Here at Talking Tots, we're pretty keen on new technologies. We have our own website, we write this blog, and we're even learning to love things like Twitter and Spotify (Madonna's back catalogue at the click of a button – what's not to love?)
We also love to read other blogs – particularly those written by fellow parents, mumpreneurs and Mummy-related ventures. But when we looked for a list of influential parenting blogs from the UK, we realised that a list doesn't really exist – although Susanna at British Mummy Blogs has made a great start here.
Although Mummy blogs are a newer phenomenon in the UK than in the US, we knew there were hundreds of British Mummy bloggers just waiting to be discovered. We pulled together a list of around 250 UK blogs, but we had no idea which blogs were being read by parents, and which were most influential. So, with lots of help and advice from social media guru Brendan Cooper, we've put together our own list.
The Tots100 Index is the first index of the top 100 British parenting blogs and bloggers. How did we find our top 100? We took the 250 blogs we found and created a scoring system that rewards blogs for three things: currency (ie the blog has been updated regularly and recently), influence (other people link to the blog) and popularity (lots of people read it). We'll be updating the Tots100 Index regularly, and including details of movements up and down the index in future editions.
(For a more detailed explanation of how the rankings work, and how to submit a blog to the Index, read down to the bottom of the post.)
We hope those of you looking for great British parenting blogs will find the list useful, and perhaps you'll find a few new favourites in our directory – there are some brilliantly useful, funny, inspiring and moving bloggers in our index and we've loved discovering all of them.
Best Wishes,
Tracey and Lisa
The Tots100 Top British Parent Blogs and Bloggers:
What Do The Scores Mean?
120 blogs were originally included in the index. Each blog was assigned a score from 1 (bottom ranked) to 120 (top ranked) in seven categories:
- Technorati Authority: number of blogs linking to this blog in the last six months
- Technorati Inlinks: number of inbound links, excluding self-referring hits
- Yahoo Inlinks: number of inbound links in last six months (excl self-referring hits)
- Google Blog Hits: number of posts/links/weblinks in Google
- Google Hits Recent: number of links from the last 30 days
- Readers: number of subscribers based on Feedburner and Google Reader
- HowSociable: the blogger's visibility outside the blog, measuring activity on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
This meant a blog scoring the highest score in each of these categories would achieve a maximum score of 840 points. The lowest possible score was 7.
These aren't perfect metrics but we believe that combining measurements from Google, Technorati and Yahoo ensures an accurate reflection of a blog's influence, while the inclusion of HowSociable clearly showed how the top bloggers use social media to boost their blog's profile.
There are a couple of blogs on the index that haven't been updated in a few months, but still scored highly because of high numbers of residual links. We expect these links to reduce over time, and the blogs will fall down the index – but we'll be removing any blogs that haven't been updated in 6 months or more for the next index.
We welcome suggestions of how to improve the Index, as well as suggestions of new blogs to include in the next index. Our criteria for inclusion are simple: the blog must be by/about parents, be written by a British parent or a parent in the UK, and you need to score higher than someone already in the index. Just leave a link to your blog in the comments, and we'll add it to the mix next time.
About Sally
Sally is a full-time blogger and founder of the MAD Blog Awards and the Tots100, a community of almost 5,000 UK parent blogs. She is also a busy single Mum to Flea, the world's coolest seven year old.
Interesting survey. Thanks for including http://www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk. Have included the release on my blog
Antonia
Thanks for including me! I am very flattered.
Amazed, dazed and also pleased with the entry. After under a year of blogging and starting mainly for the family http://bringingupcharlie.blogspot.com/ seems to have taken on a life of its own.
I’m delighted to be included. Thanks!
Thanks for much for including my blog, much appreciated
Am chuffed beyond belief. I will add your press release to my site
This is a wonderful way to keep in touch with parenting blogs and a fantastic opportunity for each one to make new acquaintances in blogsville.
With sincerest thanks,
Crystal Jigsaw xx
Well done for the great list. So many to read and now even less time to write! I will be checking back in 3 months time to see if Maternal Tales is on there!
Gosh! Do Grandmothers count? Thank you for including my offering.
Hi there, I missed out on this listing but would love to be considered for future listings.
My blog address is http://localinfoformums.blogspot.com.
I have been slowly building content for the last month or so and have started to see increased traffic and “followers”.
The main objective of my blog is to outline the journey of launching my own online business and so will grow in line with my business activity.
Thanks
Lisa
Thanks very much for including my blog and will most certainly mention it
Thanks to everyone who has visited the blog and taken the time to comment this week.
If you’re not included in this month’s index, it might be that we don’t know about your blog yet, so if you’ve included a URL with your comment, we’ll be sure to check you out for the April edition of the index.
Tracey
Thank you so much, am very excited to be included!
Great idea! Now I’m never going to get any chance to write anything (or do any work) as I’ll be too busy reading blogs. This is particularly important for me as I’m living abroad without much of a network of other Mummys to touch base with. I’m finding myself relying more and more on the blogosphere for my sanity!
If you are including British Mummys who live outside the UK, then I’d love to be considered for your next list.
http://www.britsinbosnia.blogspot.com
Thanks for including me – I’ve blogged about it for you
Our blog is new as we moved from Blogspot to WordPress – http://www.chelltune.co.uk/blog I’ve started a baby signing diary as I’m now introducing my third child to baby sign language.
This is an excellent idea! I would also love to see the others who didn’t make it under the top 100 – there is no such thing as a comprehensive blogger list out there, and it would be quite interesting to see.
Could you please include me for the next time? Guess I should be a proper mum by then (or 12 months pregnant, which should make me equalliy eligible…).
Hi Metropolitan Mum
Thanks for commenting. I think it’s a great idea to expand the index, and we might look at including a download link for all the blogs we consider, but we couldn’t score more than 100 as there just aren’t enough hours in the day!
Do check back for our next index in April, and good luck with the 12 month pregnancy!
Lisa
Wow, that’s really exciting, thanks, I’m dead chuffed. There is such a brilliant British Parenting Blogger Community growing and it’s great to be part of it.
great list. great idea. and thank you for explaining the rationale, not something that’s often done when blog ranking so that was interesting. not sure if you’ll include a british mummy abroad … would you?
Yes, Memsahib – we include UK mums overseas – happy to include you next month!
Tracey
What a fab list, I’d love to be included one day! I have only been blogging for a few months and whilst I am a parent blogger I also blog shoes sometimes…does this count?
Goodness knows if I score even 7 points. Don’t do the twitter thing (because the low character use thing scares me, a prolix person).
Hi there, please can you consider http://www.londonmumsblog.com for your next index. many thanks!
Hi – this is brilliant, I thought I’d commented already so must have seen it elsehwere. I’m a blogging mum http://www.nixdminx.com and write stories about being a single mum in london and trying to get a job since I got credit crunched. Thanks
Great to be included – have been a bit slack recently due to return to full time working, but am feeling inspired to get back to it a bit more often.
Wow! The Arabella Miller blog is in there ! Thank you so much !
Hi there,
This is brilliant – a great way to share in the wealth of great blogs out there.
I have just joined British Mummy Bloggers – officially as of 12 minutes ago – and jumjped straight onto this top 100 list. I have no idea if I’d figure but I’d love you to be part of the club!
I write the Buggy Blog on http://www.raisingkids.co.uk and have just published my first book.
The address for the blog is:
http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/1_4/buggy_blog.asp
Thanks ever so!
Hi there,
What a great idea and wonderful to see some familiar blogger names in the list. Would be even wonderfuler if mine was one of them too for the April list!
I write the Buggy Blog on the parenting site Raising Kids.
http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/1_4/buggy_blog.asp
I have also just released my first book on the pleasures and perils of being mum to three small boys.
Would be over the moon to be considered for the April index!
Many thanks
Charlotte
Hi! Thanks for putting me 33rd (www.workingmumonverge.blogspot.com) I am amazed! And I just blog away for my own amusement and therapy. Hope I’m still there in the next list!
WM x
would love to be considered for the next index, blog is at http://liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup
Am intrigued as to how you found the blogs you did, for example one that you’ve found is on a blogring that I run specifically for UK home edders, but you haven’t listed any of the other blogs from that ring, several of which have been established rather longer than the one that is listed.
Hi Jax
Thanks for commenting.
We originally had a list of around 250 blogs, which we found in various ways.
First, we asked the franchise team which blogs they read and would recommend. Next, we looked at the blogs linked to those original blogs, and the blogs THEY linked to.
We also posted on various parenting websites, working mum, business and blogging forums, asking for people’s recommendations and suggestions of blogs to include.
It may be that the older blogs you have in your ring were included but weren’t current, weren’t UK based, or perhaps didn’t score highly enough to reach the top 100.
Or it may just be that we didn’t hear about them – please feel free to let your friends know about the index and we’d be happy to include them in this month’s analysis!
Thanks
Lisa
Have you seen UrbanMums.net? I’d be delighted if you stopped by!
Would be interesting to be considered for your next one (although this being april I’ve probably missed the boat!).
I’m a mother who blogs (although not about being a mum but about my other passion gardening, the how/why/where etc. Goodness, that sounds boring!). Anyway, if eligible would love to be considered.
Many thanks!