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Every time I see a "best blogs" list, it's almost always the same sites being listed. With these lists, it seems like the big blogs get bigger, and the small blogs wallow in obscurity.
Today, I saw the following comment from TheJLV on Twitter:
Why are all the Best ____ Blogs list exactly the same? Mix it up a bit; show me some I've never seen before. I might actually read!
I couldn't agree more.
It occurred to me: instead of waiting for other lists to get it right, why not lead by example? Let's build a list of "Best Blogs" as voted by readers (whether you're a blogger or not) - but let's run a poll where the biggest blogs are not eligible to be included.
Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with the big blogs - but too many lists name the same sites. Let's try and address this problem by starting a new list. Here are some suggested rules:
Nomination stage
- Only one nomination per person.
- You cannot nominate your own blog, only somebody else's.
- Blogs with over 5,000 subscribers cannot be nominated. (feel free to suggest a better cut-off point if you wish)
- You can only nominate blogs, so that means no social networking profiles, Twitter accounts, forums, aggregators, sales pages and so on.
- Blogs need to have some kind of "quality content" - meaning, don't nominate sites with no content, only one post, no updates in months (or even years), or popup ads.
Voting stage
- Only one vote per person.
- You can vote for your own blog. (I think it's probably easier to allow this than try and prevent it.)
- Voting will run for 7-10 days.
Winning the contest
I was thinking of allowing contest sponsors, but it's more likely to result in people trying to "game" the contest than anything else, and will be a nightmare to keep track of. Instead, the top blogs as voted by YOU will be publicised in a chart. In theory the contest could run every three months to ensure we have fresh results for you to check out.
Please help to spread the word so more people learn about this contest.
What do you think?
For now, let's try and get the rules figured out before the nominations start. Please add your comments below. If you'd like to contribute to this discussion, please tick the "Email follow-up comments" box when commenting. To be notified when the contest starts, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter (or both) and you'll know as soon as something happens.
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Comments on Building a better "Top Blogs" list
Tags: top blogs
I think this is a great idea. I am ALWAYS going to the "best blogs' ANd "best design websites" lists, and they are ALL THE SAME.. whether it be blogs OR just a website.. these lists seem to all build off of each other. No one creates a REAL list of what THEY think is the best.
I love this idea.. and now I will be on the hunt for BEST BLOGS..
Do we have categories like.. Best design, best content, most entertaining, most educational??
I can think of a really good blog to READ but it isnt much to look at.. and visa versa.
Every so often I get named in one of these lists next to the big boys and have a good laugh. It's like "John Chow, Shoemoney, Turnip, Who?" I never know how to respond. I know the only people who read such things are either marketers on the list, or those left off.
When making blog lists, the more focused the category the better. Focus on "Best written marketing blogs" or "most succesful marketing blogs", or "marketing blogs with the best tutorials". Otherwise the blogs with the slickest glossiest wordpress themes always win.
As for which blogs I think are best? I like blogs that don't care about popularity. No name dropping, no popups asking me to subscribe, nothing in my face except the writing.
Not much time left presently, but I'll follow you through BloggerFollower...
See you.
I am admin of Blog Village Top List. I probably have 15-25 really bad blogs apply every 2-3 days.
They had Bloggers Choice Awards at PayPerPost. What a racket. People were paying others to vote for them.
I belong to Blog Explosion blog traffic exchange. They have battle of the blogs. One woman blogger had a whole group of people who voted for each other. Then it was exposed and she had to apologize.
People are competitive. If you can figure out how to do it honestly, cool. I think you have your work cut out for you.
It is a good idea, and a lot of work, but I'll join in. I don't have ideas to add, everyone else is better at that then me!
Don't the pubic already vote with visitor numbers, Alexia, there's PR and every other variant out there, already to many numbers to many lists, nearly to a point where people may think ranking, points and top listings are the important factors in a blog.
Splitting by topic is a good idea. "Best design" might be better as "Best custom design" - you shouldn't be able to win a design category if you installed someone else's theme, surely?
Pete - the whole point is to throw out the existing rankings and ask people to nominate their favourites. The sites with the best Alexa, PageRank, Technorati etc are usually the same ones that appear at the top of every list. This idea is focused on helping the blogs that don't usually get very far.
Maybe the easiest way to run this would be to provide a way to vote for blogs over at CMF Ads, instead of reinventing the wheel.
Thanks for the comments everyone. :)
I like the idea. This could lead to some interesting results. I already know which blog I will nominate and believe it or not, it is not even a WordPress blog.
Well I've managed to narrow it down to two blogs to nominate and now I'm stuck :-)
You're setting yourself quite a job to run that. I think it is a good idea. I don't like to see blog lists that are obviously either a popularity contest or the blow owner trying to win points with bigger blogs. Will have to consider who to nominate.