|
← Previous · Home · Next →
2007·08·22 · 6 Comments |
| What Is the Truth about TTLB? |
This is one of those blog posts about blogging that I rarely read when others post them. Your time would be better spent clicking through.
Are they gone yet? OK, those of you who have nothing better to do and are still sitting in your parent's basement reading this, maybe you can answer a question. How does this Truth Laid Bear thing work? Does anyone know?
Back when I started blogging (May 2005), I was as much of a stats nerd as anyone. I registered my blog at truthlaidbear.com and joined the Blogdom of God (a title that seems hopelessly crass now) and the League of Reformed Bloggers. I watched my status—I think I acheived "Maurading Marsupial"—and got excited whenever I jumped a level. However, by the time I moved from thethirstytheologian.blogspot.com to thirstytheologian.com, I no longer cared. I didn't update my URL on any of those aggregators (I can't even remember my log-in at TTLB if I wanted to).
Yesterday, on a whim, I went to TTLB to check my status. I'm at 7698, right in the middle of the "Slithering Reptiles," in the neighborhood of, and even above, a couple of very fine blogs that I can't match for quality now, and certainly never did at that URL. 7698 out of 100,000+ blogs.
Folks, in case you've missed this point, this is not thirstytheologian.com I'm talking about. This is my abandoned blogspot blog. I am mystified. I know they haven't followed me here (could they do that?) because I get two to three times the traffic here that I ever got there, and about five times as many blogs link here, so whatever they go by, that doesn't fit.
I don't get it. Is TTLB as meaningless and useless as I think it is?
TrackBack URL: http://www.thirstytheologian.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/454
Share this post:
Posted in: Bloggage
Permalink · 6 Comments · 0 TrackBacks
← Previous · Home · Next →
6 Comments:
Dana
Uh, yeah. That about sums it up. I was looking at TTLB the other way not too long ago. I was looking at the top of the list, trying to see what the really good bloggers do so I could learn to be a better blogger. I learned one thing: join a gazillion blogrolls, whether or not they have anything to do with your site, spam every blog carnival and climb the rankings.
Some of those sites do not have any traffic, though. It surprised me because I get more in google searches than some of them, and I would have thought that the ranking would have counted for something with google since they both look at links.
The whole thing is too easy to manipulate if you want to.
Carla Rolfe
"I don't get it. Is TTLB as meaningless and useless as I think it is?"
In my ever so humble opinion, yep. Like you when I was new to blogging I registered with all the same places and like you once I moved I never updated my url. My archived blog doesn't get half the traffic as my current home and yet it's my archived blog that shows more hits.
Yeah, I think it's pretty useless.
Tim Challies
I talked to the guy who runs that site about a year ago and he admitted then (quite willingly, actually) that the site is hopelessly, pathetically broken. Just look at the ratings for the Blogdom of God and you'll see that some of the blogs up there haven't been updated in years and yet they are still near the top of the list. The whole system is in complete disrepair and really serves no purpose anymore. You're better off tracking your Technorati authority number. That seems to be a much more accurate measure of a blog's importance within the blogosphere.
Even So...
TTLB has gotten a little (emphasis on little) better recently, but still I don't show my "ranking" on my site...
Technorati has its problems too...for instance, you (graciously) link to my posts regularly (thank you), and yet technorati doesn't give me "credit" for them, ever...well, it used to, but not for a long time...(please don't stop, however :-)...as well, I get new sites linking me on their rolls often (again, thank you to all), and yet while the authority score will go up for a couple of days, it goes right back down...also, one of those aggregators adds new sites, and the new additions have my name on their site, yet it hasn't counted any extra for me in the last few months...AND there are a couple of sites that I know used to have more "points" than me, and nothing else has changed, yet they have dropped numbers...
Yes technoratio is much, much (did I say MUCH!) better than TTLB, but it still raises questions for me...
daniel
All I know is that your old blog is still 5000 clicks better than my present trying-hard-to-be-noticed blog.
It is a fitting justice I think.
David
Daniel, that's just not right. I don't think it's accurate, either.
To be noticed: try posting something really controversial. I think there are a lot of Baptists who secretly come here for the beer.
Comments on this post are closed. If you have a question or comment concerning this post, feel free to email us.
Contact