Looking at Technorati
21 July, 2006 (20:08) | Internet | By: Andreas
Technorati is a great site, that has helped me find many good blogs to read. It has also sent me many visitors, since I have a lot of incoming links from blogs that use themes based on my designs. For a few weeks, those links even gave me a nice spot on the "Top 100 Blogs" list, where I managed to reach #30 before I was taken off the list. Theme designers are removed from that list as soon as they reach it since Technorati wants to keep the list fair and related to blog popularity rather than theme popularity, and that is of course a good thing.
But as I was looking at my profile page I saw that my current Technorati Rank is surprisingly good. My site is currently ranked as #6, and that made me wonder why I have not used Technorati more than I have. I have had ideas about moving over to a tag-based sorting system that would replace the regular categories, but I haven't got any further than thinking about it. As I am now working on a new design and a general refresh of the content and structure, this would be a good time to switch to tags. But I need to read up on how everything works, because I simply don't know anything about it. But I think that it will be worth the effort. I am also investigating other options that would let me keep the categories.
What difference has Technorati meant for you and your site(s)? Feel free to share your opinions, experiences and advices, either by comments or by e-mail!
Comments
Comments can be only posted for 14 days after the post date. If you have comments about an older post such as this one, feel free to send me an e-mail!
Comment from seanrox
Time: July 21, 2006, 21:28
I agree with Henning that the standard Word Press category system works just fine and provides a nice user experience.
I ping Techorati when I update my blog and I've also received many visitors from being listed on the site.
Comment from Andreas
Time: July 21, 2006, 21:39
That is why I haven't learned more about the tagging hype yet. WordPress works really well. But I am still curious about tagging. If not as a replacement to categories, then atleast as an additional feature to widen the basic functionality of the site…
Comment from GUAGUAU
Time: July 21, 2006, 22:21
The truth is that tecnorathi raises to the ego I to you I create asi perfi is the one that one wants to place but in any case yours he is blog….
VIRTUAL HUG
Comment from Ainslie
Time: July 21, 2006, 23:06
It is interesting that you get the "Top 100" icon yet do not feature in the top 100 blogs. I am ranked #38 and also don't get a mention in the list. Fair enough I suppose as my links are much like yours and based on theme popularity. It would seem that they still rank us but don't show us!
As far as tags are concerned I think Technorati recognises WordPress categories as tags. Such is the popularity of WordPress that I doubt they dare ignore it!
You could change your "category base" to /tags/ to make things look nice like they do on wp.com but is there a point? You could also add tags with a plugin.
I don't think there is a need. I think categories are good enough - Technoriati will find you anyway.
Comment from franky
Time: July 21, 2006, 23:22
Actually… honestly… don't we rather prefer to be confronted with the problems you encounter while designing, things you release (of which I actually haven't downloaded one yet) aso instead of boring numbers of how good you are.
I have you since 8 months in my feed roll, sometimes you advice good pages, services but that's it. Now don't get me wrong I really appreciate the effort you put into the open-source community, your time spend developing themes aso, but those numbers (PR, Silkitide, Technorati aso) … why not just put a button somewhere, just like you do for silkitide. That would do the job, but I am really not interested in all those numbers.
I am sure you ecounter loads of other things while designing, surfing the web… why not sharethat with us? It would surely boast your readership in a constructive way (honestly who cares about all the people saying I love it when no one is saying it sucks) and as an experienced open-source freak (even developer) I would even say it could boost your orders. But those numbers? If I really want to know them, I can check them as well.
Technorati #6, TTLB not listed among top !00 so…
com'on Andreas you can do better.
No this is not meant as a flame, but this being best there, listed here aso actually is quite boring. If you don't know what I mean or decide to delete this comment, please mail me and lets discuss this comment ;-)
Comment from franky
Time: July 21, 2006, 23:24
And sorry for not having mentionned this, but I do think if the tagging is done properly categories are not needed anymore in WP. If you would still use categories, use them for your layout (asides, fe a certain categorie in another display aso). Tagging allows a better navigation than categories do.
Comment from Andreas
Time: July 22, 2006, 2:17
Ainslie: Yes, the categories are recognized as tags in Technorati. And they give me everything I need for the internal blog post structure so there is really no need for tags. But they still give interesting possibilities, and many people praise tags and refer to it as a better option - or sometimes as an incredible additional feature. I am curious about it, but like I said I haven't bothered to learn more yet. And I probably won't, not for this update…
franky: I could not find any number in my post that said anything about how "good" I am. I will explain why below. But I still get your point.
Some people don't like statistics and ratings, and you are one of them. Others think that my stats and ratings are even more interesting than my main content. I try to keep everyone happy, in this case by only writing about the things that really mean a lot to me (mostly in terms of inspiration) while I give the small group of stat-fans access to my statistics scripts and write special reports to them with my views on recent events.
Personally, I try to not look too much at numbers since they take the focus away from what really matters to me. But at the same time, I get most of my inspiration and motivation from knowing that many people use my templates. And since I have made template design my full-time job, the numbers and ratings are a good help to see that I'm moving forward. Numbers are also required to get sponsors that make it possible to work with template design like I do now. The statistics and ratings are also tools that help me improve my work, since I can see what people like and not…
But the step from talking about template statistics to talking about how good I am is not just big. It is impossible to take. Based on the statistics, I could claim that my templates are among the most popular templates in the world. But that doesn't mean that they are good in any way, or that they get better the more downloads they get. Popularity does not equal quality.
And all the numbers that I follow (and sometimes write about) are related to my designs. Either through my own website, or through my templates or WordPress themes. These numbers have nothing to do with me. They don't make me a better designer, and they certainly don't make me a better person. I know my abilities and my limits. I know that I haven't deserved all the attention that I have got from the templates (and a number of years ago, from the music of Lagoona). I am not "good", and I am not the self-obsessed and egocentric superstar that some people automatically expect me to be.
I hope that explains my view on the numbers. I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone may have about this. But if the questions or comments cover is not related to the post topic, I ask you to send me an e-mail rather than posting a comment here.
Comment from franky
Time: July 22, 2006, 8:43
Andreas thanks for your comment. I do understand your point and yes I couldn't care less about numbers. Although
Sorry for the 'how good you are' insinuation, it wasn't meant as a personal attack, but more based on those numbers. I have been reading your blog for several months now and everytime I think'omg another of those posts'.
I do love blogs, but compared to the old web with CMS like Postnuke, Typo, Nuke, aso blogs sometimes have IMHO small short comings. Back to the sponsors : ever tried http://www.text-link-ads.com. Their link calculator values links for your site at $88/month and their platform is well known for advertizers. Especially a site like yours would surely be popular. Best is that you can allow sponsors or reject those particular links. Self-whoring, use the link in my sidebar, they pay $25/new accepted member tot heir referrer/affiliates ;)
Tags, I also only worked with categories when I started with WP. Tags do allow me to define more categories for a post. Example : You release a new template and would categorize it : design and free templates (fe). Using tags, you could easily tag it design, free design, free template, css, css-design, xhtml, valid template aso. All those will surely bring you hits over technorati or kbcafe.com. More even people use technorati tags for feeds. Think of http://tagjag.com (formerly gada.be) and check their Alexa rank if you want to be convinced.
I have noticed their are two ways to use tags :
1. As category replacement. Allowing you to have more categories and not be afraid anymore to have clutter due to 200 categories. A nice tag would fe. be css reboot. You use it regularly (well yeah) but wouldn't make a category for since it would clutter your sidebar. A tag-cloud will allow me to find your css-reboot entries easily, without having to use the SE.
2. Use tags SE-orientated. Tag every post with everything you can think of which could bring you traffic. Yup, tags becoming keywords. In that case I would advice not to display the tags because again it would clutter.
Ultimate Tag Warrior is flexible enough and you can configure it for almost every possible use. And to go even further, I would even use Sociable on your blog. Diggers, del.icio.us'ers and magnolia-freaks will love it.
And now I will shut up. Again I must have beaten my longest comment record. Sorry. :)
And you are a great designer ;)
Comment from Ainslie
Time: July 22, 2006, 10:15
I am not really a fan of over complicating things and I see tags as just another layer of stuff to wade through. Maybe they are good, but for me categories are just as good! Still each to their own ;-)
I would love to see the rest of that "hidden" top 100 as there are going to be some good resources that have been swept under the carpet because of the nature of their incoming links. Michael Heilemann is there at #3 banned from the top 100 for the massive amount of incoming links from Kubrick. Who know what else is hidden?
Comment from Aaron
Time: July 22, 2006, 13:06
I tried tags for a while on my site, but based on user feedback I found that they really didn't add any functionality to my blog that couldn't be gotten much more easily with categories. It is simply a lot easier on the writer's part to use categories (instead of debating what keywords to place on a post), and user-wise I prefer reading sites that don't have giant masses of tag-webs and whatnot.
Comment from Mark
Time: July 22, 2006, 18:30
Frankly, I see tags as another layer as well. One of the things that caught my eye with your templates was that they are mostly simple and clean. I think that too many new designers on the web are making such complicated sites with Flash and extensive graphics. Not only are these sites hard to navigate, they make the transfer of information much more difficult.
The new "Tag Clouds" some people are putting on their sites are just plain ugly in my opinion. You have very good traffic and your numbers show that you are popular. Why not stick to what has worked so well for you up until now? People seem to really like your templates and themes. It seems like the smarter move would be to continue giving people what they like and what has made you popular in the first place.
I do realize that as new technology comes along, we must all look to continue moving forward, but there are some things which are simply phases and will pass. There will be a huge argument over this, but I think that tags make finding information more difficult. Plus, it's always hard to know what tags to associate with a certian post.
Keep up the great work. Due to your clean CSS and well written designs, I have been able to modify and create my own templates with relative ease. That, to me, is a sign of a good product — that a user can build upon it.
Comment from Andreas
Time: July 22, 2006, 23:23
franky: I am already a TLA publisher, since a couple of months ago. It works really well. And congrats on your longest comment! I won't reply to everything you wrote in it, but I have of course read it all. ;)
Ainslie: Theme coders and site owners who get many "automated" links (think Matt Mullenweg) are not listed on the Top 100 Blogs for obvious reasons. A whole lot of theme coders are hidden in the blacklist, including both you and me. It is honestly pretty fair, and I don't care too much about it. But I miss a "all sites" list that includes the blacklisted sites as well, that would be very interesting to see!
Aaron and Mark: Thanks for your comments. You are both right. I like doing it the simple way, since I know that it works. Good point there, I'll keep it in mind.
Comment from Ambatchdotcom Seocontest
Time: August 2, 2006, 16:18
Wow man that rank #6 rocks :D:D
iam in somewhere 100000 lol
This shows how many backlinks you have and how high you can charge for links ;)
Comment from Henning
Time: July 21, 2006, 20:39
In my opinion tagging is overrated: In WordPress you already can assign a post to as many categories as you like. This gives you the flexibility of tags, but additionally the possibility of hierarchical order - i.e. a category "CSS" may be a subcategory of "Webdesign", so you find all CSS-related posts also in "Webdesign". Using tags instead, you would always have to add both tags to a CSS-related post, or a visitor could miss your post if he doesn't know the exact tag to look for.