The “Magic Quadrant” of the Personal Finance blogs…

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I’ve been somewhat intrigued over the past few years I’ve been lurking in the Personal Finance Blog realm as to who were the top spots in the space. I’ve got my own preferences that you can certainly see if you’re a daily reader; but I wanted to give it an overall picture to a brand new reader based solely on measurable statistics. How can a person rank a niche in any order? How do find the way around? It’s called a Magic Quadrant.I don’t know if any of you have heard of Gartners Magic Quadrant before but Wiki says it is:

…a proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc., a US based research and advisory firm. It is designed to provide an unbiased qualitative analysis of a “markets’ direction, maturity, and participants.

So I’ve decided to craft up one of my own. It’s completely new to the niche and certainly helpful to anyone coming in to the circle. Each Personal Finance Blog in the mix needs to have at least THREE months of posts and needs to have had at least ONE post in the last 2 weeks; based on that initial information, they are then rated based on the following metrics:

Hard metrics:

- Technorati authority
- Alexa ranking
- How much is their blog worth?
- Load time

Soft metrics:

- Blogging frequency - how often do they post?
- Commenter involvement - I randomly choose 10 posts on their blog to see how responsive they are to readers and the comments left on their blogs
- Site Design
- Readability/Grammar
- Post Originality - How unique are the posts?

Click the image for a larger view (or right click and “Save As” to save for later):

 

The Magic Quadrant of Personal Finance Blogs Q1 - 2008

  • The list currently includes (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER):

AllFinancialMatters.com
Bargaineer.com
BeingFrugal.net
BripBlap.com
CashMoneyLife.com
ChanceFavors.com
ChristianPF.com
ConsumerismCommentary.com
CreativeInvestor101.com
CubeFarmer.net
DoughRoller.net
FireFinance.com
FiveCentNickel.com
FreeFromBroke.com
FreeMoneyFinance.com
FrugalForLife.com
GatherLittleByLittle.com
GetRichSlowly.org
GrowingWallet.com
LazyManAndMoney.com
MDMProofing.com
Moneyning.com
Moolanomy.com
MrsMicah.com
MyInvestingBlog.com
MyMoneyBlog.com
MyTwoDollars.com
OnFinancialSuccess.com
PaidTwice.com
Plonkee.com
SingleGuyMoney.com
TheDigeratiLife.com
TheSimpleDollar.com
YoungAndBroke.com

Know somebody I left off? Leave a comment on the post here, or contact me and I’m happy to throw them in the matrix for the next run of the “Magic Quadrant of Personal Finance Blogs”!

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Tags: Blog Improvement, Blogroll, Financial Education, Frugal, Giveaways, Net Worth, Readers Requests //

19 Comments

  • User Gravatar Patrick
    January 14th, 2008 at 3:46 am

    This is a very unique system for ranking pf bogs; I haven’t seen anything like it. Thanks for all the hard work putting this together!

    (I have seen this ranking system before, just not for pf blogs. Our management did it with our entire workforce about 8 months ago, though they left the names off when they presented it to the group.) Nice job with this.

  • User Gravatar Pinyo
    January 14th, 2008 at 4:32 am

    I agree this is a unique and interesting ranking system. I would love to learn more about it — off to read more about Magic Quadrant.

  • User Gravatar Free From Broke
    January 14th, 2008 at 4:51 am

    Very interesting. Truly a humble honor to be anywhere near a quadrant with so many great sites! Thanks for compiling.

  • User Gravatar Lynnae @ Being Frugal.net
    January 14th, 2008 at 6:28 am

    This is a great list! Thanks for including me!

  • User Gravatar Jeff
    January 14th, 2008 at 7:24 am

    I actually AM new to the Personal Finance realm and this is an AMAZING jumpstart to my search. Looks like it took a while to build, congrats for the hard work! It makes it much easier for folks like me to get around! Maybe by next time I will have my own site to add too!

  • User Gravatar David
    January 14th, 2008 at 7:51 am

    Very interesting…but unfortunately the link to my site goes to paidtwice…not that I don’t like her but still :-)

  • User Gravatar hank
    January 14th, 2008 at 8:06 am

    @Patrick - thanks for the comment. I had something at work that ran similar numbers, but the same chart, thought it’d be an interested setup and I thought it was unique too -

    @Pinyo - Yea, like I said to Patrick, learned about it at work, and DEFINITELY thought it was unique - glad you liked it -

    @FFB - You’re welcome as usual! :)

    @Lynnae - glad to help with the link love!

    @Jeff - Jump on the boat, it’s a good ride!

    @David - thanks for the FYI - there were about 5 that were off - all fixed now, let me know if you see differently!

  • User Gravatar Aaron Stroud
    January 14th, 2008 at 10:54 am

    Very cool Hank. Thanks for the inclusion! I too, like Pinyo, need to read up on the magic quadrant system to better understand my position.

    I’d have to agree with Free From Broke though. It is a great honor to be included in a list with so many leading sites.

    Hank, I noticed you labeled your chart with the date. I hope that means you’re going to continue updating the list quarterly! I’m sure you’d get a lot of links out of it. In addition to charting the sites, you might want to compile a short list of the sites that have progressed the most since the last ranking.

  • User Gravatar Mrs. Micah
    January 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Very exciting. :) Glad mine passed.

    I love that blog worth site you used–it’s fun, though I doubt I could actually sell mine. And I just passed $100k. :)

  • User Gravatar hank
    January 16th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

    @Aaron - oh, I will certainly keep it cooking - I’ve gotten a lot of hits on the post and it really does serve a purpose. Good call on the short list of sites that are the “movers and shakers!

    @Mrs. Micah - Yea, you never know! You write some good stuff, maybe you could!!! :)

  • User Gravatar Early Retirement Extreme
    January 19th, 2008 at 11:41 am

    Me me me! :-D That was pretty cool. I’d like to be included in the next round. I probably belong in the crackpot quadrant ;-)

  • User Gravatar hank
    January 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    @EarlyRetirementExtreme - you’re in! Along with 9 other folks that have requested… the list grows! Stay tuned for the next version! thanks for dropping by!

  • User Gravatar Flexo
    January 27th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Interesting, thanks for putting that together!

  • User Gravatar Pete @ biblemoneymatters
    February 19th, 2008 at 8:09 am

    very interesting stuff. I can only hope to be included in such company some day :)

  • User Gravatar hank
    February 19th, 2008 at 10:15 am

    @Flexo - thanks for stopping by -

    @Pete - you will be next time! :)

  • User Gravatar AJC @ 7million7years
    March 28th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

    Apparently, I have great traffic for a 3-month blog, but not sure that would get me anywhere near qualification for your Matrix.

    I think you should set up a separate site and publish your matrix there … I’ll even fund the concept for you (send me an e-mail at my About page).

    AJC @ 7million7years’s last blog post..The most important question that you can ever ask about your own business …

  • User Gravatar miracletech
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    Great list, I will try to click on each one as time allows.

    Also thanks for the link to How Much Is Your Blog Worth. Never saw this before. Now every time visit a new blog I won’t be able to resist seeing how much it’s worth :-)
    miracletech’s last blog post..Day Trading Lesson: Roadmap Step 5

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