The first Yakeze challenge was simply to improve one’s Alexa ranking by getting as low a rank as possible. The ultimate goal was for everyone to breach the 200,000 mark, and I’m pleased to say most have and are continuing to improve.
What I discovered during my first 6 months journey of blogging is that once Financial Samurai breached 200,000, random people from all over the world started contacting me about promoting their products. This is why I introduced the 200,000 Alexa hurdle mark. We’re talking book reviews & giveaways, online budgeting tools with free 6 month memberships, and other neat things which I welcomed. Soon thereafter, I started getting overwhelmed by the amount of offers, so I politely turned them down because I wanted to focus on writing about fun stuff that interests me and the readers.
I was careful not to upset anybody and responded to every single solicitation with a basic “No thank you.” A couple more months passed and I started getting advertisement solicitations for real money right after breaching 100,000 in Alexa. Money has never been a motivation for me to run my site mind you. If I focused on the income generation of blogging, I know I’d get depressed because I’ve devoted countless hours writing, editing, and interacting with the community. We all have. How can you put a dollar value on something which is priceless? You can’t.
THE REALIZATION
One day I realized I was being selfish for not accepting money from advertisers because: 1) Other people could use the money, 2) Perhaps other bloggers could use the contacts, and 3) I was wrongly associating blog revenue with my day job income, which is obviously much larger. Instead of comparing blog revenue to day job revenue, why not compare it to a stream of dividend income or monthly equity investment returns instead? In this context, blog revenue became that much more relevant.
I decided to accept advertising dollars so long as it didn’t interfere with what I wanted to write, when I wanted to write. Long time readers of Financial Samurai will attest to the raw content of the site. There aren’t any affiliate type posts, although I should probably give it a go once in a while and experiment. If advertisers want to support my site, great. Sometimes I wonder who I should accept money from, but I’m not conflicted because the majority of money is donated away.
After a while, advertisement revenue really started to pile up. Some of the products were just OK, and others I adored. But, at the end of the day, advertisement was a means to an end, to keep my site running and help other people in need of monetary help. This is when it hit me that frankly anybody can make a minimum wage salary online just by writing what they want!
LIFESTYLE DESIGN IS A NATURAL EXTENSION
The other catalyst for growing online revenue is the revelation that there are hundreds of “lifestyle design”, “digital nomad”, and “location independent” bloggers out there traveling the world on just US$1,000-$2,000 a month. I’ve always had the goal to one day “retire” and travel to new parts of the world while living off an online business. 30-something countries down, and hopefully 30-something more to go! If I can generate thousands of dollars a month online, the irony is I wouldn’t even need a huge war chest of retirement savings. I’d just go.
I strongly believe there are a lot of free spirits out there who don’t want to live the 9-5 lifestyle either. Yet, many of them have blogs which generate very little income. With the Yakezie Lifestyle vertical, we hope to branch out to a new genre of bloggers who are taking chances and living the life they’ve always dreamed. By joining the Yakezie, I’m sure those dreams will become closer to reality because together, we’re going to find a way to generate a sustainable amount of online revenue.
IT REALLY COULD BE THAT EASY
There’s really only one main building block and that is consistent, diverse amount of content, and a big enough audience to attract advertisers. Everything is just a numbers game, which is why it is imperative that we at least do well in our Alexa rankings, and have a consistent amount of daily traffic to see tangible monetary results.
In addition to traffic, you need the ability to understand and negotiate pricing, as well as know your value in the market place. If you can sell a banner add for $300/month, but accept $50, you are leaving $250 on the table and hurting the market in the process. At the Yakezie, we are going to make sure we get fair market value, and have a consistent flow of advertisers in the pipeline.
With the Yakezie Network, Members are able to leverage off each others relationships and build campaigns and spread the wealth. Already since Yakezie.com’s launch on August 10th, we’ve leveraged our relationships to capture and distribute an amount equal to almost the average per capita income in America! In this wretched economy, I’m proud of our ability of doing what we can to create our own wealth!
$100,000 IN INCREMENTAL REVENUE A MONTH
The dream is to have a tight group of 100 Yakezie Members each make an incremental $1,000 a month in online revenue by the end of 2011 largely due to the Yakezie Network. Sounds ambitious, but why not shoot for the moon? There are literally billions of advertisement revenue in the world for our taking. Why can’t our team capture some of the flow? We certainly can!
There are some Members of the Yakezie who already make thousands of dollars a month. I’m impressed, and I still think we can harness the Yakezie further to do even better and help every Member. If we do get to $100,000 a month, we can then grow our Yakezie Writing Contest to easily $5,000 or more a month given our scale.
Get your Alexa ranking down to below 200,000 and then to 100,000, continue networking with your fellow Yakezie Members in the forums and each other’s sites, and I’m sure you will grow your revenue over time. We will also promote the mozRank rating system given Google Pagerank has stopped updating so advertisers can recognize a newer blog’s true ranking. If we continue working together, there’s no stopping what we can do. The Member Forums are there to make the magic happen. Continue to harness this great repository and think of ways to make information flow better with the relationships we’ve developed within and outisde.
Are you guys ready to build the best personal finance and lifestyle blog network on the web? I know I am! Happy Thanksgiving!
Best,
Sam
* mozRank: For those of you who are dissatisfied with your Google Pagerank, it behooves you to write a post about mozRank and its benefits. Budgeting In The Fun Stuff and Investing It Wisely wrote a couple good posts and so should you. Crystal/Kevin and others, you may want to even write a longer post on mozRank right here on Yakezie.com to help us all given we have adopted the ranking system now that Google Pagerank no longer update.
* Yakezie Articles: Yakezie.com is also open for Member Article contributions. Feel free to share your stories, and if you have any promotions, projects you’d like to highlight such as an eBook you wrote, feel free to write about it here in a tasteful way. The Yakezie.com platform is here for you to utilize! We are going to use the Belts of Honor point system as tie-breakers in case of too much demand for any particular campaigns.
I am continually amazed by the wonderful spirit of friendship and support on Yakezie. The forums are full of very successful and extremely helpful members that think nothing of helping those that are new to the network. My Alexa ranking has gone from 22,000,000 to 957,000… in just a few months.
Successful blogging takes dedication and support. I want to thank all of the Yakezie members that have helped me to get where I am today in my Alexa rankings. I will be working diligently to reach 200,000 within the next month or so. Thanks to all and I look forward to interacting with you on our blogs and in the forums.
Most important is to never give up, I think. There will be times when you will be seriously questioning it whenever the comments dry up or you have gone a few months and are still in the red… but then you’ll find some inspiration to write something else, the comments will return, and you will be happy. :)
If we can do something about this PageRank problem, we might be able to solve the problem of many blogs still being in the red or break-even.
It is so true, never give up. After I had been blogging almost 1 year, I got so frustrated and said to my sisters I want to give up. They encouraged me to keep going and within 1 month of almost giving up I got offered a contract with John Wiley to turn one of my posts into a book. Had I given up then, that book would not have been published and I would not now be earning income from my blog and other ventures online.
It is easy to give up but if your keep going it can be so worth it.
Hi Lisa,
You’re spot on. This is the most supportive network I’ve seen, even outside of Finance. I’m proud to be a member, and I went from 7 Million+ all the way down to where I currently am which is in the 250K – 260K. Now I’m just working on content building and link building to get that final push under 200K.
Thanks,
Timothy
Lisa, it is great that you have joined in the Challenge and are having a lot of fun. That’s music to our ears :) Look into getting a Gravatar at Gravatar.com so we can check out your image!
Lisa, it’s great you are motivated! Don’t feel you need to post 5X a week. I would post 3X a week if I were you and try to do a guest post once a week and increase your exposure. Gluck!
Good to have you Lisa! I’m sure you will do well. See you around the sphere!
That is a very ambitious goal SAM, but seeing how you went this far, I believe reaching this goal is realistic knowing the Yakezie members. Good luck to all!
I really don’t know how some people are hitting $1k a month, must be the PR that’s helping them get the deals?
Pretty cool huh? If Members pass 6 month Challenge, break 200,000 on Alexa and then 100,000, checks out what’s going on in the Member Posts, they’ll see what’s going on! But, my hope is that people are so motivated by money to join, but by friendship and fun.
The money always comes if you don’t focus on it. It is those Members who solely focused on the Network and giving back via the Yakezie Scholarship who will be the ones who will thrive & earn the most in my opinion.
Sam is right. Money might be part of the motivation, but if it is the primary motivation then it will come through in your writing and your readers will abandon you. People who get into blogging for the money get impatient and eventually abandon it. You have to love what you’re writing, because it will get you through the initial months or years of traffic drought.
Thanks,
Timothy
I sure think it is a doable goal. If anyone I know can pull it off, it’s da Samurai
I can’t pull it off myself mate. It’s up to each of us to make it happen. We’re gonna blow pizza delivering out of the water if want! :)
Not if I have anything to say about it. I’ll take a large Peperoni, Sausage, and Extra cheese. I’ll always keep pizza deliverers employed. Man I love pizza.
Absolutely Sam. I have been unsuccessful organising any group campaigns yet but I keep trying and keep going and eventually we will all get there.
As long as we keep trying, that’s all that matter. However, failure due to a lack of trying is unacceptable!
Even the failures are something to learn by. I’m already getting better with this even though none of my guys bit. ;)
Agreed. The only bad plan is no plan. Inaction is a guaranteed loss!
Thanks,
Timothy
Absolutely, I shouldn’t have used the word failed (don’t really believe there is such a thing). Onwards and upwards, can’t wait to get the scholarship rolling and I will increase my giving as soon as I can (basically when my debt is blasted).
Hey Forest,
I love that phrase “onwards and upwards.” It’s the only way to go with the correct mindset!
Thanks,
Timothy
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Frugal Zeitgeist, BeccaKingReed. BeccaKingReed said: The $100000 A Month Yakezie Goal | Yakezie.com: The other catalyst for growing online revenue is the revelation … http://bit.ly/grokeR […]
I love this goal! I am personally shooting for $2500-$3000 a month consistently by 2012, so I think that $100,000 a month for a solid group like the Yakezie should be more than possible!
Definitely possible to generate an incremental $1,000 a month for Members, and hopefully all Members in one year’s time. There just needs to be desire to do so & collaboration. The strong we build the Network, the easier it will get.
In October alone, we distributed $20K+, why can’t we distribute $100K+/month after 12 months? I think we certainly can!
We absolutely can. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but if I can even continue improving at half the rate I have in this last 6 months, I’ll be doing great. If I do great, then the Yakezie does better! I’m getting pumped reading these comments. If I keep it up I may throw my monitor out a window and shout in victory.
Thanks,
Timothy
It’s just great to be a part of Yakezie! Hoping the goal is reached in 2011!
Sounds like a plan.
While I believe it will be more of a 80/20 natural split I think the overall goal is 100% doable!
Doable but not easy. But I strongly believe at the very least that if a Member WANTS to earn $1,000/month, they can and should have little excuse given the networj we’ve created.
If one does want to make an extra 1k a year, no biggie either. It’s what you make of it, always.
I’d love to make 1K a month. When it happens, it happens. I’m just going to keep working my absolute best, and it will eventually happen. Most blogs fail because they were never even given enough time to grow. I will not make that mistake.
Thanks,
Timothy
Sam,
Thanks for the visionary, goal setting post. Like you say, the key is to have fun and be able to help others. But more income helps the fun to be more fun. And wouldn’t it be great to be able to see our scholarship giving leap as Yakezie grows? Very exciting.
I think that a lot of good can come from the network generating the 100K. As cliche as this might sounds, it’s a win-win for everyone!
Thanks,
TImothy
Seriously, it would be great. My top focus is frankly to build the Yakezie Scholarship into a successful, ongoing, social giving initiative we can all be proud of and help someone, or multiple people. I really think to be able to give back is the GREATEST honor!
It’s kind of like my “7 Dollars and the world around you” article. It was a very touching thing to be able to help someone. I’m very proud of the scholarship.
Sam,
You’ve said some great things here that really made me think. I hope it’s okay to address them here. I had wondered about your vision for the network and how large you wanted it to be. It seems like you want a really, really tight group that are seriously promoting each other and contributing to the scholarship fund. This seems more doable to me than having a large, loosely connected network of sites/individuals. One of the things that has frustrated me lately is the lack of some challengers to really promote other people. I think of it as one of the basic tenets of being a challenger and a member. I use weekly posts, tweets and random links to promote my fellow challengers and members all week, usually highlighting one or two blogs that are really working hard writing great content but not seeing the traffic yet. I know that I felt that frustration about a year ago, but kept plowing ahead until I discovered you and this network and some of the really, really great people here that have embraces the “selflessly promoting others” part.
On the monetization aspect I will be the first to admit to not knowing what to do or how prices should be structured. Maybe a member that is doing well can contribute a post about that? It would help people like to better respond to potential advertisers without shortchanging ourselves and the network. Finally, it would be a dream to generate some income and pay off my debt (I call it Quasimodo) then devote some of my finances to checking some things off my bucket list.
Sandy, one thing I realized long ago in the online community is that we can’t make anybody do anything they dot want to do. The only thing you can control are your own actions, so keep up the great work!
Yes, I’d rather have a tightknit network of 100 members and friends than a 1,000 person loose network. But who knows, this is what I prefer and I think many of you too.
At some point you can’t keep up with everyone and the network fractures. You can solve this with hierarchy or some other form of organization, but you will have internal divisions that you don’t have with a smaller group. All of us know each other and stay in close contact more or less which I think is pretty cool.
Hey Sandy,
I definitely understand what you’re saying. I think that there are a lot of little things coming together to address this disparity. What immediately comes to mind is the YPromoGroup twitter hash. Definitely check this out. I try to check it a couple of times a week and hit up whoever is using it.
Thanks,
Timothy
I am happy in the Yakiezie network. I was amazed how quickly my Alexa ranking dropped. I am sooo close to 200K that sometimes I think I am dreaming.
I like your goals, Sam. Ambitious but doable. Inspiring post! Thank you!
Hi Aloysa,
I appreciated the nice comments you left on my posts. I agree that this group has really helped out. I’ve been hovering around the 260K, but I’m hoping to smash through 200K through good posts and networking. :)
Thanks,
Timothy
Once you complete the Challenge and enter the Member Forums, you will really see the doability of it all! Trust me! :)
There is a lot of teamwork going on in the forums. It’s been great to be apart of.
i’m not quite sure how we go about writing about mozRank. Personally for me, I have no idea how it’s calculated, who calculates them, and what the numbers mean. Even the websites that give out these ranking don’t provide much information. All i know is that the higher the number, the better it is. I can definitely say that mozRank is the new PageRank, but after couple sentences of that, I won’t know what else to write.
I know you will be able to figure it out and help yourself mate. All the info is there on their site and Budgeting In The Un Stuff and Investing It Wisely has done so. Please read their posts. Thanks.
Ok, I’ll take a stab at it. Might take me couple weeks to generate such post, but I’ll try my best!
Trying your best is all you can do. At the very least, consider it one less post you’ll have to write that week :D
Thanks,
Timothy
Yeah, I’ve been digging into their site and a lot of their tools. I’m trying to get realy familiar with them so I can write my post. What I’ve learned so far is that there is a lot more to them than just a ranking system. Play with their website and I’m sure you will come up with plenty.
Thanks,
Timothy
Once again you have motivated us all Sam to aim even higher!
Like I said above, I’m pumped right now. At the very worst, Sam could become a motivational speaker, or a personal trainer. I’m about to start doing roundhouse kicks.
Thanks,
Timothy
LOL. How True!
I really think it’s a no brainer what we can do. If we each organize something, and build the Yakezie presence into an ever strong one on the web, business will simply just flow!
I think that’s the fundamentals of it. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and eventually it will all fall into place. I did my YPromoGroup work tonight, so I hope everyone gets their posts in so they too might get promoted.
I think it is definitely doable. I am going to keep promoting others and trying to write great content. Whenever I learn anything, I will try to share it here. As you said, I hope that everyone works hard at this and becomes a tight group (helping each other with monetizing and site optimization, and contributing and building the scholarship), but I plan to do it even if I see others who aren’t!
Hey Khaleef,
This is exactly the attitude that we need to have. Give wherever you can. Some people will return it, and others won’t. The one’s who don’t will eventually get pinched for link love. People will naturally want to link to you if they see that you’ve been doing it for them. Whenever I see someone has linked to me, I make sure that I include them in my round-up (and if I haven’t it was an accident and email me immediately so I can rectify that!). When I’m doing my roundups, I literally go into my comments and look for trackbacks and frequent commenters to include.
Thanks,
Timothy
This is a great way to reciprocate and promote. I do this myself, but I fear some people may be receiving my stuff in their spam folder. This is mainly a problem with new links in any case.
Great attitude and that’s what I’m talking about! Focus on what you can do to help, and not what others aren’t.
There will NEVER be equal effort or contribution in any organization. But, at the very least, we can have honor and respect for each other.
Absolutely, and well stated! I don’t think there will ever be equal reciprocation, but the people that work the hardest eventually climb to the top. Even if it takes an oddly long time, it eventually happens that way. You can’t keep down the most productive people, they’ll always find their way. I’ve seen this in every organization I’ve worked at, regardless of how much management wanted to stop someone.
Hi Sam,
I have definitely enjoyed the interactions with readers the whole way, and I get a little sad if the comments dry up. I have started receiving book reviews, but I cannot say that I have noticed anything tangible with an Alexa of sub-100K. Could it be that your PageRank played a bigger part in attracting advertisers and others to your table?
My first goal is to get my blog into the black, as I have not yet covered expenses, and then I would like to hit at least $100/month. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, and I probably still have a lot to learn at the blogging game, but my goal is very similar to BFS’. I don’t think I would leave the rat race before paying off all debt, but having that income would really help out. It would also feel good to be able to take some of that and help out others with it, too. It’s a win-win.
Hey Kevin,
You and I have discussed this quite a bit! It’s definitely tough! I feel like I’ve stagnated a bit in rank as well. The “Freshly Pressed” from wordpress was a fantastic bump the last couple of days, but that will only help for so long. I’ll let you know if anything I try works :).
Thanks,
Timothy
My Pagerank was a 0, then a 2, then 3, then 4, then Google stopped updating. When I breached 200K I was a 2, and 100K I was a 3 I believe. It might have played a role, or it might have been that I got noticed on the WB list, a guest post, or my comments around the sphere.
Do something long enough, and I think opportunities will just come. I WISH I had more time to just highlight more and more opps in the forums, but I am just so darn stretched. I’ll do more of that if Members can do more content contribution here on Yakezie.com!
There’s only so much Sam to go around huh? Maybe we can start a cloning fund? :D
I’ve made over $1000 a month the last few months and I’m sure being a member of the Yakezie network helped. Since I’ve been slacking off lately my income will be down this month but I think I can get it back up to the $1000 level and beyond if I work hard enough.
That’s Awesome Tight Fisted Miser,
Congratulations on attaining, and maintaining such an awesome milestone! Do you have any words of wisdom for us little guys?
Thanks,
Timothy
I’ve been slacking off lately on income and campaigns as well as I’m providing our goals and content for this site. As soon as Members start contributing regular content, I can focus on making Members income! Hard to do both well though, so need your help and others to contribute some fine writing. Cheers, Sam
I have a post queued up, but I had envisioned it going out a bit earlier, so I’m not so sure it will have the same effect/meaning. Either way, I’ll be sure to set aside some time for Yakezie content as well :)
This is such a great motivation for me, having a new blog and only making about $42 in adsense revenue in my first two months. My goal isn’t to make money with the site, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have some money rolling in to keep the lights on and allow me to reinvest in more things for my videos. Thanks for the positive encouragement Sam!
PS. My Alexa rank is sitting at 220k. I’m thinking I’ll break the threshold in another week or two!
Sounds great! The only disappointing think about Alexa once you get below 100K or 50K is that the incremental improvement isn’t as exciting, and then you plateau.
It was the most exhilarating 6 months of my blogging time watching the improvement!
I’m still watching the progress, but (and this might sound weird) I can’t wait until I get to the plateau area. That’ll be nice. I just need to keep building my content.
Sounds like a great plan Sam!
I’m not there yet, so this will give be a great goal to strive for.
You and me both Money Reasons! I’m far from it, but I will try my best to get there! I think that with enough effort and this group behind us, this is a very attainable goal for anyone.
Thanks,
Timothy
Why not right? Shoot for the moon, and hit the stars. Just wrong a long post in the Member Forums. Feel free to check it out when you get a moment.
I’m reading it and it’s a good post, Sam, but I can’t reply. The topic is locked?
I”ve been thinking about a post I could write for the Yakezie, and I think I’ll have some time to do it this weekend.
Cool. Have unlocked it. Didn’t know what the “locked” function was in Forums. Perhaps you can start by doing a different form of your moZRank post, but talk about competition, opportunities for advancement when competitors misstep with examples of real life examples and how to learn and grow from it?
I’m happy our Yakezie List is now the predominant user of the Alexa Ranking and Belts of Honor system for example. It’s awesome!
Hey Sam,
I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but when you click on the “Forums” link, it takes you to Yakezie.com/forums. There’s generally nothing wrong with this, except my company blocks any urls that go to a “/forum.” Is there any way that we could change the url so that it goes to “/community” or something like that? It will block any url that has “/forum” “/forums” “/chat” and there is no way to work around it. It even blocks proxy servers so I can’t use those to access the forums either. I just figured I’d let you know because I would definitely be more active on the forums if I could access them while at work.
Thanks,
Timothy
Another idea is we could keep the “/forums” but maybe create a subdomain like “community.yakezie.com” that goes to the forums. It just can’t redirect to “yakezie.com/forums” or I’ll run into the same problem.
Hey Timothy,
I don’t think changing the URL is going to be an option right now because of some configuration issues. But, the forums do have RSS feeds and you could bring the feed into Google Reader and at least read what is going on. Sorry that I can’t be more helpful.
Sorry, no can do mate. What if someone is blocked with the word “community”? You can see how the list goes on and on and on. There will be plenty of opportunity to participate in the forums after work :) Thanks for your participation.
Hey Chris,
It’s OK, I just figured I’d run it by. Thanks for the RSS idea. I may toss it into Hootsuite and see how that works out.
Hey Sam,
It’s OK, I definitely understand, and that’s an absolutely valid point. I just like to squeeze every bit of productivity I can :). I think I’ll try Chris’ suggestion with the RSS feed so I can at least see what’s happening. Have a great Thanksgiving to the both of you!
WOW, 100k a month! That is an awesome goal. My long term goal is to bring in $500 a month. The blog would be part of a few side jobs that I can have fun with.
My Alexa rank is about 250k right now, hopefully will break through 200k soon.
I feel really lucky to have discovered Yakezie right when I started my blog. It would be so much more difficult to write with no comments and no readers… :)
Visitor and comment droughts are the hardest things to write through. I’ve felt that pain before. I appreciate the Yakezie just for eliminating that problem alone!
Thanks,
TImothy
Yep, why not! I’ve seen it with my own eyes just in October through a ton of advertisement opportunities via the Member Forums. Once you get access, you will see the potential mate! In the meantime, just keep working on making your site the best it can be. Cheers, Sam
No kidding. I’ve seen a ton of advertisement opportunities this week alone. I think it is really great, and it helps to motivate people too!
I just got started, and my Alexa Rank is at 4,480,000. I’m going to be updating my site at least 5 times a week though, and hopefully I’ll be one of the few that contribute to the $100,000 a month goal! Sounds awesome!
Hi There LifeAndMyFinances,
You sound ambitious, and that is great. 5 times a week is a very aggressive goal, and it will help you to build content quickly. Just make sure that you don’t burn yourself out. The first few months can be slow traffic-wise. Also, be sure that the frequency doesn’t lower the quality of your articles. Quality is what will build a reader base. With that said, you can definitely accomplish your goals. Work hard, don’t give up, and help others in the Yakezie. We’ll help you back!
Thanks,
Timothy
Yeah, I know it’s an agressive goal, and it is tough to come up with 5 solid articles every week, but so far, it’s been great! You’re right, the readers have been slim, but it’s a good thing I linked with Yakezie! I think it will keep me going for quite a while longer. Thanks all!
I say as long as you can keep up the 5 articles a week without feeling too burned out, go for it! or do 4 and guest post once a week to build up some backlinks. I currently post 3 times a week on smartonmoney.com, and 5 times a week (a couple of those are paid writers most weeks) on my other site. It’s a lot of work,but worth it. The more content you can build up, and the more backlinks you can get, the better you’ll do! If you start getting burned out, back off for a while!
Hey Life,
It’s OK, the readers will definitely be slim for a while. You’ve got a good attitude. Make sure you promote on all of the social networks that you can and that should help too. Follow people on each of the networks, comment on people’s stuff, and try to network as well as you can. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
Thanks,
Timothy
Sounds great! I do caution you to perhaps not write 5X a week. You might burn out. Perhaps write 3-4 times a week and go visit other sites and comment. Or, write 3X a week and guest post on any one of the Yakezie Member’s site once a wee. That will get you noticed and bring traffic in, in a hurry!
I agree with Sam. Quality over quantity.
My Alexa rank dropped from almost 9million to just over 1million – and continues to drop. Hopefully this weekend it can drop below 1million for the first time! Woo Hoo!
If I could make a $1,000 out of my blog I think that would be great. Even just a $1,000 on its own, let alone per month.
Lets hope we all get there.
Hey UNHW,
You’re doing great! Don’t worry, you’ll make it through the 1 million mark in no time. Just keep posting the good stuff, and keep promoting. Be sure to link to other people, Digg, Tweet, Reddit, Stumble, Tip, Buzz, and any other thing you can think of doing to a post. That should give you some traffic too!
Thanks,
TImothy
Great job. I’m still trying to work through the initial 13,000,000 mark. I continue to search for new ways to lower my rankings. However, a current contest that I’m running helped me drop from 13,000,000 to 3,000,000 in almost two weeks! Now, I just have to find a way to get all the commentors to return :)
I have been under the weather the last week, and it feels like I have been gone for months with all the content I have missed.
I love this network, and I truly feel like I am not ‘doing my job’ when I am away from the community a few days.
I do prefer a smaller community as it is easier to promote people and keep track of things. But if I was on the outside looking in, I know I would want the circle to expand and let me in.
Welcome back and hope you are feeling better! I’m happy to expand the group so long as there is real collaboration and relationships being developed. A bigger network can do even bigger things. However, I don’t think we should expand for expansion’s sake. Everything takes time, and good thing most of us aren’t in a rush! :)
Thanks again for writing an inspirational post, as always.
I’m definitely not there yet, but I think one month I was ALMOST there.
I like how we make sure everyone benefits, and I like how you say that accepting a lower advertising offer would mean that we are losing money- very true.
I”m very exciting for the upcoming scholarships and announcement of the winner :)
We’ve got 1 full year to try and get there! Sure, perhaps not all of us will make it, but I strongly believe that many of us will in 12 months if we stick to the plan and collaborate!
Couldn’t have come at a better time, we have just found out my son needs some special schooling, and I really could use some extra income right now, so I view your challenge as my goal now, and we will work from there!!
Remember YPROMOGROUP, use it, but don’t abuse it, I give love without question (OK if you post racist or mean stuff, no love then).
Cajun a, tell us more about this YPROMOGROUP. What is it exactly? Sorry if I’m out of touch. Also, I’m sure your son will be just fine!
Congrats to all members! It’s nice to see you guys all motivated and inspired. Every single one of you can do it, always remember that! Cheers!
Hi All, I’ve been on the road for 2 weeks, so obviously not too connected, but I had to respond to this wonderful article. Sam, I gotta say your writing is so clear, I really appreciate it. As I hover around the 109K mark, interact with more amazing bloggers, build my readership, and just write and have fun, I am once again totally committed to the next phase. In fact, I have not been as enthusiastic about anything (since I initially started investing many years ago) as I am about Yakezie. SAm, Way to go!
Hi Barb! Where ya traveling to? Glad the writing is easy to digest. I love your enthusiasm and your energy! You being pumped gets me all pumped up. Which is probably one of our strengths. We feed off each other! I highlighted one of your articles on free resources in my latest wrap. Cheers
What a great idea! When I first read it, I was thinking one blog making that much money and it blew my mind. It’s funny because I was just thinking about this about an hour ago, about how I would love to make money doing a job that I can do virtually anywhere! I have a long way to go but definitely excited to give it a try. By the way, what’s considered a “lifestyle” blog?
Hi Briana, WanderingEarl.com is considered a lifestyle blog. Check it out!
This is a great goal for everyone! I was unaware about the importance of the MozRank rankings vs the PageRank. Thanks for the eye opener!
I definitely think that $1000/month is a doable goal if you put your mind to it. My site is about 6 months old now, and I’m about halfway to that goal already. Give it another 6 months and I bet I’ll be there! You can do it folks! My advice? Check out the sites that you know are successful, and see what they write about. Emulate (not copy) them and you’ll do fine as well!
hey everyone. I’m always down with a great group of people. Is this a membership or so I just start actively posting. My main issue is my main site listed above I don’t really want advertising. I rather create my own products or affiliates. I do have another site or 2 though that ads are welcome on. My main passion now is my main site though can I still participate? I have 2 free ebooks I’m releasing shortly :)
If you want to be involved in a great group of people, the Yakezie network is where you want to be. In order to understand what is going on, though, you might want to go back through some of the old content on the site (especially at the beginning) and this article from Financial Samurai, which is where everything got started:
http://www.financialsamurai.com/2010/01/20/creating-powerful-friends-the-alexa-ranking-challenge/
And you might want to introduce yourself in the forums (link at the top of the page on the right) and meet everyone. To become a full fledged member of Yakezie, you must go through the 6 month challenge discussed in Sam’s post and once complete, write a member post. Hope that helps.
~Chris (Yakezie Webmaster)
Your goals for this group are great! I am hoping to someday soon make $500 to $1000 on my blog to replace part of my income working outside the home. I really want to stay home with my kids when they are little; right now I am on a leave of absence from having our newest little one, so I have 6 more months before I have to decide if I can quit my day job or not.
I love this group! I am so lucky to have stumbled upon it thanks to The Saved Quarter. I have learned more from this group than I learned at a recent blog conference I attended. Thank you!
I really think you will be able to make an extra $500-$1,000/month if you stick with the group and consistently produce good content. There is a massive amount of relationships we have within the group that we are happy to share once you achieve your goals in the Challenge. Best, Sam
[…] and grow Yakezie.com into one of the largest networks on the web. By the end of the year, we aim to generate $100,000 a month in revenue for all Members. Stretch goal, but a possibility for sure. We will host at least 6 […]
I know I’m a little late to throw my cents in on this post but I had to add something. I think pooling resources to estabilish position and in the online ad market is so huge. I know I haven’t been the best member lately but I do appreciate everything I pull away from our group. On top of all that I have really started to asses my real value, I may not be getting hundreds and thousands of hits a day yet but my trickle has def grown since being a part of this group! I love every second of it :)
Nobody is getting hundreds of thousands of hits a day Nunzio, so no worries! What you get out of the group is whatever you put into it! Best
Great post. My site is just about to broach the 2,000,000 mark so I guess I’m 10% of the way. I’m excited to see what happens as I get closer to the 200,000 mark. Thanks for inspiring us and reminding us of our own potential, and happy writing in the new year!
No problem, and welcome to the Challenge!
Awesome post Sam.
Thanks to this awesome network we have gone from 22mil alexa rank to just a hair over 300,000 (perhaps better when we wake in the AM).
More importantly we have received fantastic support from individuals in this network who have the patience and courtesy to support new writers. Add the forums and the wealth of knowledge contained within, we are very excited to be part of the team
[…] their dreams.* Generate meaningful extra online income for all Members. Officially, we have a $100,000 a month income goal by the end of 2011 where we envision 100 Members generating a combined extra $1,000 a month […]
Wow, I’m really excited I found you guys. Thanks for setting this up, Sam. You have built something amazing!
I just wanted to join in and say that I really appreciate the network, all the hard working bloggers in it, and the ambition of the members. In my job I have to do a lot of networking with a lot of different organizations, some of which are very good, but I have never been involved (even though it has only been a short time) with any group that has each others back like the Yakezie. I never thought such a group could exist online and I feel lucky to be a part of the challenge. Thanks and good luck to all of you on reaching your goal.
[…] is definitely a great source of side income. Every member of the Yakezie should be able to generate $1,000 a month from their sites by the end of this year if they leverage the network and the […]
I have to admit that I haven’t given enough time to either my blog or Yakezie. But this whole idea really excites me. I’m around the 400k mark with Alexa and looking forward to getting lower and seeing some money coming in. It could definitely help. :)
I really appreciate how you’ve created the Yakezie network and are expanding it into something really awesome and unique on the net. I’ve been in other niches before and they aren’t nearly this cool. Good luck to everyone!
No worries! The money will always be there, and if you have been focusing on other more important things, that’s all good! The most important thing is the relationships we build here. Thnx! Sam
I haven’t earned a single buck from my blog, which is 4 months old. But the real life stories and ambitious goals are what attracted me to join this network. Hope to devote time to my blog, this forum and my day job without affecting my performance in any of them.
Very inspiring write-up Samurai
Thx for reading. I’m sure if we are speaking this time next year, you will make at least a couple bucks from your site :)
[…] and grow Yakezie.com into one of the largest networks on the web. By the end of the year, we aim to generate $100,000 a month in revenue for all Members. Stretch goal, but a possibility for sure. We will host at least 6 […]
Everytime I read this post I am so motivated! It makes me want to do more
This is actually the first time Ive read this post. Do we still have the goal of $100,000 a month? I noticed that you stated a desire for 100 member group as well. I will say that if you focus on the important aspects of your blog, the monetary rewards will come along eventually. Too many people begin blogging to make money off of it, and when they dont see immediate results they quit too soon.
We sure do. It’s not a hard fast goal, but it is there. And I’m pleased to say that based on what I’ve seen, we are on track to blow that goal out of the water!
I am proud to be a Yakezie Challenger and one day a member. Congrats Sam on setting up set an awesome network of positive and supportive bloggers/freelance writers :P I finally figured out the dashboard… makes getting around the forum much easier :)
Its been over a year since this post was first written and you have a large network of people here! This place is amazing.. Ive spent all weekend reading and reading and reading. I think Ive learned more knowledge here to be a success than I did in my year in college.
1 year later and you have 85 members on the Yakezie network, not to mention how many challengers you have created! Sam you have helped so many people and I bet your goal of $100k will be blown away. When I first read the title of this post I thought you meant each person’s blog making $100k/month! Not impossible but definitely a high goal to reach.. with this network and the knowledge and help here.. its possible. Its time to make some changes and to join in on this amazing group
Hey Sam,
For 2011 I have reached 77% of this goal (that is, the per-member goal), however, the past two-three months have made a real difference in getting here.
The network has grown so much, as well as our reach. We have seen some members like BFS jump to full-time, which I think is just amazing. I’m looking forward to what we can accomplish in 2012!
I’m looking forward to 2012 as well! One thing I’ve been doing this summer is trying to develop longer-term relationships with advertisers. I generally try to touch base periodically about a month a month.
Ooops….meant to type ONCE a month! haha Not “month a month”
I’m still shooting for the consistent 1k a month. Some months are better than others, but it’s great motivation to keep pumping out quality content!
This article makes me want to work harder. My goal is to make 100 a day.
You and me, both, Jai! I used to make that kind of money every month writing revenue share articles, but that ship has sailed. I’m lucky to make a fraction of that each month now (not gonna post an amount here for privacy reasons, but maybe in the forums LOL).
Thanks for the motivational post, Sam! I’m loving Yakezie and can’t wait to become a member and a black belt one day.
~Lena