For nearly a year and a half, Mack Collier has produced a series he calls the Company Blog Checkup. "Originally," he says, "I looked at each blog's content, how they encouraged and replied to reader comments, and how frequently the blog published new posts. I would later start examining the blog's sidebar elements as well."

This May, he introduced a 100-point scoring system that allocated a certain number of points to each area of focus. He also assigned retroactive grades to the reviews in his archive. All can now be compared/contrasted with each other, and in a post at his Viral Garden blog, Collier has unveiled the Top Ten list based on these scores.

It's possible you've never visited—or even heard of—the first four:

• Fiskars' The Fiskateers Blog (89 points)
• Homegoods' Openhouse Blog (88 points)
• Turkey Hill's Ice Cream Journal Blog (87 points)
• Innocent Drinks' Daily Thoughts Blog (87 points)

Blogs from more recognizable names like Southwest Airlines, Dell, Stacks and Stacks, Coca-Cola, Patagonia and Mahindra round out the Top Ten.

If you want to know what an effective blog looks like—and the weak points it could stand to improve—check out Collier's series. The insight can improve your blog, and that's Marketing Inspiration.

More Inspiration:
Ann Handley: Want a Free Pass to the Inbound Marketing Summit?
Drew McLellan: Hey Blogger, Are You Ready for the Lawsuit?
Paul Dunay: Command & Control Branding: Not Dead Yet?

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