The TransGriot is one of the now 1,239 blogs ranked in the Black Blog Rankings compiled by the creative genius behind the Electronic Villager blog.
It started in reaction to an article in a magazine that listed the most influential blogs that was devoid of melanin. So in the best traditions of our people, the Villager got mad, then he did something about it by creating his own ranking list.
He started it in September 2007 with an initial 75 blogs, and the growth has been phenomenal ever since. The October 2007 rankings listed 300 blogs. By January 2008 it had doubled to 602 blogs listed. By the time TransGriot was added to the list in April 2008 the number of Black blogs listrd had grown to 1045. The May rankings included 1,173 Black blogs.
The influence of blogs like mine has been noted. It was the Black blogosphere that pushed the Jena 6 issue into mainstream news coverage, and got the word out about the march held in Jena, LA. While my blog focuses on transgender issues from an African-American perspective, I'm also concerned as an African-American about what happens to my people as well. Me being transgender does not exclude me from that discussion and desire to have me contribute my talents and my voice to help my people survive and thrive.
We are part of the African-American family as well and one of TransGriot's missions it to emphatically drive that point home.
The growing influence of Black blogs not only led to the DNC listening when we griped about the lack of blogs of color involved in the upcoming Democratic convention and other Democratic sponsored blogger events. It has led to the formation of an an upcoming conference in Atlanta called the Blogging While Brown Conference. I'm planning to attend this event which will be taking place July 25-27.
Now that I've stepped off the soapbox for a minute, what's my ranking for this month?
Black Blog Rankings (BBR) lean heavily on the Technorati Authority and Rank score for each blog. In April 2008 I had a 107 BBR with a 98 Technorati ranking. I had a massive drop on my Technorati rankings that hurt me. It pissed me off since I was about to crack the magic 100 Technorati ranking barrier, was on the verge of cracking the Top 100 in the BBR rankings and lost some ground.
But to be honest, out of over 1000 Black blogs, TransGriot is ranked 133. It's something I really shouldn't be disappointed about. But I have set a goal of cracking the Black Blog Rankings Top 100 before the year is out.
All I can do to improve on my 133 BBR ranking for June is to just keep writing insightful, interesting commentary so you peeps will not only read it, but link to it as well.
And I especially want to see more love from my own people in terms of reading it. I want them to understand that African-American traspeople not only have their own history, it's intertwined with the fortunes of the larger African-American community as well.
And I would suggest that the overall fortunes of the European-American and African-American transpersons are also intertwined. Or, they should be.
ReplyDeleteWe're all in this together in my
humble opinion.
Shari,
ReplyDeleteYou're right. We are all in this together. Any success we have in the States affects our brothers and sisters elsewhere and vice versa.
Learning about the very real differences in transition for a person of color as opposed to my Euro-American brothers and sisters also fosters understanding and better cooperation as well.
I deeply appreciate the love I get internationally from my regular readers as well. The insights about things that happen in your various countries are fascinating, so keep those comments coming.
So, for your next post, why don't you explain to us how Technorati works, and put out a plan for getting your blog up there for next year. Tell us how to help.
ReplyDeleteYou'll make it ! And I agree with shakay, "We're all in this together".
ReplyDeleteMy humble blog made it once and fell out of the top 100 the following month which was hurtful for about 5 minutes. I don't believe the ranking thing is important in itself but is an indication as to how successful you can be at reaching people. Especially with single issue or "special interest" blogs like ours.
Congratulations for being in the top echelons anyway. There are millions of blogs out there. Just being on the radar is an achievement. I'm rooting for you.
@Polar, Technorati relies on the links you have coming into your blog. It's not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination but basically the more people you have linking to your blog, the higher your rank. So if you want to help people out, link link link.