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Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For August 2011

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The August 2011 standings will soon be released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. This month there’s a new sheriff in town, who leapfrogged over Jeff, from Beervana, and me as we were do si do-ing around the beer blogging dance floor earlier this year. Congratulations to the folks at The New School as they ascend to the top spot. Here’s what happened to the Top 30 over last month:

Wikio August 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 The New School (+2)
2 Brewpublic (+2)
3 Beervana (-1)
4 Brookston Beer Bulletin (-3)
5 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+2)
6 Drink With The Wench (+4)
7 A Good Beer Blog (-2)
8 The Daily Pull (+1)
9 Washington Beer Blog (-1)
10 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (+6)
11 The Stone Blog (-5)
12 BetterBeerBlog (+11)
13 Brewer’s Log (Blog) (+8)
14 KC Beer Blog (=)
15 The Brew Lounge (+2)
16 The Brew Site (+16)
17 Hoosier Beer Geek (+8)
18 Oakshire Brewing (-5)
19 Seattle Beer News (+9)
20 The Session Beer Project™ (-5)
21 It’s Pub Night (-10)
22 Seen Through a Glass (-10)
23 Craft Austin (-4)
24 Top Fermented (+5)
25 The Potable Curmudgeon (-3)
26 San Diego Beer Blog (-8)
27 Beer at 6512 (-3)
28 Musings Over a Pint (-2)
29 Beer-Stained Letter (+13)
30 I Love Beer (+11)

Ranking made by Wikio

As usual, I included the relative movements of each blog from last month. Last month — and for the past few — movement among the top of the list was limited and things were fairly static. All that’s changed this month, as only one of the top 30 is in the same position as last month, and only three moved up or down only one spot. That means of the remaining 26, each one moved at least two spots along the continuum. Things are shaking up.

This month’s champion mover was The Brew Site, who jumped 16 places. As always, I continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Until next month ….

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For July 2011

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wikio
The July 2011 standings will soon be released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. Jeff, from Beervana, and I continued our do si do around the beer blogging dance floor, and I bow to my partner after our fourth consecutive month switching places. Perhaps we should merge our two blogs and create a formidable juggernaut, Brookston Beervana? Anyhow, here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio July 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+1)
2 Beervana (-1)
3 The New School (=)
4 Brewpublic (=)
5 A Good Beer Blog (=)
6 The Stone Blog (+1)
7 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (-1)
8 Washington Beer Blog (=)
9 The Daily Pull (=)
10 Drink With The Wench (+14)
11 It’s Pub Night (+6)
12 Seen Through a Glass (+9)
13 Oakshire Brewing (-3)
14 KC Beer Blog (-2)
15 The Session Beer Project™ (+4)
16 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (-1)
17 The Brew Lounge (-1)
18 San Diego Beer Blog (+27)
19 Craft Austin (-1)
20 Beeronomics (+10)
21 Brewer’s Log (Blog) (-10)
22 The Potable Curmudgeon (+4)
23 BetterBeerBlog (+4)
24 Beer at 6512 (+20)
25 Hoosier Beer Geek (+21)
26 Musings Over a Pint (+2)
27 Brewed For Thought (+2)
28 Seattle Beer News (-14)
29 Top Fermented (+12)
30 Beer in Baltimore (+1)

Ranking made by Wikio

As usual, I included the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, fully half of the top ten stayed put, while in addition to Beervana and myself changing places, another pair — Stone & Stan — did likewise. Only one new blog cracked the Top 10, as the Wench rocketed up 14 spots into 10th place.

I’ve listed the top 30 this time, and will start doing so each month. One additional observation is that of all 30, 13 moved up or down in the rankings one spot or less, whereas nine out of ten did likewise in the top 10. That suggests there’s less volatility in the rankings nearer the top, meaning blogs move up and down more freely nearer the double digits. And the champion mover was the San Diego Beer Blog, who shook up 27 places. As always, I continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Until next month ….

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For June 2011

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The June 2011 standings will soon be released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. Machuca at Craft Austin got a sneak peak at the new rankings, so here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio June 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Beervana (+1)
2 Brookston Beer Bulletin (-1)
3 The New School (+/-0)
4 Brewpublic (+/-0)
5 A Good Beer Blog (+/-0)
6 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+/-0)
7 The Stone Blog (Not in Top 20 for May)
8 Washington Beer Blog (+3)
9 The Daily Pull (+/-0)
10 Oakshire Brewing (+/-0)
11 Lost Abbey Brewer’s Log (Blog) (Not in Top 20 for May)
12 KC Beer Blog (+1)
13 I Love Beer (Not in Top 20 for May)
14 Seattle Beer News (+/-0)
15 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (+5)
16 The Brew Lounge (Not in Top 20 for May)
17 It’s Pub Night (-2)
18 Craft Austin (Not in Top 20 for May)
19 The Session Beer Project (-7)
20 Beer-Stained Letter (-1)

Ranking made by Wikio

As usual, I added the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, 25% of the blogs are either new or have re-emerged in the Top 20. And a few of the dropouts were surprising, including such heavy hitters as Beer Therapy, Drink With The Wench and Lew Bryson’s Seen Through a Glass.

For the third time in as many months, Beervana and I switched places again. Congratulations to Jeff. I expected as much this time, as I was in South America for at least a third of the month, and access to WiFi was spotty at best and free time even less so. Over half of the top 10 stayed put, too. As always, I continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Until next month ….

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For May 2011

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wikio
The May 2011 standings will soon be released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. Stan at Appellation Blog got a sneak peak at the new rankings, so here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio May 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+1)
2 Beervana (-1)
3 The New School (+1)
4 Brewpublic (-1)
5 A Good Beer Blog (+1)
6 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (-1)
7 Drink With The Wench (+/-0)
8 Seen Through a Glass (+1)
9 The Daily Pull (+1)
10 Oakshire Brewing (Not in Top 20 for Apr.)
11 Washington Beer Blog (-3)
12 The Session Beer Project (-1)
13 KC Beer Blog (+3)
14 Seattle Beer News (-2)
15 It’s Pub Night (-2)
16 brewvana (Not in Top 20 for Apr.)
17 Beer 47 (+2)
18 Beer Therapy (+2)
19 Beer-Stained Letter (Not in Top 20 for Apr.)
20 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (-3)

Ranking made by Wikio

As usual, I added the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, three new blogs made an appearance in the Top 20, some for the first time. Another curious change is that #1 & #2, #3 & #4, and #5 & #6 each switched places. As always, I continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously, though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to be back at #1 again. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For April 2011

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wikio
The April 2011 standings have just been released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. I’ve been knocked from my four month reign at the top, and Jeff from Beervana has once again assumed the #1 Spot. Congratulations Jeff. Here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio April 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Beervana (+1)
2 Brookston Beer Bulletin (-1)
3 Brewpublic (+/-0)
4 The New School (+/-0)
5 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+/-0)
6 A Good Beer Blog (+1)
7 Drink With The Wench (-1)
8 Washington Beer Blog (+/-0)
9 Seen Through a Glass (+2)
10 The Daily Pull (+5)
11 The Session Beer Project (+1)
12 Seattle Beer News (+1)
13 It’s Pub Night (+3)
14 Stone Blog (-4)
15 BetterBeerBlog (-1)
16 KC Beer Blog (Not in Top 20 for Mar.)
17 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (+1)
18 Yours For Good Fermentables (Not in Top 20 for Mar.)
19 Beer 47 (-10)
20 Beer Therapy (Not in Top 20 for Mar.)

Ranking made by Wikio

As usual, I added the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, three new blogs cracked the Top 20 (though some had been there before) and three dropped off. Apart from #1 and #2 switching places, there was again very little movement near the top, with three through five staying put from last month and the rest of the top 20 seemed less volatile this month, too. As always, I continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously.

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For March 2011

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wikio
The March 2011 standings have just been released for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. For an embarrassing fourth straight month, I’m still clinging to the top spot. Here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio March 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+/-0)
2 Beervana (+/-0)
3 Brewpublic (+/-0)
4 The New School (+/-0)
5 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+/-0)
6 Drink With The Wench (+5)
7 A Good Beer Blog (+/-0)
8 Washington Beer Blog (-2)
9 Beer 47 (+4)
10 Stone Blog (Not in Top 20 for Feb.)
11 Seen Through a Glass (+6)
12 The Session Beer Project (+4)
13 Seattle Beer News (-3)
14 BetterBeerBlog (-2)
15 The Daily Pull (Not in Top 20 for Feb.)
16 It’s Pub Night (-7)
17 Brewer’s Log (Lost Abbey Blog) (Not in Top 20 for Feb.)
18 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (-10)
19 Brewed For Thought (-5)
20 Jack Curtin’s Liquid Diet (Not in Top 20 for Feb.)

Ranking made by Wikio

I again added the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, four new blogs cracked the Top 20 (though one has been here before but dropped off) and four dropped off. There was also very little movement near the top, as the first five blogs stayed in their same places from last month. And fellow curmudgeon Jack Curtin finally made the Top 20 this year. It will interesting to hear his thoughts on being successful and cracking the top twenty. Again, I will continue to stress that this is just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously.

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For February 2011

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wikio
The February 2011 standings are out for Wikio’s Beer Blogs. For a third straight month, I’m still hanging on to the top spot. Here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio February 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+/-0)
2 Beervana (+/-0)
3 Brewpublic (+1)
4 The New School (-1)
5 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+/-0)
6 Washington Beer Blog (+5)
7 A Good Beer Blog (-1)
8 The Not So Professional Beer Blog (Not in Top 20 for Jan.)
9 It’s Pub Night (+11)
10 Seattle Beer News (+8)
11 Drink With The Wench (-3)
12 BetterBeerBlog (-3)
13 Beer 47 (Not in Top 20 for Jan.)
14 Brewed For Thought (+1)
15 KC Beer Blog (+4)
16 The Session Beer Project (Not in Top 20 for Jan.)
17 Seen Through a Glass (-4)
18 Burgers & Brews (-8)
19 I Love Beer (Not in Top 20 for Jan.)
20 An Ear For Beer (Not in Top 20 for Jan.)

Ranking made by Wikio

I again added the relative movements of each blog from last month. This month, four new blogs cracked the Top 20, and four dropped off. Again, I’ll keep stressing that it’s just a bit of fun so long as we don’t take it too seriously.

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For January 2011

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I noticed today that the Wikio Top Blogs for Beer badge on the Bulletin still listed me as the #1 beer blog, so out of pure vanity I checked it out to see if the new Beer Blog standings for January 2011 were out. Apparently, I’m still clinging to the top spot. Here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio January 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+/-0)
2 Beervana (+/-0)
3 The New School (+2)
4 Brewpublic (-1)
5 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+1)
6 A Good Beer Blog (+1)
7 The Stone Blog (+5)
8 Drink With The Wench (-4)
9 BetterBeerBlog (+7)
10 Burgers & Brews (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
11 Washington Beer Blog (-1)
12 Beer in Baltimore (-4)
13 Seen Through a Glass (-4)
14 Beeronomics (-1)
15 Brewed For Thought (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
16 The Brew Site (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
17 Brouwer’s Cafe (+3)
18 Seattle Beer News (-7)
19 KC Beer Blog (-3)
20 It’s Pub Night (+3)

Ranking made by Wikio

I again added the relative movements of each blog from last month. Like last month, three blogs dropped off the Top 20, and three new ones appeared.

Again, it’s all a bit of fun so long as we don’t take it too seriously. Hoppy 2011.

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For December

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wikio
At first I wasn’t sure why I was asked to get a sneak preview of the rankings for beer blogs by Wikio and blog about them, apart from Stan recommending me and Alan, but I got a pleasant surprise when they finally arrived in my inbox. For the category Beer Blogs, which appears to cover North America (or at least the U.S. and Canada), I apparently moved up from #4 last month to claim the top spot for December. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel good, especially because I have so much respect for the work done by the majority of the writers in the Top 20, and many of them are personal friends as well as colleagues. Who doesn’t welcome the validation that they’re doing a good job?

The new rankings for Beer Blogs will be released on Wikio this Wednesday, but here’s a sneak peek at the Top 20:

Wikio December Beer Rankings

1 Brookston Beer Bulletin (+3)
2 Beervana (-1)
3 Brewpublic (+/-0)
4 Drink With The Wench (+4)
5 The New School (+2)
6 Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (-4)
7 A Good Beer Blog (-1)
8 Beer in Baltimore (+2)
9 Seen Through a Glass (-4)
10 Washington Beer Blog (+8)
11 Seattle Beer News (+17)
12 The Stone Blog (not in Top 100 in Nov.)
13 Beeronomics (-1)
14 KC Beer Blog (+2)
15 Beer Therapy (+15)
16 BetterBeerBlog (-2)
17 It’s Pub Night (+3)
18 Jack Curtin’s LIQUID DIET (-3)
19 Thirsty Pilgrim (+/-0)
20 Brouwer’s Cafe (-7)

Ranking made by Wikio

I added the relative movements of each blog from last month. Three blogs dropped off the Top 20, and three new ones appeared, of course, including one that hadn’t been ranked before.

Across the pond, Pete Brown re-captured the top spot in the UK’s beer and wine blog rankings.

I confess I never looked closely before at how the rankings are compiled, but essentially Wikio explains it like so:

The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. Our algorithm accords a greater value to links from blogs placed higher up in the ranking.

A blog linking another blog is only counted once a month i.e. if blog A links to blog B 10 times in a given month, it is only counted as having linked to that blog once that month. The weight of any link decreases over time. Also, if a blog always links to the same blog, the weight of these links is decreased.

Only links found in RSS feeds are counted. Blogrolls are not taken into account.

Not everybody seems to put much stock in the rankings, and I think that’s simply because it’s difficult to quantify such subjective notions as quality, authority, influence, knowledge of subject, effectiveness in communication, etc. Plus, they’re just getting started in North America. This is only the third month they’ve been tracking beer blogs here. Jeff Alworth, whose blog Beervana was No. 1 the last two months (and the first two to rank U.S. beer blogs), had a great analysis of the rankings in an October post entitled The Number One Beer Blog in America. And in November, Stan Hieronymus at his Appellation Beer Blog had a lively discussion about How Wikio Ranks the US Beer Blogs which also included some interesting comments.

But how should we be deciding such a complicated question? If not using weighted links from RSS feeds, what should the metric be? And for purposes of discussion, lets set aside what I assume will be the many arguments why we shouldn’t bother at all. What else should be included? Traffic? Should there be a BCS-like poll taken?

Also, I know there are other ways in which rankings are done, such as Alexa (which once you drill down to “beer” is all but useless for our purposes), Google PageRank (mine’s never changed in 6 years), and several where they only track blogs that register, making those ones also pretty useless. And for Twitter there’s WeFollow, which seems to never change. Anybody know of any others?

In the end, I think it’s good fun so long as we don’t take it too seriously. Maybe it makes me work a little harder now that I know I’m being judged against my peers. Doubtful, but it’s still something I’ll continue to at least look at. Like most people — I assume — I’m driven to do a better job all the time, constantly challenging myself to be a better writer, communicator, taster, etc. Comments, Facebook “Likes,” Re-Tweets, traffic, Google analytics and people coming up to me at beer festivals all provide different kinds of feedback about how I’m doing at my chosen profession. Having one more way by which to measure myself can’t be a bad thing. And especially not this month, where I got an early Christmas present. How cool is that? But congratulations to everybody on the list. I know it’s a cliche to say we’re all winners, but in fact I think that’s true. Over the past six years that I’ve been blogging, the number and quality of beer blogging has vastly improved. And that’s a good thing for beer, and for all of us. Happy holidays.