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#1 in the Big 10...MGoBlog that is
A little while ago another poster [just identified as willywill9, sorry for the delay] cited Quantcast as a reputable source for measuring visitors to various websites. I thought it would be interesting to rank the Big 10 blogs. I don't claim that I did an exhaustive search, but I did look up the blogs referenced here at MGoBlog, those noted at SBNation, as well as a couple of others sources, and used the highest ranked I could find. Here are the results, based on the rankings of all websites monitored by Quantcast. I did a sanity check of the Quantcast results with another web traffic monitoring service that directionally confirmed the Quantcast information. The final rankings are based on the Quantcast data. The Quantcast ranking is noted.
1. Michigan MGoBlog (9,995)
2. Iowa BlackHeartGoldPants (27,558)
3. Penn State BlackShoeDiaries (38,611)
4. Michigan State TheOnlyColors (49,263)
5. Ohio State Eleven Warriors (65,878)
6. Purdue HammerandRails (72,712)
7. Minnesota TheDailyGopher (74,545)
8. Wisconsin Buckys5thQuarter (80,744)
9. Indiana TheCrimsonQuarry (128,023)
10. Northwestern SippnOnPurple (198,832)
11. Ilinois HailtotheOrange (212,320)
Some other sites of interest:
Nebraska Cornnation.com (29,374)
Maize 'n Brew (39,315)
RCMB SpartanTailgate.com (842,514)
For some perspective as to the popularity of this site, I went behind the rankings a bit. The numbers noted (rounded for convenience) reflect the average for the last 6 months. Recent months, not surprisingly, are higher:
People/month Visits/month Pageviews/month
MGoBlog 200,000 1,300,000 6,000,000
ElevenWarrors 24,000 100,000 325,000
HailtotheOrange 6,000 8,500 13,500
RCMB 2,000 1,400 9,500
Even allowing for the inherent challenges with website tracking, I find the results rather remarkable. What do you think?
[mod disclaimer: these statistics are different than Alexa and other groups and likely don't capture full traffic. ex: RCMB receives more traffic than MGoBlog per Alexa.]
October 25th, 2010 at 12:27 PM
#2
all your internets
October 25th, 2010 at 12:35 PM
#3
Should be BlackHeartGoldPants
Should be BlackHeartGoldPants
October 25th, 2010 at 12:47 PM
#4
Thanks
Fixed
October 25th, 2010 at 12:37 PM
#5
Better than #1 in the big
Better than #1 in the big ten, I'm pretty sure it's #1 in all CFB team sites.
October 25th, 2010 at 12:42 PM
#6
Probably this. Caveat is that
Probably this. Caveat is that SMQB, now Dr. Saturday, gets his stuff posted to yahoo's sports page fairly regularly. Brian was beating him handily prior to the move from SBNation.
EDSBS was the next closest college blog over any other time period. I want to say that Brian regularly outdraws Orson, too.
October 25th, 2010 at 12:45 PM
#7
Correct, here is Brian's own
Correct, here is Brian's own take on the subject:
It's a guess [that MGoBlog is the #1 CFB blog], but a solid one. But you can see public stats on this blog here:
http://www.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s49mgoblogOrson's are here, and I'm pretty sure he's #2:
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s18orsonswindle
That's about 25%.I don't have DocSat numbers, and can't think of anyone else who'd be close. The best SBN blogs IME are BON
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s21burnt
and RTT
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s24rockytoptalk
...and they're way off.BGS used to be the biggest because of ND Nation but Quantcast estimates they're well behind now:
http://www.quantcast.com/bluegraysky.blogspot.com
October 25th, 2010 at 12:40 PM
#8
I'd be interested in seeing a
I'd be interested in seeing a ranking of all the Big Ten blogs (not just the top one for each school).
October 25th, 2010 at 12:43 PM
#9
I love this site.
It is the
I love this site.
It is the site I visit the most.
It might be a problem how much I come on here. I'm addicted
I see Mgo-rehab in my future.
October 25th, 2010 at 12:44 PM
#10
Very nice to see the guys at
Very nice to see the guys at The Only Colors are getting the boost from MSU's good season. EDIT: Yeah, the RCMB numbers were funky as expected.
October 25th, 2010 at 1:43 PM
#11
Well we know they have
Well we know they have internet in the library at least.
October 25th, 2010 at 1:03 PM
#14
That's pretty interesting.
That's pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing this and doing the research.
October 25th, 2010 at 1:09 PM
#15
mgoblog:Michigan football::Mr
mgoblog:Michigan football::Mr Wizard, Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse-Tyson combined:science
October 25th, 2010 at 1:13 PM
#16
Mgoblog is my homepage. I
Mgoblog is my homepage. I feel like I am missing something if I dont check at least once per-day. Thanks for making this site possible!
Here's to you MgoBlog(gers)!
October 25th, 2010 at 1:32 PM
#17
Pretty big discepancy between
Pretty big discepancy between the 200k people a month on Quantcast. Compared to the data on sitemeter which says 662 a day (20k)? I'm assuming sitemeter is more accurate. Or am i misintepreting the data?
October 25th, 2010 at 1:36 PM
#18
I turned Sitemeter off, but
I turned Sitemeter off, but it still has a bunch of cached pages that turn up a fraction of the hits. Quantcast is accurate. MGoBlog did almost 7 million pageviews in September, which is why we had to scramble to fix all those 504 errors.
The only thing that looks off to me is the RCMB. I bet it does more traffic than this place, though it's 99% message board instead of 50-50.
October 25th, 2010 at 1:55 PM
#19
based on services like Alexa
i'm assuming those hits are front page/.com ONLY and not traffic within. given RCMB's traffic is generally forums, people likely bypass the front page and thus give less numbers
October 25th, 2010 at 1:47 PM
#20
Those stats appear very
Those stats appear very skewed. I would be interested to go through and look at all of the numbers listed.
Here is a quick galnce from Alexa:
RCMB-Spartantailgate: 7,332 US RANK
MGOBLOG : US: 7,938 US RANK
October 25th, 2010 at 2:08 PM
#21
I'm going to wager a bet and
I'm going to wager a bet and say you post regularly at RCMB.
October 25th, 2010 at 3:08 PM
#22
I don't know if he does, but
I don't know if he does, but I do. :)
October 26th, 2010 at 6:07 AM
#23
You didn't need to say
the smiley face gave it away
October 25th, 2010 at 4:36 PM
#24
Alexa reliability
I did not look at Alexa originally. I am uncertain as to its reliability, although the fact that Alexa notes that the "top search query for SpartanTailgate.com" visitors is "order Cialis" does give it some credibility.
October 25th, 2010 at 1:53 PM
#25
Lethal combination:
Lethal combination: unbeatable information and analysis that is also super timely; about a subject that grabs hard at people on an emotional level.
For fun, watch MSM media popularity rankings and comment volume where Michigan State and Michigan are both covered. I'll bet Michigan football articles are even or better for both criteria. 2010, with events unfolding like they are, that is astounding.
Michigan draws eyeballs. Mgo keeps them glued to one spot.
October 25th, 2010 at 2:36 PM
#26
Yooper it was me, it was
Yooper it was me, it was me... where's the love?! I kid. This is awesome and definitely my #1 most visited site. Thanks for putting all this together. Makes me feel better for my mgoblog indulgences
October 25th, 2010 at 4:23 PM
#27
I hoped that the original poster would ID himself
I wanted to attribute but couldn't remember who posted. I will of course make an edit and give you the credit you deserve.
October 25th, 2010 at 5:19 PM
#28
thank you kind sir.. much
thank you kind sir.. much obliged.
October 25th, 2010 at 2:34 PM
#29
Wait, What
Wait, what no mention of the JCB as a Big 10 blog?
I'd be hurt, except seeing my traffic compared to these guys would be way way way more embarrasing
October 25th, 2010 at 3:13 PM
#30
RCMB stats
Hey guys, been a fan of Brian's for a while even if I feel he has questionable loyalties.
I can tell you that those Quancast stats for SpartanTailgate.com and the RCMB are way off, so I really question the accuracy of their "estimates" across the board. We used to use their direct tracking cookie system for a while but eventually removed it in favor of just using Google Analytics instead. I'm guessing there might still be some of Quantcast's tracking cookie code that I missed when I removed them from our site, and that's what they are currently recording.
Some corrected stats for our site...
Page Views per month
Estimate in the original post: 9,500
Actual: around 8,000,000
People (Absolute Unique Visitors) per month:
Estimate in original post: 2,000
Actual: around 400,000
We aren't really a "blog" site per say though so I'm not sure this is an apples to apples comparison.
October 25th, 2010 at 3:49 PM
#31
I'd like to know how MSU
Has 400k living alumni since Michigan is the largest living alumni base.
Oh so state has fans that didn't go to state. Oh... Huh...
October 25th, 2010 at 3:55 PM
#32
We get a lot of visiting fans
We get a lot of visiting fans from other schools as well obviously. Apparently they have the Internets in Iowa now based on this morning's stats.
October 25th, 2010 at 6:55 PM
#33
A bunch of wires through
A bunch of wires through cornfields
October 25th, 2010 at 4:25 PM
#36
MSU actually does have
400,000 living alumni: http://isp.msu.edu/resources/documents/ISPBrochure.pdf
In what way does the term "living alumni" suggest that the number is referring to fans that didn't go to State?
October 25th, 2010 at 7:59 PM
#37
That Went Way Over Your Head
The site traffic stats show that there are 400,000 page views a month; the poster was questioning whether there are 400,000 living MSU alums b/c otherwise there would be MSU fans who didn't *gasp* graduate from MSU. Obviously the logic doesn't follow b/c the stats don't say whether they are unique visitors.
Notwithstanding the poor logic, the poster's point was to take a dig at the Walmart Wolverines label that Spartan fans love to place on Michigan fans who don't/didn't attend/graduate from Michigan.
Can somebody please explain why you need to go to a school in order to be a fan?
October 25th, 2010 at 9:12 PM
#38
Yeah, I understood the attempted point
But it certainly wasn't argued well. Besides, if there are 400,000+ living Michigan State alumni and 400,000 unique visitors per month, it is possible (though undoubtedly unrealistic) that only alumni are visiting the site.
October 25th, 2010 at 6:13 PM
#39
I believe it's largest alumni
I believe it's largest alumni association based on membership size.
I would think a school like University of Phoenix with their 1.8 million enrollment size and regular graduation size would be able to eclipse any other school's alumni numbers quite quickly.
October 25th, 2010 at 11:24 PM
#40
Does University of Phoenix
Does University of Phoenix really count? Weren't they on Dateline a few weeks ago about having shady recruitment practices? We need the NCAA on this ASAP
October 25th, 2010 at 3:58 PM
#41
Woo a site admnistrator. *Per
Woo a site admnistrator. *Per se.
Good insight though.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:00 PM
#42
400,000 uniques/month
Any semi-concrete way to verify that? Call me skeptical.
October 26th, 2010 at 2:07 PM
#43
Independently verified by
I don't count them myself, I rely on The Google to do that. Independently verified by Google Analytics.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:31 PM
#44
You're telling
You're telling me you can get 400,000 "absolute unigue visitors" per month but the football team can't get more then 12,000 to show up to Ford Field to watch them play? Sorry if i'm skeptical.
October 26th, 2010 at 2:10 PM
#45
If you don't trust The
If you don't trust The Google, I can live with that. Our advertisers have no problem with them though.
October 26th, 2010 at 4:08 PM
#46
I'm sure if Trevor changed
I'm sure if Trevor changed every topic to Florida Intl. subjects, he'd see about those same numbers or less.
October 25th, 2010 at 3:39 PM
#47
I never want to find out how
I never want to find out how many pageviews I tally a month. It could either be very awesome or unhealthy.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:41 PM
#48
Nice breakdown. I figured
Nice breakdown. I figured MGoBlog was at the top simply because I really cannot think of another established college blog other than EDSBS, and that is a more general forum. Per the mod edit, I would think RCMB has more traffic, though I still think MGoBlog has a more consistent following. 97.1 radio hosts can only generate so much traffic at RCMB. :-)
October 25th, 2010 at 8:26 PM
#49
This site is my favorite. It
This site is my favorite. It shows us how spoiled we are in coverage of our favorite teams. I cant imagine being a fan of another school and having to search 20 different websites to gather limited info on my team. Thanks Brian (and Tim) for all the work you guys do.
October 25th, 2010 at 9:40 PM
#50
I agree. MGOBLOG rocks !
I agree. MGOBLOG rocks ! keep up the good work.
October 26th, 2010 at 12:18 AM
#51
It's frustrating.
It's sad, but I have yet to find any OSU blog that comes close to this one. Eleven Warriors and Along the Olentangy are probably the two best, but 11W Xs and Os stuff like UFR is pretty much non-existent. Along the Olentangy's reviews are decent when they happen, but they're irregular and nowhere near what MGoBlog does on a weekly basis. I'm not sure what that says about the respective fans-whether Michigan fans have an unhealthy obsession or not-but it's kind of sad that I have to read a Michigan blog to see what's happening. Except the last week of November. Then it's sweet, sweet, schadenfreude.
