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popularity.pngDon’t get me wrong, I’m happy, and flattered that What’s Next Blog is on a bunch of top 100, top 25 and now, a top 42 list.
But the criteria for each list is largely subjective, and, as soon as there’s a list, there’s someone who figures out how to game the list. Not to mention that most lists are created as a way for the creator to game search engines so the list-maker’s site will increase its search value. Therefore, just about all such lists are meaningless.
The latest is from Junta which has a Top 42 Marketing Content Blogs list where What’s Next Blog is currently number 19.
They emailed me and asked me to put a badge on my blog to promote their list. I looked for the criteria and saw that “our experts” determine which blogs should be on the list and how they should be ranked. “Who are these experts?” I emailed, noting that without transparency, the list is meaningless.
Today, they added an explanation of the criteria and its ridiculousness boggles the mind:

“We are assuming that longer content is “meatier” and therefore higher quality content.”

To paraphrase Tina Turner: What’s length got to do with it? Who’s got time, in our information-overloaded age, to read 1000-word posts?
If you can’t say what you have to say, most of the time, in a 350 word or less blog post, you need to re-write.
Clarity, research, writing quality, links to further information, relevance, news value, and heart all have a lot more to do with the quality of a blog post than length.
So pardon me if I ignore another list while they figure out what really makes a blog worth reading. But, hey, thanks for including What’s Next Blog on your list.
Posted by B.L. Ochman