SA's top blogs
Pinpointing South Africa’s top blogs is always a challenging task, with any number of metrics available, each with its own focus. On top of that, blogging was originally conceived of as the pursuit of individuals or small groups of like-minded people.
Over the past year, however, almost all mainstream publishers have launched a blogging platform of their own, drawing on either readers for content or on their own editorial staff. The influx of these new “professional” bloggers has muddied the waters even further.
Amatomu
According to Amatomu, the blog aggregator run by the Mail & Guardian, the top ten blogs in South Africa right now are:
- Keo.co.za
- Rugbydump.com
- Car Blog
- The Science of Sport
- Thought Leader
- LazyGamer – Console Gaming News
- District 9 – Wikus Van De Merwe
- MSFT.NET Blogs (ZA)
- I Wrote This For You
- 2OceansVibe
Keo’s rugby blog continues to head this listing which, this time around, is largely dominated by blogs created or run by commercial publishing houses.
When we last looked at SA’s top blogs in November 2008 Amatomu’s top 10 list read: Big Brother, Keo.co.za, Rugbydump.com, The Times Planet Blog, Shaun Dewberry’s Weblog, Adii Freelancer & Business Strategist, Minor Matters, Times Multimedia, Watkykjy, Thought Leader. Since then Amatomu has redeveloped its platform which has seen The Times Planet blog and many of its subsidiaries drop from the top 50.
Afrigator
Rival blog-tracker Afrigator offers a completely different perspective.
Although it tracks blogs across the African continent, a listing of South African blogs looks as follows:
- Car Blog
- LazyGamer.co.za
- Thought Leader
- 2oceansvibe
- Cheap Flights South Africa
- Dispatch Now 24/7
- So Close
- Blat
- Family Cookbook
- Watkykjy
Afrigator uses a different methodology to rank its top ten blogs which uses both traffic as well as “influence” to compile the top ten. On the whole it works quite well with just a couple of “big media” sites listed in the top ten – Thought Leader and Dispatch Now – and the remainder easily categorised as personal blogs.
Interestingly there is very little similarity between these two lists, with only Car Blog, Thought Leader, 2Oceans Vibe and Lazy Gamer appearing on both lists. Keo and RugbyDump are notably absent from the Afrigator listings as they are certainly among the most popular blogs around.
SA’s top blogs – comments and views
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