eNidhi India list of top websites listing top bloggers!

This post is highly inspired by repeated updates by Nisha Jha on social media about websites releasing top blogger lists without a transparent process/evaluation. Building on that trigger and using my own experience, observation and analysis, I’m releasing my own Enidhi India certified top sites that list top bloggers!

Of late there’re several sites releasing top blogger lists. Every few weeks some lists popup announcing top XYZ blog/twitter handle/Instagram accounts etc. It appears to be a good business model- start a site, create lists of top somethings, those who got mentioned in those top-XYZ lists will be happy and will promote the list, in return giving visibility, backlink and credibility to the site that published the list.

Of course it is not wrong to identify and publish a top blogger list. Everyone can handle a bit of appreciation and it helps others decide whom to read/follow etc. But then, sites publishing such lists should have some credibility and identify of their own, before they can judge other bloggers/social media accounts. So in this post, I am outlining some criteria we should look into, before taking a “Top Blogger” list seriously. After defining the criteria, I’ve evaluated about 13 sites that published top blogger lists in recent times and have given my score.

So in a way, this post is a list of top websites listing top bloggers

Criteria 1 Identity and Credibility of the website: The website that lists top blogger lists should have an identity of its own. Has it been around for a few years? Does it have some contents worth reading, does it serve any purpose other than its top blogger lists? Had it not published this top blogger list, for what else the site would have been known for?

Criteria 2 Identity/Credibility of key people behind the website. If the website is not well known/popular, how about the people who started it/running it?  Are the well known? Do they have good credibility? Are they bloggers themselves or how are they qualified to judge other bloggers? (Just like how a dancing show judge is expected to be an expert dancer, people who judge bloggers are expected to have some experience in travel, blogging, content writing, photography or related topics.

Criteria 3 Online rankings of the site: While it is wrong to rely fully on numbers, number do mean something. So I expect a site that lists top bloggers to qualify on at least 3 out of below 6 parameters

1. Have a decent alexa ranking (Say India ranking less than 75000) 
2. Have at least 5000 twitter followers
3. Have a google PR 2+
4. Been around for 2 years or more
5. Decent reader interaction (say avg 5-10 comments per post or more)
6. Has decent traffic- Say 1000 visitors per day or more

Criteria 4 Do they follow a transparent, honest process to select top bloggers? Most of the lists do not disclose the criteria used. No one wants to disclose their secret sauce, so it is fine if criteria is not laid out in minute details. But at a high level there should be some disclosure as who what criteria was used to select the bloggers, shortlist them etc. For example, how many blogs were shortlisted and evaluated before declaring top 10? was it personal selection of editorial team purely based on qualitative measure? Was it selected based on statistics (like ranks, followers, traffic etc) or was it done through a public voting things like that. Some lists expect bloggers to register before they are evaluated. Giving some disclosure and assuring readers that a fair process was followed gets lots of credibility score, than blindly announcing a list.

So with above guidelines, I did a quick evaluation of various websites that have released top travel blogger lists in recent times. I was featured in few of these and not listed in most of these, but that has no influence on the scoring. On each of the above parameters, I’ve given a score between 1-5 (5= highest), based on the information I could derive from public sources (such as whois info, alexa.com etc). It is pretty subjective scoring- I’ve given data/rationale where possible. Feel free to debate.

Also the sites shouldn’t force the winner to share the list on their blog/social media profile. (many do it voluntarily anyway). But I don’t have a way to validate it, so I’ve kept that aspect outside of this evaluation in good faith that any subsequent promotion of the website by winners or bloggers who go featured there is voluntary.

I have excluded directory services such as Indianbloggers.org that list every blog for this study. I have also excluded lists published by some bloggers/individuals on say language specific travel bloggers etc.

So here we go- my list of top 13 websites to refer to for top travel blogger lists!

Rank	Website	List Announced	1 How good is the site on its own	2 Identity & Credibility of people behind the site	3 Rankings	4 Process followed to select disclosed?	Overall score
1	Holidify.com	The Ultimate List of the Top Travel Bloggers in India You Must Know	Very Good (5/5)	Very High (5/5)	Alexa India 2600 15k likes 2500 followers (4/5)	Yes (4/5)	18/20
2	quikrpost.com	Top 21 Indian Travel Blogs and Bloggers you Must Explore	Good (5/5)	Good Names available, detailed profile not available (3/5)	Alexa India 25000 858 likes 70 followers  (3/5)	Yes (5/5)	16/20
3	thrillophilia	Top 25 Indian Travel Bloggers	Very Good (5/5)	Very High (5/5)	Alexa India 790 90k likes 7900 followers (5/5)	No (0/5)	15/20
4	polkacafe.com	10 Indian Bloggers Take You Along On Their Exquisite Travels Via Their Vivid Travel Blogs	Very Good (5/5)	Very High (5/5)	Alexa India 7200 21k likes 681 followers (4/5)	NA, appears to be personal choice (1/5)	15/20
5	Theculturetrip .com/	The 12 Most Popular Travel Bloggers From India	Very Good (5/5)	Very High (5/5)	Alexa US 18500 216k likes 42500 followers (5/5)	NA, (0/5)	15/20
6	Baggout	Top 12 Travel Blogs In India Top 16 social active travel blogs in India	Average (shopping on home page + blog full of top lists) (2/5)	Very High (5/5)	Alexa India 2800 17k likes  (3/5)	Yes (5/5)	15/20
7	tripoto.com	Best Travel Bloggers To Look Out For In 2015	Very Good (5/5)	High (profiles not listed on sit  but could figure out profiles from linked in (4/5)	Alexa India 1500 228k likes 3200 followers (5/5)	NA (0/5)	14/20
8	travel.india .com/	10 Indian female travel bloggers who will inspire you to hit the road this Women’s Day!	Good (5/5)	Poor Profiles of key people couldn’t be seen 1/5	India Rank 98 1800 likes 110 followers (4/5)	No (0/5)	10/20
9	Padhaaro. com	Top Travel Bloggers of India	Pretty decent  (4/5)	NA Team details couldn’t be seen, but few contributor details profiled (2/5)	Alexa India 12500 2800 likes 1000+ followers  (3/5)	NA (0/5)	9/20
10	Hoparoundindia .com	Top 31 Professional Indian Travel Bloggers	Average. Blog last updated in Sep 2014 (2/5)	Poor (some generic text, no names or profile (1/5)	Alexa India 21000 12k likes 985 followers  (4/5)	Partial (2/5)	9/20
11	why.travel	Why.travel Introduces Top 51 Travel Blogs of India	Decent (last updated March 2015) (4/5)	Poor (1/5)	Alexa Global 1.1 million 357 likes 86 followers (1/5)	Partial Scoring is given, rational not disclosed 3/5	9/20
12	Travelfriendz .com	Leading Indian Travel Bloggers & What Make Them Tick	Average Blog last updated in Feb. Not much action on home page (2/5)	NA (0/5)	Global rank 3.6 million 624 likes 9 followers (1/5)	Yes- Short list criteria not known but Questions were rolled out (4/5)	7/20
13	Myoksha	Top India Travel Bloggers	NA No active content on site (0/5)	NA No details available (0/5)	Alexa India 38000 750 likes 116 followers (2/5)	Partial (admits it is not complete list (2/5)	4/20

Did I miss out on any important lists? What are your thoughts? I think I should roll out a badge these sites can publish on their side bar stating "eNidhi India certified top site to list top bloggers'.. what say?