Part One: A Special Analysis of Salon Blogs:
This analysis is based on a random sampling of 215 Salon blogs, representing every tenth blog in the sequence from 0001000 to 0003131, the highest number assigned to date. In this sample:
- 35% had never been used (i.e. zero posts had been made)
- Of the blogs that had at least one post, 68% had been abandoned within one month of the first post (i.e. during the ‘free’ period). Therefore, in the 16 months since Salon Blogs started (and ignoring those just started in the last 30 days), only about 300 bloggers (one in seven of those that applied for a Salon blog) have ponied up after the first month.
- The number of Salon bloggers still active (at least one post in the last 30 days) is slightly less than 200, of which about 50 are new this month. Both numbers are unchanged from last month.
- If past history continues, only half of this month’s new bloggers will still be blogging a month after they start, and only 10 will still be blogging a year from now. Someone needs to take on a project to contact each new Salon blogger, help them out, make them feel a part of the community, and encourage them to stick around. Might make your blog really popular, and you wouldn’t have to dig for something to write about. Any volunteers?
- About a hundred Salon blogs get abandoned every month, and a slightly larger number get started each month and make at least one post. The drop out rate is largely unseasonal, though it appears slightly lower in November, March and June than in other months.
- An average of about two bloggers a month leave a ‘forwarding address’ to another non-Radio blog site. This rate seems to be increasing, with TypePad the major beneficiary.
- At least a dozen of the 200-or-so active Salon blogs are ‘mirror sites’, where the blogger primarily uses another blogging tool but maintains, out of loyalty to the Salon community and/or a desire for greater visibility, their Salon membership, with a copy of their blog in the Salon domain so that it still appears in the Salon most popular and recently updated lists.
- Approximately 70% of Salon Blogs that last more than one month, and the same proportion of active Salon Blogs, are authored by men. This was a surprising finding given that a majority of blogs using other tools are authored by women. Very few (less than 5% of) Salon Bloggers attempt to disguise their gender, so I believe this number to be accurate. I’ll leave it up to readers to speculate why this is so. But since exactly 70% of the Top 50 Salon Blogs in the rankings (see below) are male-authored, it appears that in this corner of the blogosphere there is none of the gender discrimination that seems to be present elsewhere.
Part Two: This Month’s Ranking of Salon Blogs:
The following chart shows (a) in red, the ranking among Salon Blogs in number of hits in the past month (to November 4th) and (b) in black, the ranking among Salon Blogs in number of inbound blogs (per Technorati ) at November 4th, followed by the number of hits during the month and the current number of inbound blogs. Blogs are listed in order of combined (a) + (b) rank. Last month’s combined rank is shown in brackets.
Active Salon blogs received an aggregate 900,000 hits during the month, no change from last month. The aggregrate number of inbound links to active Salon Blogs rose 3% to about 2,700.
The Power Law continues to prevail (the top 50 blogs account for 89% of all inbound blogs and 92% of the hits of the entire Salon community).
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.
| 1. (1) |
Real Live Preacher 4 / 1 44k hits 265 inbound blogs Anonymous 1772 |
26. (25) |
Toby’s Political Diary 46 / 15 1.7k 35 ib Toby Sackton 1282 Massachusetts |
| 2. (2) |
Scott Rosenberg’s Links & Comment 5 / 3 30k 229 ib Scott Rosenberg 0014 California |
27. (23) |
Life in L.A. 19/ 43 4.7k 16 ib Claire Smith 2608 California |
| 2. (3) |
The Julie/Julia Project 2 / 6 65k 111 ib Julie Powell 1399 New York |
27. (31) |
Andrew Bayer is Dreaming 30 / 32 3.3k 23 ib Andrew Bayer 1033 Mass. |
| 4. (4) |
Radio Free Blogistan / MediaJunkie 8 / 4 20k 154 ib Christian Crumlish 1111 California |
29. (22) |
The Agora 49/ 14 1.6k 38 ib Doug Anders 1147 Ohio |
| 4. (6) |
How to Save the World 10 / 2 16k 241 ib Dave Pollard 2007 Ontario |
30 (31) |
neva, miss feva, blogging 40 / 24 2.3k 28 ib Neva Cavataio 1216 Oregon |
| 6. (5) |
David Harris’ Science & Literature 3 / 10 48k 52 ib David Harris 1092 Maryland |
31. (35) |
Pipeline 24/ 43 4.2k 16 ib Doug Hennessee 1739 Minnesota |
| 7. (7) |
Secular Blasphemy 11 / 7 13k 86 ib Jan Haugland 1561 Norge |
32. (32) |
My so called lesbian life 43/ 28 2.0k 24 ib Penny 1883 Florida |
| 8. (10) |
filchyboy 1 / 19 417k 30 ib Christopher Filkins 1512 |
32. (30) |
Tales of Drudgery and Boredom 13/ 58 9.6k 10 ib Michel Vuijlsteke 1236 Belgie |
| 9. (8) |
Why Your Wife Won’t Have Sex… 9 / 12 15k 38 ib Julia Deckham Grey 2153 |
34. (44) |
Le PrÍtre Noir 45/ 28 1.9k 24 ib Father Bojangles 1823 |
| 10. (11) |
different strings 17/ 5 5.4k 140 ib Kriselda Jarnsaxa 1542 Kansas |
35. (45) |
FarrFeed 23 / 51 4.3k 12 ib John Farr 1107 New Mexico |
| 11. (9) |
The Devil’s Excrement 11 / 12 12k 47 ib Miguel Octavio 1330 Venezuela |
36. (37) |
Struggle in a Bungalow Kitchen 38 / 38 2.3k 20 ib LL Adams 1754 New York |
| 12. (27) |
World O’Crap 7/ 19 22k 30 ib Anonymous 2874 |
36. (38) |
The Barbaric Yawp 57/ 19 1.2k 30 ib Christopher Key 1811 Washington |
| 13. (13) |
Drug War Rant 15/ 16 6.6k 32 ib Pete Guither 2762 Illinois |
36. (40) |
The Monster Limo Weblog 34/ 42 2.8k 17 ib Marc Hatfield 1956 New York |
| 14. (14) |
Rayne Today 28/ 9 3.6k 53 ib Anonymous 1549 Michigan |
39 (33) |
Everything That Sucks 38/ 39 2.3k 18 ib Amanda 1691 Florida no more |
| 15. (16) |
Second p0st 21/ 17 4.4k 31 ib Phillip Pearson 0002 New Zealand |
40. (37) |
Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival 41/ 39 2.2k 18 ib Dina Pattillo 2296 |
| 16. (15) |
Conclusive Evidence 6 / 35 23k 21 ib Dave Cullen 1137 Colorado |
40. (41) |
Fiona 55/ 25 1.4k 26 ib Fiona 1705 |
| 17. (17) |
Emphasis Added 36/ 8 2.6k 56 ib Rob Salkowitz 1454 |
42. (39) |
Marprelate Tracts 18/ 64 5.3k 8 ib Martin Marprelate 1797 |
| 17. (28) |
Gnosis 27/ 17 3.7k 31 ib Morgan Sandquist 1081 New York |
42. (42) |
Glutter 31/ 51 3.1k 12 ib Yan Sham-Shackleton 2681 Hong Kong |
| 19. (12) |
Fried Green al-Qaedas 33 / 13 3.1k 41 ib Mark Hoback 1424 |
44. (49) |
explodedlibrary.info 57/ 28 1.2k 24 ib Morgan Wilson 1429 Minnesota |
| 20. (18) |
WIFLblog 14 / 35 6.9k 21 ib Ted Ritzer 1455 Alberta |
45. (-) |
Attorney-At-Arms 20/ 67 4.6k 7 ib Jon-Erik Storm 2196 California |
| 20. (21) |
Standing Room Only 22 / 27 4.4k 25 ib Hugh Elliott 1573 California |
46. (46) |
Patriotically Incorrect 50 / 39 1.5k 18 ib Anonymous 2379 |
| 22. (19) |
Pesky the Rat 16 / 35 5.8k 21 ib Susan McNerney 1293 California |
47. (43) |
Driver 8 50/ 43 1.5k 16 ib Charly Z 1118 |
| 23. (24) |
A blog doesn’t need a clever name 29/ 28 3.6k 24 ib Bruce Umbaugh 1004 Missouri |
48. (47) |
Sexy Mothers Do Exist 37 / 61 2.4k 9 ib Anonymous 1917 |
| 23. (34) |
Doublethink 35/ 22 1.5k 28 ib Anonymous 2551 |
49. (-) |
Robert’s Virtual Soapbox 61/ 43 1.1k 16 ib Robert Crook 1517 |
| 25. (20) |
Playing with my food… 26/ 34 3.9k 22 ib Paul Hinrichs 1444 North Carolina |
50. (50) |
World According to Chuck 74/ 32 0.7k 23 ib Chuck 2813 |
I do try to encourage new blogs I like, and I pop in on the new one I haven’t seen before on the update list. I often comment just to let a blogger know someone’s paying attention. I could probably update my blog links and blogroll more often. Dave, you do more for the Salon blog community with your analysis and top 50 than most. I’m glad you take the trouble, I look for it every month.As to bloggers dropping out, I think almost every blogger reaches a point when they have used up all the material they had stored up on file or in their heads, or when the original impetus peters out. Then new material and motivation are needed and not always found. My blog suddenly became image heavy when I ran through all my backed up ranting and bete noirs and now must seek quotidian stimulus for my writing (excepting poetry, still got lots of that), just like any other journalist or commentator facing a deadline.
I’ve read in a couple of places that the typical blog is a diary written by a teenage girl. So while it may be true that 52% of all blogs are written by females, I don’t think that ratio holds up when you compare adult men to adult women. Salon doesn’t attract teenagers by its very nature–teens go to livejournal or blogspot, etc. So the ratio we have here may be more representative of the adult blogging population.
Great stuff as always, Dave!! Appreciate the time you take to look over the Salon blogs. And as always, I’ve got many more questions based on the data you’ve pulled together.The data suggests there is some threshhold or barrier to retention among new entrant female bloggers in the Salon population. Wonder what that is — the software? the community? other? Hmmm.I’ll try to make a better point of contacting the newbies — to see if there is an issue in particular that’s discouraging Salon bloggers.
From a post on my site (Nov.4th) “One study of 3,634 blogs found that two-thirds had not been updated for at least two months and a quarter not since Day One.”And I think men find blogging a socially accepted way of communicating their private thoughts.
Maybe Radioland software has a preference to male blogger’s computers and don’t crash every two weeks. This time after reinstalling, it lasted three hours, just in time for me to (redo all my setting for the sixth time in four months) and write “Glutter Has Moved!” I hadn’t even finished what I wanted to do before it died. This community is more than welcoming, and I think someone has already taken on the project of welcoming new bloggers, helping them with software and encouraging people to stay. He’s Called Mark Hoback. He was saying “hi” four days into me starting Glutter, and been there since. I see him doing the same on new blogs still, so I don’t think he’s stopped.I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a blog community until I found my way to VO, and I am pretty sad I never got to play editor for it, coz Dave said they had too many already. Which is good in many ways, because I spent all my spare time writing for Glutter instead of trolling other blogs!Moreover, I am really sad to see me go. Sure partly because I miss my readers who click through on salon, because I still made it to the top 50 with only able to update 10 times this month (after reinstalling numerous time before the software would boot!!) last month did it for two and a half week only. I did really want to know how many clicks I could get if I updated every day since over a third of my click throughs came directly from the update list… now I have moved I will never find out. ah…But that’s not the ONLY reason I would like to have stayed in salon. I feel more comfortable having an idea of who I was writing for (from what I gather they are now a more conservative bunch) and just knowing I was part of an ultra smart community, and I felt like I was hanging out with the big boys and girls, as most people here are adults over 30.And until I got to typepad I didn’t realise the inanity of bloggers for the most part “I ate popcorn for dinner and fell asleep watching TV. I amso tierd and bored!” And I am sure that by starting out here, raised the bar for me of the level I was “expected” to play in. I am pretty glad for that, as it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted in glutter which was write, rather than post little updates type stuff.And it’s true I never once felt any kind of sexual discrimination over here, as some of the most read blogs are by women, while I definately feel that within the China and Hong Kong blog community. The overt sexualization of Asian Women by White Men (Who are the main China Bloggers in English) is intense, and no one ever raises issue with them. It’s so bad that I feel embarressed to be lumped with them, and if it wasn’t the idea that those “lists” and aggregated blogs needs an “alternative” voice, I would have long asked to be removed. I am also NEVER included in the aggregated updates even if I talk about the same topics, because the women who chooses them thinks what I write is “Too Personal” and the men are more objective. She also has a preference to what white men write opposed to asian women. All the other women are never included either. The fact she’s an asian women herself makes it funny, and I am not being paranoid, she said so herself one day. Oh I have been away less that a month, and officially been gone for two days, and I miss being here already!I think I answered all the questions that was posed from a “Personal” point of view. :)And as usual no one can ever accuse me of being too brief.YanGLUTTERVisit Me! I beg you, and leave a note, so I don’t feel like I am floating out in the Ocean of the Internet all by myself!Bye….. <Glancing Longingly Behind>
On the gender issue, I’ve made no particular effort to “hide” my gender, but neither have I gone out of my way to emphasize it. I mention it in my posts when it is germane to the subject matter, and regular readers know that Mambrino’s Helmet is a girl. But it’s not a “girl blog”. Still, I’ve found it interesting that in the beginning — and still with new readers — the assumption in comments and emails is always that I’m man.
Also, I forgot to mention, that when I first started posting here in July, several Salon bloggers left comments, gave me a hand with some technical questions, and generally made me feel very welcome! ttfn
It’s actually not at all necessary to post to Salon’s domain to have your Weblog appear in the most popular and recently updated lists. After moving to another domain, I figured out how to appear on both. All you need is a paid Salon user number, and you only need that for the most popular list I think.
Doctor/Rayne: We three, and Mark H, are four of the dozen or so ‘veterans’ who regularly seek and encourage new Salon bloggers. Thanks. One advantage of the Radio convention of sequentially numbering blogs is that they’re easy to find. And Rayne, there’s little evidence from reading the the abandoned blogs (take a look at #2217 and #2157 for two typical examples), which are also mostly male-authored, that technology or lack of comments/hits was the impediment that caused them to give up. Also few forwarding addresses listed by those who gave up. I think most people just try it and decide that public writing is not for them. Money could also be a significant factor (since most gave up during the free trial period).Susan: You may be right, given that half of all bloggers are under 18. If they’re 70% female and the adult bloggers are 70% male, that works out about right, and also explains the male dominance of A-listers (since younger bloggers tend to have smaller blogrolls).Kara: Maybe they should show their blogs to their wives ;-)Yan: You should talk to Mark — I think he’d be more than willing to have you co-host an issue of VO (and BTW it wasn’t me that said there were enough editors already). Thanks for your insight on the sexism and anonymity elsewhere in the blogosphere — you’re welcome here anytime.Mambrino: Have you taken the gender genie test with your blog? It might explain why readers think you’re male. It’s kinda fun, too.Morgan: Thanks for the tip. If I ever give up on Salon/Radio software, I’ll use your process to ensure I stay listed in the community.
I just wanted to thank the nice folks in the Salon blog community (David prominently among them) who made me welcome when I started out a couple of months ago. I know I never would have kept going if I hadn’t got some indications that somebody was actually reading what I wrote. I really enjoyed Dave’s previous analysis of why men have more of the widely-read blogs than women do. I am female, and have benefited greatly by fact that some popular male bloggers have been very generous about mentioning my blog and linking to it. I don’t know what it all means, but I appreciate it.
Is it safe to presume, that since you started with a sample of 215, that the data in bullet 3 have been projected to the universe from the original 215? Or is bullet 3 based on other data?
Frank — it’s all based on a sample of 1/10, with the result multiplied by 10 — i.e. out of the 215 there were 19 blogs that had posts within the past 30 days. But in compiling a complete list of all active Salon blogs by women (see subsequent post), I came up with 45, and I’m undoubtedly missing a few, which means that if they’re 30% of the total the number of total active blogs is at least 10/3 x (45 to 55) = (140 to 180), which suggests my ‘just under 200’ is probably pretty close.