danderma came up with this great initiative, ranking the top 100 blogs in kuwait almost on a monthly basis, following alexa ranking - while reading her march results, we wondered how the list would look like if it were segmented by language - we basically built on danderma's list and the findings were quite interesting.
- 20 of the top 50 blogs are purely in arabic
- 12 blogs are purely in english
- 18 blogs use both languages, depending on the post
this of course changes the rankings drastically - it places 248am as the most popular english blog in kuwait followed by danderma and bananaq8 becomes the most popular blog in the combo category followed by meenakon - q8ping remains number 1 in both arabic & all blogs categories followed by aboflan.
we believe ranking blogs should be segmented, just like it is done in other media channels, like newspapers - it gives a more comprehensive picture of the blogging universe.
interesting segmentation, clubbing all blogs together is not enough, though i am not sure about the combo blogs, they dilute the blogging scene, imagine a bilingual newspaper, that would be funny!
alexa rankings is stupid and only works for stupid people. It counts the number of people who have the alexa toolbar and access the sites listed.
Totally agree with Pat.. I don't like bilingual blogs…they don't have an identity. And forgive me if I say that some blogs either say rubbish or just copy/paste… it's a trend and everyone is having a blog nowadays… but how long would they keep it?
Have no problem with combo blogs, it might be a concern for people who can’t read both languages. Personally I like it, the only issue is in design, it doesn’t look as neat as a single language blog
I like this ranking ALOT! 2nd English blog after Mark's? That's really saying something isn't it?
This categorization does make a lot of sense I agree. Thank you!
thank you danderma! you did the difficult work – we simply interpreted the data differently..
Good approach! Arabic blogs have a much wider audience and it is not right comparing them witj English blogs. You must compare apples to apples. Good post
Smart segmentation! I like it a lot and it gives a better idea about the rankings :) thanks
حلوة الفكرة. .ويعطيكم العافية على الموقع المميز
thank you so much
Congrats to all , Great job you guys .
And special thanks to Danderma
Thank you MG!
what do you suggest as an alternative ranking website?
Good work on categorizing the blogs here. Although , in my humble opinion, blog ratings should not be evaluated by rank in any specific channel. Keep in mind, some blogs are personal- some corporate, some niche, some organizational. A personal, non profit blog that receives 3000 unique visitors a day cant be compared to a corporate blog that receives 10,000 hots a day. For a personal blog with a small segment, 3000 unique visitors a day may be amazing, whereas 10,000 hots a day for a corporate blog may be piss poor considering it must appeal to mass business. It is all relative.
So the best blog rating methodology must always be by category, style and sub category, much like what the folks at http://www.technorati.com (The worlds largest blog rating platform) does. An authority stamp is provided to blogs not based on just traffic and alexa ranking but on "real" web strategic initiatives that the blog must comply with. For example:
1) Good content that serves a purpose and appeals to its audience in comparison with others of its kind
2) Use of advanced technologies. Technicalities such as cross browser compatibility, speed, accessibility are important.
3) Good search ability (tHE BLOg's focus on seo and organic marketing)
4) Frequency of content and adherence to international blogging standards.
5) Creativity not only in the design but also in writing style, message points and calls to action.
Unfortunately, 95% of blogs in Kuwait dont even come close to complying with these standards- standards which bloggers in the west, europe and asia have long ago been following (the reasons for their success).
So, in my opinion, until we have a standard of evaluation/ methodology for bloggers here, rankings will always be pointless.
Case in point- Kuwait Music is the top site in Kuwait for music, but we are ranked #6 in english. Would it be right to compare us with say, the likes of danderma? Nope. Different content styles, different audiences.
Caesar
hi caesar – many thanks for your valuable comments and i do agree with you – technorati has a different popularity index than alexa and you simply cannot compare – but everybody asks about ranking so we tried to segment the blogs by language – you can also segment by category then things will be much different – kuwait-music will be the number one music website in kuwait and danderma the first food blog in kuwait – it goes without saying that this is the right approach, this is exactly the reason why we call ourselves 965malls so we capture that category, though we are way behind where we should be, want to be..
another key measure for me is engagement, i better have 50 engaged visitors per day than 500 passive ones..
Don’t get me wrong – a ranking of any sort is good for Kuwait – it’s still better than nothing and danderma , and now yourself have taken good initiative in doing so !
All I’m saying is that we as bloggers sometimes need advertisers on board so we can cover costs , but unfortunately advertisers evaluate silly stuff like Alexa ranking and what their agencies ” pitch ” to them as to what is a good blog to advertise on using their contacts and networks and since advertisers are ignorant of blogging standard , Sadly this is the case in Kuwait and alot of the truly good blogs don’t get advertisers .
So in my opinion although having an alexa ranking list is great as a discussion but is is really helping or harming the blogging industry in Kuwait ?
There’s something to think about :)
Caesar
no doubt! don't get me started about advertising!! it is a hornets nest and better keep it unshaken, or not? may be one day we'll rant about it, but to give the readers a hint:
- a lot of the ads you see are there for free
- a lot of the ads you see are simply there because x knows y
- a lot of ads you see are there because x is making good commissions out of y, more than your blog
- a good number of ads is there because some media agencies have taken them for peanuts and sell them as butter cookies
- if you stick to your principles you will probably see an ad every blue moon
- if you act professionally and give your true number of visitors you probably won't get ads
- there are some exceptions, but the above rules!