Improving traffic of the blog

Two months ago, July 22, 2010, I checked the global ranking of this blog via www.alexa.com. It was at a far 7.88+ million in rank. Well, not really that far since other blogs and website I know have ranks 20+ million or "no data available".

I just kept writing and updating this blog. Then a young friend who is also a fellow believer of more individual freedom in society, Harry Santos, volunteered to improve the design of this blog. That was about a month ago. I am focused on writing and less inclined to discover certain tools on the technical or lay-out aspect of my blog. So such help by Harry, I really appreciated.

Today, I checked again this blog's ranking at alexa.com. I am very happy to see a big improvement: it's now at 5.80+ million in rank. Or in two months, this blog has overtaken in rank (and popularity?) more than 2 million other blogs and websites around the world!

No specific target in global rank, but I will keep writing from a free market, more individual freedom, anti-statist and anti-socialist perspective.

One of my IT professional friends informed me that alexa.com's ranking is not really that reliable because alexa requires other websites and blogs to put something from its product so that alexa can properly monitor its statistics. He suggested to use google analytics.

Being a non-techie person, I believe him. But as I do not know how to get google analytics, I have to rely on alexa for the meantime. Whatever its ranking means, I believe there is some truth to it. Why -- well, unlike in previous months and years, I put in more hours these days writing new blog entries, packing in with necessary data, graphs and pictures whenever possible to add more visuals to the sometimes long discussions. Such effort plus announcements in my facebook status, in my discussion yahoogroups, helped bring in more traffic to this blog. And the rise in global rank captures such development.

On another note, the website of our think tank, www.minimalgovernment.net, has also greatly improved too. Again, based on alexa.com's global ranking, the site was ranked 13.51+ million as of July 22, 2010.

Today, minimalgovernment.net's ranking has moved up to 6.57+ million. Or it has jumped and overtaken in ranking almost 7 million other blogs and websites around the world in just two months.

To my mind, this is one indicator that many people are becoming more receptive to the ideas of free market and the need to advance individual freedom. Or conversely, many people realize the evils of heavy government intervention, regulation and taxation; that more people appreciate the virtue of voluntary exchange arrangement under free markets, compared to the stiff forced exchange scheme under big governments situation.

Of course, not all readers of free market-oriented blogs and websites are believers of the philosophy. There should be fans and believers of "restrict, over-regulate and over-tax markets" who follow such sites like this blog. Why -- well, they have to study how free marketers analyze certain issues, philosophies and public policies. So that they can device new tools and arguments to further fool the public to accept continued heavy statism, if not even more restrictive statism.

The debates and discussions will go on, of course. For the next few years, decades, and even centuries.

But guess who will prevail, the free market or heavy state philosophy?

The answer can be gleaned from the present: the creators of blogger and google, of facebook and youtube, of yahoo and wordpress, of wiki and twitter, and many other free online networking and search engines -- are all private entrepreneurs and capitalists. NOT any government, not the UN, not any socialist party or NGO or activist environmentalists.

In short, the free market philosophy is winning. Most people just do not realize it. That is why the statists are becoming more clever. National level coercions are not enough, they have expanded their power to the global level. Witness the growth of the UN and the FCCC (and man-made warming religion), for instance. Also the WB, IMF, WTO, ADB, etc.

Cheers!