SALON BLOGS MONTHLY DIRECTORY AND COMBINED POPULARITY RANKING

It was a very troubling month for Salon blogs. Of the 2000 Salon blogs in existence, only about 200 were active in the last month, a big drop from the previous month. Two of the most popular bloggers, Reverse Cowgirl and Iraq Democracy Watch, called it quits this month. A significant number of Salon bloggers are either already using a tool other than Userland for their blog (using Salon as a ‘mirror’ site because they like the politically active Salon community) or are planning to migrate to another tool. The Julie/Julia Project is complete so the future of the #3 remaining Salon blog is also up in the air.

Salon blogs received an aggregate 950,000 hits during the month, a drop of over 20% from last month. The aggregrate number of inbound links was steady at about 3,000.

There is some good news, however. There are some excellent new blogs since June, some of which have a prolific amount of content and are getting some external attention, and being blogrolled by many readers. An increasing number of the more veteran Salon bloggers are browsing the Salon Updates list and giving some of the newbies some encouragement to continue, which is critical since the Power Law continues to prevail (the top 50 blogs account for 88% of all inbound blogs and 92% of the hits of the entire Salon community).

Notable new bloggers in the top 50:

• Drug War Rant — Pete Guither’s plea for a more humane and intelligent solution to drug abuse than the long-term incarceration of tens of thousands of Americans for mere possession.
• Life in L.A. — Claire Smith’s moving account of the unexpected death of her father, and her new life in California.
• World O’Crap — An anonymous female blogger’s astute and hilarious deconstruction of the right’s most notable wingnuts.
• Glutter — An astounding portrait of life in Hong Kong after the handover of political control to China by the British.
• World According to Chuck — Entertaining and very professionally written stories by a family man coping with the questions and struggles of everyday life.

Name and location of each blog’s ‘owner’, when known, is shown below the blog name. The Salon blog # links to the blog’s home page. Apologies in advance for any errors or omissions. Corrections gratefully accepted. If you’re listed and your location is not, please drop me a line and tell me where you blog from.

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