Blog readers of Maryland, it is time to review the condition of our realm. And as the Keepers of the Great Database of Blog Statistics, we pronounce that the State of Maryland Blogdom is:
Strong!
We have been tracking site visit and page view statistics for 41 Maryland blogs that publicly disclose them since June 2007. In that month, the blogs in our dataset received 60,075 visits and 94,390 page views. In October 2009, those blogs received 174,712 visits and 278,021 page views, representing increases of 191% and 195% respectively.
We divide the blogs in our dataset into three categories: liberal political blogs, conservative political blogs and local blogs that do not emphasize politics. All three categories have seen significant growth over the last two years.
Here are the top ten political blogs in terms of site visits from January through October 2009:
Political Blogs, Site Visits 1/09-10/09
1. Maryland Politics Watch: 180,672
2. Red Maryland: 105,552
3. Annapolis Capital Punishment: 81,158
4. Baltimore Reporter: 59,562
5. PG Politics: 39,258
6. Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: 39,088
7. Monoblogue: 27,830
8. Nailing Jello to the Wall: 24,052
9. Pillage Idiot: 23,116
10. Annapolis Politics: 20,333
Note that O’Malley Watch, Darkness Rising and the MSM “blogs” do not release their site stats. Some in the latter category may have good reason for keeping a lid on them.
Here are the top ten local blogs in terms of site visits from January through October 2009:
Local Blogs, Site Visits 1/09-10/09
1. Inside Charm City: 267,283
2. Rockville Central: 92,498
3. Just Up the Pike: 88,869
4. Tales of Two Cities: 65,690
5. Rethink College Park: 33,064
6. Oceanshaman: 31,721
7. Track Twenty Nine: 21,669
8. Silver Bee: 7,851
9. Baltimore John Watch: 7,791
10. The Greenbelt: 7,028
Note that Salisbury News, the Pocomoke Tattler and the Silver Spring Penguin do not release their site stats.
Who is growing the fastest? Let’s compare the percentage change in site visits from the first ten months of 2008 with the first ten months of 2009 for our top ten list of political blogs. We cannot make that comparison for Nailing Jello to the Wall or Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack, both of which started tracking their stats in late 2008.
Top Political Blogs, Percentage Change in Site Visits, 1/08-10/08 vs. 1/09-10/09
1. Annapolis Capital Punishment: +143%
2. Maryland Politics Watch: +128%
3. PG Politics: +124%
4. Baltimore Reporter: +24%
5. Annapolis Politics: -2%
6. Red Maryland: -8%
7. Monoblogue: -29%
8. Pillage Idiot: -50%
The bottom six blogs are all conservative. Red Maryland is the leading conservative blog and Baltimore Reporter is second. Pillage Idiot stopped publishing last winter. Aside from PG Politics, which has fallen off in recent months, this is not an encouraging performance for Maryland’s right wing.
Here’s the same comparison for the top local blogs.
Top Local Blogs, Percentage Change in Site Visits, 1/08-10/08 vs. 1/09-10/09
1. Inside Charm City: +194%
2. Tales of Two Cities: +185%
3. Rockville Central: +86%
4. Track Twenty Nine: +77%
5. Just Up the Pike: +53%
6. Oceanshaman: +17%
7. Rethink College Park: -25%
8. The Greenbelt: -25%
9. Silver Bee: -27%
10. Baltimore John Watch: -57%
Baltimore John Watch has stopped publishing.
Clearly, there are some blogs gaining mightily in traffic while others are on the wane. But the overall trend is up, WAY up. Another way to see that is to look at monthly site visit peaks. Thirteen of our 33 tracked blogs that are still published set their monthly visit records this summer or fall, including:
June: Howard County Blog, Scenic Wheaton
July: Maryland on my Mind, Rockville Central
August: Questing for Atlantis
September: Annapolis Capital Punishment, Annapolis Politics, Baltimore Reporter, Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack, Maryland Politics Watch
October: Just Up the Pike, Red Maryland, Tales of Two Cities
We’ll publish a 2009 review in a couple months!