I read a post on a site called Paulitics where he listed Canada’s top 100 political blogs. After looking through the list I noticed a problem with methodology – namely that he only used Alexa rankings. These are ok if you’re just gathering raw traffic data – but they don’t tell you anything about influence.
For example, everyone I know that works in politics reads Cherniak – yeah a lot of normal people don’t but his blog is important. On the Paulitics list he was number 53. That just can’t be right.
Another measure of success and influence for a blog or any website is it’s Google ranking. The Google ranking takes into account the number and QUALITY of in-bound links as well as things like feeds and bookmarking which Alexa doesn’t measure.
So anyhow, taking this into consideration, I’ve put together a list of Canada’s Top 25 Political Blogs [I'll keep this in the sidebar and update it monthly]. The Page rank is listed above, the numbers are their global Alexa Ranking:
Google Page Rank 6
1. Paul Wells – 67,235*
2. Small Dead Animals 190,608
3. Matthew Good – 202,266
4. Canadian Cynic – 623,263
5. Damian Penny – 742,055
6. Colby Cosh -1,151,633
7. The Galloping Beaver – 1,176,251
Google Page Rank 5
8. Relapsed Catholic – 221,006
9. Le Blogue du Québec – 279,645
10. The Politic – 314,854
11. Vive le Canada – 375,587
12. Steve Janke – 441,604
13. Abandoned Stuff – 491,407
14. Proud to Be Canadian -573,282
15. CalgaryGrit – 663,736
16. Gen X at 40 – 678,641
17. Warren Kinsella – 792,128
18. Red Tory – 811,583
19. Dust my Broom – 839,338
20. democraticSPACE.com – 921,740
21. Jason Cherniak – 1,020,269
22. Stephen Taylor – 1,091,547
23. Andrew Coyne – 1,099,622
24. Daveberta – 1,194,029
25. La Revue Gauche – 1,230,344
* Paul Wells’ page rank and Alexa rank are indistinguishable from Macleans magazine. So basically you could say that any of the blogs hosted on Macleans would be tied for first place. So why just have Wells there and not Megapundit? What about Radwanski and his Globe and mail blog? This whole thing is something of a pain. For the November list I’ll need to figure out a way to rank these MSM-hosted blogs.
FYI: This Blog would be number 72 on that other list, but on this one, it’s about 90. Which does seem sensible, I’d say that Adam Daifallah has a little bit more authority than me. For now.
NB: I do not endorse any of these blogs and find several of them reprehensible and libelous.
Filed under: Blog, Canada , Canadian Top 25
Thanks for taking the time to do this (and especially thanks for including me ;-)
I turned on a Google Toolbar the other day and it was showing my blog at PR6. I almost pooped myself. Then a few minutes later it was showing PR5 again. For a fleeting moment I was an Internet star ;-)
Samantha Burns doesn’t even publish any more, as far as I know.
My own hunches: Jason Cherniak and Warren Kinsella should be way higher on the list. There are blogs there that I wonder what they are doing on that list (and I won’t mention names because I don’t want to hurt any feelings).
I think influence can be measured as a function of how often a blog is cited and how large the audience is for the blogs that cite the first blog. For example, Blog X might be cited in a bunch of other blogs, but if they each only have a readership of 10, the total audience could be in the hundreds. But if Blog X is cited by a small number of blogs, but their readership is in the 1000’s, the total audience is actually greater, and therefore their influence is greater.
So number of citations (excluding formal blogrolls– anyone can sign up for one)
Number of blogs
And audience of citing blogs.
To me that would be a much more valid measure of a blog’s popularity and influence.
I know, I know, easier said than done.
Another useful ranking to further weed out [or down] smaller blogs like mine would be Technorati authority. Mine’s fallen by over 200 in the last year due to some blogrolls going defunct.
Suzanne, Thank you for pointing out that blog. I just saw the dates – I didn’t realize they were all spam.
Saskboy, I don’t see why your blog shouldn’t be up there.
As for technorati, TLLB or any other measure, I’ve deliberately not included those because they don’t rate the quality of links. But I have included the page’s Google Rank because it does include information about quality of links as well as information on feeds and bookmarks.
Maybe I do belong in the top 25, I was just attempting to be modest by suggesting that I don’t ;-)
What I’d love to know is how my traffic compares to other blogs I read (or ones that exist in Canada) and see how it stacks up that way. I don’t trust the Alexa ranking as far as I can throw it, so I’m glad you threw in the PR, that was a smart idea.
I also learned last year from the Canadian Blog Awards that there are some very big blogs out there in Canada (mostly in Toronto or Quebec) which are either not political in nature, or are in another language.
[...] way to rank Canada’s political blogs. It’s especially interesting to me, because I’m 12th on the list [...]
Wow # 25 and still trying. Thanks for this. A better break down than Alexa.
Thank you for including us. I did something similar back in 05 that may be useful to someone if they got the time – Blog Rankings – Links vs Traffic
Best!
Cheers Darcey, thank you very much. I’ve been combing the web for any blogs I missed for the November list – so I think your list could help.
By the way if anyone reading this has any idea for blogs I missed [not including blogrolls like liblogs or blogging tories] please list them in the comments to this post. Quebec blogs most especially welcome as my French is rubbish.
Did you look through the NonPartisan roll? BANPC.
There’s the I Am Canadian Blogroll for some others who aren’t political. And of course there’s Raymi the Minx who likes to point out that she’s not political but bigger than the Beatles.
Hmmm…
I was never much for stats. I found out about Alexa a little while back and still can’t figure out what sort of use it is to a blogger like me. Ummm…and I was just over at a US blogging woman who has compiled a list of over 200 wimmin bloggers. I wonder how many of these are blogging from north of the 49th and how many of them would figure prominently on lists of important canuck bloggers? Just a thought. Bye for now.
In the top 7 – 1 is Canadian – Kate at Smalldeadanimals. Of the remainder, I think 2 are women.
But if you go through the comments, you’ll find Suzanne – who (i think) runs a women’s blog community. I’d check out her site if I were you. You can just click on her name at the top of the comment.
I think you’ve understated the influence of Stephen Taylor’s Blog. He posts about 1/3 as much as the rest of the people on the list, but he still has a high alexa ranking. Furthermore it’s stories from his blog and reports that he writes that are often subject to comment in the MSM. He and Jason Cherniak have bridged the gap between news reporters and newsmakers, I believe that it more significant than someone who posts non-original content 20 times a day.
I see you updated the top 25 political blog list. Matt in #1 needs a URL fix. I thought I’d fallen off the list, but then saw I jumped to 4! I almost fell outta my chair. I guess installing the Alexa toolbar helped ;), but seriously my traffic did go up a good bit due to the Sask Election.
[...] can’t believe I moved up to number 4! With the way the ranking works though, it’s very easy to slip 10 spots again, because my [...]
Thx for the info – I’ve fixed the link in the sidebar. Number four makes sense – I was talking to a Liberal politician a few days ago and you were one of only a handful of blogs he had heard of.