Wikio rankings for July 2009
My blog has jumped another 28 places in the June Wikio rankings to supposedly be the 27th most influential political blog in the country (31st most influential across all blogs) according to them.
As is becoming traditional, Charlotte Gore has derived a top 10 Lib Dem blogs from this list here. According to this I am now in position 3! I am pleased to be doing well at the moment but the idea that I am the 3rd most influential political blogger in the Lib Dems is bordering on the surreal! I have only been seriously blogging for about 8 months. Charlotte also comments that I have shown a "canny knack of using social networking". The only thing I use is Twitter to drive a bit more traffic to my blog and keep my followers updated, as well as keep in touch with what other political bloggers and tweeters think (quick plug - follow me here ;)) - there is no evil plan! She also very kindly says that I have been prolific and energetic. The truth is that I am now blogging at the sort of rate I always wanted to but when you get 2 people or 0 people reading a blog post (as I was regularly getting late last year) it all seems a bit too much effort. Now I have what I think is a decent readership base it seems worth the effort to post more frequently.
So whilst it is nice to see my blog appearing quite high up in these lists I am not sure how accurately they represent the influence that bloggers have. I know for example that a link from Conservative Home this month got me much more traffic (many multiples more) than a link from Labourlist and yet LL is way above Con Home in the rankings. It's only a snapshot but I think it shows there is not necessarily a read-across from Wikio ranking to traffic which you surely need for proper influence.
I think the encouraging thing is that there are 8 Lib Dem blogs in the top 50, although still only 1 in the top 20. We do seem to be increasing in influence. It would be nice to see a few more LD blogs break into the top 20 and at the current rate I can see this happening in the next few months, especially if we all keep linking to each other! In that spirit (and in an attempt to use my newly acquired power for good - the higher you are in the Wikio list the more your links to other blogs count in a sort of self reinforcing cycle), here is the top 10 reproduced (shamelessly stolen - hope she doesn't mind) from Charlotte's page along with some other Lib Dem blogs I regularly enjoy and surely deserve to be higher up the Wikio rankings too along with why I like them:
| 1 (6) | Liberal Democrat Voice | Climbs 1 |
| 2 (23) | Charlotte Gore | Climbs 14 |
| 3 (27) | Mark Reckons | Climbs 28 |
| 4 (31) | Liberal England | Falls 2 |
| 5 (33) | Quaequam Blog! | Falls 2 |
| 6 (36) | Himmelgarten Cafe | Climbs 8 |
| 7 (48) | Peter Black AM | Falls 14 |
| 8 (50) | People’s Republic of Mortimer | Falls 4 |
| 9 (73) | Stephen Linlithgow’s Journal | Climbs 2 |
| 10 (77) | Miss S B (Jennie Rigg) | New Entry |
Others (in no particular order):
Caron's Musings - For all your Scottish Lib Dem and Formula One needs! Caron is always interesting and entertaining. A daily read for me.
Liberal Burblings - Excellent and prolific Lib Dem comment from Paul Walter
Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary - A great example of a proper blogging MP (Lynne Featherstone) who doesn't seem to hold back on what she thinks
Norfolk Blogger - Teacher and former Lib Dem councillor Nich Starling who seems to go through periods of not blogging very much at all but is on fire at the moment with his vital commentary on the Norwich North by-election where he considered standing himself
Liberal Revolution - Another regular Lib Dem read for me
Cicero's Songs - Every post is a blogging tour de force of a standard I will probably never achieve but will continue to strive for!
Liberal Vision - New(ish) collaborative Lib Dem blog featuring a number of party big wigs. This is probably only not in the top 10 because it is fairly new.
Moments of Clarity - Insightful commentary from fellow new(ish) member Darrell Goodliffe.
Bracknell Blog - Of particular interest to Bracknell residents, run by local Lib Dem activists. I helped set it up but it is taking on a life of its own now.
Reading List - Local Reading Lib Dem blog which is more than just your average party blog and broadens issues out as well as applying national stories locally. Run chiefly by the enigmatic Oranjepan.
I know I am bound to have forgotten some so if you feel aggrieved I have missed you out, pop yourself in the comments and I will stick you in an update!
Thanks again to everyone who reads this blog and has linked to it helping me achieve these giddy (although rather confusing) heights!
UPDATE: Added some more to my list that I had inevitably forgotten.
Posts
11 comments:
Thank you.
You went on my blog roll pretty quickly too, and, spookily, your list of must read blogs is very similar to mine.
I first met Cicero more than half my life ago and he was as prescient and knowledgable then as he is now, predicting the fall of the Berlin Wall four years before it actually happened.
Since you mentioned Twitter, Mark, I find that your site hangs for 2-3secs while your twitter feed is generated. If you want to avoid this, the clever thing to do would be to reserve the space at the top of the blog with a height-specified div, and then put the actual twitter div in at the bottom of the page, and then use position:absolute to move it back up to the top, like www.musicradar.com does.
(Can't resist some overly anal webdevvery!)
Hee! I am a n00b all over again!
Thanks sanbikinoraion.
I am actually thinking about getting the whole design of the site revamped (probably by someone who has more time than me!) soon so I will make sure addressing that is on my list. From what I have noticed, the Twitter delay doesn't always happen but it is happening today.
Mat and I can redesign blogs for a small fee (or, right now, a bottle of brandy...). I promise not to make it all black and purple (unless you want me to)
Ooh. That sounds interesting. Are you able to do it within the Blogger template?
Actually, rather than move the comments OT, can you e-mail me at markreckons@live.co.uk?
Thanks.
And I went obsessive by listing the rank of the top 82 Berkshire blogs.
You may like to know you've overtaken Adam Boulton and now have John Redwood in your sights for #1 in the county!
OP - Ha! I've simultaneously left a similar comment on RL about Mr Redwood!
Also, just realised I forgot to include you on my list. Will remedy that now and congrats on RL's charge up the charts!
I don't know how to cope with positive attention, I just that shy - why can't I just organise the underground revolution instead!!!
Let us not get carried away, Mark Reckons.There is another whose prestigious postion as Berkshire's top blogger seems unassailable, for now at least!
Ab elated thank you, Mark
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