The Wardman Wire

Technorati all over the place

Last week Unity over at Ministry of Truth wrote a piece comparing Iain Dale’s Top 500 blog list to one of the more common blogranking systems on the Internet - Technorati :

I’m very much a sceptic when it comes to the idea of ranking blogs in some sort of order of popularity,

I replied commenting that any system counting blog links was all over the place after the recent instense Usmanov related link copying - all of which will count in the system.

Yes, it makes a difference

Technorati ranking does make a difference in some ways. Here are two:

• If you are planning to invite Guest Bloggers to write for you, or mention your blog on a cv, it makes a difference whether you are writing for a blog with a ranking in Technorati of 5000 over one of 500,000.
• Some advertising network use Technorati figures as part of their evaluation of whether your site is attractive enough to join their network. Text-Link-Ads (aff. link) do so, for example.

You can read my full article over at Poliblog Perspective, where I also look at the impact of the Usmanov affair and the limitations imposed by the realtively small “UK Political blog village”.

The Technorati Authority of UK Political blogs has a natural “cap” if we are not linked from outside the UK Political Blogging niche. Iain suggests that there are perhaps 1200-1500 UK Political Blogs. Even if a blog is linked from all of those, it will not make the Technorati Top 1000.

For a Political Blog to become a Top 1000 Technorati Blog, it is necessary to obtain links from outside the Political Blogging Niche. Relatively few political blogs actually do that.

Don’t Take them Too Seriously

A footnote to my article: Technorati Rankings and their Many Meanings and to Unity’s Dale 500 list is that in the last 24 hours Technorati have done something - and most of the blogs he mentioned have dropped down the Technorati rankings while maintaining the same “Authority” level.

• Wardman Wire : Authority 394 (was 394) - Ranking 11511 (was round 9500 2 days ago).
• Chicken Yoghurt : Authority 436 (was 428 2 days ago) - Ranking 10,119 (was around 8300 2 days ago)

Wrapping Up

The one thing this does show is that obsessing about statistics from day to day is a waste of time. Half an hour on a Sunday afternoon once a month is worth it (or perhaps once a week), just to get the lie of the land - but not much more.

Tags: technorati, blog rankings, chicken youghurt, ministry of truth, text link ads, textlinkads, uk political blogging[tags]technorati, blog rankings, chicken youghurt, ministry of truth, text link ads, textlinkads, uk political blogging[/tags]

Don’t Take them Too Seriously

A footnote to my article: Technorati Rankings and their Many Meanings and to Unity’s Dale 500 list is that in the last 24 hours Technorati have done something - and most of the blogs he mentioned have dropped down the Technorati rankings while maintaining the same “Authority” level.

• Wardman Wire: Authority 394 (was 394) - Ranking 11511 (was round 9500 2 days ago).
• Chicken Yoghurt: Authority 436 (was 428 2 days ago) - Ranking 10,119 (was around 8300 2 days ago)

Wrapping Up

The one thing this does show is that obsessing about statistics from day to day is a waste of time. Half an hour on a Sunday afternoon once a month is worth it (or perhaps once a week), just to get the lie of the land - but not much more.

Tags: technorati, blog rankings, chicken youghurt, ministry of truth, text link ads, textlinkads, uk political blogging[tags]technorati, blog rankings, chicken youghurt, ministry of truth, text link ads, textlinkads, uk political blogging[/tags]