Tuesday, May 01, 2007



Among the many philosophies I want to share with the world in May is the philosophy of reading and blogging… I guess I’ve always been a blogger waiting to happen. I am fond of the phrase uttered by the NY based countryman of Slavic fame Andy Warhol. Who is not aware of his oft-repeated comment, that one day everyone would be famous for 15 minutes? Well today the slavic inspired can of soup saying is rather rusty. Like most Media Dragons who swam the Cold River I too hope make a relevant observation. In Technorati age - every man, woman and child in the world will one day have his or her own blog! No longer does a person with a cause (or a grudge) have to write for a newspaper or make friends with a magazine editor to foist strong opinions on fellow humans. All it takes to become a blogger is about five minutes, and it’s mostly free. The search engines love blogs because of the freshness The truth is that the book and newspaper businesses share the same dreadful fear: that people will stop reading.... In the past, newspaper executives understood the symbiotic relationship between their product and books. People who read books also read newspapers. From that basic tenet came a philosophy: If you foster books, you foster reading. If you foster reading, you foster newspapers Book Prizes awarded; Everybody, every Good reader, that is, Loves Media Dragon: Is Google Love Too Powerful? ; Coffee Books looks hot and makes us look cool ; Out of the parliamentary dust, the promise of higher and higher heavens … Sweat

Ranking World Search Engines Grant Traffic, Not Love
I dont think any one blogging and ranking service shows the whole picture.
Technorati Ranking - Provides the number of links from blogs to other blogs, and is the most commonly referred to blog ranking system. It relies on quantity of links from other blogs combined with the number of blogs doing the actual linking.

Alexa - Measures the number of visitors to a site based on Alexa toolbar installations on peoples computers. The data tends to favor the type of blogs were ranking, but can be easily skewed and is more accurate for the most popular sites out there.
Compete - Uses the number of unique visitors to a site based on USA visitors only. This data is also based on a panel like Comscore. Unfortunately this data is for the the USA audience only. It also only attempts to rank the top one million sites, and a few of the blogs in these rankings had no data in Compete.
Quantcast - A newer entry to the data sites, Quantcast measures site traffic by analyzing data provided by ISPs and various partners. They also allow website owners to put their code on your site so they can more accurately report your data. They also provide some other cool data about your site if you do this, and it can be very handy if you need to provide demographics to advertisers. A few blogs in these rankings also had no Quantcast data, so Id recommend they ad the Quantcast code to make sure they get ranked.
Google Pagerank - Yes, I know Pagerank is just a number and doesnt mean anything, but I think everyone can also agree that a site with a pagerank of 7/10 has a higher link authority than a site that has a 4/10. What that means for search results is irrelevant for these rankings, its more of a way to try and get some link authority into our data.
Yahoo Links - Googles link: command doesnt provide a full set of data, and were using Pagerank already, so I used Yahoo! Search to get a more full set of links to a site. Why do this when we have Technorati? Well, Technorati is only tracking blog links, while Yahoo is getting links from any type of site.


Web Revenue Blog Rankings ; [Always make sure the top post on your blog has unique content that is attractive to a first time visitor. Bloggers write a lot of different things, including personal rants, news, link lists and lots of content that directs visitors to other resources and sites. While this is great, it can have massive effects on new visitors who stumble onto your blog; after all, the first thing they get to look at is the top post. The main homepage of your blog will be the strongest page for rankings and branding, as well as offering the best opportunity to win new subscribers and visitors. 10 Rarely Used Tips to Supercharge Your Blog ; How Google Blogsearch Ranks Your Posts...
In Their Own Words! (or Not) ]
• · If in offline there is no such thing as bad publicity, then in online there is no such thing as a bad link. There are those in the marketing fraternity who are becoming sceptical about the power of citizen journalism and that brands can build equity using the blogosphere.Well it is true that for every blog worth reading, there are a myriad of drivelling diatribes that are simply a waste of good electrons. The growth of blogging as quasi-intellectual pastime has almost been its downfall. Blog search engine Technorati buys Personal Bee Never underestimate the power of blogs ; Google has removed paid links that advertised seemingly legitimate Web sites but actually tried to install nefarious programs on PCs. The links were displayed as "sponsored links" after visitors entered specific queries into Google's search service. Clicking the links would ultimately go to a legitimate site, but by way of another site that attempted a "drive-by installation" of password-stealing software Miscreants placed the links using Google's AdWords service for advertisers
• · Power on Mark Cuban: You Are What Your Search Results Return (And So Are ... ; Which Blog Search is Best?
• · · As the blogosphere continues its meteoric rise security measures need to be implemented … Anyone who has participated in the blogosphere in the past two months knows the troubling story of Kathy Sierra, a prominent blogger who was the victim of online threats that included violent sexual acts and murder. When the harassment spread beyond her own blog to two others that were affiliated with other prominent bloggers, Sierra became so terrified that she canceled an upcoming speaking engagement and took a hiatus from blogging. The difference is, with 70 million blogs in existence today and 1.4 new blogs created every second, according to blog search engine Technorati, there are just more people participating in online discussions, and "the more crazy people you've got reading them, the wilder the whole blogosphere can become," says Richard Silverstein, who advocates for a peaceful approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his blog. According to Derek Wood, vice president of clinical operations at PsychTracker, a journaling site for people with mental illness, the harassment comes in two general forms: trolls and cyberstalkers. Fighting spirit Five ways to defeat blog trolls, cyberstalkers ; Real estate agents like Keith's diligent blog entries -- up to three or four a day -- were pushing the magic buttons of search engine Google, which ranked Keith's blog near the top ... Brokers in Blogsville
• · · · In a new book, former Sydney Morning Herald pictorial editor Michael Young recalls his humiliation at the hands of John Alexander, now PBL chief executive An editor spoiling for a fight