Dosh Dosh’s Ultimate Technorati Favorites Exchange: An Interactive Experiment

technorati-favorites-exchange.jpgAs you probably can tell from my previous week long experiment on Technorati’s WTF, I’ve been spending some time examining Technorati as a means to develop a wider reader base and greater exposure for blogs.

Why the emphasis on Technorati? Simply because Technorati is a blog search engine, content aggregator, social website and ranking system which attracts a large number of bloggers, who are exactly the type of audience or readers I want for Dosh Dosh.

Technorati link count rankings are a source of social prestige in the blogosphere and are often the pride or despair of many bloggers. Unlike Technorati Top 100 Most Linked To blogs, which has a high barrier of entry, the Technorati Top 100 Most Favorited is a list that is much easier to break into.

The Technorati Top 100 most favorited is a simply list of blogs according to the number of people who have favorited them in their Technorati account.

Getting into the most favorited list does not depend on any other variable factors (such as link count over a period of time) except the number of favorites each blog receives. As of now, breaking into the top 100 will only require your blog to be favorited by more than 148 members. Fairly easy, in my opinion.

technorati-top-favorited-100.jpg

What are the benefits of being favorited?

Here are some reasons why getting into the Technorati 100 will be beneficial:

  • Provides social proof. Getting in the Top 100 provides social proof of your blog’s popularity. This will increase the attractiveness of your site in the eyes of advertisers and blog readers if mentioned or displayed prominently.


  • Expands your blog readership. You are more likely to receive visitors from Technorati if you are listed in the Top 100 most favorited list. Visitors are bloggers,which means that they are potential feed subscribers if you have quality content.

What’s the main goal behind this Technorati Favorites Exchange?

The goal of this experiment is simple, to break into the Technorati Top 100 and determine the exposure and traffic benefits of being included in the Top 100 list.

Like my article on WTF, this is purely to measure the value of such a ranking system and to determine how it affects an individual blog. This experiment will result in a detailed statistical report on the amount of traffic received from being listed as one of the Top 100 and possibly, one of the Top 5 (Yes, I’m serious) most favorited blogs.

This favorites exchange experiment is to confront the vague notion of Technorati favorites and condense its benefits in terms of traffic. Perhaps a crude and narrow way to examine it but I see no other visible ways to analyze the value of being listed in the Top 100.

As mentioned above, other less tangible benefits includes increased exposure of your site to other bloggers over the long run. This results in more incoming links, subscribers, readers and perceived niche authority.

Won’t this experiment skew the Technorati Favorites Ranking System?

Reciprocal favoriting is not against Technorati’s TOS and I’m sure that most of the people who participate will have some sympathy towards Dosh Dosh because you wouldn’t be reading this if you aren’t interested in either a) Technorati favorites or b) Dosh Dosh.

This experiment will not harm other blogs because it doesn’t affect their link count or readership base, nor does it leech traffic away from their websites in a dishonest way.

Rankings of any sort have always consisted of malleable elements which can be manipulated and the Technorati 100 is no exception. All blogs are free to hold similar contests or schemes to increase their rankings if they so wish and this is pretty much an open playing field.

My honest belief is that only websites with unique content and true value will reach the higher echelons (top 10) of the most favorited list and the risk of splogs or hate blogs being listed is extremely minimal.

I must however disclose that I’m not a Technorati purist but really a social media enthusiast who is interested in its ability to drive targeted traffic to blogs.

How do I Participate in Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment?

This exchange is open to anyone who owns a blog. As long as your blog is not full of spam or copyrighted material, you’re free to participate.

Here are the steps you can take to get started:

1. Participate by Exchanging Favorites

This is fastest way to join the exchange program. Favorite my blog by clicking here and then please leave your Technorati username as well as a similar link to your blog in a comment.

To make things easy, I suggest using a Technorati favorite link or button. You can get the buttons and links easily at this Technorati page. Please leave a link to one blog only.

My Technorati nickname is Kawaiikuma and I will favorite all the links as soon as possible. I won’t be leaving any comments to confirm this because I’ll just be repeating myself constantly over the comment section.

Please periodically check to see who has favorited your blog and do also let me know if I’ve left you out.

2. Link to this blog post with your Post on Technorati Favorites

This is only for those bloggers who are interested in holding Technorati exchanges on their blog as well. These are the steps you need to take:

  • Create a post on your blog announcing that you are exchanging Technorati favorites. Prominently include a link to this post to indicate that there is a similar exchange going on at Dosh Dosh.

    You can use any link text you want. I do however prefer that you make a new post on this topic instead of putting the link in a old post that is already deep in your archives.

  • Get a Link Back. Once I’ve noticed the link via trackback or Technorati, I’ll include a link to your post on Technorati favorites in this page so readers here can visit your blog to participate if they want to.

    Links will usually be put up pretty quickly but if you didn’t see your link up after a day or two, please feel free to send me an email.

Reasons behind Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Guidlines

I really don’t like to ask for links to specific content on this blog because I very much prefer natural citations and links from other websites.

This is probably why I have never and will never start a “Review my blog to get a linkback” gimmick, which mainly benefits the blog being reviewed. Reciprocal reviews are fine, but reviews for a simple link back is ineffectual and very one-sided.

The only reason why I am asking for a link to this post here is because I want this to be an interactive experiment where all of us can increase our Technorati favorites, not just Dosh Dosh alone.

By linking here, you’ll send your readers to participate in this experiment and when I link back to you, the readers of Dosh Dosh can visit your blog to trade favorites with you as well.

This is a targeted two-way arrangement and allows us to share traffic and readers with each other.

As an added benefit, if you are holding other on-going contests or schemes such as link or blog post exchanges, feel free to list them at the bottom of your Technorati Favorites post so the bloggers who visit your blog are aware of them.

This extends the focus beyond Technorati favorites and allows you to leverage the traffic from my blog to highlight your own exchange programs. Dosh Dosh has a fairly large number of readers and daily visitors and so this will be a great way to promote your blog.

I feel that this is a much fairer trade, instead of just asking you to link to me in order to increase my favorites or link count.

Anyone wanna get things started? :)

Technorati Rank (by Dosh Dosh)

List of Other Blogs Offering Technorati Favorites Exchanges

Here is a collection of other bloggers who are also offering Technorati Favorites Exchanges. If you’re interested in trading faves, please visit their webpage and participate as well!

For the full list of blogs who are offering Technorati Favorites Exchanges, visit this page.

Update: Please also see my final Technorati Favorites traffic report for more information.

Written by Maki

Internet Marketing

Related Posts
  1. The Technorati Favorites Experiment: A Final Traffic Report and Analysis
  2. Using Technorati’s WTF as a Promotional Strategy for Your Blog : An Experiment
  3. Technorati Establishes an ‘Authority’ Ranking System and Gets a New Look
  4. Need free blog traffic and links? Try the Z-List.
520 Comments - Share Your Thoughts