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Over the past several weeks, we have looked forward to reading member posts and interacting with the members in the forums and on Twitter. Yakezie is a powerful network of incredibly talented people. We are surprised and amazed with what we read every day. The majority of features Sam and I thought about for version 2.0 of Yakezie are online now, with the major goal of helping and connecting the Yakezie Network, as well as the new Yakezie Writing Contests. You may have noticed some changes to the site, but if you have not, this post will run through the new features.
Posts from Across the Network
It can be difficult to keep up with all of the different content that all of the member sites are publishing. Yakezie now brings in all of the articles from each of the member’s RSS feeds into one convenient location. We only pull in a snippet of the article, and all of the links take a user directly to the member site so that a user can read and interact there.
To see this content, go to the homepage, scroll down to right under the featured article, you will find the new “Yakezie Network” tab, which will load the most recent blog posts from across the network. You can also navigate to this section of the site directly by going to https://yakezie.com/posts-from-around-the-network. New content gets pulled in several times per day.
Improvements to the Yakezie Network Listing
The Yakezie Network page has undergone a face-lift. First, we have added a mozRank for every site in the list. Similar to Google’s PageRank, mozRank is a value from 1-10 given to each site across the internet based on several factors. We’ve noticed that the PageRank system has not updated for close to a year now, thereby unfairly punishing newer blogs. mozRank fixes the problem given that it updates on a regular basis.
Second, we have introduced a new, extremely simple, ranking system for sites in our network based on four factors:
- 50% weight for a site’s Yakezie Belts of Honor ranking,
- 30% for a site’s Alexa rank,
- 10% for a site’s PageRank, and
- 10% for a site’s mozRank.
KISS: We introduce four factors due to our desire to keep things simple and straight forward. “Keep it Simple Stupid” is generally a great motto to have. The weightings are done in a way that maximizes the correlation between effort and performance. With a 50% Belts of Honor weighting, you know that the more you comment, post, and interact with your fellow readers in the forums, the more points you accumulate.
Our ranking heritage comes from the Alexa ranking system, and as such we keep a strong 30% weighting. Alexa is the easiest metric to use to help track a blog’s performance on the web since it’s free and updates daily. Meanwhile, there is much less direct correlation with your activity and a site’s PageRank for example, hence a lower weighting. At the same time, we recognize that advertisers still find Pagerank important, even though it no longer seems to update. Hopefully, there will be a trend towards the use of mozRank, which does update regularly.
Sorting: You are now allowed to sort the list by whichever of the four metrics you are interested in viewing.
Hopefully you will find the new system a step in the right direction. To be on the Yakezie Network list itself is an achievement given the 6-month long process of regularly promoting others, writing consistent content, and building relationships. However, it’s difficult to please everyone all the time. Hence, feel free to e-mail Google or mozRank or even Alexa if you find your respective rank unsatisfactory to your liking. With the 50% Belts of Honor weighting, it is very straightforward that you have the power to move up the rankings if you so desire. We will revisit our weighting system in the future if Members feel there should be changes.
Yakezie Writing Contest and Donations
Finally, one of the best ways that we can live out our mission to Selflessly Help Others is through the Yakezie Writing Contest. Yakezie.com now has donation buttons so that members and readers can directly support the Yakezie Writing Contest every month for new recipients (read more about the Yakezie Writing Contest initiative here).
Please help spread the word to families and children who you think would significantly benefit from financial help and mentoring. We know there are people out there. We just need to connect.
Yakezie: Three Sources Of Content
Member Contributions: We welcome those of you who would like to write for Yakezie.com to do so. Yakezie.com is an open platform which just continues to grow. If 60 Members each write one post every two months, we will have plenty of content to last into perpetuity. Each Member can view the Editorial Calendar on the dashboard, which will be used as a guide for future posts and topics.
Update: We would love to see member posts as soon as next week. If you have an idea for a post, please add it to the site and let us know that it is there. ~Chris
Yakezie Network Tab: This new feature is a great way to view snippets of Member’s posts in a do follow format that leads the reader to the respective sites. Couple the Yakezie Network tab with the Yakezie Network list and you’ve got two great ways to keep up with some of the best personal finance and lifestyle content on the web!
Writing Contest Essays: During the last week or two of every month, we will highlight the finalist essays for that month’s Yakezie Writing Contest. We will probably start of slow, given the new initiative and the lack of awareness, but hopefully as the program gains more traction, we will have more entries.
We cannot wait to see what’s in store for Yakezie.com over the coming months. The community that has been created here is truly amazing, especially thanks to the generosity and willingness to help Members and non-members alike. The Beta Challenge class looks like it’s rocking and rolling as well and it’ll be exciting to read new Member Posts starting the beginning of February, 2011.
As always, let us know what you think of the changes. Also, if you want to see something new, share with us your thoughts in the comments and we’ll try to make it happen.
Looking to learn how to start your own profitable website? Check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. It’s one of the best things I did in 2009 to help earn extra money and break free from Corporate America!
Chris, you’ve done an excellent job on the site. I really like the ability to sort by different columns on the network page so we can see how we’re doing based on different criteria. Great job!
Thanks, it was a big feature that was missing in version 1.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for adding the sort feature. It really is helpful!
This is fantastic! I cannot believe the amount of work that has been done in such a short amount of time.
Thank you so much!
You guys are no joke! This community is growing so fast with so many wonderful ideas I don’t know what else to say. Glad that I got involved and looking forward to what the future holds.
All three additions are awesome! Loving the list and can’t wait to get on it, both of them; the RSS feeds and the top PF blogs. And the scholarship, well, that is just a great idea.
I just subscribed to a monthly payment. Not much, but doing what I can for now.
Great work on the blog network page guys! The new changes are very well thought out and the addition of MOZ rank is refreshing.
And even though I’m second from the bottom of the list, it only drives me more to kick some butt and take some names and start creeping up that ladder.
Thanks for updating us. That’s a lot work! Will enjoy the maturation of this site!
Once again, I’m inspired and impressed. I gotta go and write a quick promo for the scholarship on my site!
I appreciate the update on the site Chris. Thanks for all the work you’ve put into it!
Chris,
Thanks for keeping me updated on these new innovations. For me, the needed instruction is kind of like an owners manual for web dummies. I need it!
Not a problem, Joe, although my goal is always to make the site as easy to use as possible, so that there is no need for an owners manual. :-)
To Echo Joe’s thoughts, thank you for the update, and definitely keep them coming. Sometimes it is hard to see some of the added features until you put a big neon sign out pointing to it. Your hard work deserves to be noticed as well :)
Thanks,
Timothy
Awesome updates! Most I noticed, but they’re all fantastic. One thing I worry about is the importance placed on commenting here. Wouldn’t it be more in the spirit to comment on many blogs rather than focus on just this one?
Absolutely, and I would encourage everyone to comment on each others content! I hope that the new Network page will help everyone easily discover all of the great content that the member sites put out.
From a technical perspective, though, I am not sure how I would be able to give credit for posting on other sites because there isn’t any one standard for posting and user management, etc. If anyone has any ideas for ways that we could give credit for posting elsewhere, let me know.
We have talked a little about ways that Yakezie members could get points for doing things outside of Yakezie.com, but right now, I don’t have much to report on that front. Maybe something for the 3.0 release.
I agree, I think it would be nearly impossible and certainly not worth the effort. Thanks again!
Hey Chris,
Without having an aggregator go out and grab all of the data and parse it, I’m not sure how possible it would be. I suppose you could use an aggregator to do it, but it would have to be pretty robust to recognize and rip the comments from all of the different blogging platforms, themes, and widgets.
I suppose you could reward people for visiting other blogs but we also want to avoid becoming a pseudo-trafficxchange :-/
Thanks,
Timothy
Sorry, I should clarify, you would get credit by clicking on a link from yakezie going to a yakezie member blog, but again, that is kind of Traffic *xchangish. Also, is there a way to edit comments after they’ve been submitted? I have yet to figure that out.
Thanks,
Timothy
Wow, this is great chris, I’m glad that the yakezie is still changing and evolving! You’ve done some great work!
These are some amazing initiatives and updates! I am also glad that you guys are reducing the emphasis on page rank, as that helps out the newer blogs like myself. :)
You guys have shown an amazing amount of work and dedication. I’m looking forward to the continued evolution of the site as well as the scholarship program.
Hey Kevin,
You and me both, I’m gasping for some pagerank, lol. I was relieved to see the lessened weight for Google. My goodness the PR has been slow!!!
Thanks,
Timothy
@Daniel – Definitely. It’ll be great to see you comment more around the Network. I try and do the best I can myself. Many members don’t comment here that often, let alone around the Network, so we are just trying to encourage participation. I’m thinking of some fun rewards for those who do.
@All – We’re going to include a Scholarship fund progress chart soon to give everybody visibility on our goal to raise $500.
I’ll write up another post highlighting how much it costs to run Yakezie.com. I think it’ll be eye-opening how expensice it is if we were actually a company with salaries!
Cheers
Yes, scholarship details would be great! I also think the better we do with this first one and the more impact it has, the more everyone will be encouraged to contribute! Success breeds success!
Hope you have noticed the Scholarship tracker is up. Don’t think anybody has applied yet, perhaps bc they are all waiting until te last minute. We might put up an application tracker too.
Is there a way to find every member?
Chris, you’ve definitely done a great job with this site. You have been very responsive to us in the forums as well. I love these updates and think this group is really taking off now!
I think that the list is a great addition, and I love the idea of giving the belts of honor the most weight. It will give people incentive to stay active in the community!
@MJTM – The Yakezie Blog Network list on the top right hand of the homepage is the official Member List. As Challengers and Tweeners graduate after 6 months and write their Member Posts, they get added to the list.
@All – Also, please be awarw that just being on the list itself is an achievement, and you will have access to all the potential rev opportunities we organize via the Member forums!
Just to let everyone know, we are hoping to start receiving the first batch of posts written by you as early as next week. Got an idea? Put it in the site and let us know! We will start publishing as early as Monday!
Well, it was great to start with. Now… it is just simply fantastic. Way to go, guys!
LOL, you fooled me with this comment at first. I was thinking “what on Earth could she have a problem with?” Good work, you got a rise out of me :)
It is obvious that you and Sam have put a great deal of work into this site. Thanks!
It looks awesome! Great job, guys!
I noticed the changes, but it is good to see the list of updates! Amesome changes guys! Thanks for all the work you and Sam put into this!
Awesome job Chris! I especially love the new network page!
Chris:
Great job with the site & reworks.
I’ve got a question on page templates. Many members have their own yakezie subpage(myself included), but there’s no consistency since we’ve tooled them ourselves. *Mine contains old info and links and should be updated for example.
Not sure what goes into creating a page template, but would it be worthwhile to create a framework members could use on their own sites? Nothing too rigid, just enough to create a more uniform look. Ideally it would also give the network more credibility as a professional/legitimate group (imagine visiting a company’s regional websites and they’re all different).
Not sure I completely follow what you are asking here, so I am going to contact you through email as it sounds like that would be the better medium to communicate about something like this, with any information decided upon going back into the group…probably in the forums. Expect an email from me soon.
Chris,
I just noticed that the links for the “lifestyle” tab are the same as the ones for the personal finance tab. (real estate, government love, budgeting, etc) Is that the way its supposed to be?
Thanks for the heads up, Jeff. I corrected the issue.
The site looks better every day. It’s terribly slow to upload on my iPhone, but I’m guessing you all aren’t really worried to much about mobile browsers?
A separate mobile site might be good. I know that as the phones continue to progress, the need for mobile sites will become less and less, but it might be worth looking into, maybe a more stripped down version. Then again, I suppose the RSS feed would be about equivalent.
Great job on the site you guys, you’ve done a ton of wonderful things – and this will definitely take the Yakezie to the next level!
There are a lot of great things in the works here. I’m excited about all of the new things that you’ve been implementing. The website looks great, the forums work flawlessly, I’m proud to be apart of the Yakezie!
Thanks,
Timothy
I just noticed the scholarship widget on the upper right. It looks slick and very nice… great job! I’m encouraged to see our progress, and that far with only 17 donors total.
Yeah, I thought that was a really cool added touch!
Im pumped to see $540 from just 17 donors so far as well. Barbara Friedberg donated $60 for example, and MaxMoney $25 and so on, so there are definitely a lot of very generous contributions! It would be great to have at least 50% of the Members donate when the scholarship for the month is all said and done. Any thoughts on how to increase participation?
I’ve made a donation, but I’m not sure how to increase participation. I’d hate to think that people would need more incentive than helping people, but maybe to get big time donations you could potentially give an ad slot to the top donor?
I’m happy with the contribution so far as well! I think you could have more participation by adding another payment method, perhaps. People might be uncomfortable with having to reveal their address and such. I was a bit uncomfortable with doing so myself when I donated!
I talked about the scholarship during my roundup last week to help promote, and I will have a post up tomorrow with the latest details.
Thanks for your feedback! Does the Subcribe or the Donate button ask for more details than just your PP address? I don’t think I’ve ever had to add that info when I paid, and it was optional. Is it not optional in the buttons? Rest assured that nothing private will ever be revealed.
What is the other donation method you have in mind? Thanks!
Yep, my name and address were sent to you. I think it’s a feature of PayPal and there’s no way to get around it; I could be (and hope) I’m wrong, though. I don’t think it’s a big hitch (I still went for it), but it might hold back a few people.
For alternatives, I’m honestly not very familiar with other payment processors, but here are a couple you may want to check out:
1) Bitcoin. Completely anonymous so no need to reveal anything. It involves a bit more work on the part of buyer and seller but all you need to do is run a client on a PC and check it every couple of days or so to see if you got anything (no need to leave it running).
2) Goldmoney.com. I’m not sure this is any more anonymous than PayPal, but hey, it’s an alternative, and alternatives are good.
Oh! I actually just remembered something else that may be useful: ThePoint.com. They allow you to run campaigns, and people are only charged if the campaign meets their goals — and they remain completely anonymous up till that point. This could be a good way of crowdsourcing donations for the scholarship program.
Got it and good to know. I found a solution, and that is people can just go into their Paypal account and send money to: theyakezie@gmail.com with a note stating what it’s for. No private info is necessary, just the email where the account is from. Bingo!
Cool, I didn’t know it would work differently by doing that. I’m going to try that solution for the next shot.
Wow thanks for this. I’m continually impressed by you and Sam and what you are doing with Yakezie.com. Plus the 18,000 Alexa rank for this site is AWESOME.
Awesome stuff. I like the simple list approach (it likes me :) ) and the Scholarship is amazing, looking forward to the return of the sidebar ticker.
Thanks for making the ranking system transparent. It is very frustrating when other sites rank you according to some undefined but obviously very complex algorithm.