As some of you might have realized by now. I really enjoy 45n5.com, and the Top 100 list. I mention it as often as possible because I believe it is a great list of quality blogs, and you would think then that I would be one of the first to jump on his new widget idea which shows off your current rank on the Top 100 list, but as you can probably see, it doesn’t have a home here at Xfep.com.

Why No Widget?

Currently, I rank 118th out of nearly 200 blogs on the “top 100” list. How embarrassing would it be to display a widget that says my rank is 118th out of 200? And I think the effect would be even worse when a reader clicked through and found out I am not even part of the top 100 sites in this niche.

If I came, saw the widget, and proceeded to click through, I would probably go on to some of the top twenty blogs, and subscribe to their content.

So why would I want to display it?

Widget Changes Make Me Happy

I propose a few changes that Mark could make in order to get me interested in displaying the widget. The first is to create more graphic options, including a larger variety of sizes and colours, so that it fits better with a larger variety of blogs, and in a wider array of open spaces.

I would add a very small graphic, like those little chicklet style ones that show my rank, as it would be rather small and unobtrusive.

The second idea I had would be to include how much movement there has been on the Top 100 board. I have been working very hard on eXtra for Every Publisher, and yet, I have been stuck at the same spot on his ranking list, and this is because there are new blogs being added. If the list was more like the top 40 charts for music, including an area showing if a blog has gone up, down, stayed the same, and marking new entrants as new, I would then be much happier as a visitor could see that I have been holding my own as new blogs are added to the ranking list.

The last idea I had was to move the blogs that are not in the Top 100 over to their own ranking list, so that the Top 100 remains prestigious. This would hurt this site, as I am not part of that Top 100 elite yet, but it would go a long way to continuing to make the list special, and interesting, rather than just allowing any site to be listed, and continuing to lengthen the list past the original 100 sites. Mark could put the sites currently ranked from 101 and down on their own area like Top 100 B, or Almost Top 100. Something where they can still be found, ranked and whatnot, but separate from what is supposed to be just a Top 100 list.

Strangely enough, I wouldn’t mind being 18th on the secondary list, and I would probably feel even more motivated to get to the main Top 100 list, as it is what most people link to and where a vast majority of traffic is passed around.

These are just some ideas, and they are free for people to use for their own ranking lists. Let me know what you think of my ideas in the comments. And if you have already added the widget to your blog, I would especially like to hear from you.

Hopefully, Mark will consider some of what I have posted here.

Originally posted on October 3, 2007 @ 10:59 pm