Aussie Bloggers

A question posed by a new blogger in the Aussie Bloggers Forum inspired me to write this post. What is the best way to find blogs that cover a particular topic or niche? You may wish to do this for various reasons: to read for learning and leisure, for study and research, for business purposes or to connect with others that share your interest areas.

Static websites may satisfy your needs but there is a wealth of valuable knowledge and information to be found in blogs sites. How can find your way through the maze to those that are relevant?

Search engine searches can be useful, especially if you provide specific enough or advanced search criteria, but this is not always satisfactory. The results may be littered with advertising sites, forum posts with no replies or highly rated sites and blogs that mention the topic you are searching for but do not specialize in it.

A more targeted way is to use specific blog search engines such as Google Blog Search or set up Google Alerts to email you when your specific search words or terms come up in its results.

Specific blog search sites – Examples:

• Icerocket
• BlogScope a University of Toronto project that displays results based on popularity curves, identification of information bursts, related terms, and geographical search.
• Blogdigger
• Twingly which is a newly launched site, currently concentrating on indexing European blogs and aiming at spam free search. (We can only hope it succeeds)

Search for RSS feeds using directories on feed sites. Example: Bloglines where results also show the number of Bloglines subscribers next to each feed.

Social bookmarking sites such as reddit or del.icio.us

Some blog/web directory sites have higher quality listings and variety. Examples:

• Eaton Web where blogs are ordered according to “perceived strength, momentum and overall quality” using a range of criteria.
• Blog Search Engine which aims to focus on high quality blogs.
• BlogFlux which has a big range of categories.
• Blog Hop
• Technorati which indexes blogs and ranks them by the number of incoming links they receive.

Social Networking Sites that have good directories, helpful search functions and ways to connect with other bloggers:

• BlogCatalog
• StumbleUpon
• MyBlogLog – not the best for search but good for networking.
• Ning which is a blog platform as well as a networking site has groups that cover a wide range of topics.

I must mention my own favorite site here which combines bookmarking, web annotations, directory listings, search functions and social networking – diigo. You can join communities based on favorite sites, interest areas and link sharing. Because you are able to clearly specify your interest areas, I have found that any links sent to me by group or individual contacts have been good value.

For some of the more popular niches there are specific networking sites and listings. Art, Photography, Crafts and Parenting spring to mind here.

One of the most effective ways is by personally recommended links. Once you come across a few blogs you respect, you will no doubt also find useful links in their blog posts as well as in their blogrolls. Participating in a blogs comments will lead you to other bloggers who share your interests. Joining active forums which cover topics you wish to follow can bring you resources too.

This naturally leads me to thanking those who participated in an Aussie Bloggers forum thread and shared their own knowledge on this topic:

Kathie Thomas author of Virtual Assistant – The Blog about our industry

Evan of Wholistic Health

fern who is Not Nigella

Gaida and her Lifestyle Discoveries

Mei who teaches us about Smart Online Shopping

Of course if you are looking for Aussie Blogging sites then you are in the right place already