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You know I have no idea what Krispy Kream Jelly Beans are. Are they like really small donut holes?

Yes @Mel Hopkins, your site, https://melhopkins.com would qualify as having domain; it is just hosted by Wordpress. This site is hosted by GoDaddy. Here is some of the information I pulled on your domain: AALBC Score: N/A Domain Created: Mar 01, 2001 (16 Years, 8 Months) SEMrush Rank: 39,200,000 Alexa Rank: N/A MOZ Domain Authority: 22 I've decided to restrict not to add any new sites to track to my database unless they had an Alexa ranking. There however are some sites without an Alexa ranking in my database and I'm not going to delete them. I'll add your since you got it like that Since I have my webmaster hat on now; it is good that your site is using SSL (https), because Google uses this a ranking signal and they are going to start displaying warning messages in their browsers to sites that don't use it. This will hurt a lot of sites. It is also good that you are using a response design, so your site will display well on a mobile device. This is a ranking signal for Google as well. This is one aspect of webdesign that really hurt a lot sites in search. What happened to your old content? I ran some queries and see that it is still on the site, but I cant find a way to browse it directly the old stuff--at least the stuff I looked for. For example, how does one browse to this page: https://melhopkins.com/2016/06/09/aalbc-the-african-american-media-clearinghouse-wifotit/ If there is no way to browse to this page (no direct link to it on your site), the page an others like it will be hurt in search because they are unrecoverable without a direct link Digging a bit deeper. I would be more descriptive in your description meta tags. This is the text used when people share you site on social media. Google would not use it because it is too short and they pull text from the page. So should control this by being more descriptive. I'm not sure how you do this now, but there are plugins that make optimizing for SEO easy. <meta property="og:description" content="Actuate | Thought Into Action" /> I would also make the site's title (not on the title on the page but in meta tag), clearer. It should always be different that what is in the title tag <title>Mel Hopkins &#8211; Actuate | Thought Into Action</title> You should create a customized 404 error page. You know that page that comes up when someone types a bogus URL on your website like https://aalbc.com/bousurl.html Today SEO (optimizing for Google's search engine) is probably more important than a site's content--especially for Black owned sites because we don't usually have the benefit of larger platforms to support us. I know that is more than you asked for, but I hope it is helpful

My name is Faith Underwood. I am a native of Macon, GA and have recently published my first novel, TRIGGER. I would love if you could feature or review it. There is much authenticity in your book blog particularly giving exposure to the many unsung authors and artists across the country. TRIGGER is a fiction novel set in North Carolina. It follows the relationship of Selena and Alonzo. Like many of us, they encounter temptations as they try to discover their place in this world. Selena is an avid daydreamer that tries to escape her realities when things aren't going well, and Alonzo thinks he has everything planned out. However, TRIGGER isn't just another love story. It was written so that readers would identify with the characters. It was written to invoke self-awareness while falling in love. It is a contemporary and sexy story that is filled with plenty of plot twists and multiple storylines. You may finish this novel wondering what TRIGGERS your dreams. TRIGGER is a self-published novel. It is available in a softcover format on my website, www.diaryoffaith.com. The eBook can be purchased through Amazon. Author Name: Faith Underwood Book Title: TRIGGER Publisher: Self-Published Publication Date: June 17, 2017 Softcover ISBN: 9780998959620 Softcover Price: $15.95 eBook Price: $6.95 Page Count: 344 Genre: Fiction Sub-Genre: Romance Back Cover Text: Daydreams of an old flame’s lips, or cuddling up with a new romance, won’t untaint a poisoned love. In TRIGGER, Selena Harris eludes her problems by running to her fantasies, but reality is always on her tail. Daydreams can’t keep her safe from the dangers of love, jealousy, and heartbreak, or from living out her destiny. You may finish this sexy, drama-filled novel wondering what triggers your dreams. About the Author I am a writer, poet, educator, lover, healer, and a doggy mother. I have two blogs, "In My Mind" and "The Poets' Corner." Both can be found on my website, www.diaryoffaith.com. My current projects include my second novel and guest blogging for BlackGirlNerds.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much for what you do. Sincerely, Faith Underwood faithunderwood@diaryoffaith.com

I really like this. I would love to feature you and your poetry on my poetry blog.

Pharmaceuticals are growing wealthy as a direct result of this epidemic. The sale of these narcotics has exploded. But corporate greed knows no color, save green.

Preparing Black Youth For Success. Some Black People Are Involved With Trying To Motivate Black Children Educationally..Except The Church ,Preachers Love Money,Cars,Poverty All Around The Church ,They Do Not Try ,To Help Black Children. The Black Football Players Trying To Speak To Politicians About Unarmed Black Males Gunned Down By Police. . They Need To Talk About White Police That Have Been ,Fired The Past 6_Years For Being Klan ,KKK,Members..Preparing Black Children For Success Book By Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu..

Hi @Mel Hopkins, I missed your reply initially. Your questions are answered below: 1) what qualifies as a website? A web presence with it's own domain. In fact, I use domain's age as part of my calculus to derive the AALBC Score. 2) Does a website with an owner's domain hosted on wordpress.com (DOT COM) or blogger.com qualify for ranking? No, a site hosted on another site does not qualify, as it is just a portion of the other site. However if the entity registered a domain and mapped to their Wordpress or Blogger presence, then it could be considered a site as long as it functions as a standalone site. 3) Or do you need to build on wordpress.org (DOT ORG) website with separate hosting. I think the responses to the first 2 questions answer this. Do you have a specific case in mind? 4) What if it's a blog with a static page plus a single entry per day... Yes, blogs are websites. I don't make a distinction between blogs or any other type of website. Right now my only conditions for adding to the list of websites and consideration for monitoring for potential inclusion on the Top 50 Black Owned Website List are; The site has it's own domain as described a above The site be Black-owned, or if publicly the management team must be majority Black That the site has enough traffic to have an Alexa rank (any rank) Let me know if there is anything else. I just ran a couple hundred blogs through my ranking process and 10 blogs were added to my Top 50 Black Websites. Right now I have 49 sites which meet my minimum criteria for inclusion in the top 50. I'm sure I'll find enough sites to round out my top 50. Some of the sites that I'm monitoring now may ultimately make the list or replace a site already on it. As I discover more than 50 sites to meet my criteria, I'll adjust the minimum requirement to keep the list at 50. I'm actually still confirming site ownership for some of the sites. I just deleted Carol's Daughter which I just learned is no longer Black owned; it is owned by L'Oreal (I was wondering why the store on 125th Street was closed). The site was not strong enough to make the top 50. I also just deleted Very Smart Brothers, which was in the top 50, but is not Black owned...I guess the Brothers ain't so smart after all. This list, like the rest of AALBC.com is a work in progress. But this is the first serious attempt, that I'm aware of, to identity the top Black websites and to maintain and share this information on an ongoing basis. Back in the late 1990's Earthlink maintained and published a list and only lasted a couple of years. Pew Research also published a list as part of their reporting on African American Media, that that list has not been consistently maintained and many of the sites listed are not Black owned. There are have been a variety of other lists published over the years, but none are nearly as formal or objective.

@TroySorry for how incoherent my previous comments were. i was sleepy when i wrote them. i did try and edit them, just now. So, I want to know that since you were surprised or couldn't tell that certain sites were white-owned, doesn't this mean that blacks running them control what is being meted out to the black community, making sure their output has relevancy and authenticity? And that they are not manipulated by the owners who are conceivably only interested in profiting from providing blacks with venues to communicate among themselves. In your chronic displeasure with them, are you further claiming that Facebook and Twitter somehow influence the black dialogue about race and gender, and that these identity politics are being manipulated by them? Granted, that domain owners monitor the tastes of their traffic and direct advertisers to them via e-mail - spam that can be deleted without even being opened, but are these sites, per se, the opinion makers for black people? Or are black people sharing ideas and either commiserating or debating things that are constructive and relevant to their community, exchanges that possibly trigger reform? At the risk of being repetitive, it seems to me that webs and social media sites simply enable black folks to express themselves - on many levels. They reflect and reinforce black culture, not dictate it. What would black-owned sites do differently?? i didn't read the aforementioned article yet, but i have been guilty of saying that those who deconstruct the people who patronize these sites are, themselves, the ones who are the "know-it-alls". i've always contended that black people are actually aware of the negatives of social media, but they don't care. Going to these places adds a dimension to the lives they lead , - or want to lead, and they go there to reaffirm themselves through pictures and comments. i'd be interested in hearing how critics would change or improve what they consider a detrimental pass time. i assume the article covers this.

Well @Cynique, if history is any indication then we KNOW white corporations will mislead black people, telling lies, control our narrative, not representing what's authentic, and be a negative, destructive force in the black community. Helping to share our truths and our stories is why I started selling books. No corporate lying is nothing new, nor is it limited to hurting Black folks. We all stand to suffer. It is just that Black folks are not talking about this and we stand to suffer the most. Black folks are behind the curve. We are still naively talking, without reservation, about how great Facebook and Amazon are... A few minutes ago, I finished a brilliant article in the the Sunday New York Times, "Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend." An online version I found is behind a paywall (I read the print version). The author, Noam Cohen, described the problem, much more skillfully than I can. There was only one number in the entire article. Noam also wrote a book: The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball I think the article, and perhaps the book, would speak directly to this issue in a way that you can appreciate @Cynique (note: the book does not come out until November, I see now the Times piece was a great marketing tactic, but the article was still good!)

I think i am typical of people who to whom all of these figures and statistics go over the head of. What i am curious to know about this battle between black entrepreneur Davids against white monopolistic Goliaths is whether there is any info that suggests that black web sites owned by white corporations are misleading black people, telling them lies, "controlling their narrative", not representing what's authentic and are a negative destructive force in the black community? Are these sites shaping back opinion - or are they shaped by black opinion? Is the fact that these sites, which attract a vast audience and provide a platform for black issues, represent profitable business ventures for their owners something that should be a major concern to anyone other than the black rivals of these white capitalists? I always have a problem with regarding consumers as victims if they take advantage of the useful, convenient and often valuable services made available to them by those who exist to serve them. Isn't there something to be said about reciprocation? (My turn to play the devil's advocate.)