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Are these little chicklets of value or do we put them on our blogs to stroke our egos?
There are some changes going on with BlogTopSites. Everyone is to update their code to point to the new URL for the site. Because so many sites haven’t done this I’ve noticed a significant bump in the rankings on my sites with the BlogTopSites Code. In fact I currently have 4 blogs in the top 100.
Not bad for a hyperlocal blogger in Tucson. But other than stroking my ego over having accomplished this feat which I have no control over what good is it? A link back? I think it comes under the heading of link exchanges since my chicklet is a link to them and the listing in the directory is a link back to the blog. Again I’m left asking “What is the value?”
From a conversation this morning about the value of Blog Top Sites
“we all have different audiances, different market sizes, some blogs are national, some local , some small town, some big city”
This means even the rankings themselves have little or no value. It is based on traffic not on effectiveness of your blog.
Recently I had huge bump in positioning going from in the high 80’s to the 50’s and 60’s in ranking. Upon checking my Hittail search results I found a blog about Apartments had put a reference to a post I had written over a year ago showing an old milk delivery box built into a house. I got hundreds of hits from that reference.
The post had nothing to do with Tucson Real Estate. It was a kind of human interest post and someone picked it up for the blog post on unusual thing you find in old apartments. The net effect was a huge jump in the rankings.
This leaves me wondering why do I have BlogTopSites and BlogTopLists chicklets on my blogs?
Can anybody give me a reason why I should keep them on my blogs? Or are they just another leak for juice which should be plugged?
Post Tags: blogtoplists , blogtopsites , chicklets
Stumble it!
15 responses so far ↓
1 Teresa Boardman (20 comments.) // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:02 am
Ego? Bloggers have ego? no way dude. BTW, I removed several of the chicklets from my blog that are oh so useless . . which really was most of them.
2 Jeremy GO Zone (6 comments.) // Aug 19, 2008 at 12:07 pm
You nailed it, it’s all ego..and those sites are preying on ego for free exposure and juice.
3 Charles Richey (6 comments.) // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Hmmm…its just a link bait variation on the “awards” that used to be given out in 2002 thru 2004. Normally I just no follow them, since they aren’t giving a link back and its just about traffic….which is very little. So ok, it’s time to get rid of them.
4 Dubner Law (1 comments.) // Aug 20, 2008 at 7:14 am
They are just a waste of time. You probably get a little bit of traffic though. I would just take them off, unless your ego won’t allow you to do so. Haha
5 St George commercial real estate (3 comments.) // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:51 am
I think it is somewhat like the visitors counter that people put on their websites. It is just to make people look at you like you are important.
So it is stroking your ego when you see the numbers increase.
6 Dave Smith (556 comments.) // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:22 pm
St George,
Are you really a Saint? Hadn’t thought of the angle of people looking at the chicklet and seeing a low number figuring this provides some kind of reliable indicator of the value of the site or information.
I suppose it is better not to put them on if your are ranked 554 or higher : )
7 Daniel (2 comments.) // Aug 20, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I just hide mine away in my footer, no one sees them and I get more PR out of them they they do from me, so I’m happy.
8 Paul (29 comments.) // Aug 21, 2008 at 2:45 pm
We link out to those who have helped along the way.
9 Jay Thompson (1 comments.) // Aug 31, 2008 at 12:01 am
I’ve had Blog Top Sites on and off over the course of my blogs life.
I’m a stats nut, and I like to compare how different systems track traffic. The widget helps me remember I’ve got data there.
I like the RSS and Email subscriber chicklets as they let me monitor those numbers at a glance without having to go to those sites, log in, and find my way to the stats pages.
I was going to pull the TopSites off though, along with subscriber chicklets, Technorati, etc. But then I started offering some advertising on my blog and found advertisers like those things as it allows them to see some level of traffic stats without me giving them access to more complete stats (which I won’t do as they don’t need to see things like IP addresses).
I did however just move them to the very bottom of a sidebar. I suspect people rarely look that far down the page.
Excellent points Dave!
10 Dave Smith (556 comments.) // Aug 31, 2008 at 6:08 am
Jay,
That is one of the best arguments for them on a blog I have seen. I’ve never monetized a blog. I can see where that would be beneficial to those wanting stats.
Thanks for the input and the insight you always bring to a topic.
11 Carlos (1 comments.) // Oct 31, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Well, I’m just staring with my blog and I have no clue what does chicklets are for, and I found really interesting this article but for me those little icons help me to at least show my site in a google search
hehe, maybe I think about taking them off one day, cheers P.S. I’m ranked 497 
Carloss last blog post..A theory of Everything in a string?
12 Ned Carey (5 comments.) // Nov 6, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I only have a couple of them. The reason is while doing a Google search I saw a competitor with some PR that was ranked higher so I checked his back links and most shown (by Google’s Link: operator) were from index sites.
I figured they must be doing him some good so I signed up to. Every month a get a couple of visits from them. So for me it helps. If I were a bigger site with more traffic , it’s not enough to matter either way.
I absolutely agree with Jay put them at the bottom below the fold.
13 Ned Carey (5 comments.) // Nov 9, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Dave,
It the “Law of attraction” in action. After reading your post I noticed another widget I hadn’t seen before so I signed up. I couldn’t resist. I can get in the top 30 on this baby! Hows that for a ego rub.
Actually your post made me check and I am not even getting a link back from any of the index sites I am a member of. If you click the link it uses a redirect to get to your site. So I guess they are not as valuable as I thought when I commented a couple of days ago.
14 Bri (1 comments.) // Nov 20, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I’m pretty biased here (hehe), but - we send a lot of traffic. Over 100,000 clicks since we re-launched September 9, 2008.
We rank for a lot of keywords - so it’s a great way to get a lot of exposure.
15 Dave Smith (556 comments.) // Nov 20, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Bri,
LOL, really, biased. Thanks for dropping by the lab. Your information and input is welcome. So what took you so long in finding this post? I thought for sure I would hear from someone the same day, or week.
Glad you did find it. I check my rankings several times a day. But I can say, I’ve never seen a hit in my hittail hits from any of the sites.
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