Sell more advertising on your blog by increasing your Alexa ranking!

• I'd like to sell more advertising on my blog but my Alexa.com ranking is very low. I've had potential advertisers tell me to increase that ranking before they will come on board long-term. What's the big deal with this metric and how can I get mine up?

Answer: Alexa.com (owned by Amazon) is a metric that many advertisers consider when evaluating a Web site or blog for possible media buys. This is especially true for ad networks like Sponsored Reviews, ReviewMe, Smorty and TextLinkAds, who specifically base their ad selling rates on a site's current Alexa ranking.

Unfortunately, the big problem with the Alexa traffic ranking is that it only measures traffic from users who visit your site with the actual Alexa toolbar installed. So who are these people who take the time to get that toolbar installed?...webmasters and SEOs.

What this means is that Alexa rankings are NOT random or wholly accurate. In fact, unless you are one of the more popular Top 500 ranked sites according to Alexa, you will discover that your projected Alexa traffic doesn't line up even remotely close to the actual recorded traffic on your site.

Nevertheless, many advertisers still feel the need to use an Alexa.com ranking in their media buying calculations, and a low Alexa traffic ranking can hurt your chances. The good news is that there are several methods...