"Blog rankings don't matter. Who looks at them or believes in them anyway?" "Nobody with any sense at all worries about their blog ranking." That's what I used to say. I was up there at the top. Then I could easily and modestly shrug such stuff off from my lofty perch. Hardly the case any more. Temporary blips have become an out of control spiral downwards like an doomed aircraft. Now I'm down to number 41. Forty fucking one! Not so much hoist by my own petard, but suspended from it as the bloody hole gets deeper and deeper. A Barclay's like fall from grace; a downward, headlong plunge that shows no sign of bottoming out at all. I seem doomed to disappear over the horizon. And oddly, I'm in good company. There are some longstanding names around me. What's caused this? Is it my my continual failure to join in things like The Session, thus not picking up backlinks, or to not cuddling up to the young things enough? Could it be my lack of beer reviews? I haven't ever done that though really. How come people that sometimes only post once a month or so are shooting past me in a blur? What's gone wrong? Or is there a more straightforward reason? Am I just rubbish these days? Too old, stuck in my ways, not trendy enough to trend? Just not getting this changed beer and blogging world? Not smart enough to work out what to do? That must be it. Well looking at the list of those shitting on my head from way above would seem to suggest so. Otherwise how could so many be knocking me into a cocked hat?
I don't like it and it seems I can do little about it. Despite myself, I will be crying into my beer over this one. But I'll carry on regardless.
And I've dropped from 181 in the UK General to 863. WTF?
They don't know how to measure influence even if they had a ruler for it - the stats are pointless.
ReplyDeleteOh and beer reviews won't get you up in the stats either - ever since I said on Twitter that Wikio was rubbish I found that the following month I was down in the 60-80th bracket rather than the 20-40...
It's because blog rankings are based on, at best, questionable measures which seem to completely ignore things like how much you write and how much you're read.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Wikio won't even list me so I might be a little cynical ;)
Following on from this I thought I'd wander over to ebuzzing (new name for wikio) to see how they gather the stats:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebuzzing.co.uk/corporate/ebuzzing-labs/
Funnily enough there is little mention of what they use other than some vague mention of social media...
1. Of course you're not rubbish these days. Usually the first blog we look at every day, anyway.
ReplyDelete2. If there was someone measuring actual influence in the real world, with non-bloggers -- actual British pub drinkers -- you'd probably be at or near the top.
3. You could game Wikio/Ebuzzing by doing things that aren't your style, but what would be the point of that?
4. Having said that, it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to 'cuddle up' to (i.e. be more welcoming to, engage in conversation with, link to, comment on) blogs by newer beer bloggers a bit more than you do. I'm not sure why you view this so cynically.
B&B I should. I keep meaning to update my links list which is hopelessly out of date. So much so, I use Zak's to look up blogs. Laziness that's all. So if you want a link, send details. All I ask is reciprocation.
ReplyDeleteNo cynicism as such.
Ah, now that's interesting: we link to people without an expectation of a link back, if we like and read their blog. It's a much simpler decision to make that way, without any back-and-forth negotiation or wounded pride.
ReplyDeleteLife's too short Pete! We're in the 70's now on the rankings, but our page views have never been higher.
ReplyDeleteAs long as enough people read what I write to justify what I do, that's good enough - Wikio/ebuzzing be damned :)
True enough Rich. It isn't so much my position that bothers me, but how I have fallen so far, all of a sudden. Top ten or top five for years then......
ReplyDeleteMy stats are fine too. Cheers.
Some time last year, just as I was getting record hits on my statcounter, I dropped over a few months from 54 to 105. I've just dropped this month from 69 to 72, although the hits last month were up. It's hardly worth getting upset about something that is, in real terms (i.e the number of actual people clicking on your blog), fairly meaningless.
ReplyDeleteCheer up: without your example, there wouldn't be my blog ... oh dear! I've made you even more depressed.
Just noticed Peter Brown has gone down 19 to number 20.
ReplyDeleteRemember, too, that Wikio itself may be the issue. Just before the North American version closed shop, there were weird results coming out. If you were to go knock on the office door you may only find a 17 year old starting at an overheating server farm.
ReplyDeleteI'm just getting dizzy from reaching 88 myself
ReplyDeleteAh, blind panic. Hence your two posts today and one from the session no less. It will be interesting to see if this improves your stranding or are the bright young things just moving too fast for you to catch them these days?
ReplyDeleteProbably the latter, but who knows? It's just hard to understand the sudden sharp decline. Numbers and comments are holding up well, but people with no comments and only one or two monthly posts are whizzing by. Must be something else, hence seeing if the Session makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteYou'll still find the quality and diversity here though. :-)
Obviously something amiss at Wikio. Just found this on their web page:
ReplyDeleteDear User
Thank you for visiting Wikio but from now on the service will be closed permanently. Best Regards, The Wikio team.
PS. Your blog is still one of my few 'must reads'.
As a fawning 'so & so' I'd best remain anonymouse but keep up the good work.
Cheers Anonymous
ReplyDeleteActually, Anon, you're wrong. The Wikio site has closed, but the top 100 blog chart is now available on the ebuzzing site, which you can find here. What you'll need to do, TM, is remove the old badge with your chart position from your blog, and get the new code from the ebuzzing site and instal that. You and your readers will then be able to access the chart by clicking on your new badge.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest, why would you want to blogroll a blog when the only comment you've ever made was 'Never read such a load of rubbish in my life'?
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to do so since you asked me, but I'm confused as to why you continued to read the rubbish I write? I am assuming you did so in the first place to make such a resounding judgement.
Simple really. Only because I read a tweet this morning referring to your blog post of today and when I read the post, I noticed this: "More Beer Blogging: Give me a shout if I've missed you." So I thought I would. I would not have bothered if I'd known you were nursing a grievance.
ReplyDeleteAs for the quote above, I have no idea when it was, or what the context was, but I assume it was what I thought at the time. The search facility on your blog doesn't find it. Feel free to make the same kind of comment on my blog if the subject so moves you.
Sorry you couldn't find the link, it appears blogger's search doesn't run to comments!
ReplyDeletehttp://beeradvice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/would-you-mind-topping-that-up-please.html
Thanks for that. Well, I've just re-read it and while the comment is robust maybe, it is fair in context, though if I have misunderstood as a further commenter suspects, I'm sorry. But reading it again - and again - it comes across that yield for the same amount of liquid justifies, as a consideration at least, keg over cask.
ReplyDeleteEither way, it doesn't seem worth holding a grudge over. I'd long since forgotten that and as I said,feel free to respond to anything I say in just as strong a tone if you are so inclined. I've certainly no wish to fall out over it.
You know, reading your article for the third time and looking at the subsequent comments, it looks as though I have read you wrong. I think. I still think the article a little ambiguous, but life's too short.
ReplyDeleteI'm wrong. Sorry about that.
No worries. Blog rolled (if that's the right term). No idea how long blogger will take to catch up, if it's as effective as their search system you'll be up there in the next year or so.
ReplyDelete