Denied. Twice. Despite working hard to build a better blog, I’ve been turned down again by the Ad
Age Power 150. Many of you may not even know what that is. For those that don’t, the Ad Age Power 150 is a list of the top ranking English language marketing blogs in the world. Of course self-proclaimed, but the reality, there really isn’t another resource that competes these days. For that reason, cracking this list has kind of been a goal of mine, and definitely a motivator in my blogging. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider my blog to be a rock star blog by any means, but I certainly think it’s good enough for the list.
To be fair, the folks managing the list have made it clear that their qualifications are more demanding then in the past, so not just any blog can work its way in, and they’ve also said that all existing blogs in the list are “grandfathered” in. This is where I have a problem.
There is an ass-load of terrible blogs in the list including blogs that either no longer exist, or haven’t had posts in years. Some are just plain confusing as to why they are in the list at all often having nothing to do with marketing.
I get that maintaining a resource like this is probably no easy task, but what’s the point of claiming you are “a list of top ranking English language marketing blogs in the world” if you have no intention of holding your existing listings to the same standards as those you allow in to the list?
I can’t help but wonder if there is an opportunity here. I think a resource like this can be extremely valuable, and a great motivator as well. It’s inspired me to push myself to continue writing, and if I could somehow crack this list, I know I would be motivated to see my blog work it’s way up the rankings.
I also have to believe that there would be value to advertisers in a “true” list to be able to gauge advertising opportunities on blogs. Ad Age is doing a satisfactory job of at least providing a list, but they certainly aren’t taking it that seriously as evident in the garbage that is allowed to remain in the list, not to mention any lack of blog updates in almost a year.
Regardless, I’ll continue to work to make my blog qualify, but in the meantime, I feel a growing motivation to potentially look into creating something that can get it right across the board.
What are your thoughts? Have I missed any other similar resources? Anyone interested in chatting about a potential alternative?
Lists like AdAge are good, but my belief is that it’s more important to have things like Social Media Informer running around surfacing great content from a variety of sources on specific topics. A lot of people still don’t subscribe to individual blogs, so aggregation and social filtering is a powerful tool.
That said – we could certainly do something like the top bloggers based on our social signals. That might be interesting – possibly more to bloggers than to everyone else.
I’ve struck out twice as well and couldn’t agree with your observations more. I believe the quality of my content at http://www.brandstoke.com exceeds many on the Power 150 list. Frustrating. Like you, I will push on. Best wishes!
Hang in there, Jason. It would be nice though to display the badge in the sidebar, eh? Maybe it’s time for others to step in and create a new list? 🙂 At any rate – keep up the good work.