I just saw this thread!  Congrats on the great progress!  Your articles are getting better all the time!  I really enjoy reading them!

Robert, thanks so much for the compliment. It means a lot coming from you. My writing is definitely going through a growing phase, and I am glad you enjoy it :)

@ Jason: To get your Alexa ranking to drop quickly, you need other bloggers to visit your site. They method I used was to first write articles worth reading and then go comment on as many blogs as I could after reading the articles I enjoyed. You kind of develop online relationships through comments, and people you click with are naturally interested in visiting your blog. Also, try joining a Yakezie team. Look for the fall teams to be forming soon. It's a group of people who help each other out by commenting and sharing each other's articles, and giving each other feedbakc to improve their blogs. I would also suggest working on guest posting on more established blogs with the best articles you can muster up to help get people familiar with who you are and give them a reason to visit you.

As far as blogging well, it really comes down to passion. If you don't really give a rip about what you are writing, it shows. There's no way to really hide that. On the contrary, if you are passionate about something, that shows as well, and will compel others to tune in. Also, just keep at it. There will be times where it feels like you're making no progress, and times where your blog gets huge jumps, but the key is to keep steady. Today, for example, my Alexa went up about 1,000 points and my traffic is down, but I'm still going to hammer out a great article for tomorrow to keep others interested and broadcast my thoughts/feeling/advice on a certain subject. Even if I only got 10 hits today, I will write like I'm going to get 1,000 tomorrow.

And......that's all I got for now. Give me another year, and I'll probably have WAY better advice :)

@ Lance: Thanks Lance!

@ Club Thrifty: Thanks you guys. I love your blog as well. i fell like we're on similar wavelengths :)

@ Frugal Toad: Thanks!

@ SeeDebtRun: Awww, thanks. Thank you both for helping me succeed.

@ DebtKiller: Thanks! Just stick around here, you'll get there in no time.

@ Shilpan: Thank you!

@ Jai: Thanks Jai!
 
 
You guys are so encouraging, I really appreciate it. I definitely needed the motivation today, and logging in to see this response has definitely helped.
 
you are all gentlemen/women and scholars, and I look forward to joining many of you in the depths of the sub-100k club soon :)

Great job, Jacob. Keep it up!!

-jefferson