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.