22 January 2009

I'm the only one who would say anything

by Frank "stats" Turk

Click to enlarge; click here to see what I'm talking about.

BTW, we didn't make that happen -- you, the readers did, and God was gracious enough for you to find us. Thanks for reading.


43 comments:

James Scott Bell said...

It has always seemed to me that the vibrancy of the comments section is the best measure of a blog. I looked at the top 8 on the list, and I think TeamPyro is #1 or 2 in that regard. The other blog that comes close looks to be Stuff Christians Like.

James Joyce said...

Congrats on the ranking.
Wow! Fellow Canadian Tim Challies is number #1. I really enjoy his blog as well as Pyro, but I'm suprised to see him at #1.

FX Turk said...

I think Challies has the fix in -- and I have no idea how he posts as much and as often as he does. I used to the the most prolific of the three of us, and I posted about half as often as Challies.

He is a nice fellow. He's #1 because he is so nice. That's why Mark Driscoll is ranked higher than us, btw: nice.

DJP said...

See this?





That was me not saying anything.

Wes Walker said...

The Canadian Blogs are doing really well this year (Small Dead Animals, a politically conservative blog from the Canadian prairies did well enough that the NY Times even featured it.)

My theory?

We have learned to adapt to our cold winters by warming ourselves by the glow of our monitors.
=)

Kudos Pyros team. The reason we keep coming back is because you continually pursue excellence.

JackW said...

"Thanks for reading."

You're very welcome, it's been my very great pleasure.

... really.

CGrim said...

Challies, Between Two Worlds, Pyromaniacs, GetReligion, Desiring God... these are all on my daily bookmarks list!

donsands said...

You go TeamPyro!

The Three Amigos at Teampyro rock!

James Scott Bell said...

Dan: Your best. Post. Ever.

Kidding! Love ya. Even when we disagree and get snippy.

Wes Walker said...

Dan,

your post could be used as an argument that God is Still in the Miracle business...

Just pokin' at ya!

Wes

Sir Brass said...

don,

Now we shall eagerly await the teampyro 3 Amigos picture.

Steve Martin.....apply directly to the forehead =p.

Anonymous said...

This website is SO GREAT!

Thanks be to God and to you guys for giving us stuff that is both edifying and straightforward. Even in the days of RustPruf.com, this site was one of the first links that I added, followed closely by Way of the Master Radio (now Wretched) and Tom in the Box.

Now if I could just make some cool, original artwork like y-... oh great, covetousness! >>sigh<<

That's enough to drive me to vanity, and this plug for WWW.BigBridgeACross.com!

I'll stop now. Mental note: cut back on the Friel podcasts...

Al said...

Your site is great... almost covenantal

al sends

SolaMommy said...

You guys beat out Emergent Village!!! That's encouraging :)

FX Turk said...

Somehow we beat out Desiring God. AND twenty-two words.

Without Seth Godin's advice even.

How did we do it without the feed-readers?


For the record, that -was- gloating, and it -was- sinful. I repent -- but not until after I post this.

Cindy Swanson said...

Congratulations! And richly deserved. Yes, the readers made it happen, but they wouldn't have made it happen if you weren't worth reading.

Kay said...

It's the self-promotion, Frank. Indispensable.

Marie said...

It's because you guys RAWK. There's so much spiritual cotton candy (tastes sweet, but no substance or nutritional value) out there that your thought-provoking doctrinal discussions stand out in the crowd. This is one of the few blogs that I check daily.

One day a couple of weeks ago my blog had 22 visitors - a record. I was psyched.

Jim Crigler said...

I'm glad I didn't have any part in your statistics. After all, I never read this blog. Wait ...

(I guess I had an Emily Latella moment.)

Unknown said...

Wow Frank
Congratulations! Number 8 out of the 60 top church blogs. That's incredible. You guys are awesome; the best; simply amazing! You guys rock! No one compares to you! Unbelievable stuff! A milestone in blogging history! 8 is great! 8 is great! 8 is great!

BTW, here are the stats for Matt Drudge's site:

027,942,282 - IN PAST 24 HOURS

625,945,473 - IN PAST 31 DAYS

7,521,318,263 - IN PAST YEAR

PS - The group that put this list together is the same group who also two years ago stated that Bishop T.D. Jakes was the most influential pastor in the USA.

But hey, let the partaaayyy roll on! You da bomb! The Three Blogmios!

JackW said...

Doesn't the autorefresh on Drudge pad his numbers?

Solameanie said...

How can I derail a meta like this without music?

Hmmm. How about this?

Sorry. Thinking about rankings and this was the only thing I could come up with. Kidding aside, congratulations guys. You're all a vital part of my daily reading and encouragement. Even some chuckles now and then.

FX Turk said...

"Bill" --

"Criticism" (and I think that's a euphemism for your comment here) from anonymous drive-bys are, for me, the most enjoyable part of blogging. Invent some like-minded friends and come do this more often.

It's funny how a "thank you" to the readers can turn some people into, well, anonymous drive-by commenters.

Stefan Ewing said...

Well done, Frank, Dan, and that other guy...um...he works with MacArthur...what's his name?

Johnny Dialectic wrote:

"It has always seemed to me that the vibrancy of the comments section is the best measure of a blog."

There's something to that, but it has its pluses and minuses as an objective measurement. I've seen good blogs with long comment threads, and 99% of the comments are just a waste of time and human spirit to read.

This blog is, perhaps, exceptional, in that the comment threads are both (a) long and (b) actually rewarding and enriching to read!

Stefan Ewing said...

For the most part.

DJP said...

Stefan - yeah, I go to that blog every day, too.

Frank - you don't think jealousy could be a factor?

Nahhhh.

FX Turk said...

Awright -- here's the thing which really stirs my soup as I re-read this ranking. And I know Dan will feel my pain after I post this ...

Back in 2005, Hugh Hewitt published a relatively-obscure book about blogging called BLOG (no link; go find it on a discount table someplace) which, frankly, nobody read. Thomas Nelson made a bargain book out of it in 2006, and except for Hugh's self-promotion (which I admit: I admire that in anyone) nobody is still reading it.

Then last year, Crossway published a book "by John Mark Reynolds, Roger Overton, Hugh Hewitt, and Matthew Lee Anderson" called The New Media Frontier which I got from them for the sake of review, and I have politely passed over this book -- because it is transparently an attempt by Hewitt et al. to repackage his earlier work. And I like Crossway -- but this book is both boring and uninformative, especially in light of Hewitt's past performance on this topic.

And I bring it up because, in spite of Hewitt's promotion of the blogger he sort of headlines who are the co-authors of this book (Joe Carter excepted, btw -- Joe is an interesting blogger and an extraordinarily gracious guy), these characters and thier view of blogging underperforms.

What if somebody asked, for example, iMonk, the Pyros, Challies, Mark Driscoll and Justin Taylor to sort out a topical explication of how their blogs have, after the boom has gone bust, still managed to get the readers?

No: none of us (except maybe Challies) gets hits like Drudge. But there are many newspapers who have fewer weekly readers than any of the top 20 blogs on this list has.

Where's our book deal? WHERE?!

... sigh ...

... sorry 'bout that ...

DJP said...

Testify, brother. Testify!

FX Turk said...

That's my rant on that subject for 2009. I'll not bring it up again until 2010 when we have still not had any offers.

Well, me and Dan. Phil writes books all the time and it consumes him, so maybe I'm better off just blogging and enjoying the drive-bys and the occasional home runs.

FX Turk said...

And the merciless beatings. That's my favorite tag on our blog.

Solameanie said...

Look at it this way, guys. There are certainly many ways of kicking blog readership up a notch. But considering some of the comments we all get on our blogs, perhaps it's best to keep it down to a low roar. Personally, I don't want to have to spend two hours a day deleting and banning.

I think you've got it about right here.

Rachael Starke said...

"...we didn't make that happen -- you, the readers did."

So, what you're saying is I actually wrote stuff like this and this and this?

Wow. I'm pretty smart.

FX Turk said...

Rache:

You didn't write those (Dec 08 was a good month, apparently), but you read them -- and we prolly would have stopped a long time ago if nobody was reading.

Susan said...

Wait...we beat John Piper!? Crazy....

Susan said...

(I guess I should've said "you" instead of "we", but Frank said we the readers made it happen. Way to go, Pyro Triumvirate!)

FX Turk said...

I think it's "we". Three guys wrote, and the rest actually created the stats by reading.

Think about this now: I write the same kind of stuff on my blog, but like the tree that falls in the proverbial woods with no one to hear it, my Alexa rank is like 1.733 million and I'm not even in competition (except, of course, for my faithful fans and sidekicks, and the effervescent Libbie, and Dan).

So "we" is good. Sorry Dr. Piper. You're still my favorite non-pyro cautious charismatic pastor/writer over the age of 59.

:-D

Brent J said...

You guy's have great insightful writing and really nice art work.
I appreciate the time it takes to post a blog of this quality.

Moon said...

Wes Walker
"We have learned to adapt to our cold winters by warming ourselves by the glow of our monitors.
=)"

that was hilarious!

Marie:
"One day a couple of weeks ago my blog had 22 visitors - a record. I was psyched."
I hear ya sister! lol! :P

wow Challies number 1! awesome :D
well I visit Pyro everyday or at least whenever there are new posts and have learned quite a lot reading your posts so good job guys and to God be the glory! :)

CR said...

Congratulations. I'd pay real money though to get a hold of the first item on the criteria of 110 "well-known" blogs. It seems to me a couple of blogs were left out.

Unknown said...

I’m new here (a drive-by, but not anonymous!). I found you through Justin Taylor’s blog, my daily reading habit, but based on the wit and charm I see here, I might just stop by more often!

Loved this line:

“Invent some like-minded friends and come do this more often.”

…LOL…

FX Turk said...

Brian --

Many come for the theology. All come for the merciless beatings.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing the word of God, discussing issues affecting the church, and standing firmly for truth.

Blessings,

Michael

Hugh McBryde said...

I should be a shoe in for number 38, at least.