In our course on blogging (primarily a writing course but which teaches writing with audience-participation as an integral part of it), we are looking to give guidance to our students on how to "rate" a blog. Obviously, writing cannot be simply rated. But status can.
How can a newbie quickly and simply compare the status of blogs? Our current answers (all of which are fallible...we're looking for ideas)
1. Check the google page rank. Sites with zero are probably inferior to those with a 3.
2. Technorati. Three numbers: Authority, Rank, and blog citations. I have a little karate blog that I have listed there and it has an authority of 3, a rank of 2.2 millionth, and 4 blog citations. Pretty weak but I've changed it's name and URL a few times and so far, it hasn't really settled out.
3. Other approaches?
Based on this, I guess I'll claim this blog in technorati. But each time I've tried to do that, I've run into technology problems on the technorati site.
Reader & subscriber status. These are essentially useless as each site has it's own system.
Number of posts. Not easily counted, not clear that it shows anything other than number of posts.
PS - the reason to want to compare blogs is that as bloggers start, they should expect to find their best response rate when they correspond (comment, trackback etc) with bloggers of similiar stature. Or at least, expect to get snubbed by the big boys when your blog is still getting started. Unless you have something really interesting to say and you say it really well. In my experience, your judgement on these issues grows with your rank. Although there is room for cause/effect questions.
Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification
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