Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: alexa

February, Fishing and my Alexa Ranking.

Good February everyone!  I can’t believe January is over already.  It is moderately cold here in Utah right now but not snowing.  I am not sure if I like that or not.  It seems like winter should either get with it and snow for more than 15 minutes (like it has the past couple of nights) or turn into spring already.  I got the spring yard clean up/landscaping bug this weekend while watching some home improvement shows on HGTV.  I can’t wait for the ground to thaw!

I keep hearing about this Alexa thing that apparently is important to be on the high side, in the top 100,000.  So I decided to look up where my site is.  On Saturday Jan. 30, I was at 12,829,290.  All I could do was laugh.  This morning, February 1, I was almost shocked to see I had DROPPED to 12,850,206.  I dropped nearly 21000 spots in 2 days.  I am not sure what this means but I will keep looking at it.  At least it is better than the other website that I run with my wife Brendasquiltshop.com.  That site doesn’t even have a ranking so 12,850,206 must be ok.  What does it mean?  I need to get out there more and not worry too much until I get some more incoming traffic.

And finally I so want to go fishing.  Not ice fishing which should just be called “freeze your butt off while sitting on the ice” fishing but real fishing.  From the bank, from the boat, standing in the stream I don’t care.  Winter gets long some days and my gear calls to me.

Last fall our family went to Kidney Kamp.  It is sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation and the Great Salt Lake Truck Show and it lets families of people with kidney disease and or kidney transplants a chance to go to camp.  I am glad my 3 year old is in the latter category now.  For 2 years that was the only camp we could do because they had facilities to do dialysis.

I digress yet again.  This camp has a very small pond that they stock with fish and let the kids check out poles to fish with.  Me, I keep a travel fly rod in the car and wanted to practice.  But they only want kids to fish so I recruited my 9 year old and told her it was her first training session.  We didn’t catch anything that day, the fish were more interested in the gummy bears that the kid across the pond was using for bait than a natural looking fly.  Hmm, that is another post idea, Seeking out the flash we want instead of the stuff we need.

The lesson here is I will try to find a way to fish anywhere I can, even if it requires my kids to do it.  I just want to fish.  Anyone want to come with?  My wife will be having our 4th child this July so I know my fishing outings will be limited, but I will still go some.  Not actually going fishing will leave me time to work on my e-book about beginning fly fishing.  I am reworking and updating a website I made in one of my college writing classes to work as a book.  I should take pre-orders to force me to finish by my St. Patrick’s Day deadline.

Anyhow, Life is Great when you are satisfied with it.  If you are reading this, You Are Awesome. Thanks for your support.

Justin

Running Out of Either Steam or Caffeine

Hello and welcome to Thursday!  I have to apologize for yesterday, domestic tasks needed to be taken care of  and the computer was few and far between.  Yet another reason for the pre-writing challenge and having a queue of posts built up.

An update on the challenge:  it has been nearly 1 week since the challenge started and so many of the participants are  producing fantastic blog posts and ideas.  I don’t have any posts written yet but the titles are in my drafts queue and waiting for fabulousness!  I have to let life catch up without losing focus and blowing off the challenge with procrastination.

So I am at the point in my blog where I can see many people giving up.  The novelty of the blog is gone and the work is really beginning.  Posts are still not hard to write, it is harder to get to the writing.  I can produce better content but is it fulfilling a need somewhere or just belching out crap from my brain that no one cares about?

I really feel like my posts are better with some facts and research in them.  I like to brag some about my blog and how it is doing.  Yesterday I did zero promotion on my blog.  Zero and my stat press recorded 48 visitors.  Today as I write this there have already been 12 visitors.  That tells me I have been doing something right.  My Alexa rank has gone from 12,850,206 on Feb1 to 1,149,880 today.  I am not obsessing with Alexa but many places look at it and it is a good universally compared to ranking.  People are looking from all over the world.  Alexa lists the UK, Philippines, and Australia on it’s list.  That is so freaking cool I can hardly contain myself.  I love the internet.  With all of this in mind, I really need to keep up with my posts and comments.

I haven’t been reading and commenting as much as I need to to bring more traffic in.  Like I said the “work” part of this online journey is really beginning.  I have to take a page from my buddy James at the infopreneur, (I talk about him a lot.  He is going to get a big head) and get my stuff in a pile.  That and write and comment!  I am approaching 2000 visitors to my site so I can’t give up now.  I am only 1 month away from the magical 3 and not being one of the statistics.

Yesterday was an interesting introspection for me.  I was catching up on housework and helping the kids with homework when I realized that all of the organization, prioritization, and time management stuff I have been reading and talking about is barely getting incorporated.  I have been doing the stay at home dad thing for quite a while now and I still try to figure out how my Mom always had it together and kept everything clean and running.

I don’t think I am running out of steam on my business, I just need to stoke the fire and get it flowing again!  Therefore, I need more caffeine and less excuses.

If you are reading this, you are awesome.  Pat yourself on the back and then go enjoy the day.

Justin