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Examining The Internet's Top Blogs: What We Can Learn From Their Success

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 06:00.

Posted by Danny Dover

Every day a fiercely competitive battle takes place online over capturing the attention of millions of readers. As a result the blogosphere constantly changes shape and different players thrust forward as content kings for the day. Lately, I have been trying to find out what forces control this volatile scene. I have been looking for recurring themes and hoping to find useful correlations.

Last Friday (August 15th, 2008) I took a snapshot of the Internet’s top blogs. This freeze frame identifies the blogs that have developed the skills necessary to compete. Unlike traditional top blog lists, I did not seek to place blogs in order of perceived importance. Instead, I combined public lists of top blogs ordered by the amount of inlinks (Technorati), amount of community subscriptions (Bloglines), ability to start and follow trends (BlogPulse), and the ability to thrive in foreign markets (Wikio). I then weighed each individual blog against its all encompassing internet performance using SEOmoz’s Trifecta Tool. The result is a list of blogs that have proven to be powerful in all aspects of Internet success.

Top Blogs Spreadsheet

Download the Complete Spreadsheet Here:

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My hope is that by analyzing what all of these blogs have in common, I can learn how to become a better internet citizen and participant. Simultaneously, I want to share my findings and gain additional insight by learning from all of your unique perspectives and experiences. I have already identified some common traits and trends below and I look forward to learning more from all of you.

Big Corporations Don't Dominate, Yet...

Ownership of Top 100 Blogs

Of the 100 proven blogs in my sample, 66% were self owned. This leads me to believe that blogging is still dictated by ability rather than budget.

Top 50 Blogs vs Top 50 Domains

This shows the consolidation of ownership for the top 50 blogs compared to the top 50 websites. Although there is a remarkable amount of popular independently owned blogs, the ownership of popular blogs overall is heavily consolidated.  (Top 50 Websites Source)

Branding That Works

Blog title Conventions

76% of the top blogs titles contain only one or two words (not including 'The'). This reinforces the idea that when it comes to marketing it is best to keep it simple.

Top Level Domain of Blogs

86% of the top blog TLDs were the traditional dot com. This doesn't mean that there are not notable exceptions, but it does allude to importance of sticking with conventions.

Think the Market is Over Saturated? Think Again

Primary Subject of Blogs

There are already many established paths to success. The interesting insights come from diving into the niches.

Technology Niche of Blogs

Every subject has many niches. Success can come from any one of them.

Its as Much About Who One Writes for as it is About Who is Doing the Writing

Number of Blog Authors

Can't do it all by yourself? Neither can the experts. 80% of the top blogs have more than one primary writer.

Gender Focus

I interpret this as supply rather than demand. Blogs catering to women will likely find audiences much more easily than the over saturated male-oriented market.

Blog Country of Orgin

95% of the Internet's top blogs are based in the United States. Yet, the potential audience abroad dwarfs the current American audience. Why?

It is my hope that others will be able to learn from my research. If I have learned only one thing about this industry, it is that online there is always more opportunity than one person could ever possibly need. By pooling resources and cooperating, I think we can beat the battle that takes place in the blogosphere and receive the mutual benefits that come with the victory.

Graphs created in Apple Numbers

If you are an experienced blogger, feel free to share your opinions and expertise in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me or send me a private message if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. If that's not your style, feel free to contact me on Twitter and/or Linkedin. Thanks.

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