infOpinions?

OK, this is going to be a rant, so stand back. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Yep, I’m going to be snarky and sarcastic. Who knew?

For some time, a couple of years actually, I’ve given up on the whole “get on this list” and “seek out backlinks/inlinks” to grow the blog kind of mentality.

Late last night, Andrew Carreaga called me out with his post: Higher ed bloggers: show your power!. In his challenge, Andrew asks five higher ed marketing people to do the following:

1. Submit their blogs to the Power 150 rankings, and
2. Challenge five other higher ed bloggers to do the same.

I have a great deal of respect for Andrew. He is sincerely a great guy, terrific writer and serious practitioner of marketing communications. I realize his intentions are sincere and focused on getting more attention for higher ed marketing. So, the following is not aimed at Andrew.

Andrew has, however, called for a frontal charge on the AdAge Power 150 blogs list by those writing about higher education marketing and public relations. In a moment of weakness, Andrew included me in the list he initially charged with the task. So, here is my response.

Andrew, I truly believe your intent is sincere and genuine. I also fear you are howling at the wind. The deck is stacked, the metrics are flawed and the focus of those involved in the list is not even barely on education.

Bold claims above, I hear you say? Let’s look at the metrics for the Power 150 (see their About page), the link love home of circular back patting in Marcom blog world.

Below, I will discuss the areas that the Power 150 uses to rank blogs. It is kind of similar to the free Marketleap Search Engine Marketing Tools that many people use. MarketLeap deals with links to your site in the major search engines.

First, Todd Points. Um, Todd gives his own blog a 13 out of 15. Who made Todd King? Well, initially … Todd did. Now, AdAge is helping to prop up the throne. Todd Points give extra weight to audio, video and graphics. So, you could concievably have the greatest writing in the world – sans audio, video and graphics – and, well you’re not going to do as well (one might guess).

Yahoo! and Google links/page rank make sense. But, those rankings may mean that bloggers are more astute at using keywords and giving/getting links, than actually sharing valuable content.

Let’s compare my blog to Todd’s, for example, and see where we stand.

Using MarketLeap, we see that my blog compares favorably to the Power 150 creator’s blog. His blog is his front page. So, when comparing domains, Todd does much better than me.

• www.auburnmedia.com: 1,574 – 1,340 – 234
• www.toddand.com: 12,444 – 1,490 – 10,954

Then, let’s look at the blogs. Mine is in a subdirectory, so we have to specifically target that link.

• www.toddand.com: 12,444 – 1,490 – 10,954
• www.auburnmedia.com/wordpress: 20,881 – 1,340 – 19,541

Key: The first number is “Total” links. The second number is links in “Google/AOL/HotBot”. The third number is links in “Yahoo!/FAST/AltaVista”.

To be fair, I’ve been blogging (at AuburnMedia.com, alone) about twice as long as Todd, so that certainly has an impact on the almost doubling of his link totals.

What does this mean? Simply, I have many more links. But, note – there is nothing there telling where those links for either of us are coming from. That’s important and it is lost in both the MarketLeap and Power 150 rankings. So, do either really imply any authority for either of us? No.

Andrew, your blog does just about as well as Todd’s, too.

• highered.prblogs.org: 9,504 – 521 – 8,983
• www.toddand.com: 12,444 – 1,490 – 10,954

The Power 150 also utilizes Technorati ranking and InLinks. As if that’s not enough, they also use the ridiculous Technorati Authority foolishness. Um, do we even have to discuss this one? OK, I’ll do it anyway. One site is responsible for 60 points in the Power 150 ranking process. That 60 points accounts for 40% of the 150 total points any site may achieve in a ranking.

Anyone want to try and explain why one site – especially Technorati, with perhaps one of the worst tracking records and most ‘link love obsequious’ ranking methods, is responsible for 40% of the overall ranking?

Authority is nothing more than links, at Technorati. Is this valid? Hello? Um, links do not mean Authority. They mean popularity, at best. Even that is suspect.

The Power 150 also utilizes Alexa rankings. Has any research been done into the use of the Alexa toolbar by those that frequent PR/Marketing blogs? How about its use by those on the list? No. So, why is Alexa pertinent? Please tell me, I’d love to know. Alexa is a great anecdotal tool, but it has a very small pool of what we’d call, in survey research, respondents. Not everyone has a chance of being selected and showing up in their results, too. So, it is also flawed.

Look at the list overall. Because they only use sites/services that allow for an API to scour the ranking services from other sites, the list is limited as to who they can use. Why, for instance, is Collective Intellect used and not any number of other services. No explanation given. Transparency? Hello? Methodology requires this transparency. The AdAge Power 150 page provides some info, but not nearly enough.

Count the number of SEO blogs in the Power 150. I mean, please. Some of those blogs are the ones that suggest we put out oodles of press releases to SEO optimize our sites.

They are, of course, the single worst offenders – creating and championing the dilution of the value of releases. They are, quite simply, the loudest ‘noise’ creators in the online world, absent spammers. Oh, wait. They are spammers. Each should be taken to the public square, placed in a stock and have these ‘faux releases’ tossed at them, ad nauseum, for the rest of their lives. They do more to harm the discipline of PR than help it.

Think of (a) the number of business marketing blogs in there and forget about PR because (b) consider that the list is at AdAge? Hello? Again, we don’t do advertising. Their idea of marketing is way too niche and allows niche subsets of the practice to dominate the sites ranked in the list. Gee, ya’ think that maybe SEO practitioners are likely doing most of their writing online, therefore more likely to be found there and be ranked by the metrics AdAge chooses to use? I mean, really … is anyone putting any thought into the methodology and value of these lists?

The best material on the broader practice of marketing and public relations may well still be in books and periodicals. I agree that can be argued, but certainly the proportion of substantive writing is greater offline for that area than for SEO, for example.

Do a search of the Power 150 and see who, and how often, anyone even mentions the term education. Look in my sidebar for a Google Co-op search tool I created using the Power 150 OPML file.

They (the bloggers) could – for the most part – care less, Andrew. The same is true for AdAge. Search their site for any articles on PR or Marketing Higher Ed and see how often they deem it to be a valuable topic for consideration. Yet, they all went to school, now didn’t they. Hmm? I just searched the AdAge site for simply the word “education” and received this result: “Sorry. No results we returned for your query.” Even the grammar is wrong. Search for “higher education” and the top result is a story about the University of Phoenix. Um, well … I’ll just leave it at that.

Hey, a Power 150 list search for “education” gets you a whopping 40 results. Holy, Toledo! Alert the media. Wait, get the SEO Marketing blogs to flood the world with SEO enhanced releases. Ack!

A search for “higher ed” does better – 70 results. Um, wait a minute. Sorry, Andrew. There is a lot of your blog in there. And, of course, the smart people are also talking about it, but few are there. Hmm? Well, given the skewed metrics of the ranking function, will I be just as ‘faux’ accurate to claim there are few smart people on the Power 150 list? Oh, I won’t suggest that.

Finally, how does one get on the list, after all? Well, you self-submit. So, the Power 150 really isn’t out there scouring the internet seeking out the best blogs. The list is relatively static (little change of listed blogs) and running a collective set of (some might argue) arbitrary indicators. There is no effort made to find blogs that are relevant or exhibit some authority on their topics. The individual authors nominate themselves as worthy of being considered authorities. AdAge/Todd, I guess, decide who actually gets added based upon those submissions.

Andrew, the whole thing is a house of cards. Ill-balanced (perhaps marked/dog-eared), poorly defined and more secretive as to how the algorithms are defined as it is public knowledge.

Methodology? Please.

Andrew, I understand that we need to get into these lists if we want to be seen by those in the marketing blog world, but – is it really worth our time? I don’t think so.

Hey, look, the Power 150 is a marketing promotion that Todd dreamed up to promote himself and also highlight other blogs. I applaud him for it, whether you believe me or not. It worked wonders for him. It worked so well, and he’s so happy with it, he cites the list (his own list) on his own About page – multiple times. Giving himself a 13/15 Todd Points ranking, he’s getting a “B” – 86.6% grade. Now, think back to school. Wouldn’t it have been fun to be able to grade our own papers?

It is just one more list. Really, it has no true measure of authority on the topic of marketing (certainly not public relations). It is another popularity contest, and even that is suspect because no one – and I mean NO ONE – is checking where all those links are coming from OR what is being said in those links. Think about it, you could have one million backlinks, but they are either spam/splog links or they are all calling you an idiot. I get that alot. )

Are any of these link lists really any judge of authority? If you say yes, you damn well better prove it. I’d give the Power 150 Methodology page a “D” for complete disclosure. And, that’s just because I’m not a tough grader.