Ranking law blogs by Feedly subscribers
Following up on my earlier ranking of law professor blogs by digital privacy, I thought I'd rank blogs (mostly run by law professors, but a few other notable law-related blogs, too) by Feedly subscribers.
Since the shutdown of Google Reader, Feedly is the most prominent RSS feed aggregator in use. Feedly conveniently distills the content from many different sources into a single page for convenient browsing. Other rankings rank things like "page views," which can be easily manipulated by instituting various programming tactics, like providing only previews of content in RSS feeds, programming scripts to automatically refresh pages, separating content into multiple pages or "slideshows," and other mechanisms designed to provide the illusion (usually for the purpose of inflating prices for advertising service providers) that there are more readers than there actually are.++ (For my own site statistics from 2013, see here.) Feedly subscribers, however, are a highly non-manipulable metric, something like newspaper subscribers: not the total number, but a useful number of measure influence and impact.
Granted, this ranking would only measure a portion of each site's users; it would exclude any users who stumble upon the content from Google, or who visit the homepage of the site daily from a bookmark or entering the address directly, or who are referred from another site. Further, others many not use Feedly because of more robust alternatives for content delivery, like email subscriptions or tweets of new content. But it provides for a bare subscription base from a single (popular) RSS client.
Feedly reports how many readers there are for the blog. Its reports are occasionally inconsistent by a margin of 1 reader. Once a blog reaches 1000 readers, it rounds all numbers.
Finally, this ranking is completely not in my self interest: it confirms that virtually no one actually subscribes to this blog, and that the vast amount of my traffic is driven by Twitter readers, referrals, and Google searches. (And part of it is my fault: I failed to include an RSS link for a substantial period of time, and the one I use now is different than the one Feedly previously used on its own.)
Below is the ranking for 85 blogs of note, with the number of Feedly subscribers after it. For links... I'm sorry, you'll have to use Google, or visit other sites that rank blogs.
Freakonomics 22000
The Becker-Posner Blog 8000
Above the Law 7000
SCOTUSblog 7000
WSJ Law Blog 7000
Deeplinks 6000
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog 4000
Legal Nomads 3000
Lowering the Bar 3000
Popehat 3000
Balkinization 2000
Credit Slips 2000
FOSS Patents 2000
How Appealing 2000
Instapundit 2000
Lawyerist 2000
Lessig 2000
Patently-O 2000
3 Geeks and a Law Blog 1000
Althouse 1000
Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Law 1000
Incidental Economist 1000
iPhone JD 1000
Jim Calloway's Law Practice 1000
Law and the Multiverse 1000
Lawfare 1000
Legal Theory Blog 1000
Opinio Juris 1000
Overlawyered 1000
TaxProf Blog 1000
PrawfsBlawg 997
Sentencing Law and Policy 963
Real Lawyers Have Blogs 725
The Volokh Conspiracy 715
Leiter's Law School Reports 677
Conglomerate 668
The Faculty Lounge 597
Concurring Opinions 532
Religion Clause 506
M & A Law Prof Blog 451
Feminist Law Professors 382
Legal Insurrection 380
ACS Blog 366
Liberty Law Blog 326
White Collar Crime Prof Blog 269
#wheninlawschool 257
Business Law Professor Blog 249
ProfessorBainbridge.com 210
The Legal Whiteboard 210
Deal Professor 168
California Appellate Report 160
PointOfLaw 140
Legal Writing Prof Blog 135
FedSocBlog 134
Non Curat Lex 134
Antitrust Policy Blog 128
Dorf on Law 125
Legal Ethics Forum 125
Constitutional Law Prof Blog 124
Legal Profession Blog 123
Workplace Prof Blog 120
ImmigrationProf Blog 114
Josh Blackman's Blog 114
Turtle Talk 113
Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog 111
Election Law Blog 107
The Right Coast 107
College Insurrection 105
Legal History Blog 98
CrimProf Blog 97
Mirror of Justice 88
Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog 82
Legal Skills Prof Blog 78
ContractsProf Blog 77
Hugh Hewitt 76
Re's Judicata 75
Adjunct Law Prof Blog 74
EvidenceProf Blog 56
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog 53
Word on the Streeterville 51
PropertyProf Blog 43
WITNESSETH 41
Law School Academic Support Blog 34
Excess of Democracy 27
Jack Bog's Blog 6
Update: this post will occasionally be updated.
++Setting aside the snark, these practices are very good business practices for the overwhelming number of sites and blogs, and they are also best practices for many advertising providers. Indeed, some methods that might result in additional clicks, such as below-the-fold click-throughs, are a means of improving readability. Further, to clarify my own carelessness, many advertisers do not need page views as a model of ranking, but other factors like actual visits--and page views are not a relevant metric for them.