SiteSell Blog

In Defense of Alexa

Ken's Blog

Alexa must be the most maligned, useful service online. Webmasters seem to enjoy dismissing it as "useless." They usually give their own sites as examples, as if a sample size of one means anything in the world of mathematics. Or they explain how it can be gamed, as if that totally invalidates this valuable tool.

In fact, when you do a proper study involving tens of thousands of sites, such as we do with Site Build It! sites, there is an excellent correlation between the number of visitors that a site receives and the Alexa traffic ranking.

And Geoffrey Mack, who writes the Alexa blog, showed a different kind of correlation between ranking and traffic in a post two days ago.  His post focused on the tight correlation of traffic and Alexa ranking for two sites with excellent rankings (Top 1000) over a period of time.

While useful, it was a touch disingenuous. Any two sites can be chosen to prove a point. And top-ranking Alexa sites have, due to the volumes of traffic, less scatter (i.e., a better correlation.)

So let's get to the bottom of this. Alexa is a tremendously valuable tool, if you understand how it works, including the nature of its sampling and therefore its bias. With that under your belt, you will find true value in Alexa.

Why the Tortoise Should Be Your Mascot, Too!

Ken's Blog

The tortoise is the official SBI! mascot. S/he should be yours, too. Why?

Because the world is spinning too bloody fast and noisy! It's been accelerating for centuries, of course. The pace has picked up progressively over decades, years, months, and now it seems, each week!

The Web is perhaps the major noise and speed accelerator. And RSS and blogging have pushed "the pedal to the metal."

What's a small-business person to do? We've only got 24 hours per day and we need at least 1 or 2 to sleep!

Tortoise It!

The tortoise is the perfect mascot for today's world. Steady. Persistent. Unperturbable. A thick shell to pull into when needed. Poke your head out and look around -- take a chance, at the right time. And you know what?

They live a long, long time... and they get there!

Overwhelmed By It All?

You're not alone. Even if we limit this discussion to the world of small business information and resources, there is just so darn much. But there's a solution. First...

Welcome To "The Blog"

Ken's Blog

Welcome to the SiteSell Blog, or, as we call it around here, The Blog. This is the public voice of SiteSell.com It has three major sections, each with its own purpose...

1) Ken's Blog

Over the years since we first launched SiteSell a millennium ago, we've learned a ton from over 100,000 MYSS! and other e-book customers, hundreds of thousands of folks who've downloaded our free Masters Courses, and tens of thousands of Site Build It! customers.

It has given us a rather unique perspective.  We don't just publish articles and talk theory. We provide software tools that force us to live reality. We thrive only by helping our SBI! customers thrive.

Our customers have taught us a lot about the big picture and the small. I plan to share comments about the human condition as well as our take on the state of the Web and how it pertains to the small business person.

We have a strong history of making good "calls"...