the name of my blog? =-.
Sounds good! Now just follow directions from the bottom of the original post. Cheers, Sam
With all these people offering to host guest posts, we need a few guest posters out there. Too many chiefs, not even indians right? ;) I’ll gladly help out in that department! I’ll carouse the comments this weekend, and ping a few people. If anyone has read my posts and think we’d be a good match, feel free to send me a note ahead of time.
Question: is it better to write about topics that align with the host’s website or does it provide them greater exposure by having guest posts on varying topics?
.-= FinEngr´s last blog ..Maximizing Value, The Opposite of Earn More Spend Less =-.
@FinEngr – I think it depends on the article and the site. Obviously if the site tends to hate credit card sue you might not want to write about how you love credit cards and they are the best thing since sliced bread. But then again, if its well written it provides a bit of controversy and provides good points to think about.
When in doubt, shoot the host a quick outline of what you want to write and run it past them.
.-= FFB´s last blog ..2009 Plutus Awards Finalist: Best Microblog =-.
Yes, there are a lot of chiefs. The idea is to guest post UP, not down as I write in my argument. There are currently 8 of us in The Top 100,000 or thereabouts already, but 30 of us outside. So it would behoove those outside the top 200,000… and the further back to try and guest post on those in the top 100,000 or at least at a much higher rank.
“* Guest Posting UP: I ask that all those in the Top 100,000 allow others who are outside the Top 200,000 to guest post if they want to. There is a mutual benefit to guest posting where the guest writer gets to reach out to the host’s readers, while getting a link back to their own site. Meanwhile, the host blog receives content. The guest writer really benefits most, because many of the bigger sites already have a ton of content in the pipeline already. The host blog will actively promote the guest post on Twitter and elsewhere.”
I added the Mon-Oda crest to my blog with a link to your original post on the Yakezie Group.
Here’s the HTML if anyone wants to use it – if you’re using WordPress just paste it into a Widget Text Box and drag it to where you want it. I shrunk the image to 125×125 and will host the image on my site:
****
** Best to e-mail David@mbabriefs.com for the code cuz i donno how to show it in comments.
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..Do mass firings improve performance? =-.
Man, I have no idea how to paste HTML into a comment box then… Double slashes maybe?
Let me try again:
// //
If the raw HTML doesn’t show up in the comment you can either email me or copy from my site, the image is in the middle right.
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..Do mass firings improve performance? =-.
Wow! Everybody is looking great! This is probably the only networking system I know that works for everybody in it. Awesome!
(I wanna go ahead and call it “communism that works” :p but I’ll probably get heckled).
Ps. For female bloggers, it’s a good idea to join http://www.blogher.com as well. We all need as much support as we can get.
Congrats to Sam and everyone!
.-= Bytta @151 Days Off´s last blog ..Day 19: How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in Record Time =-.
Wow, I just went clicked thru the entire Alexa list, reading everybody’s blog… With each blog I took my time and occasionally commented here and there! I didn’t realize it would take so long!
Some pretty interesting articles out there!
.-= Don@MoneyReasons´s last blog ..Wealth Tip #4: Invest Money Saved on Food and Other Products =-.
It certainly does take a long time Don, which is why although the group is relatively small (getting bigger though), it’s not necessary to highlight everyone! Just highlight or “dance” with the the 10 articles you really thought were interesting or something.
If everybody selects some here or there, it eventually goes around to everybody. And if you aren’t selected for whatever reason, you’ll just want to do even better to get selected next time by someone. The thing is, if one just continues to promote others, reciprocation will be a given.
Just make sure that your TrackBack system works, and if not, to notify the various sites you’ve highlighted their articles.
Hey man……I would like a slice of this action. Is it too late?
.-= neal@wealthpilgrim´s last blog ..Use Your Definition of Success To Regain Your Mojo =-.
Never too late, however, we must ask, why so late to join? Would be great if you can help support the cause. Whatcha think? Will wait for you to respond before we go forward. Best, Sam
Fair question Sam. I actually never really saw what was going on as I had
a huge project at work so I missed the entire thingy.
I am very happy to support the worthy cause and w/do whatever I can. I love
to support my fellow bloggers.
I also understand that you have already put in lots of work and I am prepared to
fall on my sword if I must…..
Respectfully, Pilgrim
.-= neal@wealthpilgrim´s last blog ..Use Your Definition of Success To Regain Your Mojo =-.
Sounds good, welcome aboard and joining the cause. I’m sure you’ll do great, and I firmly believe that by July 4th, we are going to create something amazingly sticky and bigger than all of us.
Sometimes opportunity stares us in the face, and we don’t take it. This will be one of the key themese for another write-up. Better late than never. Best, Sam
.-= admin´s last blog ..The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams =-.
Thanks Sam…good to be aboard. I posted my rankings and I am 100% happy
and looking forward to being of service to my team. Bon Sai! Anybody wanna do a guest post for me??
Congratulations on another great initiative, Sam. Everyone involved has benefited by increasing their readership, networking, and sharing ideas.
Fiscal Fizzle, Monevator, and my site are close to busting out of Wise Bread’s second page and I’m sure a large part of that is thanks to you. Keep those great ideas coming!
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..Do mass firings improve performance? =-.
Dave – Well done yourself! It’s great Monevator finally got on the list, and you guys are like Barbarians knocking on the door to page one!
It is absolutely amazing how the Top 100 has changed this year. I firmly believe that by July 4th, the Yakezie crew will dominate.
Regarding Wisebread, I’m sure they’re not so different from us.
As I understand it they were/are private bloggers, and their top 100 doubtless came out of an initiative like the FS Alexa Challenge at some point in the midst of time.
With growth, different problems emerge, and it’s hard to please everyone at once (e.g. is their listing for the bloggers, for potential advertisers, or for readers?)
And as you say Sam, it’s their site.
All that allowed, I’m very glad they’ve seemingly dropped the two big blogs, if only because there could have been dozens more to follow that would have swamped out everyone else.
.-= Monevator´s last blog ..Why does Joe Public love sweatshops? =-.
Not sure actually. You can read the profile of the original writers on their site. The founders are basically businessmen/women who decided to form WB on their own. They’ve then recruited writers to write content for them and pay them accordingly. They’ve done a GREAT job in creating a business conglomerate.
Part of the reason why my 2nd guest post https://www.financialsamurai.com/2010/02/08/how-to-get-your-super-motivated-boyfriend-to-marry-you/ was rejected is b/c of the fear of it offending half their reader group, b/c again, it’s a business. I have no problem with their rejection and decision, and have hence decided to run with things on my own and create something new.
The main difference is, the challenge is not for myself, but for everyone else! Just the way everything has evolved, from Daniel-san hosting the ranking, to the weekly carnivals, and to actively supporting others, it should hopefully benefit everybody instead of just my site.
Hopefully this challenge motivates others, and provides a fun way for everyone to improve. Our culture is NOT to run a business to make lots of money. If in the future, the rankings become so popular that advertisers use it as reference to pick and choose who to pay then so be it.
Triumphant Yakezie members will be approached by many folks looking to advertise on their sites, but I hope we never change our main DNA, and hold true to the original spirit of the challenge, which is to just help others.
Best, Sam
Cool update on the group. I totally like your attitude about just trying harder when life dishes out an unfair situation. It’s easy to waste a lot of time complaining but that energy can be put to such better use towards fueling ourselves forward.
It really helps to have reminders of this and to stay mentally proactive about keeping a positive attitude. I think complaining and being negative is almost like a drug addiction – once you start it becomes harder and harder to stop and leads to isolation and depression. Whereas keeping a positive attitude is magnetic, energizing, productive, and draws people together!
Hi Charlie, I agree with you 100%! Complaining and being negative really is like a drug. Got to cut that out! No complaining, not when life throws us a one-finger splitter. We will remain positive, and we shall never surrender.