I have decided to join the Yakezie challenge. Now you may think this is extremely premature given that I have only been blogging for a month or so – but I am going to give it a shot. I started this blog as a means of finding like-minded people, for self-development and to share some views - and I believe Yakezie will help me to continue to do this.
For those of you who do not know what the Yakezie challenge is, it is essentially a challenge to gain a ranking in the top 200,000 visited sites (according to an Amazon-owned company, Alexa) – seems pretty insane considering this is worldwide!! While Alexa doesn’t monitor every website, at least 40 million webmasters have the toolbars installed, so it is one of the best statistical tools available. The top 10 ranked sites include: Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Windows Live, Blogspot and Twitter – which all look like appropriate candidates! Today I am ranked a little under 9 million! haha 
For me this is motivation – motivation to keep writing and to continute to attempt to engage readers through my blog. Also, one of the listed potential benefits of being in the scheme is that, upon rising through the rankings, authors may ask you to do book review – HOW COOL IS THAT?! I would love to be given a free book and asked to give my opinion on it! 
Wow that sounded a little geeky, but nevermind.
Today I will leave you with a question. This question will help me to develop my blog and writing skills:
How long do should an average blog post be? If they are too short, do you think you have wasted your time, or do you ever often skim read things / not finish?
Welcome aboard! No such thing as premature to joining our little network. I was 8M Alexa when I joined over a year ago. You will get there too!
Great to hear that you were once in the millions too
(in the page rank sense of the word) – Thanks for the comment
Welcome to the Yakezie Challenge. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thanks Denise – I love the idea of your declutter challenge – I will certainly be taking some tips for my upcoming House Move
Welcome! I’m new as well.
I’m aiming for 300-500 words for my three times a week update, and am hoping for two 1000-2000 word deep dives per month.
Good luck with the challange!
I’m sure you’ll see the #’s drop quickly! You’ll really be shocked.
Thanks Brent – your site looks great – How are you enjoying the challenge so far?
First off I want to say welcome! I’ve been in the challenge for 45 days and already went from 3.5 million to under 200k. If you are a commenting and sharing animal, you will have the same results. Hit me up if you have any questions.
Second, I have to say I like your site layout. In fact, I had the same theme when I joined the Challenge
It’s kinda like coming home.
Third, to answer your question, I think that 600-800 seems to be the best for me. Usually when I write longer ones I find that a lot of it is filler that needs edited out. Probably once per week I have a post about 1000-1200 words though.
If you are Seth Godin, you can win with 200 words. If you are Ramit Sethi, you win with 2000 word posts. You just gotta find your balance.
Good luck! Whenever I get around to incorporating an attractive blogroll, you’ll be in mine for sure!
Welcome to the challenge!
Your numbers will drop very quickly. I was at around 23 or 24 million when I started…now I’m a little over 100k (and under 80k on my main site).
Great site, and welcome aboard! I climbed from 4.5 million to 2.4 in a matter of days, but have a ways to go….you’ll get there in no time
Welcome to the challenge. I really like the byline of your blog. Looking forward to your posts. Feel free to ask me a question. Any time!
Congrats in joining, and welcome! I love your theme and design! Yakezie is incredibly helpful in connecting with other bloggers.
Good luck in the Challenge, Scot!
I love the site and I look forward to reading your work!
Welcome to the Challenge! Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Really like the theme of your blog!
Savvy Scot Congrats. Your site has a nice start to it. I can’t wait to see how it grows.
I feel like joining the Yakezie too even if I am too in the millions rank
Thanks for commenting
– Yes I really think you should take the plunge! We can always exchange guest posts?
As a fellow blogging newbie I had never even heard of Yakezie, or Alexa! Thanks for the enlightenment and inspiration to work hard and grow my blog. Good luck
Welcome! I recently joined as welcome! All the best to you!
Thanks
– I found your site a few weeks back actually – Some great discussion there!
Oops…I meant I recently joined as well
Good luck in the challenge! I have not joined yet, but think Yakezie is a terrific resource and intend to join in the future.
So I’m not hte only one at the 9M mark? Cool!
My only suggestion – I use Google Reader a lot, and usually unsubscribe to blogs that give me abbreviated posts in my reader. If your whole post is there, I’ll read it, even if I’m not that interested in the topic. If it is only the first few sentences, I rarely click through to finish reading.
Just a thought!
Thanks for the advice on this one Kris – will look into changing this tonight