So here we go. These then are the real Top 5 Sales Blogs, based not on any personal preferences, friendships, or subjective viewpoints. Totally transparent. Arrived at using the following criteria – anyone doubting the transparency, can spend a week-end reducing more than one hundred blogs down to just twenty-five, as I did – last Saturday I researched them, and Sunday, I applied the criteria. To those who would say, “Hey JF, show us your metrics” I respond, ”Calculate yourself!” - using these:

• Unique Monthly Visitors (Last month according to Compete)
• Compete Rank (As at the end of last month)
• Alexa Rank (As at November 14th)
• Google PR
• Yahoo Links

Is it a “perfect” list? A “final” and “all-defining” list? Of course it isn’t, it cannot be. I am bound to have missed someone, somewhere. I do that every year when I send out my Christmas cards.

It is a very good start, which we can now refine regularly, and will do every month on TopSalesEverything.com, which launches in January. 

Enough I hear you plead, in eager anticipation  .. so from 1 to 5:

1. B2B Lead Generation Blog – Brian Carroll -  http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/

2. The JF Blogit – Jonathan Farrington – http://thejfblogit.co.uk

=3. The Sales Blog – S. Anthony Iannarino – http://thesalesblog.com/    

=3. Trust Matters Blog – Charles Green – http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters

5. Jill Konrath’s Blog – Jill Konrath – http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/selling/

That is a pretty “heavyweight” list to be sure. Am I embarrassed to be on it? Yes, a little, but it is the type of embarrassment I can live with, and allow pride to become the dominating emotion right now. I was genuinely surprised.

This exercise was never designed for my own personal benefit, but rather to discover the top 10 sales blogs who would make up the ten finalists for the 2010 Top Sales Blog over at 2010 Top Sales Awards 

It was something I had to do, because no-one else was going to do it, and there was no alternative data that I could rely on … none whatsoever!

We now have our ten finalists right?

1. B2B Lead Generation Blog – Brian Carroll -  http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/

2. The JF Blogit – Jonathan Farrington – http://thejfblogit.co.uk

=3. The Sales Blog – S. Anthony Iannarino – http://thesalesblog.com/    

=3. Trust Matters Blog – Charles Green – http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters

5. Jill Konrath’s Blog – Jill Konrath – http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/selling/

=6 Ian Brodie’s Blog – Ian Brodie – http://www.ianbrodie.com/

=6. Understanding the Sales Force – Dave Kurlan – http://www.omghub.com/

= 8. Sales & Management Blog – Paul McCord – http://salesandmanagementblog.com/

=8. Sales Excellence Blog – Dave Brock – http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/

10. Wendy Weiss’s Blog – Wendy Weiss -http://wendyweiss.com/blog

Well, under normal circumstances yes, but these are not normal circumstances are they? As the creator and joint host of Top Sales Awards it would be totally inappropriate for me to accept a nomination. This is not my show, and that sort of thing has never been my way. I gain far more pleasure from promoting good chums, colleagues and more deserving individuals.

So the tenth finalist in this category will be the person who filled the eleventh place, and so narrowly missed out on a top ten position. It is fitting that he is a highly valued friend and confidant:

11. Profit Builders Blog – Keith Rosen – http://blog.profitbuilders.com/

Ok, now please do not forget that we are announcing all ten category finalists today over at Top Sales Awards (at 12 noon Eastern) and there are some very interesting nominations.

Voting opens on the 24th – so be ready!

Tomorrow, I’ll share some of the feedback I have received on this and the Top Sales Awards initiative already – I think you will be amused!  As an example, someone suggested that this was a “Self-promotional exercise”  Well, if highlighting twenty-four other excellent sales blogs and bloggers can be called “self-promotional” then I am guilty as charged.

Trackback URI |