Alawine.com says this blog, this little old blog, is the number 1 wine blog on the net based on their super secret algorithm that looks at page rankings and links and such.
While this makes about as much sense to me as a Cabernet Blush, I'm going to choose to believe it today, or at least until Alder Yarrow at Vinography, Eric Asimov at The Pour and Tyler Colman at Dr. Vino lodge their appropriate and sensible protest of the newly jiggered rankings.
What's interesting is how these rankings have changed over time. If you go back three year to October 2006, only two of the current top ten wine blogs made it into the top ten ranking back then. Go back two years and only four of the current top ten were then among the top 10 ranked blogs. Go back a year and a half to February 2008 and only three of the current top 10 were then in the top ten ranked blogs.
Here's some more interesting information. Five of the top ten ranked wine blogs at A LA Wine from October 2006 are either no longer in the current top 100 or no longer exist , including the blog that was ranked as the #1 wine blog. Here's what's happened to the Top 10 ranked wine blogs from October 2006:
#1: LJ Wine: No Longer Exists
#2: Celebrate Wine: #59
#3 Bainbridge On Wine: No Longer Exists
#4: Spittoon: #16
#5: Vinography: #2
#6: Basic Juice: #82 (hasn't posted in 21 months)
#7: Sommelier: No Longer Exists
#8: Grape Radio: No longer Ranked as a blog
#9: Fermentation: #1
#10: Eonoline: Not in Top 100
What's it all mean? Probably what we already knew: The stability of the wine blog space is nearly non existent. What's hot today is unlikely to be hot tomorrow. Very few wine blogs have stood the test of time and remained relevant over even a short period of time.
The more important question, particularly for climbers in the wine blog world, is what common thread is there among the current top 10 wine blogs. The one commonality that strikes me is consistent posting of new content. Most of those in the current Top 10 post on very regular and frequent basis. I've always contended that the more often you post the more readers you will have.
The other interesting thing about the current Top 10 blogs is that they all but two of them write about a broad number of subjects, rather than concentrating on a niche, such as the Iberian Peninsula or the foods and wines of Italy. Recently we've heard that the thing to do is concentrate on a niche if you want to be a successful blogger. I'm not sure that's bad advice. But I don't think its the necessary ingredient to become one of the top bloggers.
So, here I am, after nearly six years of wine blogging, at the top of the A La Wine heap. I suspect a year from now I'll remain in the Top Ten based on A La Wine's formula for ranking wine blogs. But chances are I won't be number 1. The real interesting question is which blogs you've never heard of will have moved in to the top ten a year from now?
