I am extremely happy about this news. Finally, Alexa had officially made a toolbar for FireFox. Most of my visitors use FireFox for their browser of choice.

For months I know that am missing out on my Alexa ranking. I have even tried to implement Alexa Redirects to help boost my Alexa ranking. I encourage everyone to download this Alexa Toolbar for FireFox so that all the visits to your own blog can count.

Buying a highly ranked (PR5 or above) site or domain for a reasonable price can be a tempting proposition. Site with that ranking can be used to help build valuable links for your blogs, drive traffic to your lesser ranked blogs/sites, or engage in link sales to other bloggers and site owners.

At one time or another you may have come upon a site or domain for sale that is listed as a PR5 or higher and be tempted to bid on it. However, before you dig inside you valet to part with your hard earned cash, you need to make sure that the PR ranking is legitimate and valid. Below are the 3 minimal steps you can take to ensure you get an accurate PR ranking:

• 1.) PR checking tools: There are a few sites and tools whereby you can check whether the PR is valid and legitimate. They include DomainPageRank.com and SEOlogs. These tools should give you an idea of your PageRank and whether they are valid or not.
• 2.) Yahoo Search: Checking the PR with the tools listed above is not all there is to it. Some domains are “dropped” domains yet they retain their high PR temporarily, until the next PR release when they can all go to 0. However, unsuspecting minds would not be informed of this fact and buy these domains for a lot more than they are valued for.  To avoid this scenario, you can use Yahoo Search to make sure the number of backlinks backup their high PR rankings. Go to Yahoo and in the search bar type: Link:yourblog.com (obviously substituting yourblog.com for your URL). You should get a good idea of the number of backlinks and determine if the PR makes sense. There are people that got burned buying a domain with a PR they thought is legit but turned to 0 on the next PR release. Make sure you don’t be one of those victims.
• 3.) Check those links: Lastly, it is good practice for you to check a few of those links and locate where they are pointing to.

If all these things are done, your likelihood of buying a fake PR domain would’ve gone down to near zero. These are the same techniques that I am using t research interesting domains and sites that I might want to include in my portfolio.

How important is the aesthetics of your blog to you? What’s the percentage of importance in the value of your blog would you say you place aesthetics? Or is it a lot more important and a lot higher percentage for content?

For me personally, aesthetic plays a pretty significant role, event though I say content rules. The aesthetic of your blog shows others the level of commitment you put in to present your content in a manner pleasing to the majority of the general population. It’s true that you can’t please everyone, but the better looking and better user experience your blog brings, the more it cements your readers’ mind of its usefulness. Content alone cannot carry the weight.

When I am surfing and visiting other blogs, subconsciously I place a higher imaginary value to the blogs that are well designed and easy to navigate, even before I browse the content. Of course there were instances that I change the rankings in my head after browsing excellent contents of appearance challenged blogs vs. the “prom queen blog”, it usually doesn’t happen often. More often than not, there is a positive correlation between aesthetics of a blog and its content.

With that being said, I have started on a mini-quest to see if I can find a better logo and banner for Founders Cafe. I have exactly 2 people out of the thousands that visited this blog complained about the dynamically generated banner logo/sign I have at the top. So I want to get your opinions on what I should do with the logo/banner. Should I keep it, or should I search for a new logo/banner?

One of the reasons that I like this current banner is that it changes often. The letters are dynamically generated and they change often to showcase the different letter signs found all around the world. It is a nice little widget by Andrea Micheloni. Since my startup is a worldwide travel based startup, I thought that the signs will represent the International flavor that my startup is trying to exude.

I may think of a couple of prizes for the one who can convince me one way or the other, and the one that maybe able to design a nice little logo for this blog. I may follow up to see what kind of prizes I can give away for this effort. If I don’t get many answers or suggestions, I would then make my own decision on this matter. Thanks in advance!

What the heck, I can use some more Blogline subscribers. Since Andy started Viralinks and I started ViralTags, these Viral stuffs are getting their cousins involve; another way to discover new blogs and increase your subscriber base. I got this from Agloco Hours Blog, which I believe was start by Darrin Carter. This is a little bit harder to do, and frankly the instruction did not make a whole lot of sense (or maybe it is really late and I am really sleepy). But I think you can sort of get the picture and can go and start subscribing these blogs via Blogline.

I personally don’t think this one will have many takers. The procedure is harder, and it relies on bloggers reciprocate by subscribing back to you … We’ll see.

***Start Copying Here:***

Here are the rules:

1) If you don’t have a bloglines account, as many of you may now, signup for one, if you do have a bloglines account sign in to your account!

2) For bloggers, you can write a short introductory paragraph about what how you found the Bloglines list and include a link to the blog that referred you, (i.e my Internet Startup Blog, in this case) to the list.

3) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can be accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

4) Take the “My New List” and move them into the “The Original List”.

5) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Bloglines List to the “My New List” section. Remember to also add the “List the Site link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.theblogurl.com/feed)

6) Add Everyone on this list to your Bloglines List by clicking on “List the Site.” Those who want good kharma will list you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of readers from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

***My New List***

SEO Internet Marketing - List the Site
BlackYard dot Net - List the Site

***The Original List***
Dumb Little Man - List the Site
Cheezmizan with Chuva - List the Site
Founders Cafe - List the Site
Darin Carter - List the Site
Big Rayvin - List the Site
Agloco Hours - List the Site
Affordable Graphic Design - List the Site
Story-Story Dot Com - List the Site
Telenovela Love Garden - List the Site
KellyCho - List the Site
DerekSemmler - List the Site
CashForComments - List the Site
Nice4Rice - List the Site
Derrich - List the Site
Ms. Danielle - List the Site
Search Engine Marketing - List the Site
Mr. Gary Lee - List the Site
Dosh Dosh - List the Site
David Culpepper - List the Site
Jon Lee - List the Site
pyxlb0mb - List the Site
Samanathon - List the Site
John Chow - List the Site
IdiotBrain - List the Site
***End Copying Here***

A few weeks ago I started my ViralTags ranking improvement scheme. Many bloggers supported the effort, some criticized it, and some became “critics turned supporters”.

To the supporters, thanks for making it a mutually beneficial experience. To the critics, thanks for the comments and feedbacks as they are soaked in by me more than you know. But I would just like to point out that it is not much different from link purchases that got some of the top blogs and sites to the top, except that it’s free. To the “Critics turned supporters”, you are welcomed without prejudice

Overall, the Google results don’t lie:

This Blog is now

• No. 1 on Google SERP for “Internet Startup Founder“, right in front of articles from the New York Times, Paul Graham of YCombinator, CNN’s articles of Sergey Brin, and James Sun from the Apprentice.

• No. 2 on Google SERP for “Internet Startup Blog“.

• No. 2 on Google SERP for “Internet Startup Entrepreneur“, right behind Inc. Magazine’s article.

All the above anchor texts are the ones I aimed to shoot up the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) when I started the ViralTags program. To do that in less than 3 weeks starting from being buried deep in the SERP to the top is nothing short of amazing. Two things most likely contributed to this rise on Google SERP: the relative scarcity of such type of topics and search terms (most likely), and ViralTags (most definitely). About 20% of my current traffic now originated from Google searches. That is proof to me that my minimal SEO efforts have been working. Besides the higher rankings and search results, I have gained a few more readers that have shown an interest of what I have to share on a daily basis. That, in itself, is rewarding regardless of how high my ranking will get. After all, we all strive to reach out and let our voices be heard.

As for Technorati:
My ranking had gone from over 6 million to the current 8,000+. Interestingly, this doesn’t really matter to me much because I know this is mostly the result of all these back links from Viralinks and ViralTags. However, I am sure many of these top personal blogs had at one time or another boosted their ranking by either participating in similar link building exercises, or link purchasing. It is just a number to boost a blogger’s ego, and it doesn’t mean a whole lot if no one is reading your blog. But that shrinking ranking does look really nice doesn’t it? If that in itself gives you the motivation to write a post when you are tired from a full day serving “the man”, then by all means I am all for it.

Did we game Google and Technorati?
If this little fun and games got Google and Technorati’s attention to my humble little blog, then I am all for it too…. bring it on, there is no press that is bad press. Maybe this will inspire some engineers to come up with a better algorithm for a new search engine? That would be awesome

Much work needs to be done.
I need to improve on “Internet Entrepreneur”, “Internet Business”, “Internet Startup” and probably a few other related search terms. This has been a learning process, and I can take what I’ve learned and apply it to my upcoming Internet Startup. It’s all about the preparation for the launch. If mistakes in SEO are made here, at least I can take what I’ve learned and apply it to improve the results for my startup.

Before coming up with another idea for promotions, I am going to wait and see how the Google PR ranking in August affects my current place in its SERP. I will customarily reveal my findings openly here so you can follow along. If my blog get penalized, then you will also know and obviously should avoid the same mistakes. Part of the purpose of this blog is to experiment different ideas so that I don’t have to experiment these same ideas with my startup when it launches.

Finally, I look forward to keep adding more and more content for this blog and increase RSS subscribers. When time permits, I will add more tools and resources for people that are interested in turning their ideas into a startup. That’s what this blog was built for in the first place.

In conjunction with my Turbo-Charge your Blog’s Technorati Ranking and Google Page Rank series, here I take some time out to recognize these blogs that had gotten on the reservation list for the upcoming beta testing and revenue sharing of my Internet startup.

For every increment of 5 (10 if the pace of sign-ups picks up) blogs that got added on to my Turbo-Charge your Blog Ranking and Google Page Rank series, I will make a post highlighting them. If you would like to take part in this campaign, please see instructions on how to get on the series.

6.) An Experiment in Entrepreneurship: A blog by fellow startup entrepreneur and supporter, Ben. Ben also has big plans for his stealth startup and plans to launch in about a month. Best of luck to you Ben.

7.) BlackYard Technologies: Web Design, Hosting and Animations in Nairobi East Africa: BlackYard is a frequent supporter of this blog and I am glad he does it from East Africa. I love the international flavor of my readers and as the anchor text here described, it is a nice bog/site in East Africa that is growing in scope.

8.) Create your own Blog with BloggersJourney: Blog of another frequent supporter, tobsy. It is a new blog but very well designed and easy on the eyes and with tips and first hand experiences of bloggin from the ground up.

9.) Money Making Opportunities with Peter Phillips: The title says it all, a Money Making Opportunities Blog. Peter has been involved in Real Estate, one of my past passions, and would like to hep others discover those opportunities.

10.) Rumble of Thoughts with Happy Kitten: A blog by a working mother that talks about anything that touches her heart including Parenting, Health, children, Spirituality, Politics etc.

There you have it. A thank you to these supporters!

There are tens of millions of blogs in the blogosphere. We all only have 24 hours in any given day. You frequent many blogs on a daily basis. Why should mine be one of them? Well, here I will like to present several arguments on why my blog should be on your daily reads:

• 7.) You are here already and that means that I have something to offer that might interest you: Whether you got here from a forum post I made, the ViralTag’s train, my personal promotions, links from other blogs, or direct search, you are already here and maybe you should dig around and find something that might interest you.

• 6.) It can give you different ideas to improve your own blog: I’ve built this blog day after day by taking what I like about other nice blogs and mix and match to create my own. It has the flavor of many and it is unique on its own.

• 5.) It can be motivational: Once in a while, I will write something to help motivate myself and also my readers. Everyone knows it’s a tough job to write quality content everyday and keeping the eyes on the prize will help us motivate each other.

• 4.) It is a startup venture blog, not just a make money online blog: If no other reasons makes much of a difference to you, this reason should set this blog apart. It has some very unique content and it differentiates itself from the plethora of new blogs in the blogosphere that only talk about how to make money by blogging. Gradually, this blog will fill the archives with more excellent unique contents that it may be a repository for shoestring startup entrepreneurs. This blog can serve as a blueprint for something beyond blogging, should you expand your entrepreneurial aspirations and start an Internet startup.

• 3.) It will boost your own blog’s Technorati ranking and Google Page Rank: I think this is one of the better free link building programs out there. My Improve Your PR and Rankings with ViralTags program has helped many bloggers gain readership, discover new blogs, and raise their Technorati profile. My Beta Testing and Reservation List is an excellent way of link exchange, and the best part is that you’ll be the first people I will contact  for opportunities to register for revenue sharing spots on my Startup.  On top of that, you can use the anchor text of your choosing. It is definitely one of the best out there and you can take part by checking out the instructions.

• 2.) It will help you make money down the road: My startup venture is a social networking site that enables the users to share in the advertising revenue generated. It can be one of the best sources of income for your blog, along with the usual affiliate programs, Adsense, Text-Link-Ads, and ReviewMe that are available to bloggers.

• 1.) It is just a COOL and SMART thing to do . Why? Because someday you’ll be potentially be talking about how you were one of the early adopters of this successful startup from scratch with a shoestring budget.

So, I hope you will join and support me in launching a community site which shares its revenue with its users. If you want to show me your support of my quest to launch an Internet Startup with my life savings, please subscribe to my Full RSS Feed and let’s enjoy the journey together.

Before you turn this into a huge controversy (actually, controversy brings traffic … yeah bring it on), my experiment so far is inconclusive. I also would like to point out that I know and agree that Alexa is not accurate etc … but it is still important for new bloggers to raise their Alexa ranking in order to command a decent rate for advertising purposes.

About a week ago I began to use the redirect on links that I want people to click on to get to, or within my blog. As you can see my Alexa graph above showed a nice upward slope for the last week or so. I did some research to see what are some of the ways that my Alexa ranking can be improved. I’ve dug around a few sites/blogs and pretty much they have the same info, so I don’t know who is the exact originator of this technique. Therefore, unlike my customary routine of giving credit to the source, I am just going to say the source is a Google search

The technique is not proven and there is no guarantee that it will work. Some people have even told me that I am just wasting my time. But I have to say what the heck, it’s worth a try. You use this redirect by adding http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect? in front of your own URL. So for example, I would use the following for my blog: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?http://FoundersCafe.com (< — go ahead and click on it … it might only help my Alexa ranking LOL…)

Here are the Facts:

• Alexa has its own formula to calculate rankings based in part by the number of hits they receive from those that have the Alexa tool bar installed

• Strangely this tool bar is currently only available to Internet Explorer users, which means all my visitors that are using FireFox do not contribute to my Alexa rankings

• Over 65% of my visitors use FireFox and only 28% use IE as their browser of choice (including yours truly)

• I’ve only started to use the redirect about a week ago, a little earlier than the day I started the ViralTags post which did bring me loads of traffic.

• I used it in most places except in my ViralTags matrix since that matrix is for link building purposes. The purpose for that is to have my site, not Alexa, rise higher in SERP based on my anchor text. If the redirect was used, Alexa would’ve benefited from that instead of me

• I use the redirects in signatures in forums I visit, and links that I want others to click to come to my blog

Here are the unknowns:

• Is the surge in my Alexa ranking due to the surge in traffic here the last few days?

• If I assume that the surge in ranking is the result of the surge in traffic here, would it make so much of a jump in ranking considering that only about 26% of my visitors use Internet Explorer, and that out of this population, maybe not even half have the Alexa tool bar?

What do you guys think? Do you think the redirect helped my rise in ranking (remember that only 26% of my visitors use IE, and I have no clue how many out of that 26% even have the Alexa tool bar)? Would you try this redirect experiment?

I can’t tell you how pleased I am about how well received my ViralTag search engine and ranking improvement program has been by the blogosphere. In only a short few days, my ViralTags matrix has appeared all over the world and in languages that I don’t even recognize. I hope this link tag building exercise has been as rewarding for everybody as it has for me. This is still early, and I firmly believe that it will continue to spread further and deeper into the blogosphere in the next few months. So if you are just finding out about my ViralTags matrix, it is not too late to hop on as more and more people are still coming here to copy and paste the original ViralTags matrix. I also want to give Andy Coates some props because my ViralTags idea is born out of his Viralinks idea.

I have been going to everyone’s blog that I got a ping from, and tried to add everyone to the best of my abilities. One or two might have slipped through the crack, but in general I think I’ve got close to everyone. I’ve heard from some so called SEO experts not taking to the idea because they are afraid that Google might catch on to this or it might “leak” Google PR by having too many outgoing links.

My rebuttal to all of that is: So what? First of all, John Chow didn’t care about how new or what PR you are.  He linked back to you as long as you reviewed his site according to his instructions.  The last I checked, he is still number one or two on Google’s SERP with anchor text Make Money Online.  Secondly, of the over 70 million blogs and many more millions of sites out there, are you really worried about Google catching on to a small blog gaining a couple hundred of links? Might I also remind you that SEO is not an exact science, and many would agree with me on this that no one really knows positively how are rankings ultimately calculated. On the other hand, for every possible leak that I may have by linking out, I may have gained 2 new readers because I care more about my readers than any potential leak.

From what all I have come across the last few days, here are some interesting observations and lessons to share.

The importance of anchor text: It is apparent to me that many bloggers do not know or understand the importance of anchor text linking to their blog. There are two types. The first type is those that I have made reference to in my other post … those that didn’t update their “Host Tag”.

The second type is those that updated their “Host Tag” to something similar or exactly the same as the name of their blog. It is ok if that is intentional and that it is what you were trying to achieve. However, to those that are not aware, the whole idea of using the improved “anchor text” to link to your blog is so that when people search a certain word or phrase, they your blog can appear in Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). So if I go to Google and type in “Internet Startup Blog”, my blog, FoundersCafe.com may one day rise to the top of Google’s result pages if enough people link my blog to those anchor text.

Let say your name is Cindy and your blog’s title is Cindy’s blog. Now you can see that it might not be a wise idea to use “Cindy’s Blog” as your anchor text because chances of people searching for Cindy’s Blog are slim. If your blog is about Internet Startups, then you would probably want to use the anchor text “Internet Startup Blog” so that your blog will keep on rising to the top of the result pages when people search for Internet Startup Blogs. That is the idea behind this whole ViralTags program; that’s to increase your search engine visibility to the outside world. So if you are one of those that are not aware of this reason, you might want to go back and think about what you want your anchor text to be.

Observations about altering the Instructions and the links/tags: I’ve noticed that some people have altered my instructions, the links within the instructions pointing out where ViralTags originated, or deleting my blog’s underlying URL but leaving its name on there, and made it their own creation. I am really fine with people changing it for their own purpose, but I do think that it is only right that the original source of ViaralTags should be known and mentioned. I think it is only good karma and sometimes that’s all we can ask for on the Internet. I always give credit where it should be given (see my first paragraph). However, this program will be beneficial to everyone regardless of the knowledge of the source, and if only a very few people reciprocate back by adding you, you will ultimately get many backlinks as the matrix travel wide and far.

Blog Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are HOT: Regardless of the size of your blog and how long you have been doing this, everybody is interested in finding ways to improve their blogs’ rankings. Most of us here are the newer bloggers (6 months or less) and we can really use some help in getting noticed. There are many interesting ones that are just waiting to be discovered and I think ViralTags definitely helped me to discover some blogs that I will be visiting again.

In addition blogging about my startup, I will also be posting more about blog marketing, SEO related topics and money making ideas to bring more value to my readers. So if you haven’t already, please do consider subscribing to my Full RSS Feed to keep up to date and to support my quest to launch my startup.