Regarding a blogs authority and importance online

Let's continue with the questions you had for us. Warning for a long answer to one single question.

Q: On your "advertising" section you say: "They say this is the worlds largest and most famous independent sailing/cruising blog..." What does this mean and how do you know your blog is the largest independent sailing blog?
 We have followed your world tour for a year now and wish to leave for a similar journey ourselves one day. i see you have done well in promoting your trip and the blog is a success, your ideas would be helpful as we too would like to set up a blog for our journey when we set sail. Thank you. /Phil and Susann

A: Many of you have wondered about what we mean with that, let me explain: When I say "they", I refer to the overall authority and popularity which this blog has on the world wide web, compared to other independent blogs. There are a few ways to determine your websites relevance and importance online. One and the foremost is to check how many visitors your website has, this is easily done with the various analytic and statistic programs that you can find online. We use Statcounter and this is what it looked like yesterday when I checked our traffic for the past 30 days.

As you can see we got a bit more than 104.000 unique visitors and around 187.000 visits between Dec 28th and Jan 27th. Usually we have around 120.000 unique visitors and 210.000 visits monthly but the traffic slowed obviously down a bit during Christmas and New Year as people been busy doing other things than hanging online. Should be back with 120k unique, or more, next month.

That's a fair amount of visitors, but how do I know that we have more than others, and that our blog is so "popular"? First you can register your blog in different blog portals where you can get an idea of how many readers you have in comparison to other blogs/pages (like this one where we are #1 of all sailing/boat websites worldwide). Numbers on these portals are never 100% accurate but gives you an overall picture of how you stand in relation to the other websites on that specific portal.

Second, and even more important, thing to do is to check your page rank which is Googles valuation of your website. There are many blogs which has many readers, but your Google authority and your popularity online are only determined by the amount of backlinks (meaning sites writing about your blog) as well as the quality of the links that are sent your way. We have been blessed with having many readers who not only love what we do but who also have enjoyed sharing our story with their friends and followers. That is a successful project and blog in my eyes, when the many hours you spend working online is compensated by generous quality backlinks. The more links you got from sites with a high pagerank, the higher page rank/authority will you eventually get for your own site. Click here to check your page rank.

Your page rank is pegged on a scale 0-10 and the higher your site ranks on that scale, the more valuable it is in Google's eyes. Our blog has page rank #5, which is very high being an independent blog without support from a large newspaper platform or such. Every website or blog whose aim is to make money on their site wants to have as high pagerank as possible so you can dominate search engine rankings and to be interesting in the eyes of advertisers.

When compared with other sailing/cruising/sport/travel blogs or any other blog for that matter, our rank as 5 is regarded to be very good. Most of the independent blogs out there has somewhere between 0-3, some has 4 whereas 5-7 is considered to be very high. To give you a comparison, Facebook and Google has rank #10 obviously, Amazon has #9, Greenpeace #8, New York post has #7, Garance Doré and West Marine has rank #6 and Laser Performance got #4.

Websites which are in the same "league" as us with pagerank #5 are Conde Nast,  Blondinbella (one of Sweden's largest blogs written by an inspiring young business woman/blog personality), American Apparel, Not without salt (one of the most popular food and cooking blogs on the Internet) and Style by Kling (one of the world most famous fashion bloggers).

To check what page rank you got, just type in your own website here and if you'd like, compare your rank with your favorite sites. Our high page rank makes us able to charge a fair amount for hyperlinks, advertisement and product partnerships, as a link from our site is considered to have higher value and be more qualitative, than links from most other blogs and websites online. We charge today up to €299 for one single link in our blog content and considering the amount of inquiries we've received since we've started, a blog like ours is apparently the perfect place to be seen.

If you'd like a tips regarding how to make your blog successful, I can tell you the only good way that I know, which is to be interesting, unique and genuine in your production. You should be faithful to your niche as well as to your readers and instead of constantly chasing new followers, focus on making a damn good blog and to build an intimate relationship with the readers you got and the rest will follow. You will need to spend lots of time and energy on your project and daily updates are crucial when looking for to create and develop a highly ranked blog. There are today over 156 million blogs in existence so you better be unique, dedicated and hard working in order to stand out among the rest. It's all about building a true and strong foundation, just like with any other business. 

Memories of past and future

Got served fresh mango juice this morning on a table cloth that reminds me of warm childhood summers picking blueberries with my grandmother. 20 years ago but still so close to my heart. Speaking of age. Very soon I'm turning thirty... there's a great intimate party in the planning. For the change of age I don't care too much, but I'm looking very much forward to spend the day with some really amazing people. Isn't that what is the most important in life anyway? Not things nor possessions, but relationships with people you meet during your lifetime. Sometimes it feels like I have had it all, done and possessed what many only can dream of, but in the end of the day what is etched into my heart and what gives me smiles, warmth and good memories for a lifetime, are the friendships, relationships and times I had the blessing to share with people that I loved. Some does naturally fall off along the way as life is such, not everything is meant to be forever, but the memories and lessons that I have kept from them all are what makes me an incredibly thankful and rich human being.

Freezing

Brrr... it's so damn cold here. Need to pull on jeans or pants every day after 4pm as the winds are as chilly as during a cold summer night back home in Scandinavia. January and February are supposed to be the coldest months so here's to hoping both these months pass fast. Or in a way it is way better than those sweaty months of August and September when I think about it. Alex and me could barely sleep in the same bed because of the high humidity and the oppressive clinging heat so I guess this might be just a tad bit better, but still: Cold! Here's a hot mix made to heat up frozen winter souls, by Brooke Johnston, goes well with a glass of round red wine to get you (almost) back into a summery mood.

Last night at Cecilia's

Cecilia Nord is a Swedish ex-model who've worked with Helmut Newton and many other influential photographers back in the 80's. Today she runs one of Antigua's most interesting and reputable restaurants with an intriguing melange of Swedish, Italian and Mediterranean cuisine on a private beach at Dutchman's Bay, very close by the airport. It was a long time since I enjoyed such a wonderful pyttipanna med ägg och rödbetor as I did last night.. and the generous portion of confit de canard that Alex had was absolutely amazing. Great night spent with a few of our beautiful friends from Antigua.

Do not miss to check out Cecilia's Highpoint next time you're on the island if you're looking for great ambiance and delicious food in beautiful surroundings

Moroccan handmade

When we were in St Martin last week, we picked up some of the few remaining things that were left on Caos and cleaned her out once and for all. These handmade plates from Morocco were some of the things we flew home with. Suits the style of our "new" galley most perfectly.

Scroll through this chapter if you wish to see how it looked like when Alex, Caos and me stayed 6 weeks in Morocco, a bit more than a year ago. Would love to get back there one day with Duende too.

Go green

Another beautiful day spent on the beach, this time with Abi and Victoria. Abi, aka the narghile pimp, had graciously matched her sunglasses with the narghile* hose. Smoking shisha on a beach with good friends while sun is setting is one of my top five most pleasurable things to do 2012. And green is definitely the color of the season in the Caribbean. lol.

Stephanie, you were missed!

* Waterpipe, also called hookah, shisha, narghile etc depending on which country you're from. It originates from the eastern world, India, Persia and Arabic countries and smoking the waterpipe is a common social activity in most of those areas of the world. You usually fill the bowl of the waterpipe with tobacco mixed with whatever flavor you'd prefer, like apple, mint or another sweet, flavorful ingredient. 

Turn the lights down

Sun's down, pizza's eaten and time for us to go to bed and collect some energy for another day in paradise.. see you all tomorrow. This is a great tune to go to bed with. Sweet dreams everyone.

Answers to the first questions..

1. What language do you two speak on the boat when it is just the two of you? You seem to speak so many languages.. Sure enjoy your Blog! / Tim

English. Some words comes out in Spanish too but mainly it is english for sure. It's good for us as we both can practice.... other than that Alex teaches me French at times.. unfortunately Alex doesn't speak Swedish or Finnish.

2. Thanx for a awesom blog and inspiration! How long are you planing to sail.. any specific goals, like 2 times around the globe? Are you working to get all end to meet or i the blog and savings enough? 
Have a great day / Criss - Sweden

Thanks for reading Criss. No specific plans more than we'll do what we want to, when we can. The new boat must be ready and safe before we cross a new ocean.. We have spent much money and time to make our other boat, Caos, a very safe boat, now begins the job of doing the same with Duende. We will probably stay a few months here in Antigua, then maybe sail a few months around in South America, then Pacific. But can't tell you when. One day we will maybe get around the world.


We don't have much savings left... spent most of it on our first 1,5 year of cruising and on the boat/s. Now we must slave at work as most other! Glad that we can do our job from almost wherever we want to tho. Or almost anyone could do the same I think? It's all about choices and priorities. There's always a way. 

Besides of being a talent with wood/joinery, Alex is working as a carbon fiber/composite specialist and he got loads of good job now when the season has started here. I'm working as a freelance photographer and I do quite alright as well during this season. Then we got the blog which is my art project as well as a portfolio but also a quite lucrative business. We make OK money from the blog and the plan is to get enough from it and things in relation to it so we don't have to be working with anything else. Maybe end of this year that dream will come true? Alex has a great (musical) plan that involves this blog, he will get started with it as soon as he's done with the boat later this year (hopefully late spring/early summer). He's normally a successful mastering/mixing engineer when he's not sailing around the world so he's looking forward to pick up that side of life again, combined with our travels of course. We will also open up our market online later this spring so the blog is of much importance to us and so far it has proved to be a very good source of income for us... we got a lot of plans with this little blog for the future so we're very thankful that y'all are reading. Thanks so much!

3. Who's idea was it to change boat? I read it was more speed and space you required.. ? / Pete

It was mainly Alex's idea.. he has for a long time been longing for a project where he can build something with his hands. A Hallberg Rassy is hard to modify to your personal needs and ideas, it's made the way it is and it would be a shame to start dismounting it. Alex will one day build his own boat from scratch so this new Duende is one step closer to that dream as she offers many possibilities for modification.
 Also Alex has been frustrated with the (slow) speed of Caos. He raced much when he was younger and he wanted a boat that can give him a real challenge. For me I was alright with Caos, she's safe, strong, comfortable and ok in size... but I do understand Alex's point of view and Duende is a beauty plus the size and speed appeals to me as well.
 Besides of being a great boat, we both see Duende as the perfect home and we can see a long future with her. We don't want to build a family with kids and all that for now, but we wanted to have a home/boat which we can slowly build and rebuild to something that suits our life and needs. This boat is equal to a house on land for us as we will be sailing around the world for many more years so it's important we both feel happy with it. It's a family project which we both value very much. Alex will use his skills to rebuild/refit this boat to his high standards and he's happier than in a long time. For him it's important to be able to create something. He's an artist and needs to have a fulfilling project to feel satisfaction in life. For me, I love the size of the galley and saloon of course.. it will be so very much work for us, again, but so far we've figured it will be worth it. We're currently dreaming and planning for all the beautiful things we will do to make her shine as the star she was created to be (and more).

4. Who came up with the idea of this trip? Did you agree from the beginning, or did someone think their partner were crazy? /Celia

Initially it was Alex's idea for us to sail somewhere warm for a few weeks/a month (like Morocco or such) and I asked him why we couldn't sail around the whole world instead? That was when we had dated for a few weeks only and one year later we left. Alex had owned many boats in his past and to sail around the world has always been his dream, for me that dream was created when I met him. I had never sailed before I met him but for now I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. Read more about how it all started here.. and here's the longer version which explains how we met, who we were before that and all other perhaps interesting things about our past.

5. Hello, I love your blog, especially the great photos you take! So excited already which places in the world you gonna discover and share with us this year (:
My question would be: Is there any specific place or piece of nature you seen so far, that impressed you the most and like sticks in your memory more intense than others? Like the most overwhelming thing you've seen so far on your travels? If yes, which one was it? I mean,you see and discover so much and i'm interested if there was something which was most special/beautiful for you.
 Or is it all just so amazing and you can't really make a difference between the places?
Anyways,pleae keep on writing this amazing blog like forever,thanks /; Ines

Thanks Ines, glad you're enjoying our blog. I've made a diagram of what we think is best with each of the Caribbean islands we've been to so far, will show it soon. But best for nature experiences are: Nevis and Dominica, both are very very beautiful and peaceful places, not too crowded nor touristy. I will show pics from the rainforest of Dominica soon, it's so wild and untouched. Feels like the only place on earth where humans haven't destroyed it yet..

6. What brand and how much sunscreen do you use on a daily basis? / Kent in Kansas City

Banana Boat spf 50 (Alex) Jan Marini spf 30 for face (Taru), Vichy body spf 20 (Taru) we have sunscreen on almost all the time.. more when on the beach or sailing of course. Alex is still looking for the perfect sunscreen though, one that is dry, not oily, and works for sailing/surfing/long hours of out door work, any tips are appreciated.

7. What happened to the HDPro camera? Why not set up a live web cam over Alex working on the boat, so we can see the weather the scenery and live activities.
Can you charter out Caos, at a low rate so it is always in use? Just generate some income from it while to go forward instead of waiting around for a lump sum?
Did you see the Dutch girl arriving in Sint Maarten on Saturday? The marina at the draw bridge. Looked very very window from the news videos. Simpson Bay I think. There is a monster yacht parked there, just massive, do you know who/what it is. Enormous white thing with a black stripe around it (I think). Here's a screen shot of the massive yacht I am referring to http://i44.tinypic.com/so8v81.jpg /Oswald

Haven't received GO Pro camera yet because of messed up postal service on these islands.. will sort it out soon. We don't want to charter Caos, we want to sell her and move on with our life. We didn't have time to wait for the Duth girls arrivial (youngest person to finish a sailing circumnavigation) but we saw her father at the Yacht Club by Simpson Bay Bridge. He looked excited. I think the boat you're talking about is Abrahomivich Eclipse maybe? The one I have a shot of here?

8. How are both of you financing this trip around the world? I see some photography assignments, merchandising and articles as evidence of some of the income. 
Also, once you pass into the Pacific, where will your first landfall be located? /42N

We're working along the way, see answer #2. Landfall for Pacific... not sure.. right now we're focused on making Duende safe and ready, will take a few months. We might then make a season of South American cruising (Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina) before we get out into the Pacific.. time will tell, but South America has so much interesting places to discover so we're kind of figuring it's a shame to miss all that before we set off for the South Pacific. Also for the music project Alex will do later this year, it might be better to be in South America... looking forward to it. Miss speaking Spanish!

9. Hello there! 
I'm one of the daydreamers that one day will sail away with my boat and hopefully will meet you in at anchor in a fantastic place in the middle of nowhere.
Do you think your lifestyle will change after crossing Panama channel? South Pacific is huge and quite different from Caribes. Will you be able to update your blog so frequently like you're doing now?
Best wishes! /Claudio Italy

Hey Claudio, our lifestyle will (hopefully) change to more hippie bohemian in the South Pacific and we look forward to spend much less money over there.. Not sure now when we will leave for Pacific though, will do some South America first. Regarding updating the blog over there: It might be a bit slower on this blog during the long ocean crossing. On the Atlantic crossing I had only a satellite connection to use for blog updates but I think I could report quite much anyway. At least once every day. Not sure how it is to find bars and restaurants with wifi in the South Pacific but what I heard from others who've been there, it hasn't been a problem. The reason why I spend so much time with the blog and other online projects now, is because Alex is working a lot. When he doesn't work as much, I will naturally slow down my work as well so we can find a comfortable balance. It has been a good year here in the Caribbean, business wise, Alex got lots of work and I had time and peace to build and expand this blog and our trademark. We do look forward to work less and travel more later this year though.

10. Do you want English lessons as you post blog entries? While your English is 99% accurate there are many small subtle things missed, and unless pointed out will never be corrected.

For example the paragraph in this post is 100% accurate except the last sentence: "We look forward to speak to you"

which should be:

"We look forward to speak[ing] to you"

Very small thinks like this all over the place where the use of in should be on, lots of these e.g. "Swing in a liana anyone?" -- this should be on. Anything on the outside is on, anything inside is in.

Not trying to be clever but for a non-English speaker unless someone points them out, they will never be corrected and learned.

YES please!! I know my grammar sucks at times... correct me anytime you have time por favor as I do want to perfect my writing, thanks. I know how irritating it is when I read Swedish texts and people use the wrong grammar so I can understand it hurts your English speaking peoples eyes at times!

11. I remember Alex owning a motorcycle before your trip and with his mechanical skills he must have owned a series of interesting vehicles before spending endless hours in the bilge. We read your blog daily from car-obsessed Los Angeles every day. /Bill Price

alex answer: hi bill, yep i owned some nice bikes such as Harley Davidson 1980 883cc sporster, HD 1340 cc springer, HD 1998 1600cc evo dyna superglide, HD 2001 1800cc dyna sport, Yamaha 2001 1300cc, of course all of them with a lot of mechanical tweaking... I bought/sold much bikes back in the days but just like with boats... you don't make much money on them on the second hand market.  i also had some nice cars like Alpine a310, Mercedes coupe 300ce and Audi s8. 

12. Alex,
 Tu as choisi un superbe bateau. Il a une ligne fantastique et ça doit être un vrai plaisir de la barrer.
Pas trop de boulot de maintenance tout de même? / Luc

luc, merci pour le compliment, duende a effectivement une superbe ligne et navigue tout aussi bien, jusqu'à 8 noeuds dans de la mer formee, tout en maintenant une extreme précision a la barre

par contre on ne pas parler encore de maintenance mais plutôt de restauration...

That's all for now,,, more answers coming up later....

Homies

When we leave Antigua, whenever that will be (April?) Noopy and Byron are two of the ones we will remember the most. Our daily conversations will definitely be missed. Noopy (left, born in Curacao, raised in Antigua) is by the way a very artistic man, I'll show you some of his art with a video one day.. and Byron you've met before, here.

Good night

While having a cup of warm lemon grass tea in this chilly Caribbean night (no joke) and answering the questions you had for us, we're listening to these soulful tunes:

Etta James - Misty

Ann Peebles - I can't stand the rain

Janis Joplin - All is loneliness 

Amy Winehouse - Some unholy war

Bill Withers - The same love that made me laugh

Chet Baker - You go to my head

Otis Redding - Change is gonna come

Nina Simone - Strange fruit

Don't forget that you can still ask us whatever you wish to know, here, answers coming up in the blog tomorrow..