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The top 100 Most Popular Australian Blogs

April 12, 2007 · 34 Comments

So Craig Harper, without any fanfare (except for a post on Duncan Riley’s blog) has silently added a “Top 100 Australian Bloggers List” (based on Technorati rankings) to the sidebar of his home page.

I’m a big fan of Craig’s motivational blog, he’s a terrific writer and I think that just about any person can click away from Craig’s blog feeling a little more enriched for the experience.

Now I’m a strong advocate of the Aussie Blogosphere, and I’ve actually been collating a list of my own – but I’m glad that Craig’s undertaken to put this on his site and is maintaining to keep it updated weekly.

Continued The top 100 Most Popular Australian Blogs

Categories: Australia · Australian Blogs · blogging · craigslist

34 responses so far ↓

  • dan1el // April 13, 2007 at 4:06 am

    No aussie love for me? :)

    This is a great list though. I’ve been dying to try to find an easy way to connect with other aussie bloggers so I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot here.

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 8:12 am

    Hi dan1el

    Well you should be there :) at # 44 on the original (Technorati) list and #13 on the Alexa list!

    As the list has only just been compiled I’m sure there’ll be some fine tuning.

    If anyone else feels they’ve been overlooked – please feel free to leave a comment.

  • Luke McCallum // April 13, 2007 at 8:28 am

    Looks like I will have to lift my game! I dont even rank! :(

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 8:40 am

    Hi Luke

    But with a new bub, you can be excused. How is Sebatstien? Isn’t it time you posted some more pics? :)

  • Luke McCallum // April 13, 2007 at 9:53 am

    Thanks Meg! Seb is doing great! I can do you one better and send you a whole gallery!

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 10:07 am

    Cool – I’m a sucker for baby pics. Will the cluckiness EVER fade :)

  • Leigh // April 13, 2007 at 10:19 am

    What a fab list Meg, thanks! I just love checking out all things Aussie. Will you be keeping it up to date, and possibly a clickable list..don’t want much :P

    So your list ranking just by Alexa AU alone?

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 10:27 am

    Hi Leigh

    Firstly – hat’s off to Craig for doing the original compilation – I’m assuming he’s automated the updates to his list (as it is awfully time consuming).

    I know the list is in a shocking format! I just simply wanted to get it DONE before bed, but I’ll work on prettying it up into a clickable list. As for keeping it up to date it’s a pretty tedious process (as you can understand) – but I’m sure there’s a bright spark out there that could figure a way to automate it. Just way beyond my capabilities :(

    I did grab all the Alexa “global” stats at the same time. They’re all plugged into a spreadsheet – it just made sense for the post to look at the AU market – to highlight what blogs are popular with Aussie readers.

  • Leigh // April 13, 2007 at 10:49 am

    Opps..I did mean to say Meg AND Craig :)

    It would be very nifty if someone could come up with an automated list. Perhaps even a Womens list too.

    My blog technically (but not really) could be in at #3..Wow, so close to Darren I can smell him :lol:

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 10:58 am

    Ooh yes, 880 on Alexa AU – great stuff :)

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  • James Farmer // April 13, 2007 at 1:43 pm

    There’s always http://edublogs.org – all Australian owned etc :)

  • dan1el // April 13, 2007 at 2:02 pm

    Cheers Meg. :)

    What program are you using for the list?

    If I can find some time I might try to code something to crawl Technorati. Only problem is they don’t have an easy way to find and navigate Australian blogs. At best I could code something to adjust the rankings day to day but new blogs would have to be added manually.

    Anyway I’ll look into it.

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 3:47 pm

    Hi James

    I thought I saw one on the list ;)

  • Meg // April 13, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    Hi dan1el

    Ummm I used Excel!

    Wow if there was any way to automate it that would make updates a lot easier!

    But Craig Harper would be the best one to talk to about how he’s running his list – mine was merely a different angle.

  • dan1el // April 15, 2007 at 8:07 pm

    It looks like Craig is using a program to crawl Technorati to check the rank for sites on the list but not new sites. I guess he’d be inputing them manually. With the poor navigation Technorati has I don’t think there would be any other way.

    The one thought I had though was to use BlogCatalog’s country index as a way of checking for new blogs. It’s not a perfect solution but it would grow the list quite significantly.

  • Meg // April 15, 2007 at 8:49 pm

    Hi Dan1el!

    I believe it is a manual process :( It is difficult to identify new sites and similarly identify them as Australian. BlogCatalog is great, but I don’t know that it has wide enough appeal – and certainly not among the more “traditional” blogs.

    http://theaustralianindex.com only lists Australian blogs (2471 currently) and also includes a technorati rank for many of the blogs, and the ability to sort by technorati rank as well (although the “unreviewed” ones are displayed first). It’s a pretty good directory. I’m not sure how often they update the technorati rank, but it’s possible that it’s as a new entry is posted on each blog.

    I spent quite some time yesterday actually working out an algorithm to combine both Technorati and Alexa rankings which is pretty exciting. But more on that to come later.

    And yes – it still requires manual input :(

  • dan1el // April 16, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    The Australian Index is another good find.

    Inputing manually is a pain. I guess people who are serious about blogging and being on a list like this will just have to find you.

    An algorithm joining the two sounds good. Might even boost my ranking. :)

  • Meg // April 16, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Hi Dan

    Crunching as we speak :)

  • Moua // April 17, 2007 at 7:59 pm

    Hi!
    I think that could be interesting to compare this list with the corresponding Technorati rank.
    Moua,

  • Gavin Heaton // April 18, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    Thanks for including me in your list. Looks like a lot of work!

  • Meg // April 18, 2007 at 2:52 pm

    Hi Gavin

    You’re most welcome. It is a lot of work, but for a good cause.

  • Stephen Collins // April 18, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Hey, Meg. By your formula, acidlabs ought to be at #67, the same place it is on Craig’s site.

    Not that I’m looking for traffic or anything; my audience falls pretty tightly into the information architecture and usability plus web applications development space. Posts are largely on topic, so the audience breadth isn’t huge.

  • Meg // April 18, 2007 at 4:35 pm

    Hi Stephen

    You’re absolutely spot on.! I already had you flagged for the next update (don’t know how I missed including it – you’re on the directory and everything).

    Humblest apologies :(

  • myles // April 19, 2007 at 9:55 am

    what about news.com.au blogs? seems they have a technorati blog rating of 10!!

    http://technorati.com/blogs/http://www.news.com.au

  • Meg // April 19, 2007 at 11:01 am

    Hi Myles

    Ah yes, but that’s for the whole domain – not individual blogs :)

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  • Michelle // April 22, 2007 at 12:27 am

    I think this subject is well worthy of attention and it is great to see a list compiled of Australian bloggers and not focussing on the US bloggers. I didn’t make the list – I am tipped at number 114 – so I will have to work even harder to see if I can move my way up.

  • Meg // April 22, 2007 at 12:32 am

    Hi Michelle

    Thanks for your comment. Guess what! You made the latest update (number 96)! See http://blogpond.wordpress.com/top-100-australian-blogs-index/

  • junglejamie // April 22, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    Hi Meg

    Hey, why is my site a splog??? I don’t get it… and I feel very left out…

    junglejamie

  • Meg // April 22, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    Hi JungleJamie

    When I recently visited your site (maybe it was down or had be hijacked?) it was showing a parked domain with lots of adsense – no content or anything. I had previously visited your site (catchy title!), but thought the blog must have lapsed. (I have a screenshot that I can send you).

    Your blog is full of wonderful content, and just yesterday I put it back on the list to be checked at the next index update.

    I’m sorry that you feel left out ;( but hope you understand that when I visited, it looked like anything BUT a good quality blog.

  • Meg // April 22, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    Actually, Alexa have a snapshot of the site:

    http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=junglejamie.com

  • junglejamie // April 25, 2007 at 10:13 pm

    Hi Meg,

    I found out what the problem was… I had http://www.junglejamie.com set up, but junglejamie.com was going to the GoDaddy parked page. So I’m glad you pointed it out, because now I’ve fixed the problem.

    It is a great list by the way. Kudos to Craig Harper and you for compiling it.

    Jamie

  • Meg // April 25, 2007 at 10:37 pm

    Hi Jamie

    I’m so glad you got it sorted :)

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