An Analysis of the Tiny House Blog Network

Do you have a tiny house blog? When you write something, how many people read it? One way to make a guess at how many folks read it is how many folks comment on it. But if 3 people comment on it, dose that mean only 3 people read it? No. Generally, more people read than comment.

How about followers? Maybe you have statistics that say 40 or so folks "follow" your blog. So does that mean 40 people read your post? Maybe, maybe not. The number could be smaller since of those 40 followers only a fraction will read every post. But the number could be higher because other bloggers may read your post and write about it (generally linking to your blog or the specific post). This may bring other readers to your site.

So lets talk about links. There are two basic kinds of links in the blogosphere. First are the links in blogrolls. These are static, meaning they don't change much. They are also generally strategic - meaning as bloggers we make choices about who we link to (for this post I will not talk about the politics of links, but I might in a future post). The other kind is a citation link. If anyone writes about this post in their blog they will likely follow general blogger etiquette by linking to it. They might say it's all hog-wash, or that it's interesting, but generally most bloggers link to a post that inspires or influences them in their own post.

And those links form a network. I used a tool called the Issue Crawler to capture the network generated by blogrolls and citations to make a visualization of the blogs that form what is called a topic network. The topic, is, of course, Tiny Houses. Where are you on the map?



So let me tell you what the map means. (Download a large version here).

First, the map captures the top 50 nodes (blogs) in the Tiny House Issue Network. The size of the node is based on the number of in-links (either from citations or blogrolls). Below I have posted the top 93 sites and the number of in-links that Issue Crawler could find (which may not be every single one). The size and position of the nodes are related to how many in-links that blog has received.

If you make money from advertising (Arlene and I do not) than site traffic is important to you and site traffic is, as we say in statistical parlance, positively related to in-links. That just means that more in-links you have, the more traffic you are likely to have (other things being equal).

I haven't done a formal analysis of this network, so I don't have much else to say about it for now. I will say that some sites on the map (like Wikipedia) may or may not be relevant to the topic network. We could probably make arguments on either side for including this or that site, or not including them. That would depend on the analysis.

So, are you on the top 10 list? Top 93? Issue Crawler only lists and plots sites that have two or more in-links from other sites within the network - so we have a list of 93 blogs and their ranking. Tiny House Blog has a very high number of in-links, so it is central to the map. But some of those links are not from the collection of 93. So the numbers on the map may not match the within-network ranking.

But, anyway, here is the Tiny House Issue Network ranking:

Actor Rankings (core network and periphery, by page)
1 - tinyhouseblog.com - 47
2 - tinyhousedesign.com - 42
3 - tumbleweedhouses.com - 34
4 - resourcesforlife.com - 31
5 - tinyfreehouse.com - 27
6 - michaeljanzen.com - 26
7 - rowdykittens.com - 25
8 - thistinyhouse.com - 22
9 - comingunmoored.com - 21
10 - smalllivingjournal.com - 21
11 - tinyhouseliving.com - 19
12 - ninetinyfeet.com - 18
13 - wordpress.com - 17
14 - paddleways.com - 15
15 - storyofstuff.com - 15
16 - thetinylife.com - 14
17 - tortoiseshellhome.com - 14
18 - shedworking.co.uk - 13
19 - jaystinyhouse.com - 13
20 - smallhousestyle.com - 13
21 - tinypallethouse.com - 12
22 - tinyhouseforum.com - 12
23 - diyfreedom.com - 11
24 - flickr.com - 11
25 - tinyhousejournal.com - 11
26 - apartmenttherapy.com - 11
27 - tinytexashouses.com - 11
28 - littlediggs.com - 11
29 - tinyhousevillage.com - 11
30 - mobilecottage.blogspot.com - 11
31 - togetherweareone.com - 10
32 - rosschapin.com - 10
33 - thegreenestdollar.com - 9
34 - theyonderosa.blogspot.com - 9
35 - energystar.gov - 9
36 - greenaerie.blogspot.com - 8
37 - livinglargeinourlittlehouse.com - 8
38 - otherpower.com - 8
39 - relaxshax.wordpress.com - 8
40 - zenhabits.net - 8
41 - microcompacthome.com - 8
42 - lodge-on-wheels.com - 8
43 - kithaus.com - 8
44 - relaxshacks.com - 8
45 - smallhousesociety.org - 8
46 - sustain.ca - 8
47 - martinhousetogo.com - 8
48 - notsobighouse.com - 8
49 - tinyhousetalk.com - 7
50 - juliajanzen.com - 7
51 - weehouse.com - 7
52 - inhabitat.com - 7
53 - moderncabana.com - 7
54 - freecycle.org - 7
55 - truckingpilgrim.blogspot.com - 7
56 - claytonihouse.com - 7
57 - accessahut.wordpress.com - 7
58 - dwell.com - 7
59 - npr.org - 7
60 - time.com - 7
61 - cusatocottages.com - 7
62 - en.wikipedia.org - 6
63 - sonomashanty.com - 6
64 - tinyhouses.net - 6
65 - kmswoodworks.wordpress.com - 6
66 - portlandalternativedwellings.com - 6
67 - claytonhomes.com - 6
68 - littlehouseonasmallplanet.com - 6
69 - projectrollingfreedom.wordpress.com - 6
70 - jenkinspublishing.com - 6
71 - realestatejournal.com - 6
72 - buildingwithawareness.com - 5
73 - projectrollingfreedom.com - 5
74 - felinedesigninc.com - 5
75 - small-house-building.com - 5
76 - lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com - 5
77 - ultimatemoneyblog.com - 5
78 - metaphysics-for-life.com - 5
79 - ebay.com - 5
80 - josephkenyon.com - 5
81 - rocioromero.com - 5
82 - off-grid.se - 5
83 - cobcottage.com - 5
84 - contests.apartmenttherapy.com - 4
85 - coyotecottage.com - 4
86 - cottagecompany.com - 4
87 - bluhomes.com - 4
88 - slowingdown.wordpress.com - 4
89 - ted.com - 4
90 - thescraphouse.wordpress.com - 4
91 - powellriverbooks.blogspot.com - 4
92 - edavies.nildram.co.uk - 4
93 - goyurt.com - 4

The next project is the drapes

Now that I've painted, I've figured out what I want to do for drapes. I was looking for a woven material so we'd let in lots of air and light. At night we can close the honeycomb blinds for added privacy and darkness.

What we have hanging now is liner material, like bleached muslin, scavenged from some old drapes. Yesterday I bought off-white burlap for the drapes and oatmeal colored linen-like ribbon to be used along the sides and bottom (to give a bit more contrast from the walls). I might also add a couple of 1.25" diameter simple, wooden buttons to each window so we can hold the new drapes open.

I need to sew along the cut edges of the fabric to prevent it from unraveling then it'll go into the washing machine until it's softer. I'm told to expect a little shrinking too. I'm curious to see what it comes out like because I haven't worked with burlap before. The price was worth gambling on though. I paid $10.50 for 9 yards of fabric (on sale) which should be enough for all of the windows.

An update on the garden

The first cycle of everything has been planted and is sprouting like crazy. In my quest to see if I can grow all of my own food, I ended up planting:

peas
cucumbers
string beans
melons
squash
soybeans
micro greens
beets
carrots
bell peppers
poblano chiles
fractal-like cauliflower
2 different lettuces
4 different heirloom tomatoes
cilantro
basil
scallions
some edible flowers as well as
rosemary
lavender
peonies
lily of the valley
hollyhock
and wildflowers to bring bees and hummingbirds.

These pictures were taken on May 1st.