November 2009: Top 100 UK Parent Blogs and Bloggers

Welcome to the November Tots100 index of the UK's top 100 parent blogs and bloggers!

This past month has seen a lot of debate around the changes happening to UK parent blogs - and the increase in competitiveness and commercialism in the blogosphere. Some people have suggested that ranking blogs spoils the fun of blogging, or somehow means we're encouraging rampant competition between bloggers.

So, I've thought about it a lot and here's the thing: the Tots 100 index of the UK's top parenting blogs was put together for two reasons. First, to provide one place where people could easily find out about and read new blogs. Second, it helps people to compare how popular their blog is compared to other blogs, over time.

The amount of traffic the index gets, and the number of click-throughs on the blogs included within the index tells me that people love using the index. This is A Good Thing. I also know from the comments I receive that people enjoy seeing their blog grow in popularity over time, and to see how the effort they put in to writing their blog is reflected in the index. Also, lots of people want to join the index. And I happen to think that's also A Good Thing.

I've seen a couple of other indexes of parent blogs in recent months and I'll say this - The Tots100 index of UK parent blogs is the ONLY index I've seen that is based 100% on objective statistics and which is updated regularly to show the changing popularity of the UK's top parent blogs. Anyone can be included in the index if they write great content that people want to read and share - and I'm really proud of that. This index isn't part of any single community or network, and it wasn't created to sell a product or service to PR agencies.

Life is competitive, and I happen to think competition is no bad thing - until you start to take it too seriously. Writing a blog just to score links and subscribers and rank highly in an index doesn't work, though - I've watched blogs do it, and I can guarantee you, it doesn't work. The index is smarter than that.

More importantly, writing a blog just to score points on an index must be really dull. The blogs that really score highly in the index are those that are lively, thriving, interactive blogs written by bloggers who have thrown themselves headlong into the Mummy blogging community and feel passionately about what they do.

I love watching these blogs and their position in the index each month, seeing new blogs growing their audience and influence, and building relationships with other bloggers. I'm always a bit excited when a blog I love lands in the index for the first time. It's great fun - and I like to think the index helps great blogs to find readers, and readers to find great blogs.

If you don't like it - inclusion in the index is 100% voluntary. Leave a comment asking not to be included, and you won't be. Simple as that. Reading the index? Even more voluntary. But if you take the index for what it is, I think you'll like it, I really do.

Rant over, here's this month's index!
This is the first chance I’ve had to get online since this was first posted, so excuse the late clarification. Blogger’s privilege.

This month, Technorati stopped publishing Technorati Reactions, one of the figures we used to use to rank blogs in the index. Reactions was one of three metrics in the index (along with Yahoo Inlinks and Google Blogsearch) that tended to favour older blogs – because if you’ve been around longer, you naturally tend to have more links pointing to your blog.

Without Reactions, we’re now in a position where there are two metrics that tend to favour older blogs, and five metrics that treat all blogs equally by just looking at recent links, traffic and activity. That small change has made a big difference this month – so you see some blogs moving quite a long way UP the table, and others moving quite a long way DOWN the table.

Some will obviously be miffed by this, and particularly those bloggers that benefited most from the previous metrics. But this adjustment couldn’t be avoided and I’ve done my best to explain why I think it’s actually fairer, and a good thing in that it makes it a little easier for newer blogs to get on the index – and making it a little easier has made a BIG difference, which I think is fantastic. And more interesting, after all.

As regards any other comments, I refer you to my previous remark: “Competition is no bad thing – until you start to take it too seriously”.  

Of course, don't forget to get your blog badges by clicking on the link here.

If you’re not listed this month and you haven’t yet submitted your blog to Who’s the Mummy, please leave a comment on THIS post with your blog name and blog URL, and I’ll add you to the mix next time.

Right, let’s go!

The Top100 British Parent Blogs and Bloggers:

Rank	Blog	Score	Change
1	A Modern Mother	580	=
2	Alpha Mummy	571	-1
3	English Mum	534	+2
4	All That Comes With It	519	+2
5	Baby Baby	504	+16
6	Sticky Fingers	502	+4
7	Who's the Mummy?	501	+8
8=	Potty Diaries	500	-4
8=	Jo Beafoix	500	-5
10	You've Got Your Hands Full	494	+9
11	Babyccino Blog	485	+1
12	Single Parent Dad	474	-1
13	Family Affairs	467	+3
14	Bambino Goodies	463	=
15	Bedside Crow	438	+28
16	Violet Posy	432	+1
17	Crystal Jigsaw	431	-10
18	Bringing up Charlie	427	-5
19	Brits in Bosnia	423	-4
20	Maternal Tales	414	+2
21	Noble Savage	408	-9
22	WAHM-BAM	400	+7
22=	Being a Mummy	400	+12
23	Not Wrong, Just Different	396	+34
24	Are We Nearly There Yet, Mummy?	395	+13
25	Little Mummy	386	=
26	New Mummy	376	+6
27	Nixd Minx	358	+6
28	Hot Cross Mum	354	+20
29	Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman	351	-1
30	Insomniac Mummy	349	+29
31	Family Friendly Working	348	+15
32	Molly Chicken	342	-24
33	More Than Just a Mother	339	-6
34=	A Place of My Own	338	+60
34=	Notes Inside My Head	338	-15
36	Wife in the North	337	-18
37	Kitschy Coo	334	+60
37	A Midwife's Muse	332	+27
39	Living with Kids	328	+52
40	Diary of a Yummie Mammy	321	-10
41	Breastfeeding Mums Blog	320	+11
42	Millennium Housewife	317	-16
43	Rosie Scribble	316	+46
44	If I Could Escape	313	-5
45	It's a Small World	312	+47
46	Grits Day	312	NEW!
47	Cotton Pickin' Days	311	+9
48	Motherhood: The Final Frontier	303	+6
49	Littlesheep Learning	302	+38
50	Clareybabble	301	-5
51	Mother at Large	300	-9
52	Really Rachel	299	+31
53	Working Mum on Verge	294	-15
54	Four Down, Mum to Go	293	+28
55	Live Otherwise	285	-2
56	Nappy Valley Girl	279	-15
57	Wife of Bold	279	+6
58	40 Not Out	276	+32
59	Not Supermum	266	-28
60	Jan Mary	265	+4
61	Dulwich Divorcee	264	-37
62	Thames Valley Mums	259	-13
63	Perfectly Happy Mum	254	-7
64	Frog Blog	253	-6
65	Bush Babies	252	-18
66	Rebel Mother	243	+5
67	Diary of a Surprise Mum	239	+5
68	The Woods and the Trees	230	NEW!
69	Musings of a Juggling Mother	226	+16
70	Give me the Booger	225	+25
71	Smell of Little Pong	224	+27
72	Have a Lovely Time	217	+12
73	Sleep is for the Weak	217	=
74	Tattie Weasle	215	NEW!
75	Hairy Farmer Family	211	NEW!
76	Family Relationships Magazine	209	-9
77	The Brinkster	203	-2
78	A Mother's Ramblings	200	-4
79	Baby Rambles	198	+7
80	Dulwich Mum	198	-40
81	Most/Least	188	+18
82	Muddling Along Mummy	187	-13
83	Little Green Fingers	178	NEW!
84	Wives and Daughters	308	NEW!
85	The Mad House	164	NEW!
86	Adventures of a Sleepless Toddler	162	NEW!
87=	Metropolitan Mum	158	+9
87=	Working Mum	158	NEW!
88	Mothers on the Verge	157	-50
89	Miss Meep's Guide to Living	143	-24
90	Tales from the Naughty Step	137	NEW!
91	The Baby Juggler	132	NEW!
92	Family of Five	127	NEW!
93	Keir Royale	124	NEW!
94	Soapbox Mummy	123	NEW!
95	Yummy Mummy Tips	120	NEW!
96	London Baby	103	NEW!
97	Nappy Mountain	102	NEW!
98	20 Something Mum	96	NEW!
99	Family Treehouse	78	NEW!
100	Playing by the Book	70	NEW!

JUST MISSED OUT THIS MONTH: Cafe Bebe and Arabella Miller were both within 5 points of the top 100. Well done! 

Comments

[Liz@VioletPosy]

Wow some big changes there - great to see so many new blogs on there :)

[Pippa]

Wow a whole new load of blogs!

[Victoria]

Thank you for doing this, obviously I am happy that I have moved up so quickly in one month, but I also completely agree with your rant. I write my blog for myself, but really enjoy the interaction with other bloggers. I think my big jump this month was due to a carnival I hosted, so will prob go down next month, but that doesn't bother me. As long as I'm still enjoying it, I'll continue, and I'll continue to read other blogs on this list too. A big thank you, because I know it must be a lot of work.

[Can Can (Mom Most Traveled)]

Congrats to the top 100 :)

[Vic]

Time to get reading the newbies!
I'd like to be included - http://glowstars.net funilly enough, just known as Glowstars.net

[Alex]

I'd be interested in seeing an analysis of how the, ummm, analysis works.

Not looking to make more work for you but any list lives and dies by its relevance and if you've changed your methodolgy so much, there is a worry you've changed the relevance of the list at the same time.

(I've never been on it- I only get 17 hits a day on average so I assume I'm hundreds of places off the top hundred as I know some get hundreds if not thousands of hits a day.)

[Sally]

Hi Alex

I usually include in the post the link to the FAQ but it's linked to in the right hand sidebar. This explains exactly how it's calculated.

We've only changed one metric of eight, I think, but removing reactions definitely meant older blogs no longer got that extra big boost from having LOADS of links over years.

That is still accounted for in the Google metrics and older blogs do tend to have more readers on the RSS, but this changes the overall weighting slightly and does even the playing field a bit, perhaps.

But I'd be interested in what others think, as ever.

[Linda]

Hi, looks like Noblesavage there twice? has Jo Beaufoix been included? I love Jo's blog. I was thinking of stopping and some very kind bloggers have told me to get over myself so interesting to see movement. Thanks.

[Liz (LivingwithKids)]

Thrilled. And big, huge respect to you Sally for doing this when you have so much going on at the moment.

x

[TheMadHouse]

A wanted to say thank you to Sally for doing this and also say that she has taken the time out last month to e-mail me with an explanation of all the metrics in MummyMad speak (non technical) and I was so grateful for that. I blog for me, but it is great to see some new and old blogs on the list.

[Sally]

@Linda - well done for spotting the traditional "Sally types HTML at midnight and forgets to update the text as well as the link" mistake. Why were you thinking of stopping? The blogs seem to be going great guns...

@Liz - ah, thanks. It distracts me from thinking about other things and using bad words. x

[amy]

Not even made it this time, oh well i'd better take my badge off my blog :( x

[Carly]

Thank you so much for doing this, can't be an easy task!!!

I am going to work my way through the list now to see if I can discover any new blogs I haven't come across before :)

xxx

[Vegemite vix]

Hi I'm still very new with my blog www.usebefore.blogspot.com but would like to submit my blog for next month's countdown. Ta muchly

[Takethefamily]

We'd love to be included too.

Takethefamily blog, is written by mum of 3 and renowned travel writer Dea Birkett. We follow Dea and family's journey across the globe and chart the highs and lows of travelling with kids.

http://takethefamily.blogspot.com

[grit]

Well, I can't argue with anything you say up there. (I must take more medication.)

I also click through to the 100 blog list when I want to explore blogs I haven't read before; to have a long list makes it sort of easy. (I am also lazy.)

But whether I am on it or kicked out due to making provocative comments about kittens (I am rebellious, no?) I do acknowledge that work like this takes a huge amount of effort and organisation, and for that, I am grateful, and impressed by your commitment. (And thank you!)

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkcO5XECWFsk38O7VbbsLC68i8r2RPXmYo]

Thanks - everything you have said there makes sense to me and I think it is great (going up so many spaces is very rewarding!) I think that possibly having big changes each month and lots of new blogs to read is a good thing as being included may motivate people to continue

Keep up the good work :)

[Claire]

Thanks Sally, really pleased to have made it on there at last!

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

This was the first place I went when I wanted to find parenting blogs and it was a fantastic starting point for discovering some excellent reads.

Can I also just say that I am completely and utterly biased because I am on the list for the first time ever and have just celebrated the fact by doing an incredibly embarrassing dance around the kitchen.

[Laura C]

Well done everyone! I love the top 100 as I do like to find new stuff to read! Some of the blogs on here are excellent! I'd like to include my blog if I may, it's http://yummymummyflabbytummy.blogspot.com/
Thank you and keep up the good work Sally!

[Metropolitan Mum]

Hi Sally,

Great for doing it again - it must have been quite a decision after all the recent discussions around it. Thanks a lot for the work you put in for all of us!

I seem to have fallen off the list this months - although I never used Technorati myself and my other stats don't seem to have changed significantly. Would you mind emailing me my score to the address I've left? I'd really be interested where it went 'wrong'.

Thanks and congrats to the new Top 100!

x Met Mum

[Metropolitan Mum]

Ahhh... just wrote a comment and it disappeared. Must be Friday the 13th...

Hi Sally,

I seem to have fallen off the list this months - although I never used Technorati and my stats haven't changed significantly. Would you mind emailing me my score for me to see what happened (please use the email I left below)?

Thanks for doing this despite being the source of quite a bit of controversy. I think you are doing a great job for all of us!

Congrats to the new Top 100!
xx Met Mum

[antonia]

Keep up the good work Sally - I appreciate it!

And can you share the "explanation of all the metrics in MummyMad speak (non technical)" as I'd love to understand more about how it all works!

[Merry]

I'd like my blog to be included in your calculations next time, if that is okay - it is http://www.patchofpuddles.co.uk and is a blog of our home educating life with our 4 girls, plus the next little chick currently under construction :)

[Littlemummy]

I don't think disregarding technorati to 'create a level playing field' is particularly fair.

Google itself puts significant importance on the longevity of a blog (when calculating page rank) and it seems odd that this is not the case here.

People who have been blogging, and contributing to the community for a long time may well feel that this move is somewhat unfair.

To be honest I'm not that bothered where I 'rank', and in fact my blog hasn't changed but if you're trying to create an accurate listing of the top blogs then longevity should be taken into account.

It seems to me that the list is now biased toward new blogs. Blogging is not the equivalent of a fast moving consumer good and shouldn't be treated as such. Blogs come and go, it takes effort and commitment to maintain a blog for years, anyone can find good 'blog fodder' for a few months and find themselves with a top ten place. I don't think this is fair, do you?

Perhaps you could reward (points wise) longevity in some other way?

[clareybabble]

Going down.....!

Thanks for all your effort putting this together :)

xx

[Very Bored Housewife]

I really like looking at the list, it's great to be able to link to new blogs that you might not have found otherwise. Don't even begin to understand how you formulate it but well done, it must take ages. I would love to appear on it one day, maybe when I get more than 20 hits a day I guess.

http://veryboredhousewife.blogspot.com

[Sally]

Hi littlemummy. I think you have misunderstood.
Three of the eight metrics we use reward longevity - google, yahoo and technorati. Since Technorati no longer publishes reactions, now two of seven metrics reward longevity. Its by no means disregarded.

Putting the index together each month I see how blogs can have relatively few readers, almost no new links and little in the way of comments or Twitter buzz, yet because they have built up five years of links, they will score more highly than a newer, busier blog simply because of high Google, Yahoo and Technorati scores.

Now one of those three is removed it just lowers the barrier for some of the newer blogs. And I think thats fair, personally.

The advantage is still there, which I think is obvious by the fact that the top 20 is still dominated by well-established blogs. But the inbuilt advantage is just that little bit less.

[Papa et Piaf]

Am I still under consideration? I've served my three month apprenticeship now ...

Thanks for compiling the list btw.

[Josie @Sleep is for the Weak]

Really made me smile today to see that I am the only one to have managed to stay exactly where I was! I think that says something about my relatively stationary and lying down position that I seem to be in at the mo! Haha!

Well done everyone - has made my day to see such big jump upwards of blogs that really deserve them (and from some of my personal faves too).

And thank you to Sally for all your hard work as always.
x

[Rebel Mother]

Well done Sally. Cant be easy compiling this every month.

I'm flattered to be even on there. Never thought anyone would read my witterings!

The best thing about blogland is the amount of friends you make and support they give you. And to me, that is priceless.

Love RM xx

[SandyCalico]

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to put this index together Sally.

You can't please all of the people all of the time, but I'm delighted to see 'Baby Baby' AND 'Who's the Mummy?' in the top 10.

It's lovely to see so many new blogs here. Congratulations to all the new entries and big climbers. My Google Reader is bursting at the seams, but I'm sure I can make room for a few newbies.

[Tattie Weasle]

An amazing amount of hard work as usual - I just don't know how you do it! Very thrilled to be in this time! And thank you!

[Kelly]

Thanks again for doing this Sally, really surprised to see how far I have gone up, but a lovely surprise at that. It must involve a lot of hard work on your part, and I love the fact there is a big list like this that I can find new reading material in. My google reader is bursting at the seams!

I never understood how the stats work and I am only know starting to look at the Google Analytics, mainly because I like to see if there are any funny search terms! I blog for personal reasons, not popularity and that is why I love the blogs on this list.

[Insomniac Mummy]

Congratulation to everyone and thanks for all your hard work Sally.

:)

[Iota]

Well obviously I'm thrilled.

I wrote recently about whether blogging has become more competitive. I said I thought maybe it had a little, but so what? You only have to be competitive if you choose to be. Some people like that kind of challenge, some people don't. It's a free world. Here's the post: http://blogiota.blogspot.com/2009/11/commercial-and-competitive.html.

I don't have a problem with the list, but I'd like to remove myself from it next month. There are two reasons for that. First, I love blogging. For me, it's the writing and the community. If I'm on this list, I suspect I won't be able to resist trying to keep up or improve my position. I might find I'm writing not so much for myself, as for numbers and ratings. (I'm not saying it can't be both, by the way - of course it can.)

The second reason is that I'm sure I've moved up so dramatically because I had a month when I did a daily post. I'm not doing that now, or in the foreseeable future, and so I strongly suspect that for me, the only way is down. Even though I say I don't mind the ratings and I just blog for myself, nevertheless, it would be rather demoralising to head steadily down the list. I'm a firm believer in quitting while you're ahead. So count me out next time.

Thanks, Sally, for doing this list.

[New Mummy]

Thanks for all you hard work again Sally, new blogs to read yay!

[Iota]

I am thrilled with this list obviously!

I joined the debate about whether blogging has become competitive in a recent post. I said I thought it had a little, but who cares? You only have to compete if you want to. This list is transparent; the criteria aren't secret. If anyone wants to start a different list with different criteria, they're free to do so.

Having got up to #23, I would like to retire from the list. This isn't in any way because I disapprove of it or don't like it. It's for two reasons.

First, my blog is a hobby. I write for myself, and I love the community I've met through it. I don't want to worry about stats and ratings. Of course it doesn't have to be either/or. But I feel that for me personally, I'd like to take myself away from the temptation of chasing ratings.

The second reason is that I predict that for me, the only way is down! My guess is that I jumped so high up the list this time because I had a month where I did a daily post. I did it as a personal challenge, but I'd be lying if I denied any thought at all of how it would affect my position on the list. I'm not posting daily now, and I doubt I will for the foreseeable future, so I'm sure I'll be heading downwards. I'm a great believer in quitting while you're ahead. (At least I'm honest about it!) So please count me out next month, but thanks for your hospitality on the list, Sally.

[Hannah]

Hello
I'd love for my blog to be considered please!
http://www.homebakedonline.com

[Potty Mummy]

Thanks again for all your hard work Sally.

PM x

[Iota]

Sorry for the duplicate comment. I commented, but it disappeared, like Met Mum. So I said it all again. Now both comments are there. Sorry.

[Brit in Bosnia]

Again, thanks for the hard work Sally. As ever I have no idea about the technicalities of these things, so figure that the best way forward is to keep on writing about things that i want to write about and see what happens next month!

BTW - I don't get the second column, change. Does a - mean the blog has gone up or down? Also does the number mean the number of places or the number of ranking points difference? Only asking because I've moved from 23 to 19 (yay!) but am down as a -4.

[Hot Cross Mum]

Thanks so much as usual Sally for burning the midnight oil to put this together. I really like your explanation of why and how this works and it's great to see a bit of a shake-up! Well done on your own ranking - much deserved! :)

[crystal jigsaw]

I'm still very honoured to be in your list, having not blogged much recently. Thank you for your kindness.

CJ xx

[rachel pattisson]

Sally, thank you so much for doing this again. I agree with your 'rant' - I love the list for so many reasons. I appreciate all the effort it must take to compile such a list and I know you've had a lot on your plate lately, so Thank You :o)

[Troutie]

Not sure how all this works but giving it a go.

My blog is called Troutie and my address is

http://troutie.blogspot.com/

Thanks
xxx

[Zoe]

Wow! I'm so happy to make the list :-) *Thanks* for all your hard work - especially important to tell you how great a job you do when you're getting queries and criticism about the process. For me it's not about competition with other blogs, but rather a rubric for being able to measure myself by, AND as you say, a very important way to find out about other bloggers, for sheer enjoyment, and also to learn about what they do successfully in the blogosphere.
Zoe
http://www.playingbythebook.net/

[mothership]

Hi Sally
Thanks for compiling this and glad to be included again.
Just wanted to point out that one of the blogs that you placed at number 84 as a new entry had a score entered as 308 which should by rights place her much higher up (in fact above me so perhaps should keep big mouth shut?)
Anyway, possibly this is a typo one way or the other. Goodness knows you have enough going on!
Best of luck
Mothership

[Laura Vogel]

OMG!!!What an honour!! I am thrilled. Perfect way to end a day stuck indoors on my own with the kids as someone got free tickets to England v Argentina ...

Sally, thank you so much for all your work on this.

[twitter.com/nixdminx]

Well done on this great list and thanks for compiling it, I always find it a great read and love to visit the blogs both old and new that I find on here. You deserve a lot of praise for putting this together so congratulations to you and all the blogs on the list - all 100 hundred - amazing! x