Very nice, Vlad! I know very little about the realestate niche, but I know it's a profitable one. I've been telling myself I'm going to by a well-established realestate site some day soon. I know Adsense brings in over a buck for just about every single click on a small niche sites I have about mortgages, so I know it's very profitable.
Anyway, good luck with the links, hope it goes viral!
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Thanks Josh,
I think I am out of luck as far as Adsense is concerned. However I do hope this list encourages real estate agents to blog.
Tony
· 1 year ago
Data seems a bit skewed and actually more hand calculated than anything. Not picking on #65 but lets use them as an example - a quick check of a few RE blogs that I know that didnt make the list revealed rankings in all three categories better than #65's numbers ( PR:3 technorati: 2124856 alexa: 4493571 ).
I really do not know much about the formula and which rankings are the most influential. I will ask Mark who programed the list.
The list is new. In fact the list went public last night. Other blogs will be added to it and top 100 will probably change dramatically a week from now.
I will add Miamism.com- let see where they end up by the next update.
Jay Thompson
· 1 year ago
Vlad - Interesting concept. I'm curious about the "GR Rank". I assume it's some formula combining Google PR, Technorati and Alexa. I understand if your programmer doesn't want to divulge all the details, but it would be interesting to know some of the components of the "GR Rank".
Thanks for including us, and I'll be watching for the next update. Too bad you can't "force" an update to get rid of all the "N/As"... or can you?
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Jay,
I just send a question to Mark re: formula to calculate ratings. Let see if he stops by. I should probably ask him to adjust the N/As. Thanks for stopping by. If you think I have missed some blogs please let me know.
Tony
· 1 year ago
"For Advertisers GeekRealtors Rank will quickly show you where on the internet to spend your advertising dollars."
With the above statement, I'd recommend at least knowing how the algorithm is being generated.
This is a somewhat bigger issue than if this blog or that blog is included. It comes down to presenting subjective opinion as objective analysis. If the list is only comprised of blogs that you are personally aware of, then you should say so.
Tony
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Tony,
I will find out the answer to the algorithm- if Mark will share it that is. Again the list went live last night, and I did the best not to miss important blogs. The list however is opened to new submissions.
I am not sure how objective our list will become. However every other analytics including those we use on our own websites can be scrutinized.
As you can see I use Statcounter on my blog, a user coming back withing 24 hours considered a returning visitor. But if I had set to the limit to 12 hours my unique visitors could double.
45n5
· 1 year ago
"RE blogs that I know that didnt make the list revealed rankings in all three categories better than #65’s numbers"
it only ranks blogs relative to the other blogs in the database. Certainly there are blogs with better stats that would appear higher in the list that exist.
Just email vlad with the ones and he'll add them to the list ;)
As for the algorithm, it's based on google pagerank, technorati, and alexa rank. Nothing is hand calculated.
Each one is weighted differently, and that changes regularly, however there is no secret about what the factors in ranking are, they are google pr, technorati, and alexa.
45n5
· 1 year ago
"I’d recommend at least knowing how the algorithm is being generated."
It is generated from a mixture of alexa, page rank, and technorati rankings. Nothing is hand calculated.
Each factor has their own "weight' that changes often, however it is very public how each blog is ranked, according to their pr, technorati, and alexa. Both are 3 independent rankings that all blogs have.
"GeekRealtors Rank will quickly show you where on the internet to spend your advertising dollars."
That assumes the advertiser is looking for sites with the best independent stats like google pagerank, technorati, and alexa, which GeekRealtors does a better job than any existing site at aggregating all in one place.
Certainly an advertiser has other criteria, however GeekRealtors is a real good start.
45n5
· 1 year ago
About the N/A's, I am rerunning the scripts now. they usually take an hour because I don't want to ping the API's every second.
I manage over 500 blog rankings across multiple sites, there is no way I would take the time to hand calculate any ranking, it's all done based on a script that mixes up the pagerank, alexa rank, and technorati.
any other questions, fire away ;)
Remember, it's less about who ranks #65 or #55 and more about providing a central place to find real estate blogs and see their latest headlines.
Hopefully you find some like minded boggers from the list already ;)
From my experience with my own list, the number one benefit of a central place is it drives a bunch of traffic to the blogs that are on the list, regardless of where they are in rank.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
@Mark,
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.
@All
Thanks for the feedback. Feel free to send me your blog for submission. My e-mail can be found on the side bar just next to the little envelope image.
Tony
· 1 year ago
45n5
The issue isnt how the weightings are calculated. It's how the blogs are seeded.
You are saying that these are the Top 100 sites based on some weighting of Alexa, PR, and Technorati but they appear to more a hand selected blogs that are weighted by those factors. If your code were actually crawling Alexa and Technorati, the results might be very different, more complete, and thereforefore much more representative of the "Top 100 RE Blogs" title.
But, hey, anything in the name of driving views and getting links, right? :)
Tony
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Tony,
Yes lists like this are generally become a good link bait. Yes the blogs submitted manually. And yes every one is welcomed to submit a blog, as long as it is about real estate. After that it's the work of the API to pull in the number from Alexa, Technorati and Google.
This list is unique. It offers a collection of great real estate blogs. It points back a live link to the owners website and it will generate even some traffic to these websites.
Come on give us some slack here :)
45n5
· 1 year ago
"But, hey, anything in the name of driving views and getting links, right?"
Well i wound't say "anything" but sure is fun trying ;)
"It’s how the blogs are seeded."
Oh, you mean like what blogs get on the list and what don't? Any RE blog that Vlad thinks aren't spam will get on. If you've got any ideas for good blogs shoot him an email, he will be glad to add them.
He did his best to find some blogs to get the list started and surely he missed a bunch of good ones.
"If your code were actually crawling Alexa and Technorati, the results might be very different, more complete"
It does actually crawl the sites. It uses their API's which are application programmers interface that returns the data straight from the source.
For instance, here is the details how to get your scripts using technorati:
however i only update once per week cause alexa charges to use their api and it takes some work to double check everything.
I'm out to dinner v-day dinner now. The list should be finished updating by the time I'm back.
Walt Dowdy
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the inbound link! I wasn't aware that Wilmington NC :: Real Estate had made it on the list. Good to know. I am an official Realtor Geek! You're always welcome to learn more about Wilmington NC. Walt Dowdy Wilmington NC :: Real Estate
Daniel Gaitan
· 1 year ago
Nice list! Thanks for including my site and like others I wasn't aware I even made it on the list. Feels good to get a little bit of recognition for the hard work I have put into the site. Look forward to moving up on the list as my Technorati and Alexa rankings are not listed(hint hint).
Last, anybody interested in starting a Blogroll, Friends or Favorites Top 100 list to help each other out with some quality link exchanges?
Before someone comments on how "reciprocal links" are a thing of the past or don't offer any advantage towards your rankings. I don't know about you but I would rather have 10, 20 or 30 quality real estate related reciprocal links than Zero one way links.
I personally would discourage reciprocal linking. Or at least I would discourage to do link exchanges with the website unrelated to real estate.
As to our list, we would be thankful if any one notices it an links back to us. However it is not our goal. Our goal is to provide and website of wonderful resources, which every one including those who are not Realtors can benefit from.
On the left to the list there is an "agregator" that picks up the latest post from each blog on the list that aggregator is as valuable as the list itself. Just go there and you have the latest posts from 100+ leading real estate blogs.
Gena Riede
· 1 year ago
Glad to see Sacramento Real Estate and Luxury Homes made the list. The Sacramento Real Estate Voice is always thrilled for the mention. Thank you.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Our pleasure Gena,
Hopefully the list will bring you a visitor or two. :)
Jamestown Rhode Island Real Es
· 1 year ago
Very valuable list. Getting a blog is def. our next step!
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Thanks Jamestown,
Sorry I do not know your name. :( Make sure to let us know when you get a blog.
glenng
· 1 year ago
I actually found this post today - a little late. But was surprised to find my blog making it into the top 100. Hard to believe it! Have to be happy with some recognition.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Glenn,
Your blog was in my Google reader. It made in with the first 40+ blogs. However you might need to step up your efforts ;) since the list is growing fast and will be changing dramatically.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sara@KunaCountry
· 1 year ago
I'm honored to be included. Thanks for reading
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
You are most welcomed Sara.
Hopefully you will get an extra visitor or two.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Nice list. Glad to see we made it, along with 15 of our Tomato Blogging Graduates. Looks like we've got a formula for success.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Jim,
You definitely have the formula for success! I believe that formula is used on several blog ;)
Good luck. Hopefully the list will bring you a visitor or two.
Debbie Cook
· 1 year ago
Interesting Blog and a Cool List - Thanks I am proud to be on it! There is nothing like blogging to get the word out about your local real estate market, neighborhoods and your lisitngs
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Debbie,
Thanks for stopping by. With the most recent update your blog ended up in the "up and coming" group of blogs. For some reason the Alexa rankings are 11,000,000+ for your blog.... I am sure you will be back in top 100 with next update.
I love your blog. Keep up the good work!
Cyndee Haydon
· 1 year ago
Would love to be considered in the future - our blog is now a PR5 and gets strong traffic. Thanks for the list.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Cyndee,
Thanks for stopping by. I have added your blog to the top 100 list. It should be on the list after the regular update Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Good luck. ;)
Cyndee Haydon
· 1 year ago
Vlad - thanks for the consideration - appreciate it!
As much as I love being showcased in the top 15 (#14) for you list, I feel that your ranking system is flawed by even including Alexa. Alexa at one time had some value (albeit simply for being extra-ordinary) but recently, their ranking systems are simply unreliable and weak.
I know your effort is to simply rank sites according to some uniform and subjective measure, but unfortunately, the method chosen falls short.
Objective Inbound link counts, objective inbound blog link counts, objective inbound traffic and objective time spent on site would be a fantastic measure of rank, but unfortunately you aren't going to achieve this with the tools you are using.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Hi Jim,
Alexa is only on of three factors we rank the blogs.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Vlad,
I see that. My only point was that by including Alexa as a factor at all, you are unable to get any precise result whatsoever.
I love the idea of a ranking system for RE industry blogs, but there is a huge challenge: objective data. By using faulty data to rank anything, even if it is only 1 of 3 factors, it immediately negates the effort. Sorry.
Vlad
· 1 year ago
Jim,
Our list has it's flaws. There some huge chunks of Technorati data missing- at least for some of the blogs. However I think that top 25 blogs are pretty much on target.
Then I probably missed many blogs. So where do you think our blog would square if the data was more reliable?
45n5
· 1 year ago
There are no 3rd party objective measures of traffic, inbound links, etc that are accurate.
Technorati is broken. Yahoo site explorer misses tons of sites.
The list takes the best there is and tries to make the best of it.
As for alexa specifically, it is an objective third party and may not meet your liking for actual raw traffic count they still are a good for seeing trends with website traffic so it does provide value.
There are no objective third party data sources are there? Do you have a solution or just pointing out you don't like things?
Vlad's list is the "best there is" at the moment ;)
(disclaimer, I programmed the list)
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
I do like the idea, and I love being included, and quite favorably as well... but the list being based on faulty data just seems awkward. Not trying to be a smarty pants nor a party pooper... just want those included to realize that this data is flawed and should probably not be taken too literally.
You are right - for now, there is no objective measure by which we can all be compared, at least not on the levels you are aiming for.
If everyone used the same traffic gauge, and it was evenly flawed across all platforms, then at least we would all be measured equally. Alexa is not such a tool. Something like Google Analytics, Site meter or even the BlogTopSites (BlogFlux) javascript added to all sites would give an objective measure of traffic and comparison.
Google PR is hailed as the element of measure for weight in the SE's and can be considered somewhat objective, but there is a huge difference between a PR5 and a PR5. What I mean is, you can be a 5.9 or a 5.1 and yet still appear as a PR5... when they are entirely different values.
Inbound link counts are crazily measured as well. Google claims about 10% of Yahoo's numbers. And what about sites that have inbound links to multiple domains all pointing to the same place? If you add up all links to the combinations of URLs I have pointing to RET, Yahoo's inbound link count is around 100k. But, if you take just my main domain, it's more like 70k.
So what I think I am getting at is, why have a list at all if it is going to be impossible to be objective? Kind of hard to make any sort of ranking claim when the data is fishy.
45n5
· 1 year ago
"Google PR is hailed as the element of measure for weight in the SE’s and can be considered somewhat objective"
That is very wrong. My most highly trafficked site has a gray bar, pr 0. Lower pr pages outrank higher pr pages all day long. do a search.
"So what I think I am getting at is, why have a list at all if it is going to be impossible to be objective?"
wow you sure are a real downer.
Why have pagerank or technorti or alexa or feedburner counts or anything in the first place if they aren't 100% accurate? Which none of them are.
You make the best of what you got ;)
Also, it could be argued that because the top100 real estate weights the three with a formula it is more accurate than any single one of the metrics above.
;)
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Mark,
Thanks for stopping by and clarifying things yet again. We can always add a 10 star voting widget, that should level things a little. ;)
What do you think?
Jocking aside, I think our list is much more objective that the on at BlogFlux and other similar lists.
When it comes to Google PR I completely agree with you, I have a blog with a gray bar however it is outranking many blogs with PR4 and PR5.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
45n5-
PR is a measure of "weight" (as I wrote). I never stated that it was a measure of rank in the SERPs as you infer. For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagerank
Don't mean to be a downer... this list has to be 'for fun' after all, given that the data can't honestly be relied upon as fact.
RE: "Also, it could be argued that because the top100 real estate weights the three with a formula it is more accurate than any single one of the metrics above."
Are you saying that 3 wrongs make a right? I thought that was 3 lefts.
Not looking for an arm wrestle, I just think that since you agree that there exists a flaw in the data used to calculate the results, that there should at a minimum be a clear disclaimer that says so.
Again, I enjoy this idea. I think it is neat. But it's hardly objective, no matter how we spin it.
45n5
· 1 year ago
"PR is a measure of “weight” (as I wrote). I never stated that it was a measure of rank in the SERPs as you infer. For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagerank"
Did you read the link you sent?
it's the "weight" of a page shown in Google Search Results:
Quote from wikipedia: "In Google's other search services (such as its primary Web search) PageRank is used to weight the relevance scores of pages shown in search results."
"Again, I enjoy this idea. I think it is neat. But it’s hardly objective, no matter how we spin it."
It takes the 3 most objective measures on the web to rank the websites. If you have a better solution for ranking sites then share it ;)
Until then, enjoy!
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Ok - so I made and ass of me by ass-uming that wikipedia could speak for me...
Pagerank as I was using it, and intended it to be used was in this sense:
"PageRank is based on but the amount of incoming links, references from important ( other high PageRank ) web sites, and the level of a page indicated by the internal navigation of a web site."
All of which has nothing to do with "rank" in the SERPs, as I was saying... which is the "weight" I was referring to, and that which is commonly understood.
Mostly objective is like being kind of pregnant. You either are, or you aren't. The question becomes, if you don't have a truly objective way of measuring something, then should you claim to be able to measure it at all?
Just because there is no (obviously) better way to measure something doesn't make it any closer to true.
So for now... we'll just have to take it for what it's worth, even if Alexa has no idea of how much traffic sites are actually receiving.
Good job on it so far. I'll check back to see how it improves.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Jim,
It's all good. Some time ago I read some where that technology blogs have better Alexa rankings because supposedly more geeks visiting those websites would have Alexa toolbar installed. Now that I have an opportunity to compare it to another "industry" if you wish, I find that statement not to be true. So if anything Alexa is pretty much "inconsistent" with just about any website.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation. Nice to have you around.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Vlad,
It is all good. And it's a joy to be here. Thanks for the hospitality. No looking to wear out a welcome.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
I'm sorry... back again. I just can't resist it seems.
About the inclusion of Alexa as an element of your measurement. It just seems so irrelevant. Does anyone even still install the Alexa toolbar (which only works in IE by the way)? The crazy thing about the stats they present is that they are an estimation based on data they have collected from users of their installed toolbar. If this isn't the most unreliable sampling of data to make a measure of a site's actual ranking, then I don't know what is. It's like polling less than 1% of users to get a sense of what the truth is. This can't be something one would consider objective.
45n5
· 1 year ago
Jim, you are a downer and a persistent one.
Once again have the option to provide a better solution with a comment. the only thing you seem to provide is negativity here? What gives?
btw, Alexa provides a firefox toolbar, I have it installed now.
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Jim,
It's not related but have q question about "Tomato Blogs". It appears your are guys some sort of network. Can you tell me a little more about this network?
It's just curiosity of mine. BTW if I missed any blogs from tomato blogs, they still can e-mail me and I can ad them to the list. As long as they are real estate related.
Cyndee Haydon
· 1 year ago
Vlad - thanks for including us in the updated list :)
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Not trying to be the downer - in fact want this to be as good a list as it can be. My issue is really that Alexa is not a good enough measure for your guys to include it in the formula.
Vlad, We are about to make a very big change in our online model. From there you will be able to see all of our clients, and how we are networked together. Stay tuned.
And Cyndee Haydon - definitely one for the list!
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Jim,
Unfortunately at the moment there is no better alternative to Alexa. But even other statistics (Google PR, and Technorati) are not th king and queen of objectivity. Given the statistics we we have we are doing the best we we can with the list.
I hope you are not going to combine all the blogs in your network under one domain name.... that certainly will not help the list LOL
Cyndee-
You are very welcome!
Everyone,
If you have submitted request to be included in the list and I missed you please let me know.
By the way take a look at the list, it was update yesterday I believe. I am not proud that my blog is sliding down (#79) ... I hope I will manage to stay in top 100 myself :)
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
By the way Jason,
I am not sure if you realize it, but the list on in this post is somewhat outdated. Here is the original list: http://www.top100realestateblogs.com/
Jay Thompson
· 1 year ago
I'm getting server not found errors on the Top100 site Vlad...
Vlad - the owner of Go Beyond
· 1 year ago
Thanks Jay,
Sorry about that. It looks like our servers are down. Mark is working on it.
Jim Cronin
· 1 year ago
Another example of how wildly poor the reporting from Alexa is... Miller Samuel's Matrix - arguably a top 10 most traffic'd RE blog has you posting an Alexa ranking of: 545,538. The data is so far off as a relative measure to reality. I'm telling you, it's got to go.
Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Bl
· 1 year ago
What about Real Estate Radio USA?? Think you missed a big one there. But thanks for the list.
ncarey
· 1 year ago
One of the top 100 blogs is Matrix. In my area that is the name of the MLS system, I thought that was there website at first.
Im not any farther up the list but thers' more people behind me now - grin
Vlad
· 1 year ago
Ned,
There was actually problem with Matrix and for long time it was not even in the top 100 due to the fact that Technorati was not reporting any data..... That was fixed and all things being equal Matrix should be in the top 20 blogs if not top 10.
Kiralik Daire
· 1 year ago
Thanks Information.
Tax Liens
· 1 year ago
Great list of real state blogs.... very intersting.. thanks for sending it... i will definitely visit all these.
Rhine
· 1 year ago
I don't really have a real estate blog. But while I was stumbling through I found this cute little page about some real estate properties Top 10 Real Estate Properties For Sale On ebay
Regards
massachusettsrealestate
· 1 year ago
It would be great to know which of these blogs are "do follow".
Vlad Zablotskyy
· 1 year ago
The list was not created to aggregate the "do follow" blogs. In fact, I do not exactly know how many blogs are what we known to be a "dofollow" blog.
Tampa Real Estate Agents
· 1 year ago
I have gone to some of the sites in the list and I think really was a good thing to do as it gives one more option.
I think that is great! I dont think there will be many do follows in it.
Toronto_Condo
· 11 months ago
That the market is going to become more affordable and equivalent to rental cost which will allow more first time buyers in the market and many of the loan products out there will cater to that buyer group. That is a really fun group to work with because they know what they want and they are excited about getting into their first home. They really appreciate the work that we do and that makes the job worth it.
Toronto_Condo
· 11 months ago
I want to get recipricol links established with other web sites with similar content. However, as the number of sites on my related sites page grows, I fear that other sites my not want to link with me because the link to their site would be buried among hundreds of others. Any suggestions...Also, please let me know what has worked for you for your link building campaign.
Ned Carey
· 9 months ago
Hey Vlad,
Your top100 site comes up as expired. I enjoyed checking that from time to time both to see where I ranked and to see a great list of real estate web sites. I hope it is an over site and you renew it.
Vlad
· 9 months ago
Ned, I should have probably give the heads up to my readers about that other website. Unfortunately it did not produce the results I would like. Most of the traffic I got on that website was spent on the top few blogs of the list. Maintaining of the list became expensive as well.
I may move the list back to this blog.... but am not positive yet. I would like to find a way for every one to benefit from it.
Chris
· 8 months ago
Thanks Vlad! It's a great resource and you've given so much to the community.
Real estate marketing had been a source of income for many businessman's but as we all know we are experiencing a global recession that's why this industry had been pulled down. Learn the Secrets most Real Estate Professionals will never know about Massively Successful Real Estate Marketing in 2009..... AND ... Getting New Buyers / Sellers WITHOUT Spending a Dime on Advertising!
All Comments
Anyway, good luck with the links, hope it goes viral!
I think I am out of luck as far as Adsense is concerned. However I do hope this list encourages real estate agents to blog.
Example (one of many)
Miamism.com: PR4 technorati: 87,977 alexa: 751,419
Tony
I really do not know much about the formula and which rankings are the most influential. I will ask Mark who programed the list.
The list is new. In fact the list went public last night. Other blogs will be added to it and top 100 will probably change dramatically a week from now.
I will add Miamism.com- let see where they end up by the next update.
Thanks for including us, and I'll be watching for the next update. Too bad you can't "force" an update to get rid of all the "N/As"... or can you?
I just send a question to Mark re: formula to calculate ratings. Let see if he stops by. I should probably ask him to adjust the N/As. Thanks for stopping by. If you think I have missed some blogs please let me know.
GeekRealtors Rank will quickly show you where on the internet to spend your advertising dollars."
With the above statement, I'd recommend at least knowing how the algorithm is being generated.
This is a somewhat bigger issue than if this blog or that blog is included. It comes down to presenting subjective opinion as objective analysis. If the list is only comprised of blogs that you are personally aware of, then you should say so.
Tony
I will find out the answer to the algorithm- if Mark will share it that is. Again the list went live last night, and I did the best not to miss important blogs. The list however is opened to new submissions.
I am not sure how objective our list will become. However every other analytics including those we use on our own websites can be scrutinized.
As you can see I use Statcounter on my blog, a user coming back withing 24 hours considered a returning visitor. But if I had set to the limit to 12 hours my unique visitors could double.
it only ranks blogs relative to the other blogs in the database. Certainly there are blogs with better stats that would appear higher in the list that exist.
Just email vlad with the ones and he'll add them to the list ;)
As for the algorithm, it's based on google pagerank, technorati, and alexa rank. Nothing is hand calculated.
Each one is weighted differently, and that changes regularly, however there is no secret about what the factors in ranking are, they are google pr, technorati, and alexa.
It is generated from a mixture of alexa, page rank, and technorati rankings. Nothing is hand calculated.
Each factor has their own "weight' that changes often, however it is very public how each blog is ranked, according to their pr, technorati, and alexa. Both are 3 independent rankings that all blogs have.
"GeekRealtors Rank will quickly show you where on the internet to spend your advertising dollars."
That assumes the advertiser is looking for sites with the best independent stats like google pagerank, technorati, and alexa, which GeekRealtors does a better job than any existing site at aggregating all in one place.
Certainly an advertiser has other criteria, however GeekRealtors is a real good start.
I manage over 500 blog rankings across multiple sites, there is no way I would take the time to hand calculate any ranking, it's all done based on a script that mixes up the pagerank, alexa rank, and technorati.
any other questions, fire away ;)
Remember, it's less about who ranks #65 or #55 and more about providing a central place to find real estate blogs and see their latest headlines.
Hopefully you find some like minded boggers from the list already ;)
From my experience with my own list, the number one benefit of a central place is it drives a bunch of traffic to the blogs that are on the list, regardless of where they are in rank.
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.
@All
Thanks for the feedback. Feel free to send me your blog for submission. My e-mail can be found on the side bar just next to the little envelope image.
The issue isnt how the weightings are calculated. It's how the blogs are seeded.
You are saying that these are the Top 100 sites based on some weighting of Alexa, PR, and Technorati but they appear to more a hand selected blogs that are weighted by those factors. If your code were actually crawling Alexa and Technorati, the results might be very different, more complete, and thereforefore much more representative of the "Top 100 RE Blogs" title.
But, hey, anything in the name of driving views and getting links, right? :)
Tony
Yes lists like this are generally become a good link bait. Yes the blogs submitted manually. And yes every one is welcomed to submit a blog, as long as it is about real estate. After that it's the work of the API to pull in the number from Alexa, Technorati and Google.
This list is unique. It offers a collection of great real estate blogs. It points back a live link to the owners website and it will generate even some traffic to these websites.
Come on give us some slack here :)
Well i wound't say "anything" but sure is fun trying ;)
"It’s how the blogs are seeded."
Oh, you mean like what blogs get on the list and what don't? Any RE blog that Vlad thinks aren't spam will get on. If you've got any ideas for good blogs shoot him an email, he will be glad to add them.
He did his best to find some blogs to get the list started and surely he missed a bunch of good ones.
"If your code were actually crawling Alexa and Technorati, the results might be very different, more complete"
It does actually crawl the sites. It uses their API's which are application programmers interface that returns the data straight from the source.
For instance, here is the details how to get your scripts using technorati:
http://technorati.com/developers/
however i only update once per week cause alexa charges to use their api and it takes some work to double check everything.
I'm out to dinner v-day dinner now. The list should be finished updating by the time I'm back.
Walt Dowdy
Wilmington NC :: Real Estate
Last, anybody interested in starting a Blogroll, Friends or Favorites Top 100 list to help each other out with some quality link exchanges?
Before someone comments on how "reciprocal links" are a thing of the past or don't offer any advantage towards your rankings. I don't know about you but I would rather have 10, 20 or 30 quality real estate related reciprocal links than Zero one way links.
Daniel Gaitan
Real Estate News and Tips for Buyers, Sellers, Agents and Investors
The listings were updated. Look here:
http://geekrealtors.com
I personally would discourage reciprocal linking. Or at least I would discourage to do link exchanges with the website unrelated to real estate.
As to our list, we would be thankful if any one notices it an links back to us. However it is not our goal. Our goal is to provide and website of wonderful resources, which every one including those who are not Realtors can benefit from.
On the left to the list there is an "agregator" that picks up the latest post from each blog on the list that aggregator is as valuable as the list itself. Just go there and you have the latest posts from 100+ leading real estate blogs.
Hopefully the list will bring you a visitor or two. :)
Sorry I do not know your name. :(
Make sure to let us know when you get a blog.
Your blog was in my Google reader. It made in with the first 40+ blogs. However you might need to step up your efforts ;) since the list is growing fast and will be changing dramatically.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hopefully you will get an extra visitor or two.
You definitely have the formula for success! I believe that formula is used on several blog ;)
Good luck. Hopefully the list will bring you a visitor or two.
Thanks for stopping by. With the most recent update your blog ended up in the "up and coming" group of blogs. For some reason the Alexa rankings are 11,000,000+ for your blog.... I am sure you will be back in top 100 with next update.
I love your blog. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for stopping by. I have added your blog to the top 100 list. It should be on the list after the regular update Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Good luck. ;)
I don't know if you have read this article:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/172884/The-Prob...
As much as I love being showcased in the top 15 (#14) for you list, I feel that your ranking system is flawed by even including Alexa. Alexa at one time had some value (albeit simply for being extra-ordinary) but recently, their ranking systems are simply unreliable and weak.
I know your effort is to simply rank sites according to some uniform and subjective measure, but unfortunately, the method chosen falls short.
Objective Inbound link counts, objective inbound blog link counts, objective inbound traffic and objective time spent on site would be a fantastic measure of rank, but unfortunately you aren't going to achieve this with the tools you are using.
Alexa is only on of three factors we rank the blogs.
I see that. My only point was that by including Alexa as a factor at all, you are unable to get any precise result whatsoever.
I love the idea of a ranking system for RE industry blogs, but there is a huge challenge: objective data. By using faulty data to rank anything, even if it is only 1 of 3 factors, it immediately negates the effort.
Sorry.
Our list has it's flaws. There some huge chunks of Technorati data missing- at least for some of the blogs. However I think that top 25 blogs are pretty much on target.
Then I probably missed many blogs. So where do you think our blog would square if the data was more reliable?
Technorati is broken. Yahoo site explorer misses tons of sites.
The list takes the best there is and tries to make the best of it.
As for alexa specifically, it is an objective third party and may not meet your liking for actual raw traffic count they still are a good for seeing trends with website traffic so it does provide value.
There are no objective third party data sources are there? Do you have a solution or just pointing out you don't like things?
Vlad's list is the "best there is" at the moment ;)
(disclaimer, I programmed the list)
You are right - for now, there is no objective measure by which we can all be compared, at least not on the levels you are aiming for.
If everyone used the same traffic gauge, and it was evenly flawed across all platforms, then at least we would all be measured equally. Alexa is not such a tool. Something like Google Analytics, Site meter or even the BlogTopSites (BlogFlux) javascript added to all sites would give an objective measure of traffic and comparison.
Google PR is hailed as the element of measure for weight in the SE's and can be considered somewhat objective, but there is a huge difference between a PR5 and a PR5. What I mean is, you can be a 5.9 or a 5.1 and yet still appear as a PR5... when they are entirely different values.
Inbound link counts are crazily measured as well.
Google claims about 10% of Yahoo's numbers.
And what about sites that have inbound links to multiple domains all pointing to the same place? If you add up all links to the combinations of URLs I have pointing to RET, Yahoo's inbound link count is around 100k. But, if you take just my main domain, it's more like 70k.
So what I think I am getting at is, why have a list at all if it is going to be impossible to be objective? Kind of hard to make any sort of ranking claim when the data is fishy.
That is very wrong. My most highly trafficked site has a gray bar, pr 0. Lower pr pages outrank higher pr pages all day long. do a search.
"So what I think I am getting at is, why have a list at all if it is going to be impossible to be objective?"
wow you sure are a real downer.
Why have pagerank or technorti or alexa or feedburner counts or anything in the first place if they aren't 100% accurate? Which none of them are.
You make the best of what you got ;)
Also, it could be argued that because the top100 real estate weights the three with a formula it is more accurate than any single one of the metrics above.
;)
Thanks for stopping by and clarifying things yet again. We can always add a 10 star voting widget, that should level things a little. ;)
What do you think?
Jocking aside, I think our list is much more objective that the on at BlogFlux and other similar lists.
When it comes to Google PR I completely agree with you, I have a blog with a gray bar however it is outranking many blogs with PR4 and PR5.
PR is a measure of "weight" (as I wrote). I never stated that it was a measure of rank in the SERPs as you infer. For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagerank
Don't mean to be a downer... this list has to be 'for fun' after all, given that the data can't honestly be relied upon as fact.
RE: "Also, it could be argued that because the top100 real estate weights the three with a formula it is more accurate than any single one of the metrics above."
Are you saying that 3 wrongs make a right? I thought that was 3 lefts.
Not looking for an arm wrestle, I just think that since you agree that there exists a flaw in the data used to calculate the results, that there should at a minimum be a clear disclaimer that says so.
Again, I enjoy this idea. I think it is neat. But it's hardly objective, no matter how we spin it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagerank"
Did you read the link you sent?
it's the "weight" of a page shown in Google Search Results:
Quote from wikipedia: "In Google's other search services (such as its primary Web search) PageRank is used to weight the relevance scores of pages shown in search results."
"Again, I enjoy this idea. I think it is neat. But it’s hardly objective, no matter how we spin it."
It takes the 3 most objective measures on the web to rank the websites. If you have a better solution for ranking sites then share it ;)
Until then, enjoy!
Pagerank as I was using it, and intended it to be used was in this sense:
"PageRank is based on but the amount of incoming links, references from important ( other high PageRank ) web sites, and the level of a page indicated by the internal navigation of a web site."
All of which has nothing to do with "rank" in the SERPs, as I was saying... which is the "weight" I was referring to, and that which is commonly understood.
Mostly objective is like being kind of pregnant. You either are, or you aren't. The question becomes, if you don't have a truly objective way of measuring something, then should you claim to be able to measure it at all?
Just because there is no (obviously) better way to measure something doesn't make it any closer to true.
So for now... we'll just have to take it for what it's worth, even if Alexa has no idea of how much traffic sites are actually receiving.
Good job on it so far. I'll check back to see how it improves.
It's all good. Some time ago I read some where that technology blogs have better Alexa rankings because supposedly more geeks visiting those websites would have Alexa toolbar installed. Now that I have an opportunity to compare it to another "industry" if you wish, I find that statement not to be true. So if anything Alexa is pretty much "inconsistent" with just about any website.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation. Nice to have you around.
It is all good. And it's a joy to be here. Thanks for the hospitality. No looking to wear out a welcome.
About the inclusion of Alexa as an element of your measurement. It just seems so irrelevant. Does anyone even still install the Alexa toolbar (which only works in IE by the way)?
The crazy thing about the stats they present is that they are an estimation based on data they have collected from users of their installed toolbar. If this isn't the most unreliable sampling of data to make a measure of a site's actual ranking, then I don't know what is.
It's like polling less than 1% of users to get a sense of what the truth is. This can't be something one would consider objective.
Once again have the option to provide a better solution with a comment. the only thing you seem to provide is negativity here? What gives?
btw, Alexa provides a firefox toolbar, I have it installed now.
It's not related but have q question about "Tomato Blogs". It appears your are guys some sort of network. Can you tell me a little more about this network?
It's just curiosity of mine. BTW if I missed any blogs from tomato blogs, they still can e-mail me and I can ad them to the list. As long as they are real estate related.
Vlad,
We are about to make a very big change in our online model. From there you will be able to see all of our clients, and how we are networked together. Stay tuned.
And Cyndee Haydon - definitely one for the list!
Unfortunately at the moment there is no better alternative to Alexa. But even other statistics (Google PR, and Technorati) are not th king and queen of objectivity. Given the statistics we we have we are doing the best we we can with the list.
I hope you are not going to combine all the blogs in your network under one domain name.... that certainly will not help the list LOL
Cyndee-
You are very welcome!
Everyone,
If you have submitted request to be included in the list and I missed you please let me know.
By the way take a look at the list, it was update yesterday I believe. I am not proud that my blog is sliding down (#79) ... I hope I will manage to stay in top 100 myself :)
I am not sure if you realize it, but the list on in this post is somewhat outdated. Here is the original list:
http://www.top100realestateblogs.com/
Sorry about that. It looks like our servers are down. Mark is working on it.
Im not any farther up the list but thers' more people behind me now - grin
There was actually problem with Matrix and for long time it was not even in the top 100 due to the fact that Technorati was not reporting any data..... That was fixed and all things being equal Matrix should be in the top 20 blogs if not top 10.
Regards
I think that is great! I dont think there will be many do follows in it.
Your top100 site comes up as expired. I enjoyed checking that from time to time both to see where I ranked and to see a great list of real estate web sites. I hope it is an over site and you renew it.
I may move the list back to this blog.... but am not positive yet. I would like to find a way for every one to benefit from it.
Chris
Not sure every one is aware that the list is now hosted here: http://www.go-beyond-mls.com/top-100/