I am an extremely competitive person.
I thrive on knowing where I rank with respect to my peers and once I find out I do not give up until I reach the top. Rankings and lists can be an excellent motivator for success driven people. There are countless tools to rank and categorize blogs on the internet, but not many of these target a specific niche. 45n5.com/top100 is a list of the top money making blogs and can be a very useful tool in determining your popularity against your peer group.
Do You Have a Money Making Blog?
If you have your own blog on how to make money online then it should be your aim to get onto this list and to start climbing the rankings. You can start by sending the name of your blog and URL to 45n5 and they will include it in their next list. In order to move up the rankings though you will need to ensure that you writing solid content, getting backlinks, and increasing your traffic. When I submitted WhyDoWork, we came in at position 173 (due to a terrible Technorati rank.) We’re now slowly climbing up and in the top 100 at position 61.
Find Out What Your Competition is Writing About
If you are looking for more information on how to make money online you can also visit the 45n5 website as a link to other blogs that provide plenty of information on this topic. Learn as much as you can, and visit as many blogs in this list as possible. I often find that many authors are constantly blogging about the same topics. Because they are all categorized into one list, I can quickly take a look and figure out whether or not a blog is worth following, or if its just a rehash of topics posted on a different site.
Hot or Not?
You can also use the 45n5 index as a way to find out what is happening in the world of making money online – which are the most popular blogs? Which blogs are rising to the top? What other money making blogs have you not discovered yet? Compare yourself to the blogs on this list and see how you do, where can you improve and what is hot on these blogs at the moment. If you notice a particular author shooting up in the rankings, try and figure out why by taking a look at recently popular content they’ve written and aim to duplicate that success.
Submit Your Blog and Watch your Motivation Rise
45n5 is a benchmark specifically targeting the making money online niche and as such is a great tool both for those who have their own money making blog as well as those who are interested in learning more. If you have your own blog on how to make money online then you should add it here. Actually seeing your site show up in a ranked list will give you the motivation you need to make your site climb the ladder;
The only way you can climb the ladder is with quality content - so start figuring out how you’re going to rise to #1! 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.!
Lizard Wisdom responded on 16 Oct 2007 at 1:50 pm #
If you are going to start a blog about making money online, you probably ought to come up with a niche to target. In other words, do not try to to be the next John Chow or Shoemoney.
Then again, if you look at the variety of blogs that make the top 100, are they really all about making money online? Well, in a sense they are, but Nate Whitehill and Zac Johnson don’t talk only about making money online as these are more of their personal blogs. Then Darren Rowse with Problogger is helping you become a better blogger, which will then make you money online. So he is writing about making money online, but not so in your face.
An interesting list, that is for sure. Maybe someday we will make it…
WhyDoWork responded on 16 Oct 2007 at 3:44 pm #
@ the wise lizard:
I agree with you. In your case the niche of selling on eBay (which is a great way to make money from home) is a good one. As you said, mirroring the big dogs is not likely to be a successful route for most as writing generically about “the online making making niche” is far too broad to reach a wide audience. John and Shoe continue to be successful because they already have a large subscriber base.
If anything the list is a good place to find spots to advertise or look for paid reviewers. As you said, many of the blogs in the top 100 do cover a variety of issues and I have no doubt you’ll make it there soon!
45n5 responded on 16 Oct 2007 at 7:40 pm #
thanks for the cool writeup on the list.
I think everybody should have a blog about making money online. Not to get rich, but because it provides great networking opportunities imo, especially if you are doing audio or video also.
Hope to see you in the top 50 soon