The top blogs on the Internet have been constantly changing and evolving.   Top blogs greatly differ in size, subject matter, frequency in posts, and design; but one thing is true amongst all of the top blogs: quality content.

The two dominating blog categories

If we analyze the top blogs of today, we see two dominant types of blogs that are controlling the internet: celebrity and entertainment blogs, and social media and tech blogs.

It makes sense if you really think about it.  The human culture is absolutely fascinated with celebrity gossip and news, and the Internet gives us a much better portal for instant gratification than TV.

Social media and tech blogs are dominating the Internet as well.  If you’re not reading blogs for news and information, then chances are that you’re trying to make money with your blog.  Techniques such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, and affiliate marketing are just some of the buzz words that dominate the blogging world.

What makes a Top Blog

Nothing beats quality content.  It doesn’t matter how young or old your blog is, how fancy the theme is, or how big of a name you are; the quality every top blog has is quality content.

There are no rules when it comes to content.  Zen Habits and Copy Blogger both have blog posts that range from 600 - 1000 words while Tim Ferris writes posts that are up to 2000 words in length.  You’ll also notice that they vary in style greatly as well.  Leo from Zen Habits writes very theoretical posts with a touch of practicality; Tim Ferris writes incredibly detailed posts that have an intense amount of research and analytics to back up all of his writing.

How to measure the Top Blogs

The reach and influence of a top blog is ultimately measured by the following statistics:

• Unique views - How many unique visitors does the blog receive
• Page views - How many pages are viewed by those visitors
• Time on site - How long does a viewer stay on the site
• Subscribers - How many people have subscribed to the blog via RSS (Real Simple Syndication)
• Comments - How much participation and reach does the blog have
• Linkbacks - How many other sites link back to the blog

Top Blogs build a strong subscriber lists

When you have top quality content, your readers will want to subscribe to your blog through your RSS feed.  The most popular RSS platform to use is Feedburner.  Make sure to have an RSS Icon clearly labeled on your blog, which allows your readers easy subscription to your blog posts.

Quantity of posts per month

Top blogs greatly differ in frequency of posts per month.  News sites like Mashable or TechCrunch write several posts per day.  Other bloggers like Neil Patel from Quicksprout blog once a month, but he makes sure that each post is filled with top quality content.

I have done experiments to test the difference between posting 4 times a week compared to posting once a week.

I noticed that when I posted 4 times a week, I quickly gained in subscribers to my blog.  However, after 3 straight weeks of posting frequently, I noticed that the number of subscribers to my blog slowed down greatly.  It seems that when your blog is young, posting frequently gets more of your message out there, which allows you to get your face everywhere.

Once you have established yourself as a blogger, slow your posting to once a week and make sure that each post is of the highest quality.  In this way, you won’t crowd your subscribers with noise and people will feel excited whenever you write a new post.

Become one of the top blogs

It will take a lot of hard work, but if you can build your personal brand online and leverage your knowledge to teach people something new and beneficial, then you can amass a strong following and become a top blog.