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Until today Alexa mainly used it’s own toolbars’ data. Because its strong distribution in the group of techheads and webmasters, the compiled data has not been very representative in many cases. Alexa already tried to fix that by serious number crunching, but nevertheless sites with a tech affine readership had more “optimistic” charts, while sites with a broader focus came off badly.

Alexa data reloaded

Today Alexa inserted new data into its system. According to Alexa it is based on a wider range of data sources, of which one is the normalized global representative panel. Also the calculation method of the trend chart was optimized as well as the geographical distribution statistics.

At the moment the data only reaches back 9 months in time – Alexa already announced that the historical traffic statistics will be delivered in addition.

More info: Alexas publication of the new system

Article is also available in German: Alexa: verbesserter Algorithmus & neue Datenquellen

How do you like the new Alexa?

Here’s Part 1 of the series:

YouTube Video video link

First part of the video deals with idea of only buying stuff that is absolutely essential for business operation. Most of the stuff you think you’d need right upfront is probably not so important as you thought it were:

A desk and a chair: You probably own one already, only buy a new one if you can’t use your existing one. Do not choose the best one, go for a solution below $200.

Computer: where are you reading this entry? If your answer is “At home” you can use the computer you are staring at to start up your business. The idea that a new computer would change the way you do business is often a wrong one.

Business cards: In most cases you don’t need them, but if you can’t do without, let moo.com print your cards (they provide fancy cards with your own flickr pictures etc.) .

Website: Of course you need a website when starting up you online business. To save money you can use the free web publishing software named Wordpress and choose from a variety of ready-made website templates. You can even use the hosted version at wordpress.com which is also free (but not as configurable as a self-hosted solution).

Logo: choose a typeface that you really like (for instance at veer.com) and use the company name as your logo (maybe slightly modified). You can expand on that later on, when your receiving money from your clients / ad networks etc.

Financial planning is essential: Cash Flow

Second part of the video handles fincanial planning and cash flow, which is something that you absolutely should do before you start. Many people get kicked out of business only because of the lack of financial planning (especially cash flow planning).

Contrary to expectations it’s something that is easily done, if you have a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Openoffice Calc. You could even use the free Google Docs through your web browser to avoid installing a spreadsheet application on your computer.

Easy but helpful tips if you’re just starting out. You often regret your early business expenses because you realise later on that they weren’t as essential for your business as you thought they might be. So be warned and ask yourself these questions for everything you’re considering to buy:

1. Is it really vital for my business to buy this now?
2. What will I gain through this purchase within next month?
3. What will I loose if I do NOT buy this now?

Hope that helps. If you have any additional tips or questions on starting up your own web business, let me know in the comments below.

So if you’re planning to use video on youtube to create buzz and channel the attention towards your products or services, you may want to get it and read it through straight away.

I’m happy to get to know your opinion about the content of the book. Especially if you’ve implemented one or more strategies mentioned inside the book for yourself, let others participate in your findings through a comment below.

Maybe he could have done some things another way, to increase his chances of selling all or at least some more available ad slots? I think so, here are some ideas he could have considered:

1. When the advertisers were the ones to enter the draw (instead of the “normal” users clicking the ads), chances for selling more ads would have increased. There would have been fewer clicks onto the ads, but the advertisers should know that this is only junk traffic anyway. Even more ads would have been sold, when an advertiser could get a higher chance of winning the price through buying more ads.
2. $1 million may seem like a lot of money, but the chance that you are the one to get it is near zero. Splitting the money would have probably been a good idea (for instance: 1x$500.000, 2x$100.000, 4×50.000, 5x$20.000 etc.)
3. Lowering his own share could have also increased the chance of creating much more buzz. The student with “no money at all” who is selling pixels to afford his degree studies was a story that’s sticky but a millionaire trying to do another million is not.

As the sum to be given to the winner is $153.000 I reckon he must have earned the same amount (deducting server cost and managing), as every pixel was sold for $2. That is not too bad for a near copycat of his own idea and it’s even more he expected to gain through the original idea in the first place (he needed $37.000 to cover cost for 3 years at university).

Does anyone know something about Alex’ eBook about the hole story which he anounced to be writing in May 2006? It doesn’t look like it will be published anytime soon, isn’t it?

What do you think? Did Alex do the right thing, or could he have even doubled or tripled his income using another strategy? Let me know your opinion.

Update: it’s official now: the winner of the $153.000 draw is Mr K. Moguche from Kenya, as you can read on pixelotto.com.

Yes, you’ll probably know Marlon Sanders from his energizing Apperance on the Next Internet Millionaire (I just say Ninja Style!). Now Marlon has launched his new product, which lays out the exact steps on your way to a profitable info product for everyone.

Guided by the “Matrix”

The Info-Product Dashboard is some kind of a Matrix, which guides you through the process of the info-product creation. Every day for 6 Weeks you will see an icon, which symbolizes a specific task to do (which itself will take less than an hour of you time on most days). Behind the icon you’ll find the exact information you need to accomplish the several steps needed to create a profitable info-product.

Here you can take a first grasp at what the Info-Product Dashboard looks like:

Looks as easy as pie, doesn’t it? – but is it?

Let the creator himself describe the product, because he does that like probably noone else could (click to play):

Visit Marlons Site to get an impression of his new product.

The main Idea reminds me of the Teaching Sells Program from Copyblogger Brian Clark, although the Info-Product Dashboard seems to be much more strict in its path to get to the desired result. I’m more into the way Teaching Sells tries to get the message over, but if you need a concrete demand to get your ass up and running this may be the right thing four you.

Go to the Info-Product Dashboard »

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