Nobody has dropped out this month, while Stephen and Lisa return to the top 100.
 

  
Under EBuzzing’s methodology the overall profile of blogs that tend to support a particular party or cause can become a self-reinforcing cycle because the higher a blog rates the more its links to other blogs count, so those blogs in turn come out higher and hence any links from them back to the original blog count more driving that blog higher and so on.

You can submit a site to be added to EBuzzing at http://labs.ebuzzing.co.uk/addblog.

This is the place to discuss the issues that matter most to our generation. Whether it be local, national or international politics or if there’s an experience with Liberal Youth or Liberal Democrats you want to tell people about – all is welcome.

We know there’s already another place that is “our place to talk” called Lib Dem Voice, and actually we like them very much. This is just another platform especially for the younger members of the party, because we don’t always want to talk about the same things.

We also think that the meeting of young minds is quite an exciting thing. Innovation. Creativity. Ambition. This is where big ideas come from. We hope that by providing this platform we are in a small way helping those ideas come to fruition.

I hope it succeeds.

Farewell this month to Stephen Glenn, Spiderplant Land, Miss S B and Lynne Featherstone and hello again to Richard Morris.

Under Wikio’s methodology the overall profile of blogs that tend to support a particular party or cause can become a self-reinforcing cycle because the higher a blog rates the more its links to other blogs count, so those blogs in turn come out higher and hence any links from them back to the original blog count more driving that blog higher and so on.

You can submit a site to be added to Wikio at http://www.wikio.co.uk/addsource.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: I’m standing in May and not sure what matters most – my website, having a blog or both?

1. Ignore most of the advice people give you: You’ll find lots of people who have very strong views about the pros or cons of political blogging despite having very little knowledge on which to base them. To sort the bad advice from the good, a handy guide is simply to ask people how many different websites / blogs they have knowledge of and on which they are basing their own conclusions. Very firmly held advice based on one experience a few years back, for example, tells you much about their self-assurance and attitude toward evidence; it tells you very little about the subject at hand.
2. Blogs are to websites as newspapers are to books. Blogs are best suited for regular updates, often briefer stories and building an audience which expects a new edition most days. Websites generally work better for more detailed, less time-sensitive and more timeless information. Think which will suit you best.
3. Blogs require a more personal tone of voice. Blogs require a regular, personal contribution from someone who can write well in a personal tone of voice, and so are not the best answer for everyone. A less personal tone may not work as well in theory, but a less personal tone done well is far better in practice than a personal tone done badly.

Got any other tips? Please do share them in the comment thread below.

Want to know more about local campaigning? Campaigning In Your Community by myself and Shaun Roberts should be right up your street. It’s available for only £4 from ALDC and you can read an extract for free here.

Previous Campaign Corners have included:

• How do we get more leaflet deliverers?
• What to do on the doorstep
• How to make Focus leaflets looks better

First, the list is backloaded towards the end of the year, reflecting the growing readership (for which, thank you). In fact December 2011 was my best month ever, beating even the 2010 general election peak.

Second, as you would expect posts which tap into interests that journalists and other bloggers have do better – hence #2 being my post about fixed-term Parliaments and snap elections which has got (and continues to get) regular traffic from elsewhere thanks to other people using it as a reference source.

Third, search not only brings in a lot of long-tail traffic to this site, it can also make otherwise unexceptionable posts into traffic stars. That is the case with #5 and #9. Both are decent posts, but what puts them in the top ten compared to my other posts is that both have hit the search engine jackpot, doing very well in particular common searches. In both cases, having spotted an initial promising trickle of search engine traffic, I have expanded the original posts and done follow-up work which also links back to them. That has given their long-term search traffic a real boost.

Finally, timing is often what matters, as with #10. It was on a topic that was extensively written about elsewhere, but I got in first with this particular story and ahead of most of the other Liberal Democrat coverage of the by-election in general. Similarly with #6, it appeared at a time when lots of people wanted to know more about what was going on and the party’s official online channels had not (yet) supplied very much in the way of information.

1. How much do the richest 1% in the UK receive?
2. How can a general election happen?
3. I really don’t think Chris Huhne should be doing that to Nick Clegg with the tinsel
4. Nick Clegg’s verdict on events in Europe
5. The new London tube map (December 2011 version)
6. Lib Dem MEP: British demands were “reasonable”
7. 14 Liberal Democrat rebels help defeat housing benefit cuts in the House of Lords
8. Dear Polly Toynbee…
9. Warmer, cheaper homes: Radflek reflector sheets
10. Roger Crouch: first Feltham & Heston campaign advert

If you have been a reader in 2011, thank you and I hope you continue to find interesting copy during this year. As ever, do let me know what you think – the comments box awaits.

Welcome back to the Top 100 to Mark Valladares.

Under Wikio’s methodology the overall profile of blogs that tend to support a particular party or cause can become a self-reinforcing cycle because the higher a blog rates the more its links to other blogs count, so those blogs in turn come out higher and hence any links from them back to the original blog count more driving that blog higher and so on.

You can submit a site to be added to Wikio at http://www.wikio.co.uk/addsource.

You can read Stephen’s take on the experience over on The Collected Stephen Tall and the original What’s the Lib Dem economic narrative now? is up on Lib Dem Voice.

Whether you like the format or not, feedback on this approach to writing a post very welcome…

Ming Campbell, new in last month then dropped out this month, as did Stephen Tall.

I’ve also dropped Craig Murray from the list because, as Jonathan Calder kindly pointed out, he has left the party.

Under Wikio’s methodology the overall profile of blogs that tend to support a particular party or cause can become a self-reinforcing cycle because the higher a blog rates the more its links to other blogs count, so those blogs in turn come out higher and hence any links from them back to the original blog count more driving that blog higher and so on.

You can submit a site to be added to Wikio at http://www.wikio.co.uk/addsource.

New in this month – Ming Campbell and George Potter, plus a welcome return for the two Stephens. Mark’s Liberal Bureaucracy is the one to fall out of the top 100.

Under Wikio’s methodology the overall profile of blogs that tend to support a particular party or cause can become a self-reinforcing cycle because the higher a blog rates the more its links to other blogs count, so those blogs in turn come out higher and hence any links from them back to the original blog count more driving that blog higher and so on.

You can submit a site to be added to Wikio at http://www.wikio.co.uk/addsource.

In the top 50 of the blogs list, Lib Dem Voice is in at number 12 (up from 27 last year), Caron Lindsay at 25, Jonathan Calder at 38 and Andrew Reeves at 44.

In the top 50 of the bloggers list, I’m in at number 20, Caron Lindsay at 29, Andrew Reeves at 43 and Jonathan Calder at 49.

Thank you to everyone for your votes – and to everyone who has contributed to Lib Dem Voice over the last year.

Now, I better get planning some blog posts else Caron will be overtaking me soon…