Looking at analytics today we noticed that those who visit from the blogs of other friendly, intelligent bloggers are reading many more posts when they visit than those arriving from other sources. We thought our readers would appreciate knowing specifically where these other friendly blogs full of quality information can be found.
It is also an opportunity to painlessly learn something about Web Analytics. The percentages shown are bounce rates which indicate the percentage of visitors who only visited one page of a site. The lower the percentage the more visitors from a particular source find your site interesting enough to read more than one post or page.
These blogs are referring the most serious readers:
[NOTE: Updated with their DoFollow (DF) CommentLuv (CL) KeywordLuv (KL) NoFollow (NF) Disqus (DQ) status. Disqus defaults to dofollow. If status is not given it is unconfirmed.]
SENDING SERIOUS READERS to GROWMAP:
- Social-Media section of AllTop – @alltop – 19.13% – an excellent source of blogs specifically about Social Media.
- DF CL KL UntwistedVortex – @RTCunningham – 23.21% – Popular blog about Blogging and Internet Marketing
- DF CL KL Wassup Blog – @AussieSire (comments here as Sire) – 26.67% – We only recently found out Sire has half a dozen other blogs: The Elusive Pot of Gold (NF), BlogSire (NF), SBizzTech (NF), Load of Bullshit (DF CL), Scenic Adelaide (DF CL), and Photos2Blog (DF CL).
- DF Marketing Matador – @eMatador – 33.33% – exceptional resource for Internet Marketing containing a custom hand-picked Marketing Search Engine
- DF CL KL Direct Sales Marketing Web – not currently on Twitter – 33.33% – Highly interactive Marketing Blog offering good Beginner Marketing Tips. Dennis also has additional blogs at Dennis Edell (CL, mix of DF/NF) and Easy Cash Contests (DF CL)
- backtype – @backtype – 33.33% – A service that lets consolidates comments from across multiple sources
- DF UnstuckDigital – @MikeTek – 36.36% – SEO Consulting, Web Design, Web Analytics
What I find interesting is that when a blog becomes more famous and attracts a more mainstream readership bounce rates jump. This could indicate that while their readers increase the core group of serious researchers becomes a smaller percentage.
- NF TwiTip – @ProBlogger – 54.55% – Blog devoted to Twitter
- DF DQ Michael Fructer – @fruchter – 55.56% – Social Media Marketing Strategies (Trackbacks are NF)
- NF Kiss Metrics – @KISSMetrics – 57.14% – Web Analytics blog (Their readers may be seeking more Analytics posts than we currently provide.)
- Probably NF ReadWriteWeb – @RWW – 57.14% – Web Technology News, Reviews and Analysis
- DF Blogussion – @Blogussion – 60% – Blogging Discussions, Tips and Tricks
- DQ Louis Gray – @louisgray – 64.58% – Silicon Valley Blog for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks
- Merchant Circle – @merchantcircle – 69.57% – Free Online Advertising for Businesses (Local Search Listing Directory)
- Probably NF TechCrunch – @techcrunch – 87.50% – Network of Technology blogs established in 2005
- Probably NF DoshDosh – @doshdosh – 89.66% – Exceptionally prolific and wise Social Networking and technology blog
Our in-depth posts may include insights that are beyond what mainstream users are seeking at this point in their learning curve.
You may wish to do a similar survey of your readers and then use this information to decide where to spend more time commenting. Consider both number of referrals and bounce rates and focus on sites that send the readers most interested in your posts.
There are some really exceptional blogs you probably haven’t found yet. The posts below includes some I plan to add to the GrowMap Custom AllTop feed.
RECOMMENDED INTERNET MARKETING BLOGS:
- UnstuckDigital: Five Great Internet Marketing Blogs You Shouldn’t Miss – Mike shares five exceptional don’t-miss blogs
- LouisGray: Blogs LouisGray Reads in his Custom AllTop Feed
These posts are here because both of these bloggers have extremely high standards. When they recommend a blog it is definitely one you’ll want to evaluate. Some will be of interest and some won’t but it WILL be time well spent.
DID YOU NOTICE? AllTop sends the most referrals and has the lowest bounce rates so if you’re not using it or your blog is not listed there you are missing a great source of traffic.
USING ALLTOP:
- LouisGray’s AllTop’s Custom Pages Finally Tip Me To Using the Product
- Mashable: My Alltop: Alltop Gets a Custom Feed
- 13 Ways to Brand Yourself with Alltop
NOFOLLOW or DOFOLLOW:
- Blogussion: Debate: Do Follow versus No Follow Links (Mar 12, 2009) – includes explanations of what NoFollow and DoFollow are and the pros and cons of each
- Andy Beard – Why You Should NoFollow Your Comments – or Not – Older post but still valid. Andy was an early proponent of DoFollow.
- More Than You Need to Know About DoFollow (May 2009)
- DoFollow Lists of Blogs, Social Networking Sites and Forums; DoFollow Search Tools; Understanding Do Follow and No Follow
Gail Gardner
It is always a luck to find such list with great information. The topics are interested and comments near blogs (DF CL KL …) are really helpful. Thank you!
I think blogs will be benefitted not only by the readers but also by communicating with other blogs. when we read others blog and commenting on that by discussion it will benefit to both the bloggers.
what does it take to get a blog added?
I hope some will share what they find if they check out their own bounce rates. It does identify blogs it would be good to visit regularly.
Nice list (and the KL info is nice, too!). I’ve been ‘collecting’ interactive marketing sites for a while now for guest blog posting purposes, and you’ve got a lot on here I haven’t yet seen. Thanks!!
Awesome article…
i think that is best way to get more traffic by making blog reviews for each other. your users may find extra info in the other blogs or their users may find your blog interesting. The communication makes your blog more popular because you are not trying to lock the user in and make him feel that you are afraid that he’s gonna leave your blog. Just giving more info and more good sources for your user is the best way to become an appreciated blogger and trust me this user will come back to your blog to read more info’s and reviews for other blogs becouse you are the source of good information.
Great article with a lots of useful information. Thanks for sharing it.
Linking can also do harm when its done with irrelevant site or blogs. But for the most part, linking is possitively helpful.
.-= Juan @ LadyBug´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Someone had commented that “links never hurt” and I’d like to point out that it’s not necessarily correct. Links can hurt when they are created too quickly and thus seem to be unnatural to Google. Yes, linking is important but so is moderation.
Pat’s last blog post..Google Conquest Authority Review – Call Me Boy Wonder
Awesome posting with a lots of great information. Thanks Guys.
Congratulating for this.
Thank you John. I hope you’ll check out some of our other posts while you’re here. If you like what you see you may want to Subscribe to our RSS or Subscribe via email.
Internet Strategist’s last blog post..Select Keywords First to Make Your Content Easy to Find
This is some interesting data. I would think that the more popular a blog is that the readers would be more inclined to visit other blogs and read as well. But honestly smaller blogs tend to have more of the information I am interested. Well, at least they tend to go into more details then the larger blogs.
Hi Brad,
I suspect that many read the popular blogs because it is the thing to do while those who seek out smaller niche blogs are learning specific skills they intend to utilize. I find that many writers are really big on the “what” we need to do but woefully inadequate in explaining “how” to actually do it or find someone else who can!
You may be able to benefit from running ppc ads for exact match phrases related to specific engines. Most tools only show searches made at least ten times in a month so they won’t help you and will usually result in little competition for certain phrases. If others have not targeted them you may be able to dramatically increase sales – at least until Google absorbs those phrases and shows generic broad matched ads against them.
Read the post I’ve featured in this comment for more details. If you have ppc specific questions that is a good post to ask them in or you can contact me at Twitter or through this site.
Internet Strategist’s last blog post..We Miss The Golden Days of the Internet – Pay Per Click Advertising Circa 2003
I so agree — “links never hurt.” As a matter of fact, links are necessary for better search engine (Google) ratings and certainly necessary for increased traffic which we all hope will convert to cash.
Welcome Hanna,
Yes, links never hurt and highly relevant links from dofollow sites with anchor text are even better. Check out the DoFollow Tools and Lists post. It is likely to stay in the Recently Popular section in the right sidebar. You can use some of the tools to search by keywords and find dofollow blogs in your niches.
Internet Strategist’s last blog post..Do YOUR Blogging Goals Include Monetization: Benefits Our Readers Receive
I didn’t notice but it’s awesome!
I thought some of my readers might want to know about your other blogs and I didn’t think you’d mind a little more traffic for them. Another incoming link never hurts. 🙂
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis
It sure don’t, thanks!
If I can jump into the above conversation for a moment….
If you could use Gail Gardner@keywords or Gail@keywords or even GG@keywords on my blog, I’d greatly appreciate it. 🙂
Cool name btw. 😉
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Sponsored Prizes Continue To Roll In!
Hey, if it makes you happy I’ll do it. I left a couple comments so hopefully it will pre-fill those fields when I visit and I won’t forget about your request.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..The Serious Drawbacks to Using FLASH for Web Design: Usability, SEO, Editability
No worries if it slips. It’s just me ever vigilantly trying to please the masses. I get emails from time to time from those I’ve “cornered” asking why “others” are allowed to do it.
Oy.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Sponsored Prizes Continue To Roll In!
Yes I know, the rigid like black and white rules with no exceptions. I like the blog where “friends of the blogger” get a “friends of the blogger” exception. If my memory were better I’d give him a plug right here as being my kind of guy.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Do YOUR Blogging Goals Include Monetization: Benefits Our Readers Receive
Oops. Sorry Dennis. I had it right when you point at the link. At least I didn’t have Direct Web Marketing Sales. 🙂 I removed KL and corrected the name of your blog and remembering that you have other blogs I should have also mentioned I added them too.
Did you notice Derek installed the ability to edit comments here?
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Be Pro-Active and Take Calculated Risks
Thanks for including me in the list. Out of the blogs listed only Wassupblog, uses KeywordLuv, and all except for WellBlogMe, SbizzTech, and Blogsire use commentluv and are DoFollow. I may change that at a later date, but for now I’m not trying to promote those blogs as such.
Also you may find this PrChecker plugin of some use, as it will show the PR, Technorati, Alexa rating etc. of your list.
Sire’s last blog post..The Archibald Fountain In Hyde Park Sydney
Hello Sire,
I updated the post to reflect what I hope you meant in your comment. Let me know if I erred on any of them. I’ll check out the PrChecker plugin too.
Our blog community should get together and share great blogs and prioritize which to visit most frequently. I’m working toward that when I compile data for posts like this.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1
Nearly there; Wassup’s the only one that uses keyword luv. I would be interested in your thoughts on that plugin too.
Sire’s last blog post..Wassup Blogs You Beaut Huge Link Love Fest
Hi Sire,
I corrected the annotations. Hopefully they’re right now. Regarding KeywordLuv there seems to be two camps: those who feel it is a good idea to reward your commentators with anchor text of their choice and those – some of whom ARE using KeywordLuv – who object to them using it.
It makes no sense to me why someone would install it and then complain when someone uses it for the very purpose for which it was intended. Many who could use it to good benefit don’t really understand how it works and are not using it.
Personally, I have no problem allowing visitors to provide what is basically a keyword tag that indicates what is important to them when they leave a comment. I like to know what niches my readers are involved in and what interests them most.
I am more interested in creating content for people than links for search engines; however, I do feel ethical use of anchor text is a good thing. There is a possibility that Google or other search engines will find a way to penalize such links that appear in comments.
I have no problem people using it as long as they use a name and then the keyword. Some people try to leave a keyword for the name and I object to that. If you remember I used to shorten yours to IS, but that was before I noticed it was the name you used on your blog, just as I use Sire. 😉
Sire’s last blog post..Wassup Blogs You Beaut Huge Link Love Fest
🙂 If I were trying to use it as a keyword I should put GrowMap@InternetStrategist instead. 🙂
When I started this blog and the associated Social Networking accounts I wasn’t thinking about anchor text or keywords and did not know KeywordLuv existed. I simply used the “name” that best reflected what I was sharing: Internet Strategy.
I didn’t mind you shortening it to I.S. and considered using G. Map as my name for a while. Now that I am scheduled to guest blog at MerchantCircle I have taken the pen name Gail Gardner but will keep using Internet Strategist most everywhere else.
I maintain that the value is in the quality of the fruits we share and not what our names are, where we live, or what we look like.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..New Type of Scraped Comment Blog Spam
“Highly interactive Marketing Blog” Hey I like it! lol I really appreciate it, thanks. 🙂
I probably should point out that I do not use KL and I think you inverted my name a bit. 😉
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..100 Strategies Book Review FollowUp – I Name Names!
Good list, and an interesting read! I’m wondering how many of those sites are Do Follow…….that is important to many folks who are in need of link building!
I knew I forgot something. I’ll add that information later today.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1
Hi Matt,
I have updated this post with notations for DoFollow (DF) CommentLuv (CL) KeywordLuv (KL) NoFollow (NF) and Disqus (DQ). While those are more challenging to confirm, Disqus defaults to dofollow. I marked several large blogs as Probably NF and if anyone knows otherwise I’m sure they’ll speak out.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis
Thanks for the list, we will check out all the blogs you posted here looks like a winner. We enjoy reading good up to date blogs.
Welcome leelow,
Some of the blogs mentioned in this post are bloggers who have much experience learning from trial and error and generously share what they’ve learned with their blogging communities.
Others belong to individuals who are exceptionally brilliant – leaders and visionaries in their chosen niches. I benefit greatly from visiting each of them and interacting with them provides this blog with many of our most active and interesting commentators.
Introducing them to my readers to spread the benefits to them was the right thing to do with my time yesterday. I noticed you are a Joomla Theme Developer. Did you notice the post just prior to his one about an exploit that can affect Joomla? I will use it as the Comment Luv link for this reply.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Watch Out for Recent WordPress Gumblar PHP Exploit
Hi leelow,
I forgot to suggest that you may wish to take advantage of the Keyword Luv plugin we use to add anchor text for your site to comments you leave here. Instead of leelow you could use leelow@Joomla to use Joomla as the anchor text in the link to your site.
We make this available to reward you with quality incoming links for your business and to encourage our readers to visit and comment often.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1
We appreciate you sharing Alltop and MyAlltop with your readers. Moreso, I appreciate you reaching out today to help us make Alltop better 🙂
I really appreciate your assistance while I was researching this post. I have a question about Alltop. If there is a blog we really want to add to our individual My Alltop can we submit it ourselves or should we ask the owner to do it?
I’ve decided that the best way to use Alltop is to have my own My Alltop for blogs that are most important to me and visit other My Alltop pages of those I admire when time allows.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Why You Can NOT Rely Solely on Organic Search Listings for Traffic and Revenue
Awesome list. I see you put a lot of research into this post. How long did it take you to put together this post?
Also thanks for sharing some great traffic sources.
Welcome back KushMoney,
Thank you. As a fellow blogger you know that posts often take more time than we intend when we start. I worked on it over several hours yesterday. What takes the most time is adding all the links to make it easier for readers to just point and click.
Doing this greatly increases the likelihood that those we recommend will be followed at Twitter and visited in their blogs. Every time I work on a post like this I wish I knew someone who could write an automated way to add Twitter links and blog links and descriptions from an app that saves them for me.
Long time readers know that I often recommend specific bloggers more than once so having something like that would really speed things up and allow me to recommend the best more frequently.
The Twitter ID field for comments is one of my top three fun plugins of all time. When I can’t remember what someone uses on Twitter or they’re new here I can use my blog comments to quickly find them.
P.S. For those who may be curious, the other two favorite plugins also relate to comments: CommentLuv and Threaded Comments. In hindsight I wish we had installed Threaded Comments long ago. I really miss CommentLuv when I visit other blogs that don’t have it.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Do YOUR Blogging Goals Include Monetization: Benefits Our Readers Receive
I wish I found your blog sooner. I am always looking for new blogs for resources, commenting, and great articles to share with my readers.
Yeah, I know how it can get when you trying to find the links to the post you found great resources. It took me around 2 hours to find which blog and the post that I learned about easyComment and feed demon.
Did Twitter ID field for comments bring in more comments to this blog? I was thinking about adding it to my blog.
Hello,
I am glad we have found each other. I have shared some of your blog posts on Twitter, FriendFeed and cliKball which is my normal process whenever I see a post worth sharing.
I didn’t notice any obvious increase in readers from adding the Twitter field even though I did Tweet that showing up and entering your Twitter ID in any comment “automagically” adds it to any previous comments you’ve left here.
Having it does make it far easier to make sure you’re following those who have visited (and usually they then follow you back) and that could increase repeat visitors.
I also love it because I can more easily contact people I know comment but whose Twitter IDs elude my memory for the moment. I can usually remember which post they commented in and find their Twitter ID there. (You can also usually find them by using a search engine.)
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis
By having commentators share their Twitter IDs I can make sure I’m following them. They’re likely to get more followers from readers here who like their comments and/or shared blog posts and also to follow me back so they’ll know when there are new posts here and whether they’re of interest to them.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1
Thanks for the mention! Always thrilled to hear someone appreciates our stuff.
Interesting to show the bounce rate per referring blog. I’m curious to take a look at this in our stats…
Even though your blog is young what you write is insightful. The only reason I have not already added it to the GrowMap My Alltop is that it is not available there yet. As soon as it is I will add it.
I hope some will share what they find if they check out their own bounce rates. It does identify blogs it would be good to visit regularly.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1
Good Figures , I don’t remember but I think that I found your blog from a link at untwisted vortex
Hello Edward,
Good to know. UntwistedVortex is difficult to describe but very popular and a worthwhile blog to read.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..The Serious Drawbacks to Using FLASH for Web Design: Usability, SEO, Editability
Difficult to describe sums it up. RT of Untwisted writes a lot of random stuff and they’re good. I sometimes get a lot of information from UV by simply browsing RT’s blog posts.
I guess it’s the randomness (?) which makes Untwisted Vortex popular.