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Post edited 10:43 am – February 23, 2011 by Matt Wegner

Hi everybody. I installed the Alexa toolbar December 25th with a ranking of 2.8 million. I officially announced that I joined the challenge at the end of January and my ranking is up to 463,000 as of today, so I'm pretty stoked about that. I should have joined way sooner because it's really opened my eyes to some different blog strategies and important metrics to watch. In short, I think my blog is much better since joining.

My blog is of course about personal finance, but it's geared toward debt free living. I'm a Dave Ramsey certified financial counselor so that topic is what

comes naturally to me. Plus, like a lot of other members here, I'm very

passionate about living without debt. I've started adding a lot more

business-related content to the site too, since a lot of my clients are

business owners and are looking for advice there as well. I have some design improvements that have been on the back burner because I've been focusing on content for a while. I'm open to suggestions for design. Check it out at http://www.financialexcellence.net. I definitely want to learn from the collective experience of the members here.

I've found it hard to keep the blogging schedule up as I coach clients full time, I host a podcast, I run another manufacturing business, and I'm working on my MBA. Any suggestions? I'm committed to the challenge but the name says it all – it's definitely a challenge.

One thing I did find is that when I added discussion forums to my site, the page visits went way up, the bounce rate went way down, and the time on site improved as well. Something to consider for your sites if you have an engaged audience. Y'all can feel free to engage in the discussions there as well and there's a discussion thread under the business section where you can promote your business and leave links back to your website.

Ok, that's probably enough about me. I just want to say thanks for doing what you do and I'm excited to be here!

TheDebtPrincess said:

It's official, I suck!

I joined the challenge and then I never came back. Some days I get so overwhelmed by blogging and learning about blogging that I can make heads or tails of what I'm doing.

I need an experienced blogger, a marketing pro & a graphic design artist on speed dial. I have that many questions.

So I'm here again. I'm going to shoot for my original goal of 5 times a week postings, beginng on Monday!

 

I'm always in need of constructive criticism if anyone has any!!

Maybe it will work better if you don't set your goal to be so often.  Would you be more successful with a goal of posting 3 times a week?

Hi everyone, I've completed the challenge with moneycrush.com, but it's been so great that I'm entering it again with my new blog http://www.payoffdebtapp.com/blog/

I'm looking forward to continuing to interact with you guys :)

Welcome Matt! Welcome Debt Princess!

Hi Dan,

I do videos already. I think they're an important piece of your overall blogging efforts. The other experienced challengers & members here may disagree with me but I'm stepping up my video production here now that I bought a new video camera. As to your other questions, I haven't been in the challenge long enough to answer those.

Looking forward to reading your posts!

Hi everyone. I joined the challenge three months ago and, other than posting a few times a week on my blog, I haven't done much else with it. I'm looking forward to becoming more engaged and plan to visit the forums more frequently. What other activities have you found helpful in participating in the challenge?

Thanks!

Hi everyone! Im Justin… I just turned 30 recently and found that I enjoyed reading personal finance blogs so much, why not make blogging a hobby of my own.  The more I read, the more I learned, and the more things I tried… so I wanted to share my personal experiences with people, what Im going through now, the products/investments/accounts/credit cards Ive tried. 

Im an MBA grad from the University of Michigan, and i work for a fortune 100 company in Michigan.  I figured that I had the credentials to make it as a personal finance blogger…lol now im learning how hard that actually is!

Ive had my blog up for about a month, and have had a mere 50 unique visitors, I installed the Alexa toolbar and joined the Yakezie Challenge this past weekend, and my ranking is sadly over 8 million..time to work on that! This is my first blog ever, and my technical/website skills need a bit of work, but Im continuing with this regardless.  Any advice/critique/comments you have, please feel free to let me know! Maybe it will help increase traffic!

http://www.moneyistheroot.com

Hi all,

I've been blogging for about 6 months and have often visited to see what the Yakezie Challenge is about, but have now finally decided to jump in and get involved.  I've seen some fantastic results for others that have joined the challenge andl I'm really keen to create some more relationships with others in the area of PF / Lifestyle – it's lonely all the way over here in Oz!

I write about lifestyle design through wealth creation, which is a pretty important topic for me. Guess I'm going to have to pick up the pace a bit and write more than my usual once per week in order to stick with the challenge rules!  I'd love to have your feedback if you decide to check out my site – be honest, I can take it (I think).  Alexa rank is currently sitting at 1,224,718, hopefully I can drop that to something respectable by the time the site turns 1.

Thanks,

Welcome CentsToShare!   Ask questions and good luck!

groejonathan said:

Hey Guys,

 

I've decided to try out your challenge! CentsToShare is currently sitting at 363,077, so my goal is drop down below 181k within the 6 months.

 

As far as my goals with the site, I'm kinda looking at it as a chronicle of my financial life. Being able to look back on posts I made 20 or 30 years in the past and seeing how I've grown seems like an intriguing concept for me.