Been meaning to do this for a while now. At first I thought I’d keep it to myself but then it isn’t private information – it’s publicly available and while I’m sure others have tabled it and used it to draw conclusions, I have not been able to find those conclusions publicly or based on factual data.
A few reasons why I wanted to do this :
1. PR Agencies / Marketing teams with brands don’t seem to know HOW to evaluate blogs. They end up associating with bloggers based on who likes who and who is friends with who – which is also not a bad marketing initiative because you’re reaching out to the right influencers. But, for example, last WIFW, while signing in on the Media Registrations, I noticed a column that listed blog pageviews and people whose blogs I hadn’t even heard of had ten times the pageviews than my blog did. Clearly, the PR Agency had not bothered to actually check the figures. Maybe I’m being unfair but maybe they didn’t even know how to check.
2. It’s good to know the blogging community and I was certain there were some gems I was missing and I was right. There’s the new BorderAndFall and I found StylDrv too. Two new favorites.
3. I am working with a couple of brands, advising them / creating an online campaign for them and wanted those clients to have information about India’s top blogs in the Lifestyle / Fashion / Luxury category.
Some general observations :
1. Most lifestyle / fashion bloggers are women. We have two boys only : @wearabout and @santumisra
2. While the opinion of whomever I consulted for this was that I must leave out @MissMalini and @hhcguiltfree, I think their inclusion is important because they are a good comparison point. Even though they are in the category of gossip and bollywood etc., they run it as a professional business and charge for it. It’s work and the n00b bloggers need to understand that writing for brands, investing time and effort in creating images, purchasing a domain, etc. are not to be done for free. It is online advertising, marketing & PR and if the brick & mortar agencies charge brands for it, bloggers charge for it too.
3. I have focused on Lifestyle and Fashion bloggers mostly. I asked on Twitter for people’s favorites and it is quite possible I’ve missed out a few.
4. There are six rankings that have then been averaged and the blogs have been ranked accordingly. Global Rank, Local Indian Rank and 3 Month Global Pageview Percentage – all these three from Alexa. Number of Twitter Followers, Facebook Business Page fans and Klout Score. Blogs who did not have any one of these [ or I was unable to find the FB page for example ], have not been included in the ranking but are still listed at the end.
5. The data entered is static – it doesn’t change, hence relevance is merely to show how they stand on a particular date.
6. While most blogs are run by one person, some are run by teams & some like MissMalini.com have a full-fledged employee list.
7. I have only included those blogs that show “India” on Alexa. If it’s a blog run by an Indian but based in the US, it has not been included.
The top 10 blogs in India in the spheres of Lifestyle & Fashion are:
1. MissMalini.com [ Celebrity / Bollywood ]
2. HighHeelConfidential [ Celebrity / Bollywood ]
3. Corallista [ Beauty / Makeup ]
3. StylishByNature
3. Strut120 [ considering how new they are, it’s quite an accomplishment to be already doing so well! ]
[ both above are 3 because scores are same ]
5. PeachesAndBlush [ Mostly Beauty & Fashion & Bridal ]
4. Fashion-Bombay
5. Naina.co
6. LuxuryFacts [ Luxury ]
7. GiaSaysThat
8. Magalic
9. BlahAndMore
If you want to get Lifestyle / Fashion specific, then the top 10 blogs are:
1. StylishByNature
2. Strut120
3. PeachesAndBlush [ Mostly Beauty & Fashion & Bridal ]
3. Fashion-Bombay
4. Naina.co
5. GiaSaysThat
6. Magalic
7. BlahAndMore
8. RepublicOfChic
9. Wearabout
10. StyleKandy
If you’re a brand that’s looking at an online awareness campaign, then these are the people you definitely need on your roster. The spreadsheet has more details and depending the brand’s goals, you can decide which metrics make the most sense. For example, if you’re looking at only Klout scores [ based on an algorithm that I don’t have the resources to match ], then the top ten blogs from this spreadsheet will be:
1. MissMalini.com
2. Naina.co
3. HighHeelConfidential
4. Akanksharedhu
5. StylishByNature
6. Magalic
7. BombayBubble
8. Strut120
10. Corallista [ Mostly Beauty ]
9. PickyC
10. LazyManxCat
And finally, you can find the tabled data here : The Spreadsheet : Lifestyle Bloggers in India
I did think of including other data points like presence on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram etc. and even consider whether the blog was a full-time pursuit or something the blogger does on the side apart from a full-time gainful employment. But I didn’t have the time to do it and wasn’t sure how I would find this information anyway.
I spoke with a few bloggers recently and the conclusion that I have drawn is that brands are more aware now of the importance of bloggers and some are handling it professionally but most are still asking for free plugs and sending out cookie-cutter press releases and not making any efforts to engage with bloggers personally.
There is more information sharing amongst bloggers and brands but a lot of it is unfounded gossip. It is ok to keep your cards close to you but not ok to be unprofessional – for bloggers, their clients and readers can see through lies and unprofessionalism quicker than any of us would like to believe. Similarly for brands, bloggers are very aware of what brands are running what campaign and who sends out bad press releases and who does not want to pay. We might not talk about those brands publicly but we all talk about them amongst ourselves.
If there are blogs I’ve missed, please leave a link in the comments below – yes you can link to your own blog. I will add it to the spreadsheet. I have no intentions of constantly updating the spreadsheet but if there’s someone who is willing to donate some time and coding expertise to create an automatically updated spreadsheet, please holler. I might even be willing to pay for it.
Read more about social media influencers in the DNA article called Tweets, Likes or Dhokha.
25 comments
This should help steer the crowd, let there be light and people understood what digital meant! đŸ˜›
Hi Naina,
You’ve done an absolutely brilliant job putting this much-needed list together. It is true that the blogosphere in India is shooting up at a forever flattering rate but is still dismal when compared to our western counterparts. And so its always great to see someone take charge and try to educate the audience and marketing teams about influential weblogs and sort of open their minds to what bloggers are doing and how it can benefit them.
I’d like to introduce you to my blog, HeadTilt. (www.headtilt.in)
We’re actually a team based out of Delhi.
HeadTilt features an eccentric mix of the best of contemporary art, fashion, design, street style, home decor and much more catering to your daily inspiration needs. It has only been about eight months since we started, so we do not exactly have a lot of steep numbers to flaunt yet. đŸ™‚ But we’ve been very lucky to have a steadily rising readership so far. HeadTilt also contributes regularly to Grazia India Digital and MissMalini. We’d absolutely love for you to take a look at our blog and share any thoughts that you may have.
Leaving you links to all our social media platforms as well. Do come by.
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/HeadTilt1
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/HeadTilt/474065192608866
PINTEREST: http://pinterest.com/headtilt/
TUMBLR: http://theheadtiltblog.tumblr.com/
Cheers!
Surbhi
Thank you for the introduction Surbhi. I did not know about HeadTilt and after checking rankings, I wasn’t able to locate the Regional India Rank, which is why I am unable to include it in the spreadsheet. However, who knows how it goes for your blog and I wish you all the best for a quick climb up the charts!
Hurrayyy!!
We have gained a mention here. And this is by far the best blog post, I have read lately. Thank you once again for the mention Naina.
Hugs
Rashi
http://www.blahandmore.com
Twitter: @BlahnMore
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/rashigaur
Thanks Raashi – for writing to me on Twitter – and glad I could make the inclusion. I had been asking on Twitter about people’s favorite Indian Lifestyle / Luxury / Fashion blogs and the spreadsheet contains whoever I heard about. Sorry I missed yours and great to have made the correction. I appreciate your kind words about my work!
Wonderful Naina. Hope PR Agencies and PR pros take note of this and use it effectively. We need more such for all industries.
Regards
Bhuvaneshwari
Hi Naina,
Great piece. I really hope brands take your advice and start treating bloggers better and not approach then as free publicity space.
Thank you for mentioning my blog in you ‘The Spreadsheet : Lifestyle Bloggers in India’. I had no idea about my blog ranking or where I stood.
If you could give me some feedback regarding my blog and how I can improve it that would be great.
Thank You,
Amena.
Blog: http: http://fashion-opolis.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fashionopolis
Twitter: @Fashionopolis
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/amz1912/
Instagram: a_fashionopolis
Hey Naina! Thanks so much for showing MissMalini.com so much love, to the moon! đŸ™‚ xoxo
Great job Naina. To have the time and patience to cover all of this!
What’s even better is, that I know all these blogs and follow most of them too!
Would love to know where my blog stands.. I recently launched my Facebook page.
head2heels-roxanne.blogspot.com
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Head2Heels/145954662230092
Twitter : https://twitter.com/Head2Heels
Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/head2heels/
Instagram : http://instagram.com/head2heels
Roxanne
Great initiative. And sent all of us scuttling to check our rankings đŸ™‚
Do check out Magical Homes at http://magicalhomes.in/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MagicalHomes
Glad you found it useful Dipika!
SUPER COOL!!
Strut 120 has shut down, unfortunately
Thank you Magali – I had no idea. Since this blog post or the spreadsheet was never intended to be updated automatically, if I ever do update it, it will be with fresh statistics.
Hey Naina,
I just stumbled upon your blog. Great work.. loved all ur photographs..
All of the blogs mentioned have their own domain. What about blogs hosted on blogspot and wordpress?
Megha
Stilettos Diary
Thank you for your kind words Megha. You are correct in observing that all the blogs included have their own domains. That’s the least a serious blogger can do, hence blogspot, wordpress.com, tumblr other domains are not included.
Hi Naina,
Fabulous work! It’s great to see someone put in efforts to do an analysis of this level! Kudos to you đŸ™‚
Would be great to know where my blog stands.
Blog – Ri(t)ch Styles – http://www.RitchStyles.com recently updated domain name from http://ritchastyle.blogspot.com
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ritchstyles
Twitter: @RitchStyles
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ritcha
Instagram: http://instagram.com/ritcha
xoxoxo
Ritcha
Hi Ritcha, Thank you for the appreciation. The data used in the analysis is public knowledge and can be used to draw your own conclusions. Unfortunately, I have no intentions of updating the spreadsheet or this blog post in the short-term although I would encourage other bloggers to make updates as the blogging scene evolves.
Hi Naina.. I do understand.. If you let me know how you went about it, i would update the sheet when I could for what I could đŸ™‚ If you are willing to share, my email id is [email protected]
xoxoxo
Ritcha
Hey Ritcha – I apologize but I thought the blog post & spreadsheet were explanatory. Check #4 under “Some General Observations”.
Hey Naina
Just saw this, thank you for including us in the list. This is a commendable job and is the pivot in building synergies between teh bloggers and brands. You have hit the nail on the head when it comes to the lack of professionalism when brands and PR agency treat bloggers vis a vis they treat media.
The moda ninja’s
nyc snaps n information too for more insights on fashion visit following links which will help you to dress up with the current beats
http://stylishhunk.blogspot.in/
http://makestunningyourself.wordpress.com/
http://bestylishstud.wordpress.com/
http://getgorgeousyourself.blogspot.in/
Hi Naina,
I would like the liberty to introduce you and your readers to my fashion and lifestyle blog Miles of Style . I hope you will spare a moment to check it out and that you enjoy your visit. http://www.onestylemile.blogspot.com đŸ™‚
Loves,
Persis.
Hi Naina
Compliments on compiling such an exhaustive list and all the parameters…some work I must say!!
I am so glad I chanced upon your post just when I was starting to wonder how I could stir things up on my blog and get noticed…
You have answered most of the questions that had been consuming me for the last few days…youv given me a lot of work..klout, pageranks and all those things I need to figure out…to hopefully figure in your list the next time đŸ™‚
Meanwhile, I would be delighted if you could have a look at my blog, and insight, tips and tricks would be super valuable đŸ™‚
http://www.lookinggoodfeelingfab.com/
Thanks in advance
Love
Abhilasha
Hey Naina,
Nice read. I wanted to leave the link to my friend’s fashion/lifestyle blog, it is more of an everyday girl’s blog đŸ™‚ please do add it to your spreadsheet if you would like.
http://mysugarlesstyle.blogspot.in/
Comments are closed.