April 2010

Next Update: June 30th

How did we arrive at the 99 blogs listed? We started with an index of more than 500 fashion blogs and beauty blogs from around the world - some from first hand knowledge, others discovered from countless hours of following blogrolls, network publisher listings and links left in comments. After eliminating the ones that were abandoned or infrequently updated, we calculated data, did some math and assigned a score representative of general content quality, popularity and buzz.  The 99 most influential blogs span multiple categories: from the street and personal style of trendsetters around the world, to behind the curtain looks at the people who create and shape the fashion industry - and of course the bloggers who stay on top of who's wearing what, and where to buy it. Are these the best fashion blogs? Best is subjective, but it's certainly the best measure of global style influence to date. Jump to rankings

Get the full list

Do you want the most comprehensive list of up-to-date fashion blogs at your fingertips? Download the Excel sheet with over 500 individually reviewed fashion and beauty blogs, with contact information at hand.

Bonus: The April ranking includes a separate index of more than 100 sites used to compile the ranking of the 25 Most Influential Fashion Websites.

Signature9 will update the rankings in June 2010

*Alexa score estimated based on other sites with similar data profiles

Within striking distance, Fashionising Blogs and Swedish personal style blog Kenzas all had an overall score of 39. Incremental increases in any of the measured areas could see them move into the top 99 with the next update.

WHO'S INCLUDED, WHO'S NOT

There are a number of websites with related content - think Loobook.nu or Stylecaster. While we think they're great sites, this ranking focuses solely on blogs, or sites where fashion or beauty blog posts represent a significant portion of the content.

Blogs that are part of larger sites - Refinery29's Pipeline blog, for example, are ranked solely on their own metrics which are separate from those of the parent site.

Methodology

S9 (Signature9 Points)

Range: 0-15

The only subjective ranking, the Signature9 score awards points for update frequency, quality of content and design. 9 would be considered good, 12 great and 15 just about perfect.

Blogs not updated at least once per month in the past 30 days, or with exceptionally poor content or design are not included in the rankings.

Y! (Yahoo! Links)

Range: 0-10

We take the raw number of InLinks  to each blog (minus links from the blog, or related domain), normalize for network effect for blogs that are part of larger networks, then assign a score on a 10 point scale.

PR (PageRank)

Range: 0-10

This is the number that shows up on the little green bar for each blog using the Google Toolbar.

UD (Unique Domain Links)

Range: 0-15

Unique Domain Links utilize data from SEOmoz's Linkscape to determine the number of unique domains linking to the site. The number is then assigned a score on a 15 point scale.

As strong a signal of influence as (perhaps even more than) the raw number of links is the number of sites providing the links. In the case of large network sites, one or two domains may generate hundreds of links per day. The unique domain score puts the true nature of link popularity into context.

A (Alexa Points)

Range: 0-10

Alexa ranks sites by estimating page views and reach (the percentage of all web users who have visited that particular site). We take their ranking and assign a score on a 10 point scale.

For blogs hosted on popular domains, we estimate Alexa points based on sites with similar characteristics so that the main domain doesn't skew the points. For example, blogs hosted on the New York Times site are estimated independently of the points nytimes.com might receive.

D (Delicious Points)

Range: 0-15

Delicious tallies the number of people who've bookmarked a blog. We take the composite number and assign a score on a 15 point scale

BL (Google Blog Links)

Range: 0-15

Google Blog Links measure the number of blog postings referencing a site. We take the raw number of blog links and assign a score on a 15 point scale.

For all ratings, the top end of the scale is based upon the blog with the highest number in each category.

Thanks

To Filipa Bernardes de Oliveira, Managing Editor of Signature9 UK for her contributions of Brazillian and Spanish blogs.

previous rankings

Style99 January 2010

Style99 September 2009

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