I have this feeling that top bloggers do not really follow other blogs. I think they are too busy to read other blogs (probably busy with their own blogs or working on other projects). And even if they followed, I presumed that there must be only a handful of blogs that they really followed on daily basis.
In order to test whether my theory was true, I twittered some of the top bloggers and had two of them respond. One was Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com and the other was Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.com Below is their replies to my question “How many blogs do you read daily?”.
I also sent one line question through email to few top-bloggers and two of them responded. One was Yaro Starak of www.entrepreneurs-journey.com, and the other was Darren Rowse of www.problogger.net
Yaro Starak said: Usually zero, but every few days I’ll spend some time checking about 5-10 of the leaders in my industry.
Just after I was starting to think that my theory was in fact true, I received an email from Darren.
Darren Rowse said: I track around 700 blogs – however I don’t read them all (I scan) and I wouldn’t do that on a daily basis. For me there are probably 50 or so that are on my daily read list but the rest would be weekly.
So, again it’s a tie. Not really a tie, but there are people on both sides. But if we were to follow the rules of statistics and make a statement on the poll results. It would read something like this:
Seventy five percent of top-bloggers either followed no blogs or followed less than 10 blogs daily.
Lesson to be learned from this
If you spend your day reading blogs (tens of them) and do not really do much other than reading blogs (like working on your own blog, working on your personal web projects..etc) then you might want to re-evaluate your reading habits.
Because these top-bloggers are successful not because they read tons of other blogs, but because they know what to concentrate on, how to prioritize their daily tasks, and most importantly they know how NOT to waste their time reading so many blogs daily.
Because, at the end of the day, if you do not take action (i.e do something: launch a new niche blog, work on a web project, or make a new software… etc), reading hundreds of blogs daily won’t make you successful. The difference here is “reading only and doing nothing” vs “reading important things from selective blogs, learning from them, and then making use of this newly acquired knowledge – applying them on your personal projects“.
Your say…
Now, let me listen what you have to say about this theory. Do you think top bloggers read many blogs? And what should be a healthy dose of reading blogs daily? Do you think reading too many blogs will affect your own productivity negatively? Look forward to your comments.
This is no surprise. It doesn’t matter if top bloggers read other bloggers or not. Because they are TOP BLOGGERS. But the most important point is that they must have read huge number of blogs before they became Top Bloggers. Hence I agree with your point that reading and taking action works. But you should never neglect reading blogs, especially in the early stages of your blogging career.
Hmm, that’s reasonable. I’m NOWHERE near a top blogger but I’m busy with a lot of things, both online and offline and find that I do not get too much time reading other blogs. I’m sure the top bloggers are too busy to do that too. I’m sure it’s not because they do not WANT to, just that they don’t have the time to.
I think part of the fun of blogging is reading blogs not just writing for them. Also, no matter how successful you get there is still more that you can continue to learn from other bloggers, so in my opinion, even the most successful blogger should continue to touch base with other bloggers, because after all blogging is also about community at some level.
Got to get the balance between productivity and assimilation of knowledge. There is only so much time in the day, and it is very easy to get distracted into reading too much, with a resultant drop in writing output.
I am in full agreement with Abhijeet. To expect successful, that is what top bloggers are, bloggers to spend time reading other blogs is being unrealistic.
If you are a top blogger or even a moderately successful one, you owe it to your readers to keep your blog alive and updated. If you can do that and still find time to read other blogs, by all means do. It might even inspire you. Your first priority however has to be to your own blog.
I agree, I cannot believe that they do not ready the odd blog post here and there. I think it is moer of a they do not spend all day (like some of us) reading blogs, lol.
Smart bloggers just write automation scripst for data mining.
I think top bloggers track more blogs in the beginning, but then they unsubscribe those they’re not interested in or provide little value to them.
I spend 1 hour average to read blogs and they can be at any number. If I find a blog I can learn something from, I subscribe. I a blog doesn’t provide the information I need anymore, I’ll unsub form their feed.
I agree that reading too much without implementing and sharing what you read is useless and that leaves you less productive.
I believe that noone knows everything, sometimes u have to colect things here and there to make up. so i think nothings wrong with reading other blogs which ithinnk top bloggers do.
i think only the top bloggers know what they do.
I have too much to do during the day, so I spend an hour or 2 in the evening reading and learning. Yes there is drama but only if you choose to look for it. Lets take this particular post. What did I learn, I was told about a few new blogs that I did not know about (which I will go and check out). I realised that the top bloggers actually don’t blog as much as I thought.
If I read 5 posts and get 1 good fact then I have done well. Its like a magazine, I scan the magazine yet I might only like an article or 2.
There is only so much time to blog so only read those that are quality, like this blog.
I’m sure most of us read other blogs not just to assimilate knowledge but also to give us a change of scenery from our own work.
Being part of a community is also nice.
Yes, you’re right. They don’t comment to other blogs too. They no need to spend too much time to get the news by reading blogs. So why they got news? They have so many guys getting news for them. Don’t be surprised.
I think I have a mjor time management issue, lol. I spend way too long reading other blogs and forums and not enough time “working”
Yep they’re probably too busy blogging to read other blogs. Likewise, I should be blogging rather than reading or commenting on this blog.
Hey Ades,
I dont agree with you, I have seen many times matt cutt,aaron wall and aaron prat’s reply in some blogs and they are top bloggers in the world of SEO. Yes but they read only famous blogs.
That makes sense water 4 gas, they only read other top bloggers blogs.
There is only so much time to blog. I blog on about 10 different blogs a month.
We find a blog that appeals to us, like yours well done for your super blog
Water 4 Gas, does make sense as I only read about 10 different blogs per month, there just is not enough time to do more.
So we blog with the sites that appeal to us and so do they.
They don’t read other blogs because they simply don’t need it. As mentioned above, they are too busy with their own projects.
I would like to read other blogs and their post because on the WWW there may be the same post which i am going to write about, so it helps me to make an unique post.