Heart-ache: Fledgling blog fails to crack Wikio’s list of top 100 political sites
posted at 4:25 pm on June 4, 2009 by Allahpundit
I blame myself. We haven’t had nearly enough atheism posts around here lately.
Seriously, though, we get a thousand times the traffic of the blog at number 100. What’s it going to take, Wikio? More Meghan McCain material? More O’Reilly-bashing? More gentle criticism of Palin that’s treated as a ferocious attack by her supporters in the comments? Work with me.
One of the intriguing aspects of this list is that it puts everyone in the same pot. The list has mainstream media blogs — from ABC News, CNN, The New York Times, and others — alongside well-known partisan bloggers — Michelle Malkin, FireDogLake — and even government-run bloggers, like WhiteHouse.gov’s.
We got a sneak peek at the latest rankings — due to be published Friday — below. It’s a fun list to analyze: Huffington Post has the top spot, with the liberal Center for American Progress’ Think Progress and the conservative National Review’s The Corner right behind.
Also conspicuously absent from the list: Ace and Red State, among others. I could understand us being left off if this was a survey of political insiders or professional pundits; I’ve always thought HA punches way below its weight in terms of influence vis-a-vis traffic, especially compared to a site that’s read on the Hill like RS. But Wikio’s metric, supposedly, is based on inbound links. Any techies have any idea what might be up?
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It’s time for a “Gay atheist abortionists protest for marriage, then taze cop who just ate bacon-filled waffles in front of Meghan McCain’s house while some “Dude” speaks ill of Sarah Palin on ‘The View’” post…
JetBoy on June 4, 2009 at 5:04 PM
As long as it’s not Allah who is scantily clad
NoFanofLibs on June 4, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Traffic, page views, uniques should be the only metrics.
Some of those mentioned in the bottom 50 are an absolute joke.
IMO, HA provides the best writing, analysis and info load of any conservative blog out there. Bar none.
HA, FreeRepublic, Lucianne, and Drudge. That’s it for me.
kevinkristy on June 4, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Probably more kitten pictures would help.
califcon on June 4, 2009 at 5:06 PM
It was the Palin wars of Last Spring.
You didn’t get rid of The Wall,Getalife,St.Olaf,etc. fast enough. People were abandoning ship in droves.
portlandon on June 4, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Its time for a ….
JetBoy on June 4,2009 at 5:04PM.
JetBoy: That just might work!:)
canopfor on June 4, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Is there anything that we as commentators can do to help?
Loxodonta on June 4, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Here’s what bothers me. HuffPost is always at the top of these lists, but is it really a blog? Seems more like a news site with a zillion contributors. It’s about as fair as saying the NY Times en toto is a blog.
John on June 4, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Yes, MORE SKIN. Well, not if the story is about Michell Obama. Please? No. Seriously I’m begging you not to.
marklmail on June 4, 2009 at 5:10 PM
To use a phrase…. DUDE!
Allah puts up THAT post, the whole serious of tubes would just give up and fall apart!
JamesLee on June 4, 2009 at 5:10 PM
You can contact them and ask. I’d guess that your link to their site generated more hits for them today than most of the others on the list.
The writing by Ed and Allah is great, the frequency of updates is better than sites with 10x the staff, and the comments are lively. HA’s absence from the list says more about the quality of their metrics than anything else.
dedalus on June 4, 2009 at 5:13 PM
Bob, your site is being blocked as pr0n at my office, which uses the following filter
I tried sending in a report, not sure if it went through. FYI.
TexasDan on June 4, 2009 at 5:14 PM
AP is as lucky with Wikio rankings as he is with girls.
lorien1973 on June 4, 2009 at 5:14 PM
This is the wiki folks. Their founder said they can’t be considered a reliable source.
And what’s with Polling Report being listed at #72? Last time I checked, all they did was publish polling results.
Del Dolemonte on June 4, 2009 at 5:15 PM
That would make sense. I average about 200,000 visits a month, maybe 250,000 views, which is a good afternoon for HA, so it doesn’t make sense.
The Wikio people gave me one of these sneak previews a few months back. Someone tried explaining the metric to me but they may have well been speaking Swahili since I didn’t comprehend it.
Not sure where I’d rank based on my stats, but it sure as hell probably wouldn’t be 45th in the blogosphere.
JammieWearingFool on June 4, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Ha, no LGF? Guess the rumors are true.
Vigilante on June 4, 2009 at 5:15 PM
At that time, HA stock needs to be put up for sale.
And I’ll buy 51%.
MadisonConservative on June 4, 2009 at 5:16 PM
RIP getalife…
I’d take getalife over the strange one… At least getalife doesn’t post abstracts of articles saying women are missing 5 IQ points…
Upstater85 on June 4, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Oh who cares what they think.
Terrye on June 4, 2009 at 5:17 PM
More angry nudes.
Beto Ochoa on June 4, 2009 at 5:19 PM
(Well, sh*t HOWDY, we’re number 3413!!!?!?! Who’d a thunk it?)
Aw, Allah. That’s awful.
And to think
Treacher kicked yer aI didn’t say that.
tree hugging sister on June 4, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Okay, schmaybe I did. I was giddy with our success. Our LIMITED success.
tree hugging sister on June 4, 2009 at 5:21 PM
You guys are getting traffic but apparently not linky love from other blogs. Gateway Pundit, RiehlWorldView and Confederate Yankee are all smaller blogs buy get lots of link love from Insty and others.
Laddy on June 4, 2009 at 5:24 PM
I can almost understand that, actually. A lot of incoming links from others actually writing about a particular poll result, and linking to it as source material.
But you are right, that would not be a “political blog” except in the loosest definition.
JamesLee on June 4, 2009 at 5:25 PM
I think there’s a lot of truth in that. Poptech and The Wall were just Palin-thread spammers and it got to be dreary even reading such threads. (Don’t know if Poptech was banned, though.)
ddrintn on June 4, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Please don’t aspire to be LGF.
Cindy Munford on June 4, 2009 at 5:30 PM
That’s a question I’ve asked and no one could answer.
Upstater85 on June 4, 2009 at 5:32 PM
AP, you just have to start making TV appearances like Michelle does. To maintain your anonymity you should go like this.
Bugler on June 4, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Looking at the list, it seems both the lefty and righty bloggers exhibit a little more partisan passion instead of relying on centrists of either side.
Connie on June 4, 2009 at 5:34 PM
*snorts*
Should we have a special auction on who can rub Allah’s belly?
upinak on June 4, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Am I missing something or looking at the wrong list?
RedState is at #50.
Cooter McGee on June 4, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Agreed. Though as always I would prefer specifically anti religion posts. Somewhat like you guys used to do with Blogging the Quran, I say lets tackle the bible, christianity is a mental disorder that afflicts much more Americans than Islam, and its about time we educate the mentally sick that you can’t walk on water, turn water into wine, fly off a cross, raise cemetaries full of people, etc. but you can fool the stupid masses with ghost stories.
LevStrauss on June 4, 2009 at 5:37 PM
You all go ahead–I think I’ll pass.
Bugler on June 4, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Michelle Malkin is number 7 are they not including Hot Air in that ranking?
They don’t want to count Malkin sites twice? Why not if you all are getting the high traffic…oh and I was unaware of wikios – So Thanks, now I know there is another blog ranking website:)
Dr Evil on June 4, 2009 at 5:38 PM
You don’t think he saves that for date nights?
califcon on June 4, 2009 at 5:39 PM
I don’t know what to do that might be helpful, or what to avoid doing that might be unhelpful.
Loxodonta on June 4, 2009 at 5:41 PM
Hey Allah, I didn’t see that website Bonnie Erbe writes for what is it called again? Surely they get like one or two hits a week, well before she started flaming and baiting to get page hits using Michelle Malkin to get some attention.
Dr Evil on June 4, 2009 at 5:41 PM
It’s a vast left-wing conspiracy…
ornery_independent on June 4, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Cracking me up, Allah!
Your in the zone today, buddy.
joshlbetts on June 4, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Totally ridiculous that I’m on there. And that’s me saying it!
Jim Treacher on June 4, 2009 at 5:43 PM
Doubt it would relate to this situation, but I have always noticed that you guys miss a LOT of search traffic, due to clever/funny post titles. You really should implement a free WP plug-in that allows you to display those titles here at the blog, but uses a different “title tag” so when people search for specific news stories, etc. you’ll be listed in those search results. An example would be your most recent post, “Video: New “Tutankhamen of the world” visits pyramids”. How is anyone searching for information on Obama in Egypt going to run across that post in the search engines?
Obviously doesn’t affect me, just a friendly suggestion, AP and Ed. There are tons of free SEO plugins for WP, and you really should implement them.
RightWinged on June 4, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Oh, my I didn’t see LGF on that list…Poor little lizards
sandee on June 4, 2009 at 5:50 PM
The trolls must be saddened by this rating… This means Axelrod has assigned them to the lowly sights.
Upstater85 on June 4, 2009 at 5:50 PM
OMG no Little Green Footballs on that list?
Charles Johnson head just exploded!
Knucklehead on June 4, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Who owns wikio? If the count was rigged, riding the progressive fence didn’t help?
That makes sense.
maverick muse on June 4, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Luckers need to speak out more. We know you are out there and have great things to say.
Cindy Munford on June 4, 2009 at 5:53 PM
The problem is that he banned most of the internet.
How is he going to get on the top 100 doing that?
MadisonConservative on June 4, 2009 at 5:54 PM
Even funnier is that Jhihad watch is on the list. Maybe Charles needs to learn a lesson that going after other bloggers ain’t such a great idea. He’s even been taking nasty swipes at Ed and AP.
Knucklehead on June 4, 2009 at 5:57 PM
I love this website. I come and look a few times a day. There are great writers and love the comments that people post. This site is a winner and one of the few I visit.
Brat4life on June 4, 2009 at 6:00 PM
This is really hard to understand. Someone, somewhere … screwed up.
darwin on June 4, 2009 at 6:05 PM
Yeah … because he knows that they are better then him.
upinak on June 4, 2009 at 6:06 PM
As I told Allah & Ed on Twitter:
A controversy, Jon & Kate style. Ed and Allah need to cheat with other bloggers, while angrily exploiting the readers for profit.
(it will get messy).
Or in order to avoid the fallout of that ugly spectacle, simply:
MORE HUMPING ROBOTS.
Or if they are seriously basing their formula on inbound links: AUTOBOTS – tons of them. If they are basing their ranks on that queer metric, then let’s just manufacture a high rating.
juanito on June 4, 2009 at 6:09 PM
You bring in Pols for a Question and Answer/Listen period that would rock. Awesome traffic and we would get to know some of these lesser known state reps… maybe our new leader is out there.
Socmodfiscon on June 4, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Well,, you make my top 10 easy. This is the most addicting blog I have ever, well, been addicted to.
JellyToast on June 4, 2009 at 6:13 PM
AP, all HA needs is a great Playboy Centerfold……problem solve.
try again later on June 4, 2009 at 6:13 PM
I spend countless hours (obsesssed, I know) on righty sites, and I could count maybe 2 or 3 on that list that I frequent. After Drudge and Twitter, HA is the first place I come. And, I introduced my 76 y/o mom (who just got *this internet thingy*) to HA, and this is her FIRST stop. Must be the Malkin factor, as mentioned before.
sybilll on June 4, 2009 at 6:16 PM
Everyone quit complaining. In a year from now when liberal bloggers (no, not Allah) are scrambling to publish on this site, when more often than not, you see commenters that you don’t recognize, you’ll be nostalgic for the “old days”.
Days when Hot Air didn’t “Sell Out MAN!” When the troll traffic was a few people we played with like a cat who caught a mouse out of instinct but didn’t really know what to do with it after that.
Days when Ed and Allah will be referred to as “old Guard” and how these new articles aren’t as good as they used to be.
Days when the ads will be for cars (well maybe not cars) but for high-end products that race across your screen before you can figure out how to close the blasted things before they start making noise. You’ll miss the Ad Council ads.
“Back in the good ‘ol days…” -Roger Waters, Radio KAOS
rihar on June 4, 2009 at 6:19 PM
I don’t know about it’s ranking, but Big Hollywood is more conservative than this site- and most of them are to one degree or another, part of Hollywood- though I will admit they do concentrate a lot on entertainment- but nowhere near as much as you would think….
8-track-vinyl on June 4, 2009 at 6:32 PM
I really think either blogs don’t put links to both Michelle and Hot Air or the wiki people don’t count both. Because…. sorry Michelle…. this site is better. In fact the best on the right.
petunia on June 4, 2009 at 6:37 PM
More humping robot would do it.
TheUnrepentantGeek on June 4, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Lorien and others have already mentioned this but the low “inbound” metric means few blogs are linking to HotAir.com posts.
Inbound links are an important metric overall because it connotes a blog network: the more people that link to you means the more overall eyes are on blog advertising. If every leftist blogger on the Web links (from the Soros-funded “Think Progress” down to the stereotypical ninth year UC Berkeley Gender Studies student that writes a blog about his favorite vegan celebrities) is linking to articles on HuffPo, then the inbound links on HuffPo will be huge.
Say 10K people have HotAir as their home page and 1K blogs regularly link to articles on HotAir–that’s counts as overall “traffic” to the blog. But if 8K people have HuffPo as their home page and 100K blogs link to HuffPo articles on their blogs (even if nobody actually clicks the link from the hardly-read lonely blogger’s vegan Web page), those 100K links look like traffic and therefore make HuffPo bubble to the top of search engines.
BOTTOM LINE: HotAir.com would be in the top 100 or top 50 if every commenter started a free blog and started linking to HotAir.com at least once a day.
ScottMcC on June 4, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Ideal:
Gay atheist penguins who feel that Sarah Palin alienates moderates who also watch Jon and Kate while playing World of Warcraft.
Traffic. Goldmine.
TheUnrepentantGeek on June 4, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Redstate was #50, right under “Stop the ACLU” which seems kinda odd since Redstate is a little more high profile I think.
Also no LGF no Jim Treacher? I mean if SNL can steal from Jim its gotta be top 100.
Rbastid on June 4, 2009 at 7:03 PM
Wikio had HA as #32 in the “other” category. Other?? They don’t know how to categorize HA. Hard to believe that anyone could review this blog and not realize its “political” though.
mph on June 4, 2009 at 7:16 PM
Wiki—who?
Timothy S. Carlson on June 4, 2009 at 7:18 PM
LGF isn’t political anymore; it’s the evolution/euronazis under the bed blog.
Dissenting opinions not welcomed, and anyone who varies from the lesson handed down by the “Lizard King” will be summarily banned. And as an added bonus, if you post negative things about his blog, he’ll out you and post your picture on his website.
john1schn on June 4, 2009 at 7:23 PM
You mean there are 100 more political web sites?? Had no idea.
Erich66 on June 4, 2009 at 7:26 PM
In case it’s not clear: inbound links and traffic are two completely different things.
Inbound links count how many people from other sites link to your site, not how many people visit your site. It might help to think of it like measuring who gets quoted the most, not who gets the most general traffic.
If JammieWearingFool writes an outrageous post, and everybody in the blogosphere says, “This is outrageous!” and posts a link to his site, he’s going to have a whole lot of inbound links.
Another site can have huge numbers of regular readers who have the site bookmarked for daily visits, and have very few inbound links at all.
JM Hanes on June 4, 2009 at 7:35 PM
Daily Kos is 12th?????!!!??!?!?!!
Is ACORN in charge of this ranking system?
FontanaConservative on June 4, 2009 at 7:39 PM
i really like gateway pundit. their traffic has really picked up in the last few weeks (anyone know why?), but its not as great as HA. not by a long shot.
kelley in virginia on June 4, 2009 at 7:46 PM
Not sure how they arrive at the rankings, but Hot Air is #32 overall in general
William Teach on June 4, 2009 at 7:54 PM
This is just wrong on so many levels.
-Dave
Dave R. on June 4, 2009 at 8:38 PM
I think that’s the problem. Looks like Allah needs to get in touch with the Wikio dudes and get HA reclassified as a Politics blog.
If anybody’s interested, LGF is listed in the same category as Hot Air. Guess what the ponytailed wonder’s ranking is?
trfogey on June 4, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Allahpundit,
Perhaps it is time for more drastic measures:
http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/04/right-wing-rule-5-extremeist.html
Just a thought.
-Dave
Dave R. on June 4, 2009 at 9:07 PM
Allah, you are still my #1.
TXMomof3 on June 4, 2009 at 9:11 PM
50 Redstate – Conservative News and Community
They are number 50.
AprilOrit on June 4, 2009 at 9:48 PM
AP,
You and Ed chose to support Charles Johnson over Robert Spencer (JW # 36). Eternal hellfire damnation for you both.
Just kidding, but Robert is gaining MSM influence at Fox, and oh yeah, btw, he is absolutely correct and truthful.
Time to declare a truce, not an Islamic truce, but a real one?
awake on June 4, 2009 at 10:00 PM
I’m trying my best here. I visit this site 100 times a day when I’m not at work.
Rightwingguy on June 4, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Try http://www.reedberry.com/wienermobile.html. Great pictures of the Oscar Mayermobile. Its a real wiener.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on June 4, 2009 at 11:26 PM
I saw the list on Gateway Pundit and can’t believe Hot Air isn’t in the top 3. Maybe they lumped you guys together with Michelle Malkin? Otherwise, it makes no sense.
Amy Proctor on June 4, 2009 at 11:33 PM
Actually, Amy, you make no sense. You never have.
awake on June 5, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Clarification.
No link to Jihadwatch.org, but one for Charlie, “Little Green Lying Liberal” Johnson?
Who could take you seriously at this point?
awake on June 5, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Absurd on several levels. Omission of the top conservative site on the ‘Net — check. Inclusion of Oliver Willis — check. Worst of all is the piece of crap at 46.
However, Red State is on there.
Patterico on June 5, 2009 at 12:14 AM
Poptech WAS banned on NewsBusters.org for those wondering. He was a troll and a spammer and the staff just got tired of his pasting and re-pasting the same 10 anti-Palin links over and over again.
Warner Todd Huston on June 5, 2009 at 12:57 AM
I am gratified that three in that top 50 have allowed me to become a part of them (NewsBusters, StopTheACLU and RedState). An awful lot of stories and issues have been affected by these sites and there is no end in sight. Giving the Old Media a run for its money, for sure and steering politics as often as not. But the libs are pushing harder than ever, folks. No time to rest on laurels!
Warner Todd Huston on June 5, 2009 at 1:00 AM
My collie says:
Collie, didn’t I tell you to just hang up if she called?
My collie says:
Oh yeah…right…sure — she’s got ALL the answers, doesn’t she?
My collie says:
BAD DOG! You made that up, collie — and you’re only claiming Meghan McCain said it because you KNOW that AllahPundit will swallow anything that she says — hook, line, and sinker.
My collie says:
Maybe. How about if HotAir streamed videos of its trolls arguing their points of view on the issues? It would naturally appeal to their narcissistic tendancies, and it will have ENORMOUS entertainment value for the rest of us.
CyberCipher on June 5, 2009 at 1:12 AM
Search Hotair in Wikipedia and get Malkin bio (emphasis on the negative) and no page dedicated to HA
Yahoo search on ‘Hotair’ bring up ‘hot air’ balloon links.
Yahoo searches of ‘Politico’ or ‘daily kos’ yield these sites at top of list
Google search of ‘Hotair’ puts hotair.com at top
Interesting how two search engines have two such different results
He who manipulates is lost
A list of most influential sites is a great way to channel readers towards certain sites and away from others.
Makes me think of those lists of top 100 film of all time, usually politically correct humbug we are supposed to aspire to
Personally I think HA is influential based upon the tediously methodical fake troll attacks, similar to Rush’s seminar callers
They are no problem unless you believe them. They serve as a useful base for dissection of the enemy, with no need for anesthesia. Pawns are expendable
The false cries of anguish are meant to draw empathy from gawkers, but are poor argument for their side thus serves HA well. Hotair expands inflated by the hot air of op attacks
Meanwhile I start my day at Drudge who speaks in links. I branch from his site like an octopus thanks to the speedy doctor Drudge, and enjoy heartily my stops at HA
Drudge serves up politicos raw, which is quite unpleasant, and HA is the antidote
entagor on June 5, 2009 at 5:48 AM
No Drudge?
No Lucianne?
No IMAO?
No Hot Air?
C’mon!
sabbott on June 5, 2009 at 7:27 AM
Indeed. I was banned quite some time ago and don’t remember my particular transgression. I believe I may have uttered a word that was “objectionable” to the editor… Haven’t been back since…
sabbott on June 5, 2009 at 7:31 AM
Want more traffic AP? Stop with the negative obsession crap you have with Rush Limbaugh…
Rush has been nice enough to mention/reference hotair.com on several occasions due to the respect he has for Ed Morrissey. I would suspect Rush also has great respect for Michelle Malkin.
Having the opportunity to have some 20 million people hear the words hotair.com doesn’t happen for most.
Keemo on June 5, 2009 at 8:10 AM
I might add this AP:
Both you and Ed have had a positive influence in the lives of thousands of people on a daily basis. How wonderful is that! The opportunity to make a difference is an opportunity that brings purpose with it.
Keemo on June 5, 2009 at 8:17 AM
awake, I have no idea what you’re talking about but I stand by my assertion that Hot Air should be in the top 3.
Does that make sense? Not a hard concept.
Amy Proctor on June 5, 2009 at 8:38 AM
Personally, I gotta have more cowbell.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on June 5, 2009 at 9:00 AM
somethings wrong! Been here a while and have seen it do nothing but grow and grow.
jeanie on June 5, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Dude, more sexy and/or free beer posts.
fehuq on June 5, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Call and insist they do it all over again!
jeanie on June 5, 2009 at 9:46 AM
I wonder if the formula counts self-links as “inbound” links? Andrew Sullivan can’t go three sentences w/o self-linking, for example. Yes, insert your own joke, but most people can’t stand that diva and I doubt that the big blogs spend that much effort in linking to him (save for mocking his penchant for conspiracy theories over Sarah Palin’s uterus).
Then again, there are people who watch Olbermann & Maddow….
rjwest21 on June 5, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Please do not do what the ‘Sun’ in UK does, use flesh to emphasize a story.
Enjoy your well deserved place at the bottom of any of Wiki’s lists, because your tops with U.S.
MSGTAS on June 5, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Can you say “echo chamber”? I thought you could.
starfleet_dude on June 5, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side! You have paid the price for your lack of vision!
Darth Odie on June 5, 2009 at 11:42 AM
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