[There is a updated version of this post: Top Ranked Blogs: April 2007.]
Second, new and improved, version of the top web analytics blogs rankings.
After publication of the first list there was a lot of great feedback and critique and excellent suggestions. Jen, our regular contributor, suggested another alternative to using technorati, www.blogshares.com. This would require all participants to sign up accounts on blogshares hence I have tabled this for now.
The ranking still uses technorati ranking and the “Web Analytics” tag to identify relevant blogs. But there is one new rule: The blog should post about web analytics atleast 50% of the time (so Clint posts about Kathy Griffin are absolutely welcome! : )).
I deferred to the judgment of if the blog met the rule to the blog owner. Surprisingly almost every single person was very friendly in their responses to my email and almost all of them judged that their blog did not meet the rule. I am grateful for their friendliness and honesty, thank you.
There is also one additional piece of data, based on comments from the last one, a new column showing the first time a post was published on the blog. The thought from the readers was that this would be a additional piece of data to consider.
Before I publish the list one final thought: There was some confusion inserted about how technorati works and if blogs can be “optimized” for technorati. This is not true. All you have to do is blog about web analytics and use the tag “web analytics”. As to how technorati works and tips on higher ranking here is the CEO of technorati himself: David Sifry (this is a great must read interview).
Here’s the new and improved and much changed ranking for July 2006:
| Technorati | ||||
| Rank |
Blog |
Rank July 12 |
Rank June 12 |
First Blog Post |
| 1 | Web Metrics Guru by Marshall Sponder |
8,086 | 11,201 | 02/09/06 |
| 2 | Conversion Rater by Pat McCarthy |
9,957 | 9,832 | 11/16/05 |
| 3 | Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik |
20,124 | 61,940 | 05/14/06 |
| 4 | Unofficial Google Analytics Blog by Michael Harrison |
61,923 | N/A | 12/30/05 |
| 5 | Increasing your website's conversion rate by Robbin Steif |
76,223 | 111,263 | 10/22/05 |
| 6 | Web Analytics Guide by Blynxx (Adrien) |
86,819 | 91,511 | 12/21/05 |
| 7 | Eric T. Peterson's Analytics Weblog by Eric Peterson |
91,240 | N/A | 05/01/04 |
| 8 | Web Analytique by Blynxx (Adrien) |
98,235 | 127,066 | 04/15/06 |
| 9 | Instant Cognition by Clint Ivy |
106,153 | 225,302 | 11/01/05 |
| 10 | Online Marketing Blog by Federico Calore |
171,253 | 196,911 | 11/16/04 |
So what’s changed?
- There is a new #1, congratulations Marshall (with the power of KMM you are going to be hard to beat buddy : )
- The collective analytics community is making good progress in the blogosphere, all of us progressed forward in our ranking
- Clint gets the fastest mover of the month award, congrats Clint!
I wanted to recognized some “new” web analytics blogs that have recently arrived. Please show them some love:
- Tracking Techniques by Chris Furlong (a marine biologist by training!)
- This Just In by Justin Cutroni (about GA but very relevant to all of us)
Finally there were six “reporting tips” the last time the blog ranking was published. I am adding a one new tip based on learnings from the last one.
- Global standards and benchmarks are great because people buy into them more easily
- Simplicity always wins over complexity, because what people understand better they are more likely to action
- Judgment should be applied with a lot of careful consideration because reasonable people might disagree with someone they don’t know
- In any report context is king, provide the right context
- Be aware of hidden agendas, your’s and those of others
- Be open and up front with your assumptions
- Solicit feedback from your report consumers and incorporate relevant feedback in future iterations
So what do you think? Better? How else can the ranking or the criteria be improved? Please share your feedback via comments.
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Via 
Thanks Avinash!
This is great. I'm going to celebrate today – and then post some more.
BTW, noticed Occam's Razor moved up too … and Eric Peterson's now on the list.
I guess Technorati's rankings are very dynamic and you need to be pumping out a lot of content – good content – to keep moving up. I try to do that and I try to apply analytics to everything I post about (not always successfully – but I keep trying anyway).
Thanks again,
Marshall
http://www.webmetricsguru.com
It's intereting to note, that despite what David Sifry says (see the link at the beginning of Avinash's post) that two of the blogs currently listed in the top 10 for web analytics by Technorati, have not been updated in several weeks (54 days and 94 days as far as Technorati knows). While this seems to be true for Demystifying Usability, there would appear to be a problem with Schipul's feed (BrandToBeDetermined) since he has some very recent posts (including today).
In any case, thanks Avinash, this is a fun exercise if nothing else. :)
-Clint
Clint: Actually in the interview Guy puts David Sifry in the hot seat about two pages on technorati not showing the rank for Guy's blog accurately and David does apologize. :)
I went through almost 60 blogs listed under web analytics for research for this post and some do fall under "not updated recently" on technorati bucket. Another example of a egregious error I think is Xavier’s blog, something's "broken" in technorati.
According to David, in the interview, they are working on these things, we'll see.
Blessedly all blogs on our top 10 list have been updated recently in technorati.
You are right about the fun part, it is a lot of work for me to put this together, more than I would have thought, but it is fun and a great learning experience. Very reflective of challenges on might face doing "reporting" in our normal business jobs.
Thanks for your comment & feedback.
Hi Avinash,
Thanks for the kind words! Now I have a reputation to live up to :)
Have a great weekend,
Justin
Avinash, this is a very cool list you've got going. My kudos to your efforts. Great job.
Just wanted to give some further info on the 'not updated in Technorati' issue. In our network of 70+ active blogs (Know More Media), at one point a couple of months ago, Technorati showed more than half of them as not being updated within the last 60+ days. We knew that wasn't accurate at all (most of those had posted within the last day), so we got in touch with Technorati to seek a solution.
To their credit, the Technorati support staff saw what was wrong (some settings needed to be corrected on their side), made the corrections, and soon everything was updating correctly.
However, every once in a while, one of our blogs gets 'stuck' in regards to Technorati–where Technorati doesn't register them as being updated, though they are posting regularly–so we contact them when needed, and they get it fixed quite quickly.
Hopefully someday it will all work smoothly, but we know as well as anyone that technology quirks happen, and you do your best to identify them, fix them, and keep moving forward.
Avinash, I've put up a poll (of sorts) here so that you can factor in the VOC (if you want).
-Clint