Is RealRank A Real Ranking?

I wrote a few thoughts on various blog rankings on Thursday. In view of what I said you might think it strange that today I'm going to write about another ranking system - this time about RealRank.

I signed up to RealRank yesterday.

Why would I bother as I'm not over enamoured with ranking systems?

Mainly because I'd read about it on various blogs and wanted to see if it would be of any use to me. Could it, for instance, direct any traffic my way?

Okay, before I get into my first day with RealRank a few facts: It is run by the Izea group who also run PayPerPost. From this you can gather why they have an interest in an alternative ranking system to Page Rank. A lot of PPP members had their PR's slashed for writing sponsored posts.

Though they do have a self interest in promoting their own ranking system they make some good points in favour of another ranking system. For example they write:

"PageRank is not based on real traffic, but on what Google perceives as the quality of a website as determined by a link rating algorithm and some cloudy rules. The arbitrary and unpredictable nature of this ranking system has left both bloggers and advertisers longing for accurate statistical measure."

This is true. Does it make sense for a PR4 with 10,000 visitors a day to have the same 'value' as a PR4 with only 100 visitors daily or maybe a PR7 with 1000 visitors a day?

RealRank is based on the following open formula:

70% weighted towards visitors per day
20% weighted towards amount of ACTIVE
inbound links per day
10% weighted towards pageviews per day

So if you are, or were, an advertiser which has the most useful info you need? PR or RR? I know which I'd prefer.

I'm sure we could all think of other formulas that may be as effective. Also RealRank is limited because it only lists blogs that that sign up as members - whereas PR covers all established blogs. (Note that RealRank is for blogs only.)

The overall rank is based on all blogs (who are members) but these are also subdivided into various categories - as per list shown at the top of this post.

Each category has a Top 100, as does 'All Blogs'.

As I said, I signed up yesterday with my Celebrity Insider blog - and in the first day it has a RealRank of 11 (1 is best going upwards to however many blogs there are who are members).


If I look at the category for 'Entertainment' then Celebrity Insider is in second position in the Top 100 list.


However, I still fully stick by what I said on Thursday: Focus on the right content and getting visitors to your blog - because nothing else really matters.

In other words I'm not too fussed what my blogs' rankings are - though obviously, if I had a choice, I'd prefer them to be reasonable and accurate.

What I am interested in though, regarding RealRank, is to see if this will send me any traffic or something else worthwhile. As more and more blogs sign up I may well slip down the list, only time will tell.

I'll be keeping an eye on referrals and will let you know what happens.

So that's RealRank. It may be worth joining to see if you make their Top 100 lists. Depending on your niche you could well do so. Perhaps this could be of value - you never know in life.

Good luck,
Mike.