15 Nov 2010 - SMI Talk: Due Diligence

SMI Talk

Welcome back to another episode of SMI Talk! Many have been, and still are, debating the reliability of Alexa ranking in determining a program's longevity, which poses a glaring question: what other tools can be used besides Alexa?

Admittedly, Alexa can be a powerful tool if used wisely. Nonetheless, it's merely a tool used to gauge a site's potential; it is not a fortune-teller. I have been using this tool for a while to look for various signs, including, but not limited to, the number of visitors who visit the site a.k.a site traffic, new visitors to the site a.k.a unique visitors etc. These are useful, but I wouldn't bet my money that they're foolproof.

Before I move on, let's take a closer look at Alexa, and rediscover what it really is at its core.

Alexa is a web information company that provides, well, information about websites. You can find traffic information, visitor information, types of visitors, and a host of other information as well.

As the Alexa graph can be used to draw a somewhat conclusive image of a site's performance, many have resorted to relying solely on Alexa for a gauge of a site's daily traffic.

Here's the problem: Alexa can be misleading

Because many are unaware of how Alexa measures a site's daily traffic, they often misinterpret the statistics, and therefore, draw a different conclusion from what the numbers present.

The question of how Alexa does its research, and why we shouldn't rely solely on Alexa remain to be answered another day. But I want you to take home this idea: Use numerous tools to do your research on HYIPs

Here are some of the top tools that I use personally to do my due diligence:

MMGStat

Front page

MMGStat is a forum checker, so to speak, that finds out the popularity of a specific program on various forums, such as MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold, DreamTeamMoney etc. You can type in the name of the program you wish to look at, and then a clear, concise table lays out all the details.

Forum Checker

Another tool I'd like to use is Whois.Domaintools.com.

Essentially, whois.domaintools provides a host of information about the site's hosting details, domain name registration, and various other information pertaining to the website's registration. If a site has ddos-protection, you can check it there as well.

There's a paid subscription as well, which allows you to look into more details. The fee for a subscription ranges from $30 - thousands of dollars. Depending on which program you're looking for, the prices will change quite significantly.

Whois

While this list is certainly not exhaustive, I find them more than enough for my first round of review of a certain program. If you have any tools that you would like to add to the list, please send me an email or just drop a comment at the bottom of this post.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you soon!