Anyone else notice that Alexa rankings shifted around BIG TIME?

I did. And you know what? I think the new algorithm they are using does a much better job of capturing actual traffic volume across niches.

Whereas in the past Alexa has been heavily weighted towards Tech and Internet niches (making many sites in these niches look more popular than they really are), I think the new algorithm actually allows for comparative analysis across niches.

That's a major breakthrough and one more reason I'll keep on keeping my eye on the Alexa graph for my sites as evidence of progress.

I have this new rule. If I can't get a blog into the top 100k of Alexa or at least 2k visitors per day within 6 months, I'm going stop investing time and money in the blog.

Rules like this help you to stay focused and to avoid wishful thinking. Sure, there are going to be exceptions (for example, I'm making $700 per month on a blog that's not even in the Alexa One Million)....

But the fact is...you need ways of objectively analyzing your web properties and the success of your blog. Maybe you're rule isn't as stringent as mine. Maybe it's more stringent. Whatever the case, we all need to step back and be willing to say goodbye to our "babies" when, despite our best efforts and best intentions, our projects have proven themselves to be failures. Sooner or later, any further investment of time and money is clearly a waste.

It's the toughest lesson I've had to learn. But moving forward in an efficient and profitable way makes it necessary. So 2008 is the year of "Alexa 100k or bust" for Ryan Caldwell's portfolio.

So what kind of objective standards do you use for deciding whether to cut and run, or stay the course?

Finally! I don't know when they released it, but after years of frustration, Alexa has finally given all of us Firefox fanboys an official Alexa Toolbar (and they call her Sparky).

I wonder how much the Alexa rankings will vibrate because of this... since in reality, SEOs use Firefox more than the general public. I had always thought that one way of keeping the SEO skew in Alexa from being too dramatic was by keeping the toolbar off Firefox. That strategy is out the window.

Has anyone noticed any shifts in Alexa data because of this?