Last Friday I wrote about a little experiment I did in an attempt to determine the most popular beer blog on the web.
Basically I wrote a script that does a little triangulation between ranking systems on a blog aggregator (Technorati), a search engine (Google) and a blog reader (Bloglines), and tosses back the results. (For a full explanation, read the first post.)
Alas, I spent so much time in that first post explaining how I did what I did that I didn’t have a chance to list my full results. So here they are (along with a few notes):
Beer Blog Popularity as of 25 May, 2007
- A Good Beer Blog
Technorati Authority: 144 | Bloglines 104 | Google Page Rank: 6Notes: Mentioned in my first post. As of this morning their Technorati Authority had risen to 150.
- Brookston Beer Bulletin
Technorati Authority: 121 | Bloglines: 15 | Google Page Rank: 5Notes: The Authority of 121 reflects a combined 107 for the old URL and a 14 for the new one. (People need to update their links). Bloglines and Page Rank numbers reflect the old URL as well.
- The Beer Mapping Project
Technorati Authority: 98 | Bloglines: 10 | Google Page Rank: 6Notes: The Beer Mapping Project’s Page Rank of 6 equals that of Beer Advocate. That’s pretty impressive given the amount of content generated on Beer Advocate each day. A Google number that high indicates that while not as many people may subscribe to the RSS feed, lots of people are clicking through to the site based on search results.
- The Brew Site: It’s all about the beer
Technorati Authority: 73 | Bloglines: 47 | Google Page Rank: 5Notes: Even though The Brew Site has a lower Authority rank, it’s larger subscriber base and higher Page Rank kicked it to number four on the list. This is the highest ranking beer blog run entirely by one guy who is not directly affiliated with the beer business.
- Hop Talk
Technorati Authority: 82 | Bloglines: 8 | Google Page Rank: 4Notes: More blogs cite articles on Hop Talk than on The Beer Site giving it a higher Authority rank. However, the lower Page Rank and Bloglines subscriber base placed it number five. (Could change quickly though.)
- Beer Haiku Daily
Technorati Authority: 66 | Bloglines: 9 | Google Page Rank: 4Notes: Who knew so many beer lovers were weird Japanese poetry fans? Number six on the list is a great showing. Who sez we isn’t cultured peoples?
- Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home
Technorati Authority: 67 | Bloglines: 7 | Google Page Rank: 4Notes: I was a little surprised by these results. I had assumed that any of Stan Hieronymus’ sites would easily clock in in the top three. Spidering this site though, I can see that the site’s rank may be artificially low due to a lower number of inbound citations (links) from other sites as compared to the top three beer blogs.
- Realbeer.com Beer Therapy
Technorati Authority: 48 | Bloglines: 28 | Google Page Rank: 5Notes: The RealBeer main website is huge in comparison to the blog. Were the whole site RSS-capable (rather than just one section), I believe it’d rank at least four positions higher.
- Beer Me!
Technorati Authority: 51 | Bloglines: 2 | Google Page Rank: 5Notes: Syndication of headlines only as opposed to full articles or abstracts probably keeps its subscriber numbers lower than the could be because that sort of thing tends to appeal to industry insiders (e.g., people in the beer biz) rather than regular folks. Authority and Page Rank are still quite respectable. This site could easily move up in the next few weeks.
- Stonch’s Beer Blog
Technorati Authority: 43 | Bloglines: 2 | Google Page Rank: 4Notes: Stonch is a prolific writer, so I have to assume that his Authority rank is artificially low because he tends to write a lot about local pubs and what he’s up to rather than what everyone is writing about. (Recall that ‘Authority’ gets its ranking from the number of other blogs citing your posts or vice versa.) Still a very respectable showing for a guy who makes beer in a plastic bin and shares it with friends (and the homeless) in a park.
Up and Comers
While not in the top ten, each of the blogs below is on an upward trend and could easily pop into the top ten over the next few months.
- Brew Like A Monk
Technorati Authority: 29 | Bloglines: 15 | Google Page Rank: 5 - Speaking of Beer
Technorati Authority: 33 | Bloglines: 5 | Google Page Rank: 4 - CURE FOR WHAT ALES YOU | Microbrew Craft Beer Blog
Technorati Authority: 33 | Bloglines: 1 | Google Page Rank: 3 - The Brew Lounge : Beer Tasting Brewing and Culture
Technorati Authority: 26 | Bloglines: 11 | Google Page Rank: 5 - Big Foamy Head
Technorati Authority: 27 | Bloglines: 7 | Google Page Rank: 4 - Hedonist Beer Jive
Technorati Authority: 26 | Bloglines: 13 | Google Page Rank: 4 - A Roughneck’s Take On Beer
Technorati Authority: 17 | Bloglines: 4 | Google Page Rank: 4 - Monday Night Brewery : Atlanta, GA
Technorati Authority: 17 | Bloglines: 0 | Google Page Rank: 2 - Flossmoor Beer Blog
Technorati Authority: 16 | Bloglines: 1 | Google Page Rank: 4
Some closing notes, thoughts, etc.
- This is an attempt to measure popularity, not actual readership
None of the metrics I used counts actual site traffic or readership. All it does is make an assumtion that a blog with more links to/from it, higher search engine results, and more RSS subscribers is more “popular” than one with lower numbers. - It’s already inaccurate
All of these measures are snapshots. The moment I took them they were obsolete. Because they’re based on rolling figures (like the number of links over the past six months), they’re changing all the time. (For example, A Good Beer Blog has risen six points in Authority ranking in just the past five days.) If you see two blogs within a couple of points of one another, they can easily flip flop simply based on frequency of posts, whether other people added or dropped links to them, and so on. - We’re not that big of a community
If you take a look at the Authority rankings of some other areas of interest like restaurants, wine, tech gadgets, tv shows, and so on, you find hundreds of blogs with numbers well into the thousands. When the top Beer Blog is only 150 it tells you that this is a pretty small world (since ‘Authority’ is based on unique links in posts, the more unique links, the higher the ‘Authority’). Search “beer” you come back with thousands of sites. Limit that with “craft brewing”, “micro brewing” and so on, and you get down into the low hundreds. (This probably has something to do with the fact that we don’t have a lot of techno-weenies in our midst, so not a lot of us are blogging.) Chances are, if you’re a regular beer blog reader, it’s quite likely that you know most — or maybe even all — of the beer bloggers out there. A micro community for micro brews… pretty cool. - I’ll do better next time
In goofing around I found a whole bunch of other tools and metrics from places like FeedBurner that’ll help me measure popularity more accurately. Gimme another month and I’ll even be able to do little charts and stuff. (Oooooh, shiny objects).
If you’ve got any ideas, comments or suggestions, you know I want to hear them. Just use the comment form or drop me a note at beerbuddy (at) mybeerpix.com.
Cheers!
I’m surprised to see us come in the top 10. We’ve only been around since July. (That would probably explain our relatively low Google PageRank as well.)
Of course, we’re not doing it to be popular. We just want to talk about our passion. We’re tickled to death that other people are interested in what we have to say.
😯 Amazed, and proud as punch to be the only non-North American in the top 10! I’m very pleased with how things are turning out, after only four months.
Just the ego boost I need to set me up for a miserable afternoon in the office! Cheers
Wow, I’m very surprised to be #4… I would’ve put a bunch of the others ahead of me. But yeah, like Stonch, a nice ego boost. 🙂
Shouldn’t Lew Bryson’s Seen Through a Glass be in here somewhere?
“Shouldn’t Lew Bryson’s Seen Through a Glass be in here somewhere?”
Probably — his Technorati Authority is 74, and Google Page Rank 4. But when I ran his blog against the keywords I mentioned his site came in at number 21. Running a “blog cloud” against his site my guess is he doesn’t pop higher because over the past 6 months he’s written a good many things specific to Pennsylvania (especially Philadelphia), which can affect the rolling ranking.
I’d cry foul and whine that we aren’t on the list, but you did a great job in explaining your methodology so you’ve even taken that away from me 🙂
Chris —
Actually you (and a couple others) did get ripped off.
Because my script gave equal weight to all search terms including “micro brew”, “craft brew’, etc. (an effort to eliminate blogs by Coors binging college students), sites like Hail The Ale got hammered.
If the scoring had just been run based on “beer” and “brewing”, you’d have landed at a very respectable number 7.
Working on how to fix that…
I showed my wife this comment that the Beer Sage posted at part 1 – oddly she was not quite persuaded by the argument. While it may nteresting to note that since this post, I have 160 Blogliners in addition to now 149 Authority on Technorati I am also very aware that the bulk of content plays a huge part in this. I have blogged about beer since 2003 and had a dedicated site for three years with 882 posts now. So there are many google hits just because there is content to hit. And because there is content there are links.
I point this out not because I am overly proud of the blog but as maybe the one good lesson for others I have learned. {Maybe the only one other than turn off the flash when you are photographing beer.] That lesson is “write” – write all the time and don’t worry if today’s one item is not as good as the last. If we are to expand enthusiasm for beer we have to be enthusiasts. It is a nutty calling to write about beer, collect beer, home brew our own beer and buy books and got to festivals and all the rest. But because there is so much to discuss and because beer itself makes for discussion, the opportunity is there for way more beer blogging content than I could ever have imagined when I started out. Frankly, I was sure I would run out of things to say within a month. I had no idea how big good beer is.
It’s an honor just to be nominated! I can’t believe I made #6.
This is a neat little experiment. I like the way that none of the blogs in the list are clones of each other. Each approaches our growing little niche from a different perspective and each has something unique to offer.
I think the fact that the list can generate a little controversy speaks highly of the fact that there are a lot more than 10 great beer writers out there.
I also agree with Alan that it is important to keep writing and not give up. I am coming upon the 2nd birthday of Beer Haiku Daily – there’s been at least one new beer related poem every day for two years – and I think that has a lot to do with my placement on this list.
I’m sure I will be punted off soon enough when the formula changes, but that doesn’t take away my bragging rights today. And I will admit that I do plan on using Beer Sage’s line on my wife. 😉
Thanks for taking the time to combine the old and new stats. The switchover has been a nightmare in terms of getting people to update their links. It’s pretty humbling to be so high up. It’s a nice shot in the arm to the ego. Cheers, J
Come on guys, time to do this again and see how things have changed! I hafta know!