Apr 17 2007

The Top 100 Australian Blogs Index

Published by at 10:17 pm under Australia,Australian Blogs,Australian Websites,blogging,Top Australian Blogs

Following on from my two recent posts, I have finally released “The Top 100 Australian Blogs Index“.

This will be a fixed page on this blog, which I will undertake to maintain as regularly as time permits – hopefully weekly, but I’m not making any firm commitment! It’s still a manual process :( .

The list combines both Technorati Ranking and Alexa Ranking, and I have explained the methodology in my “About the Index” page.

I’d really love feedback! I want to get this right.

If you think you can improve on the methodology, disagree with the way it’s been compiled, think you should be included, think a site shouldn’t be included – anything, please leave a comment. If you don’t want your comment published (all comments here are moderated) then leave your name with (Private) in brackets afterwards, and it won’t be published. Alternatively you can contact me via the email address on the “about me” page.

I reserve the right to not include blogs that I consider “inappropriate” – deal with it 😀

This index evolved from Craig Harper’s Ultimate Aussie Blogroll, which is based on Technorati solely, but now bares little resemblance.

20 responses so far

20 Responses to “The Top 100 Australian Blogs Index”

  1. # Lisaon 18 Apr 2007 at 7:38 am

    Thanks for listing these. Now I can keep up with the blogs down under. 😉

  2. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 10:02 am

    No worries Lisa

    Thanks for dropping by!

  3. # Darren Rowseon 18 Apr 2007 at 11:31 am

    nice work Meg (and not just because PB’s on top). I’m regularly asked by journalists for a list of top aussie blogs and with your and Craig’s lists we now have a great spot to point them. Excellent Work.

  4. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 12:24 pm

    Hi Darren

    Thanks for stopping by and your kind words :)

    Hopefully it will help Aussie bloggers (and non bloggers) to discover each other.

  5. # Donnieon 18 Apr 2007 at 4:10 pm

    Hi Meg,

    It’s arguable whether Google PageRank is a good indication of popularity but do you think that a Top 100 list should contain some measure of “authority” in its methodology? Google is by no means the be all and end all of web authorative(ness) (I don’t think that’s even a word) but it’s probably the most rounded one currently.

    Just my thoughts.

  6. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 4:30 pm

    Hi Donnie

    That’s a great idea :)

    Given that a new round of PR is due “any day” now, perhaps I could look at incorporating it into the formula.

    Thanks

  7. # Darren Rowseon 18 Apr 2007 at 5:15 pm

    PR might be an interesting addition. another thing to consider…. backlinks as measured by Google (or other SE’s for that matter).

  8. # Darren Rowseon 18 Apr 2007 at 5:18 pm

    other factors might include how many pages on the blog, age of blog. They probably don’t show popularity of blog but do show longevity which some might think important when ranking a blog’s authority….

    ultimately – whatever measures you choose there will be some who value some aspects of them more than others. You might have a never ending tweaking process on your hands :-)

  9. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 5:41 pm

    Hi Darren

    This could turn into a full time job 😉

    Yes, I daresay there are a lot of factors which could ultimately provide a more accurate measure of authority.

    Scott Yang has also written an interesting post at http://scott.yang.id.au/2007/04/top-australian-blogs which I haven’t had the opportunity to fully digest yet.

    Essentially he raises the question what defines a blog as “Australian”.

    I suspect this is just the rudimentary start of what the index could become…

  10. # Duncanon 18 Apr 2007 at 6:25 pm

    My thoughts on changes: can I be placed at No 1? :-)
    just kidding, a great list and it might just encourage me to start trying with my own personal blog, I can’t help than be competitive when it comes to lists :-)

  11. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 6:38 pm

    Hi Duncan

    Hehe :) Yep, nothing like a list to spur people on. I enjoy reading your blog (great deal on the TV by the way).

    I wish I was more technically able when it comes to OPML files – maybe someone will come up with a solution for you.

    Thanks for stopping by :)

  12. # Collison 18 Apr 2007 at 8:40 pm

    Hey Meg!

    I have two more blogs operated out of Australia for you:

    http://northxeast.com – which is my personal blog, i think it has a technorati rating of 20,000 or thereabouts

    http://freelanceswitch.com – which is operated by a business I run, and which has a technorati rating of 10,000 or thereabouts

    In any case, great list though, its interesting to see who else is out there, somehow I thought there would be a lot more :-(

  13. # Collison 18 Apr 2007 at 8:48 pm

    Oh, i just read how you calculate your rankings, i don’t think either of those two blogs have much in the way of Alexa ranking. oh well!

    I must admit i’m pretty dubious of Alexa though, their measurements are pretty strange. According to Alexa, NorthxEast.com has an Alexa rank of 93,000 and FreelanceSwitch.com has a rank of 438,000 (though this is partly because it just launched two weeks ago, but even its yesterday ranking is 90,000).

    Now that all sounds OK until I tell you that NorthxEast gets a whopping total of 300 people a day, while FreelanceSwitch receives … 15,000-20,000 visitors a day.

    Now if you ask me, that is some serious Alexa miscalculation :-(

    Mind you Technorati’s process of adding up links isn’t exactly gold either. I wish that there was some underlying way to measure these things, like something built into http.

    Anyways i’ll stop posting long winded comments on your blog.

    Again great list!!

  14. # Megon 18 Apr 2007 at 9:13 pm

    Hi Collis

    The majority of Australian blogs DON’T have great Alexa global rankings, which is why the ranking in Australia in weighted.

    For example NorthxEast is ranked 20,008 in Australia, where as some blogs don’t rate at all in Australia and in fact the highest (lowest?) ranking (of those that ranked), is in the 250,000 vicinity. It’s all relative.

    The Alexa rank is averaged over 3 months, which does somewhat disadvantage newer blogs, but it could be argued that so does Technorati, because newer blogs have had less opportunity to be linked to.

    Freelance Switch has made a great start, which will only continue to improve with age. It’s ranked at just under 40,000 in Australia already.

    Whilst that’s phenomenal traffic, you would expect to see the Alexa Rank go down very quickly. But of course it’s not perfect – some types of blogs lend themselves to a more favourable Alexa rank.

    In any case, all three have been added for checking at the next update, so the numbers will tell.

    You’re welcome to post “long winded” comments any time 😉 It’s all great feedback.

  15. # Leighon 19 Apr 2007 at 2:17 pm

    I had a great time going through the list, and finding some new blogs I’d never seen. Look forward to seeing this grow and evolve.

    Great work Meg! And way to go on The Age article :)

  16. # Megon 19 Apr 2007 at 2:39 pm

    Hi Leigh

    Glad you enjoyed.

    Unfortunately Craig Harper’s “Ultimate Aussie Blogroll” wasn’t mentioned in the article :( There’s some different blogs on that list so you should check that one out too!

    I see this growing to a top 200 very soon!

  17. # Andy Beardon 20 Apr 2007 at 1:13 am

    I just worked out roughly in my head, that if I emigrated I would certainly be in your top10, maybe even top5 :)

    It is easy to complain about various weightings, but it is also important to realise that it might be important to do more to help statistics, whether that means installing Quantcast code, visible statistics, or mentioning the search status toolbar.

    Collis you had a very successful launch, and there is a lot people can learn from it about how you can leverage both paid advertising, existing subscribers, and link partners to catapult a blog to success beyond what you may have achieved previously.
    It will be interesting what happens to the subscriber numbers in a week or so, as there certainly can be huge blips when other people link through to you, or maybe include your content in shared readers.

    If you maintain the quality of content and consistency, no doubt you will be seeing your position on Megs list improve quickly, though you need Aussie traffic.

    You are within the “biased” niche, as there should be no reason why web designers and other freelancers wouldn’t use Firefox with Search Status less than other design and seo type blogs.

    It is interesting about SU traffic, for me it rarely converts into Diggs

  18. # Megon 20 Apr 2007 at 6:03 am

    Hi Andy

    Well, we do have a great climate :)

  19. # Michelleon 22 Apr 2007 at 12:36 am

    Well I was happy to see I had rated 114 on Craig’s list but even happier to see that I had rated 96 on yours. This is certainly a great task in terms of doing the maths but well worth it just to see a list of purely Australian blogs.

  20. # Megon 22 Apr 2007 at 12:47 am

    Hi again

    Fortunately Scott Yang has very kindly written a script which will automate the process to a large degree, and allow the list to be calculated in a fraction of the time :)