So you are going to apply as guest poster
or want to ask the blogger for a review or just want to know how strong
your competitor is. If you do, this post is right for you.
People may use various methods to learn how strong a blog really is. Despite being an SEO at heart, I usually advise against blog evaluation relying on usual SEO metrics like Alexa rank because they have nothing to do with what really matters: how large and active the blog audience is. The readership of the blog is what really matters. That’s the heart of the blog. The readers are who you are going to expose your product or brand or expertise to. A site may have okies domain authority but no “real” (loyal) readers behind it. So what’s the use of writing for it then?
So here are my 3 proven ways to quickly evaluate a blog and understand how active the blog readership is (and possibly estimate the possible feedback on my guest post, for example):
Just
a few minutes of browsing the blog gives you an initial (and most often
correct) idea of how popular the blog is. I instantly look for the
following footprints:
This is why how actively the blog is Tweeted usually reflects the overall resource popularity and relevance.
Topsy is my preferred tool for social media monitoring of the type. Just run a quick search for [site:blogdomain.com] – mind there are no spaces – and you will be able to see:
Here’s a cool feedburner hack by the way that will let you learn the subscriber’s count even if it isn’t displayed on the site:
Now what other blog evaluation tip you would like to add here. If you find this post useful, don’t forget to share it with others.
People may use various methods to learn how strong a blog really is. Despite being an SEO at heart, I usually advise against blog evaluation relying on usual SEO metrics like Alexa rank because they have nothing to do with what really matters: how large and active the blog audience is. The readership of the blog is what really matters. That’s the heart of the blog. The readers are who you are going to expose your product or brand or expertise to. A site may have okies domain authority but no “real” (loyal) readers behind it. So what’s the use of writing for it then?
So here are my 3 proven ways to quickly evaluate a blog and understand how active the blog readership is (and possibly estimate the possible feedback on my guest post, for example):
Blog Evaluation guide for Bloggers and Marketers:
1. Use Your Own Judgment
Random post comment count and quality:
- How many comments are there for two or three posts I randomly landed at?
- Are there any spam comments? (if there are, this may mean the blog is not moderated which is never a good sign);
- How detailed the comments are? (I love it when readers tend to leave long comments detailing their opinion).
Random post social media buttons:
- Twitter count buttons;
- Facebook likes and shares.
- I also have Shareaholic FireFox addon installed that gives me an idea of the post Diggs and shares:
Sidebar widgets:
I
make it a good habit to notice and click through such widgets as
“Recent comments” and “Most popular posts” to get an idea of how long
ago the latest comment was posted and what is well received with the
blog readers.
2. Evaluate Twitter Popularity
Twitter has made it easier to quickly evaluate any blog popularity. While other social media
service (like StumbleUpon and Digg) largely depend on the site niche
and topic, Twitter is universal in this respect: everything and anything
under the sun gets Tweeted.This is why how actively the blog is Tweeted usually reflects the overall resource popularity and relevance.
Topsy is my preferred tool for social media monitoring of the type. Just run a quick search for [site:blogdomain.com] – mind there are no spaces – and you will be able to see:
- Most Tweeted posts from the domain all the time;
- Most Tweeted posts from the domain over the past month, week, day or hour;
- The number of found tweets for each post;
- How long ago (and by who) each post was first Tweeted:
3. Check the Feed Count
Still
not convinced? One last thing I base my judgment on is the Feed count.
While this data is actually subjective and can’t be taken in isolation,
it does give you some idea on how actively the feed is checked and how
many subscribers the blog might have:Here’s a cool feedburner hack by the way that will let you learn the subscriber’s count even if it isn’t displayed on the site:
- Copy the blog feedburner link (look for the linked feed button). It is going to be something like that: feeds.feedburner.com/username
- Prefix the “username” in the feed with ~fc/ : feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/username
- Now just go to the link you have come up with. The browser should take you right to the button with the count.
Now what other blog evaluation tip you would like to add here. If you find this post useful, don’t forget to share it with others.
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