While there are many lists of "Top Blogs", most notably Technorati's Top 100 list and Wikio's Top 300, I thought it would be interesting to find out which Blogger powered blogs rank most highly.
So for the past few weeks I've been gathering data of the most popular Blogger powered blogs. Using Google Pagerank, Technorati Rank, Bloglines subscribers, backlinks and Alexa rank, I have analyzed and ranked hundreds of the most frequented Blogger blogs I could find.
The following includes the top 50 blogs which are powered by Blogger, including their scores and tagline to explain what each site is about.
You can find a full explanation of the scoring system and download the Excel file containing all of the sites ranked beneath this list.
#1 Post-Secret
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
Insights from Googlers into products, technology and the Google culture.
Widgets, hacks and original themes for Blogger.
Selected as one of Time Magazines Top 100 Design Influencers
#5 America Blog
A great nation deserves the truth...
Unofficial news and tips about Google.
#7 Hullabaloo
Political writings by the outspoken Digby.
This site is one of the favorite destinations on the web for all things weird and wonderful, updated daily.
#9 Blogger Buzz
The official blog for Blogger news, updates and Blogger culture.
#10 Decor8
Fresh finds for hip spaces.
"Fingers firmly on the pulse..." Celebrity gossip and photos from Trent Vanegas.
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google Index.
#13 Indexed
This site is a little project that makes fun of some things and sense of others. Use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.
#14 BLDGBLOG
Architectural conjecture, urban speculation and landscape futures.
#15 Twitter Blog
The official Twitter blog, featuring news, updates and general Twitter culture.
#16 The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
"Dude, I invented the friggin iPhone. Have you heard of it?"
Random Observations for Students of Economics
#18 Calculated Risk
Finance and Economics
#19 Official Google Adsense Blog
A look inside Google Adsense.
#20 Gorilla Vs. Bear
Simply one of the best music blogs I've ever seen!
#21 Strobist
"Learn how to light..." Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level.
#22 Shakesville
"Shakesville is a feminist blog, and a feminist's blog. It is a progressive blog. It is a safe space. It is a community."
#23 Althouse
Ann Althouse: a law professor who "sometimes writes about the law".
#24 Xiaxue
"Everyone's reading it!"
#25 Dumb Little Man
Tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane.
#26 Eschaton
One of the most frequented political blogs in the world.
#27 Face Hunter
"A man out and about in london and beyond: eye candy for the style hungry."
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
# 29 The Belmont Club
"History and history in the making".
#30 Fogonazos
"Asombros diarios".
#31 Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Thoughts on the global economy, housing, gold, silver, interest rates, oil, energy, China, commodities, the dollar, Euro, Renminbi, Yen, inflation, deflation, stagflation, precious metals, emerging markets, and policy decisions that affect the global markets.
#32 Orangette
"A blog-style collection of stories, often autobiographical and always gastronomical..."
#33 Ikea Hacker
New and interesting ways to use (and reuse) your Ikea finds.
#34 Official Google Reader Blog
News, tips and tricks from the Google Reader team.
#35 The Daily Coyote
"Charlie came into my life when he was just ten days old, orphaned after both his parents were killed. He lives with me and a tomcat in a one-room log cabin in Wyoming."
#36 BibliOdyssey
Books, illustrations, science, history, visual Materia Obscura and eclectic bookart.
#37 Orcinus
"Spyhopping the right..."
#38 Guido Fawkes Blog
"Tittle tattle, gossip and rumours about Westminster's Mother of Parliments."
"Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business."
"The MP3 Blog that puts some stank in it."
#41 How About Orange
"Visual treats and hands-on projects dreamed up in an orange office."
"Politics, commentary, humour, gossip."
#43 Bitch Ph.D
"A feminist, leftist and personal blog."
#44 PoppyTalk
"A Canadian design blog collecting inspiration and promoting emerging design talent."
#45 Alexa
"Web discovery machine" (The Alexa Blog).
#46 Cabel's Blog LOL
Cabel Maxfield Sasser's personal blog.
#47 Brooklyn Tweed
Knitting complemented by beautiful photography.
"An Australian and a Canadian trying to inspire the world, one room at a time."
#49 Adverlab
"Advertising tomorrow."
#50 Baghdad Burning
"... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend..."
How the results were calculated
Each blog was given a score out of 100 using the following formulas:
- Google Pagerank: 10%, scored from 0-10 using the actual PR
- Technorati Rank: 30%, scored from 0-30 by allotting each rank to a particular score, eg: 1-100, 101-500, 501-1000 etc.
- Bloglines subscribers: 20%, scored from 0-20 by allotting the number of subscribers to a score, eg: 10000+, 5000-9999, 3000-4999, etc.
- Google Backlinks: 20%, scored from 0-20 by allotting the number of backlinks to a score, eg: 20000+, 15000-19999, 12000-14999, etc.
- Alexa rank: 20%, scored from 0-10 by allotting the Alexa rank to a score, eg: 0-25K, 25-50k, 50-100k, etc.
For those who are interested to learn more about the scoring system I have used, take a look at the full breakdown for all five factors.
In cases where blogs had the same scores, I have used the actual Technorati rank to determine which blog ranked higher.
More information about the top ranking Blogger powered sites
Please note that this list is by no means definitive! While I have striven to discover all high ranking Blogger powered sites by searching through Technorati, Wikio Blogs, Bloglines, and any other blog list I could find, I may have missed some Blogger powered sites out.
Also, the scores I have given each blog were correct at the time of writing up this article (20th May 2008). The present scores may have changed slightly, especially the Technorati ranking (which updates every few hours), so please understand that the actual ranking may have changed, especially as time goes on).
I do welcome any suggestions for how this Top 50 list could be improved, or if you could suggest any sites which I may have missed that you feel should be included in this list.
You can download the Excel spreadsheet which I have used to gather data for and score the blogs on this list (plus a few others which didn't quite make it to the top 50).
More uses for this data?
I must admit that my reason for compiling this list was not merely to rank the top 50 blogs, but also to understand why these blogs have become popular.
Over the next few weeks I'll be looking at other aspects than ranking in these popular blogs to see what other useful insights can be gleaned from this research to publish as articles here at Blogger Buster.
As always, I appreciate your input so feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.
Save as PDF
My name is Amanda Fazani and I write Blogger Buster to help other Blogger users make the most of their Blogger blogs.
Post a Comment 86 Comments:
This is a very resourceful research you've done here Amanda!
I've only checked a few of them. The post secret one is mind blowing. clever and simple, the new Twitter?
Can't wait for the next developement of this research.
Cool list!!
I've always wonder what the top sites using blogger were. Interesting method to determine what site comes out on top.
You left one out. The Butter Team will be on this list next year.
Thank you!
Great idea. Now I've got a bunch of new blogs to review. After I sign up for your feed of course. Thanks
How about a list of the top blogs based on design?
Wordpress still rules ;)
Amanda-
My schedule is pretty crazy for the next couple of months, but it should open up some later in the summer. Ping me then if you will want to do an interview.
Thanx,
David Hobby
Strobist.com
You have done such a great job here.I am so new to blogging. Only one month in. I still have no idea how to even change my background, so the work you have done here blows my mind. I know the ideas will come, but just wanted to stop in and say... way to go! KC
For Nick@Podxies:
I'm glad you liked this post :)
PostSecret really is an addictive site, isn't it? I remember reading a comment there once which said something like: "everytime I visit here, I learn a new secret about myself which I didn't know I had".
I'm looking forward to posting more about this research too. Having done this, I've learned a lot about what it takes to build a successful blog.
I've emailed a few of the authors from this list to ask for an interview (which I'd love to write up here), and will post the other results soon afterwards.
Thanks for stopping by!
For Lyndon:
Thanks for your comments :)
For some of these blogs it was difficult to determine that they were hosted by Blogger (and even more difficult to discover so many blogs to plough through for these results).
I hope you like the method I used for ranking. There were many sites I wanted to include as I feel they are just so influential, but perhaps I'll save those for another day.
For Baby Gorilla:
At the moment, The Butter Team blog doesn't have enough of a score to make it to the list, but it's certainly one I'll keep my eye on if I update this one in the future :)
For Adlab:
You're most welcome! And congrats on your recent "Blog of Note" award (I was surprised the Blogger team didn't pick up on your excellent blog much sooner!).
Best wishes and thanks for stopping by,
Amanda
For Johncalvin:
Thanks for your kind comments :)
After compiling this list, my feed reader also became rather full!
I'm glad to know you've subscribed to Blogger Buster too, thanks for the note of confidence!
For MrBrownThumb:
That would make for an interesting post, but I'd be anxious that my own bias would undermine it... Still, you've given me a good idea concept for something I'll work on at a later time!
Thanks for the suggestion :)
For David:
Thank you so much for stopping by!
I will get in touch later in the summer and would still love to interview you when you're less busy.
Best wishes,
Amanda
For KC:
Thank you for your kind comments :)
You may be interested to download the "Cheats Guide to Customizing Blogger Templates" (my free ebook) which would certainly take you through the basics of Blogger design, including how to change your background.
Best wishes,
Amanda
I read your blog a lot, but I think your site's design is too gloomy.
I wish you had more colors :(
To anonymus
Blog too gloomy? No way! I think it is very simple (in a less is more kind of way) and elegant. And very courageous in the choice of colors.
To Amanda.
That's a very good idea (interviewing the bloggers in the list) and yes please continue on this research
Thank you
Great work Amanda!
Information like this would truly uplift the Blogger users community.
I suspect some of the top blog popularity are due to their main project, where those blogs are just playing a supportive role (Google blog, Alexa, Twitter etc..). Which explains why the design are pretty standard.
Maybe a separation between these blogs and standalone blogs (not attached to other web project/sites) will be more interesting. Waiting your further insights!
very very usefull informations i've got here...thx a lot and i ask permission to link this site!!!
For Anonymous and Nick@Podxies:
Whilst I do love the current design, I have to admit there's a few elements which I'm not altogether happy about at the moment.
Over the next few weeks. I'll probably make a few adjustments which will make the posts easier to read, and also make the site load much faster. I'd love to keep the current look and feel of this design while making it more accessible (especially for new readers).
Once I've worked on this a bit more, I will post about it and ask for input from the Blogger Buster community: after all, I write this blog for all of you!
For Nick@Podxies:
So far, I've interviewed Avi of Dark Roasted Blend (which will be published shortly). I have emailed other writers too, though I completely understand that they are undoubtedly busy and may not have the time to be interviewed.
Hope you enjoy the interview with Avi Abrams!
For Black Zedd,
I did wonder whether to exclude the Google blogs, Twitter and Blogger Buzz, though if I had I'm sure many other readers would have pointed this out and said this was an unfair list!
Admittedly though, when it came to the 40-50 range in this list, it became more difficult to rank these sites. There are also a few hugely famous Blogger powered sites which I had expected to rank much higher, yet their scores prevented them from appearing in this list.
Perhaps the best way I could adapt and make sure such a list would be fairer would be to write about the most influential sites, similar to that recently published by The Guardian?
With regard to further insights about the Blogger Top 50 list, I've recently discovered that Problogger Darren Rowse previously conducted similar research to that which I was planning with regard to the top 100 blogs from Technorati.
So far I would guess that these results will not be the same, though before I publish I'd prefer to work on a different angle to ensure it doesn't seem like I'm republishing another blogger's articles!
For Mike:
Of course you have permission to link here! In the world of blogging, we really don't need to ask permission to link to another site (we all love inbound links!), only if we would like to use images or other content from that site :)
Thanks for stopping by!
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Thanks again for complying this list. It's an excellent cross section of the diversity that is on Internet.
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How could I SAW YOUR NANNY not be one of the toip 50??? We have been in the NY Times, on CNN, MSNBC, in European Press, local news, New York Magazine, as a feature story on AOL jobs...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mommysavesbig.com blogs are extremely popular..heard the site gets over 5 million visitors and was also featured on cnn.
inspiring, i'll take chalenge to be listed in here in if you post next updated most popular blog powered by blogger. Stay tune amanda!
nice job...
nice blog
Nice blog here
thanks brouth
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Thanks for the tips… Best regards.
Gotta get in this list... great blog, by the way
its not right
cose alot of blogger are high more thannthis 50
It's a very good job, i will post a link to you from my forum!
It's so cool that you did this!
The excel links do not open.It says service not available.
Cool job. Keep it up
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Cool. Thanks for the list! I would have never found it otherwise.
Thanks, interesting! Don't you know anybody about a blog where 20+ contributors post more or less regularly?
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