But whilst we await an advertising metric which can’t be gamed, there is certainly one measurable benefit of having a good Alexa score, or more importantly a significant gain in Alexa rating.

Alexa Can Drive Real Qualified Traffic

But where from? The Top 10 Movers and Shakers page.

Due to the sudden influx in traffic over the last week due to the Google PageRank updates, I was shocked to see some referral traffic coming from Alexa.

Here is a screenshot for some future bragroll or for use as “social proof”.

Here is my traffic spike that demonstrates that 390% increase in traffic as measured by Alexa.

Alexa Accuracy

Here is the amazing part of all this, though obviously the traffic interested in my PageRank articles is probably similar in nature to my normal traffic (using the Search Status plugin for Firefox)

390% Increase Is Fairly Accurate

The peak traffic on 24th October represented 4,093 unique visitors (24hr tracked by MBL) and 6,901 page views. Awstats shows 7674 visits and 66630 page views – the first figure is a lot more accurate.

Traffic actually has grown fairly slowly since February or March whichever metric I use, other than the one that probably counts the most, subscribers.

You will notice that that subscriber growth doesn’t contain any significant spikes. The growth isn’t based upon massive social media traffic such as a front page Digg as this blog has never appeared there, and probably never will.

I will have some more stats about the “PageRank Blogstorm” in due course.

So How Much Traffic Can You Gain From Alexa?

Note I am at the bottom of the list, so the traffic I will receive is much lower than those further up.

So far since I appeared on the list yesterday I have received 110 visitors, and those visitors know what the site is about which they are clicking on. Targeted Visitors

If that listing remains for a week (I don’t know how long they normally last), then I might gain 300+ visitors.

300 visitors might not seem like a lot, in the past I have managed to send 400 to someone’s blog, but in the general scale of things in this niche it isn’t bad for a single source of targeted traffic (discounting social sites), though temporary.

Does your mind wander when you are doing a physical job that doesn’t require much other thought? Mine certainly does.

Duplicate Content of Biblical Proportions

I have been doing some research of “Top 10 Lists” for a new site. Whilst no list of the top 10 best selling books is exactly the same, there is one common feature. Every single top 10 list states that The Bible in all its variations has sold more than 6 billion copies.
That is close to the current world population, estimated by the CIA to be 6,525,170,264 (July 2006 est.)
Thus there are probably as many bibles in the world as people

That is an awful lot of duplicate content

Gideons

Gideons is an interesting organisation, whose work is evangelism and distribution of the bible. You will see Gideons bibles in every hotel room, and I was given a Gideons bible whilst at school in addition to a larger bible I was issued for Religious Education lessons.

With the help of the Gideons organisation, whenever you need a bible, there is one close at hand.

Spread the Word

This is a fundamental concept in all religion, not just Christian. It is not enough to have the knowledge and faith, you are also meant to pass it onto other people. Lots of the time the knowledge will fall on deaf ears. If the knowledge is out there, and easy to find even without specifically looking for it, such as in a hotel room drawer, it has a benefit.

Worthwhile Duplicate Content

I am sure many of those 6 billion bibles are in dusty attics, unused drawers, or buried at the back on shelves, long forgotten. Every now and then one copy gets rediscovered, unearthed or brought out of hiding.

The Bible and Duplicate Content

A church is not the only place you can find a copy of the bible. I am sure many religious people read more of the bible while in church than the cumulative total of all other places, but that doesn’t make it pointless to have multiple copies in your home, school, library and even hotel rooms. All those copies of the bible are seeds, and every now and then one of those seeds gets picked up and begins to germinate, wherever the seed is located.

Your Articles and Duplicate Content

I recently wrote a mammoth blog post on my philosophy with article marketing. Many marketing experts believe that article marketing no longer works, or you should be highly selective where you publish your content.

I mentioned a strategy, that as long as you link back to the original source for your content that people can follow, it makes sense to spread your article as widely as possible.
I don’t discount special publishing deals that will bring your article to the forefront of thousands of people, but that opportunity is often reserved for established writers.

Articles Are Seeds of Knowledge

Spread your articles far and wide. Sometimes they will land in fertile soil, and germinate and grow almost immediately. Whilst I wouldn’t dare liken EzineArticles to a church, it certainly is very fertile ground for your seeds to grow.

Some of your articles will almost certainly end up landing on less fertile ground, or buried deep in a website long forgotten. It is a seed that hasn’t germinated yet, but one day it might be uncovered and grow into a tree bearing fruit.

Sometimes your article may end up on even more unsavoury territory, with a link to you not being provided, or even worse plagiarised. It will happen, such is the nature of people. If the purpose of your article was to help people more than market yourself, then it really doesn’t matter if occasionally the link to you is broken. A person reading your article is still going to look for further knowledge on the subject, and eventually find their way to respected sources of information, such as yourself, just as someone picking up a Gideon’s bible might eventually find their way to a church.

If you don’t sow your seeds, they don’t have a chance to grow