Yesterday I posted about how Michael Dunlop (advertiser here and MSN buddy) over at Retire@21 had posted an interesting list of the top young bloggers under twenty one… I found myself sneaking in at number five, however was surprised to say the least about not just some of the rankings in the list, but some of the inclusions as well.

By the title of this post, I meant to say that I think that list sucked. No offense to Michael, but I like to speak my mind, and it doesn’t seem like there was any metrics used to compile that list together – just a jumbled mismatch of people under twenty one. I will concede that the list was a phenomenal idea, if done correctly – something like Mark’s list of the Top 100 at 45n5 for younger bloggers would be a unique feature on the web, and although the idea was good, the plan was not executed very well.

Seeing that, I threw together a quick list of my own – mainly based on RSS subscribers, although if they were similar I looked at influence in the community they targeted and interaction on the blog. I’ll be honest – I hadn’t heard of some of these young bloggers before but I guess that’s because they operate in different markets; most of the MMO/blogging tips crowd I read regularly, and it was a pleasant surprise to see those in other areas doing well. No ages shown below, although they are all U21 :)

1) Paul Bourque (UberAffiliate)
2) Thilak Raj Rao (Tech-Buzz)
3) Glenn Wolsey (Glenn Wolsey)
4) Carl Ocab (Carl Ocab)
5) Eli Burford (Photoshop Star)
6) Mike Huang (Bloggin Ads)
7) Colin LaHay (Mixed Market Arts)
8 ) Jason Pereira (The University Kid)
9) Ahson Rafiq (Blueverse)
10) David Wilkinson (Techzi)
11) Hafiz Dhanani (Askablogger)
12) Sly Blanco (Slyvisions)
13) Michael Dunlop (Retire @ 21)
14) Jon Wheatley (J0n)
15) Josh Buckley (Josh Buckley)
16) Thomas Sinfield (Thomas Sinfield)
17) Nick Sullivan (Internet Babel)
18) Juggler (TW3O)
19) Wayne Liew (Wayne Liew)
20) Connor Wilson (Connor Wilson)
EDIT – No 21 threw a fit. :roll:

Hopefully this puts a more understandable order on the standard of bloggers, however there is of course room for improvement. I capped this at 21 simply because I couldn’t find ten more bloggers under 21 that were going along half decent – there were people on the list over at R@21 with 4 subscribers – seriously, WTF. Not to be elitist, as I myself once had less than 4 subscribers, but although one certainly can be producing good content with four RSS subscribers, there is no way in hell you should make a list of the TOP bloggers under 21 with such a number – a vital part of blogging is marketing, and obviously with only 4 people that have bothered to subscribe to your content, you can’t be doing that very well.

Why my list sucks

Although it ordered mainly by RSS subscribers, it did not seriously take other factors into account – for example, R@21 only added in a RSS feed recently and thus has less than other blogs (although their mailing list is immense I do believe) while interaction is (t0 me) even more important that feed numbers – you see, people can subscribe only for a large contest, however the real quality of a medium-to-small blog is measured by the amount of comments received – only if one is producing stimulating or interesting posts will they engage visitors into commenters. TUK for example receives quite a decent number of comments per post, certainly more than some above in both lists – didn’t want to raise myself on a too high pedestal yet :razz: .

What’s good to see

The number of high profile, young bloggers out there. Four out of the top five had more than 2,000 RSS subscribers and the one that didn’t ranks no1 for the phrase “make money online” in Google. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers, eh :D

Most of the people on the above list have professionally looking websites and they are (hopefully) well set for what will be many years ahead.

I was however disappointed that I could only find 21 bloggers – I’m sure there are more, of high quality too however I have not come across them – it is likely that a few are blogging in other languages and other fields, ones that I have simply not seen during my time online.

I’ve not created this list looking for exposure – just to reply to a list that I felt was grossly inaccurate; anyways feel free to let me know what you think, whether you agree or disagree or just think young bloggers aren’t that cool. :cool:

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