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.