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Steve Weber
Some likely candidates may spring to mind, but new blogs can gain
readership quickly, so it’s worth surveying the field periodically.
Building your list of target blogs requires some legwork because
there is no current, comprehensive directory of all blogs. To determine
the popularity, authority, and quality of blogs in your niche, you’ll need
to sample the content yourself.
Start your search here:
www.Technorati.com. This blog tracking site lists the top 100
most popular blogs at Technorati.com/pop/blogs. But to find niche
content, you’ll need to look beyond these mainstream blogs. Consult the
advanced search tool, Technorati.com/search, where you can drill
down into specific topics.
www.Blogsearch.Google.com. Type in keywords related to your
book. Ignore results from personal blogs that focus on the author and get
little traffic.
www.Forbes.com/bow/b2c/main.jhtml. Forbes’ “Best of the
Web” directory reviews blogs with high-quality content.
Once you’ve identified a list of potential blog hosts, prioritize them
by three criteria: activity level, reader involvement and traffic volume.
Activity level. How frequently do new posts appear on the blog?
Bloggers usually must post new content a few times week to sustain a
loyal readership. Scan the past few months of blog archives to determine
the posting frequency.
Reader involvement. How often do readers chime in with
thoughtful comments? The vast majority of blogs allow readers to follow
up with their own commentary. The frequency and thoughtfulness of
reader comments indicates audience engagement.
Traffic volume. Traffic is the natural result of audience loyalty and
involvement, and it’s an objective measure of a blog’s impact. A handy
yardstick for measuring blog traffic is www.Alexa.com, which
provides estimated traffic reports on many Web sites.
At Alexa.com, click Traffic Rankings at the top navigation bar. Enter
the address of the blog you want to evaluate and click Get Traffic Details.
For most blogs, you’ll see an Alexa rank from 1 (the most-visited site on
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