Making Sense Of Cents

Learn how to make extra money, how to save money, how to start a blog, and more.

JOIN OVER 300,000
MONTHLY READERS!

Improving your Alexa Rank and Weekly Roundup

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 37 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! It’s finally the weekend and I’m excited.

I finally decided on a costume. I’m going to test my craft skills and try to make this Pocahontas costume. I bought a plain brown shirt and already have fringe boots, blue necklace and a braided headband, so I am pretty set! Cheap costume and it’s exactly what I wanted to be anyways.

We plan on going on a haunted hayride pub crawl tonight. Sounds like fun right? Yeah, if only it weren’t only 35 degrees tonight 🙁

Then tomorrow we are going to a pumpkin patch with the boy’s family. It’ll be fun, I surprisingly haven’t been to one since I was really young.

Alexa Rank

Earlier this month I made a post on increasing your Google Page Rank. Now I would like to help you all decrease your Alexa! A lot of you have been e-mailing me about how to decrease your Alexa.

If you check my Alexa, I am currently at around 80,000. It has been dropping quickly ever since I switched to WordPress.

So what is Alexa? The lower your score, the better your website ranks. Facebook has a ranking of 1 and Google is a 2 if that gives you a better perspective. Blogs below the 200,000 mark are said to be in the top 1% of all websites/blogs/etc. out there.

Why does your Alexa ranking matter though? 200,000 and below is said to be when advertisers will start flocking to you. I definitely believe this is true because once I dropped below that, I received numerous requests.

1. Install the Alexa Toolbar.

Your Alexa score is mainly determined by how many people view your blog that already have the toolbar, so install it! Then having your regular readers install it as well will help also. It is said that you need to click around to more than one page when you do visit a website as well.

2. Increased traffic to your site/blog.

The more traffic that you have, then generally the lower your ranking. Creating good quality content which engages and entertains your readers is key here. You want people to keep coming back.

3. Increased specialized traffic.

Another way to have a lower ranking is to have a lot of traffic from people who have the Alexa Toolbar installed. If you have a lot of readers, but hardly anyone has the toolbar, then you will most likely have a very high ranking.

It goes without saying that to lower your Alexa traffic rank you would need more web traffic, but as the above references show, what you actually need is specialized traffic – traffic from visitors who have Alexa Toolbar installed.

 Posts that I love:

  1.  Is It Possible to Reduce Your Monthly Grocery Bill with Coupons? @ Tackling Our Debt
  2. Are High School Reunions Worth the Cost? @ My Money Design
  3. Would You Be A Human Guinea Pig For Money? @ Call Me What You Want Even Cheap
  4. Why We Have Separate Finances (Sort of) @ Edward Antrobus
  5. Things I Couldn’t Do If I Had A Car Payment @ IHeartBudgets
  6. What to do about a black mark on a credit report @ Frugal Portland

Have a great weekend!

Should I still be anonymous?

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 103 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I’m sure you have all noticed, but lately I’ve been asking everyone on Twitter if I should still remain anonymous. Lately I have felt the HUGE need to tell people. I told my sister about my blog last month, and her and the boy keep telling me that I should tell people.

It also doesn’t help that the boy has told a lot of his friends and family that I blog. Luckily I have told them all to not tell anyone, so no one else really knows. They also don’t know the URL (at least I don’t think), so I am safe there as well.

I do think that I am not entirely anonymous. I talk a ton about my life, I am Facebook friends with some of you, some of you have my cell phone number, and there are pictures of me out there on my blog, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. I just try not to post anything directly on my homepage of my blog.

This is mainly for my safety. I am able to talk about whatever I want without worrying if someone will find out and that I will hurt their feelings.

I also talk a ton about money, and I go into detail with our budget, income and everything else. I wouldn’t want some weirdo to know how much money I make, especially if this is a weirdo who me and the boy know. I wouldn’t want to put anything at risk.

I last made a post on my decision to be anonymous in January.

I would like to tell my friends so that I am not so private about everything. They probably are starting to wonder why I am still so busy even though I don’t have night classes anymore also.

One of the reasons that keeps holding me back is something that my friends recently said. We were all out one night and the topic of an acquaintance’s blog came up. They were saying some not so kind things and it made me nervous to say anything. However, I’m afraid that one day they’ll find out and wonder why I hid it.

I’m definitely NOT ashamed of my blog in anyway, but I do talk about a ton of personal things here on my blog.

And there are some things that Im not sure if I would want my friends to know, as it is all too personal and still upsets me.

Another reason why I want to share my blog is because I’m also starting a second blog (a site in which my sister will help run), and she wants it to not be anonymous. My friends will easily find it if she’s not anonymous and I would rather tell them now then them finding Making Sense of Cents and questioning it.

So I guess the thing is, if I were to stop being anonymous and became public with my identity, I would have to hide certain things, such as how much money I make. Or would I not? What would you do? Keep everything the same or hide some things in order to protect yourself?

If you have posts that explain why you’re anonymous or not, please leave them below in the comments. I would love to read them!

What do you think?

Were you ever anonymous and then decided to not be so private?

Increasing Google Page Rank and Weekly Roundup

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 37 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great weekend. Not much planned for me. I plan on catching up around my house and running lots of errands. I also am going to Oktoberfest! WOOHOO!

Today I decided to add some blog tips and info to my usual weekly roundup post. I noticed that a lot of bloggers this week (mainly beauty and lifestyle bloggers) have been asking a lot of questions about Page Rank.

Now, I realize that I don’t have the highest page rank, but these are things that I am now just starting to do since I want to make my blog a little more professional (instead of just winging everything).

There are a couple of websites to use to check your Page Rank. Check it! What is your page rank? Have you ever thought about page rank? Is my post the first time you’ve ever heard of it?

Page Rank is how Google can measure your website. There is a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. It gets increasingly harder for each increase in number.

An increase from 1 to 2 is not the same as an increase from 4 to 5.

This means that moving to a PR6 from a PR5 is MUCH harder than moving from a PR0 to a PR1.

It is calculated in many different ways, but mainly by looking at the number of links on your site, which include: backlinks, inbound links, outbound links, nofollow and dofollow links.

Google updates your page rank every couple of months. There is no set schedule known though.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Make sure the quality of your writing is high. Writing in a niche and/or having great blog posts that people want to share is a great start!

2. Guest post on other blogs. This takes more time than other strategies, but I do believe that it is a good strategy to use. You can get good backlinks, and hopefully gain some readers.

3. Make sure your comments are NoFollow. Most commenting systems are NoFollow, but I would double check just in case. If your commenting system is a DoFollow, then you will probably get spammed a lot. By making your comments NoFollow, you can avoid being put on a spam list and also preserve your Page Rank.

4. Submit your site to blog carnivals and other directories. I’m sure you’ve noticed some of these posts on my blog (such as here) and some of you might have no idea about why I post these. Submitting your blog to directories and carnivals is a good way to get  . I just started doing these more often.

However, some say that submitting your posts and links to these directories do not work as well. What’s your opinion or knowledge on this? I’d like to know!

5. QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY. A higher quality link from a high quality site is better than having a lot of lower quality links to your site.

Have you been trying to increase your Page Rank? Any tips?

 

Posts that I loved:

  1. Budget Friday Submission 4 @ I Heart Budgets
  2. Being a Boss, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly @ Eyes on the Dollar
  3. You are your most important financial asset @ Money After Grad
  4. DIY Juice Cleanse: How I lost 4 pounds in 4 days @ Newlyweds on a Budget
  5. Why I Stopped Pushing My Son to Go to College @ So Over This

 

 

What are your weekend plans?

How I Make Money Blogging

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How I Make Money Blogging

I am e-mailed nearly everyday on how I make money from blogging. I love your e-mails, but truthfully, I’m not positive that everything I do actually works. I have learned a lot from other bloggers.

I include an extra money update every month ($994 in June, $672 in May, $485 in March, and more in other months as well). A lot of my monthly income is from blogging income.

As most of you know, I also started blogging in August of 2011. My blog is almost 1 year old and while I have a way to go, I do think I have been doing ok.

I didn’t actually start to monetize from my blog until around December of 2011. Much thanks to Crystal. She runs an advertising service which has helped me greatly! I don’t make all of my blog income from her, but I have learned how to talk to advertisers and other things.

Crystal started Budgeting in the Fun Stuff in February 2010 and she then grew it into a site which has made more than $42,000 as of the end of June of 2012.

WHAT??!?!?

She is doing really great! She has also bought other websites and co-owns some as well, which increases her blog income even more.  She was able to leave her $35,000 a year job and now works from home.

She has now written an ebook so that all of us can learn her secrets and hopefully do something similar to what she has done.

What’s included in her book?

  • Her Background with Blogging
  • Picking a Name, Host, and Blogging Platform
  • Main Parts of a Blog
  • Building Up Your Blog
  • Making Connections
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Plugins
  • Rankings
  • Types of Ads
  • Ad Rates
  • Handling Offers
  • Tracking your Ads
  • Other Ways to Make Money Blogging
  • Action Plan to Get You Started Right Now

The price for her ebook is $17 in July and will go up after that. Get yours hands on it while you can!

As a disclosure, I was not paid to write this post, and everything was written by me. I honestly do think Crystal is very smart in the blogging world and that she has tons of tips to share. I do get a portion of sales if you buy through my link though.

Extra Money Ideas

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 1 Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Shorter post today. Super busy with all the car stuff, work and school. But of course I don’t want to leave you hanging 🙂 and I also have a lot of stuff on my mind that I love getting your opinions on.

Yesterday, I made a post about maybe getting a part-time job. A lot of you said just relax, and a lot of you said I should try and find something and come up with extra money ideas.

There are a lot of things out there that I could do. I’m still not sure how much time I would want to dedicate to it though. Once I graduate and get promoted at my work, I’m sure there will be a lot more stress involved and I probably won’t want something that takes up too much time.

However, I have no kids or anything, so I know I will have time.

Here’s a list of things that I could do:

  1. Create another blog. I could start being more professional with this and start learning what all the blog terms like SEO and everything really mean, and then apply it to my blog.
  2. Tutor. I have a lot of people who are always asking me to tutor them, but I always say no. It wouldn’t be a bad idea though.
  3. Work at the tanning salon with my friend. She doesn’t make the greatest money, but it’s not hard work.
  4. Bartend. A lot of my friends are bartenders and make decent money. Plus they get free drinks from other bartender friends that we know and free drinks at their bar.
  5. Volunteer. Yes I wouldn’t make any money, but I could finally start volunteering at the animal shelter.
  6. Retail store. I could maybe ask for my job back at where I used to work, and I’m sure she would say yes. She still loves me.
  7. Do medical research tests. I would never do this. I hate shots, needles, blood being drawn. But my friend does work at a medical research facility and she’s always telling me about the awesome pay they give. This is something I’d never do, but I thought I’d throw it out there for others.
  8. Find a temp job. Some of you mentioned this, what type of skilled temp jobs are out there that you guys were mentioning?
  9. Babysit/nanny. I did this when I was much younger, and haven’t watched a little kid in forever. But I do remember that the pay was good when I was in middle school. I got paid $10 an hour which was pretty nice.
What would or do you currently do for extra money?

Blog happenings

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have so much to do today. Homework, group projects, studying for midterms (which are next week), cleaning, and so much more! Save me.

Interesting Search Keywords:
  1. teenage girl pregnant in waiting room
  2. How do I not spend all my money
  3. How to work out
  4. Scared people running
  5. Nasty hair
My comment on these:
  1. Not sure where the pregnant keyword comes from.
  2. Just don’t spent all your money!
  3. At least walk around and that should be something!
  4. Ha I don’t even know what to say about this one.
  5. I’m really hoping I don’t have nasty hair…
Some blog shout outs (and blog posts I love):
  1. Over at From Shopping to Saving, she’s going to be a homeowner! Congrats!
  2. Upendilife had good news. Congrats on being accepted into a university!
  3. Over at Well Heeled Blog, she’s trying to decide what she wants to do. I’m extremely jealous of her school and travel situation.
  4. I always feel like I can relate to everything Daisy says, especially about life do-overs.
  5. Tanner’s been talking about vacations, and I love anything with vacations.
  6. The Happy Homeowner cut down her Harvard expenses by a TON

Have a great day!

My Extra Monthly Income

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 46 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today is Wednesday, finally! Anyways, I thought I’d finally give you the details on my extra monthly income.

In my January Goals update, I said:

“Make an extra $500 this month.  PASS. I made over $600 from blog income and surveys!”

After I posted that, I was literally flooded with e-mails from you guys!

I’ve told you guys in this post, my February Goals, and in my goal update post that I would tell you more information about my monthly income. I’m not going to lie, I have been pushing this off because I’m not too entirely sure what to say and I thought this post would be extremely boring. But then I reminded myself that before I was making this extra income, I LOVED (and I still do love) reading about others and how they made their extra income. It’s nice to find out about new opportunities that you may not have thought about. [Read more…]

Subscribe Via Email

PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS OF USE
DISCLAIMER / EARNINGS DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.