Top 100 Conservative Political Websites of 2007

Intellectual Conservative ^ | July 30, 2007 | Rachel Alexander

[az4vlad]

The most popular 100 conservative political websites and blogs for 2007 are listed here. Read who made the list and who surprisingly didn't.

Here is a ranking of the top 100 conservative political websites and blogs. Other than sifting and sorting through directories like alexa’s, there’s no easy to determine what are the most popular conservative websites. John Hawkins of rightwingnews has ranked all political websites in order of popularity in the past, but hasn’t put out an updated list since 2004. I have attempted to create an updated list of the conservative websites for 2007, using alexa’s directory and rankings. There are other sites like trafficranking.comwhich use different methodology to rank the popularity of websites, however, alexa’s system, which is based on the web surfing habits of those using its browser helper software remains the most popular. 

Conservative websites fall under various categories in the alexa directory, so I may not have found everyone. If you have been inadvertently left off, please email meso I can adjust the list, even if it means lengthening it to the top 125 or so. In some cases, it wasn’t easy to determine whether or not a site really belonged in this list. I am still open to changing some of the methodology, if you would like to dispute how I included or excluded sites I would like to hear from you. 

Blogs without their own domain name, such as blogs run off of blogspot.com, were not included, since with few exceptions, alexa does not separate them out. Some conservative leaning or more mainstream libertarian sites like the Cato Institute, Reason, and Radley Balko I thought should be included, whereas others that were more traditionally libertarian I left out (those included Neil Boortz’s site, ranked 35,416, samizdata, ranked 90,209, and the Libertarian Party site, ranked 116,978). I left out the Christian Science Monitor(ranked 12,583) because it is not reliably conservative, but I included U.S. News & World Report, since I believe it is still generally right leaning. 

I included think tanks and organizations like the legal American Center for Law and Justice, individual personalities like Michelle Malkin, and newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal. I may have left off some right of center regional newspapers, although I included the biggest ones. I included non-American sites, although there were few, and one German-language site I left off (think tank Konrad Adenhauer Foundation– ranked 176,951) 

I excluded one issue sites, for example sites that deal only with abortion or gun issues. I left off campaign sites since those sites come and go quickly. I left off sites like Politically Correct, which runs political cartoons (ranked 62,714), and conservative libraries like Online Library of Liberty(ranked 320,732). 

Now for the interesting findings. There were some big disappointments. The Republican National Committee barely made the list at 405,641. Scrappleface, which most of us remember as one of the early popular satire sites, also barely made the list at 433,108. The following sites didn’t even make the list: 

Hugh Hewitt – 5,633,009

Federalist Society – 1,245,004

Christian Coalition – 1,002,811

American Conservative Union – 950,055

Independent Women’s Forum – 930,362

Ifeminists.com – 828,382

And here is the list. Intellectual Conservative rounds out the end of the top 100.

1. Drudge Report – 951
2. Fox News - 599
3. Wall Street Journal – 1,043
4. New York Post – 1,778
5. WorldNetDaily – 4,605
6. NewsMax – 5,334
7. Boston Herald – 6,684
8. Free Republic – 7,114
9. Town Hall – 7,915
10. U.S. News and World Report - 8,694
11. National Review Online – 10,502
12. Politico – 11,359
13. Lew Rockwell – 13,174
14. Washington Times – 13,621
15. Rush Limbaugh – 14,117
16. Real Clear Politics – 17,027
17. The Post Chronicle – 19,203
18. Reason Online – 19,942
19. Little Green Footballs – 21,079
20. Michelle Malkin – 23,570
21. Instapundit – 25,661
22. Ludwig von Mises Institute – 28,169
23. Human Events – 28,937
24. Weekly Standard – 43,327
25. Powerlineblog – 41,288
26. Heritage Foundation – 48,044
27. FrontPageMag – 48,461
28. Red State – 49,599
29. Free Market News – 54,314
30. Jewish World Review – 55,733
31. Lucianne – 56,585
32. Ann Coulter – 57,910
33. Cato Institute – 58,391
34. Volokh Conspiracy – 61,682
35. Vdare – 76,539
36. American Thinker – 81,917
37. Michael Savage – 82,673
38. Bill O’Reilly – 83,723
39. Sean Hannity – 87,305
40. RightWingNews – 106,285
41. American Enterprise Institute – 108,262
42. American Spectator – 118,709
43. Mens News Daily – 126,426
44. Laura Ingraham – 145,994
45. Ilana Mercer – 162,520
46. Adam Smith Institute (U.K.) – 162,584
47. Radley Balko – The Agitator – 165,128
48. Snapped Shot – 166,275
49. American Conservative – 181,314
50. GOPUSA – 186,477
51. Acton Institute – 187,367
52. Renew America – 190,345
53. Christopher Hitchens – 194,067
54. Hoover Institution – 200,268
55. Political Crossfire – 200,941
56. Commentary Magazine – 211,054
57. Liberty Forum – 211,445
58. An Englishman’s Castle (U.K.) – 228,967
59. World and I (Washington Times) – 236,083
60. Accuracy in Media – 232,120
61. American Daily – 251,092
62. Media Research Center – 253,620
63. Etherzone – 257,691
64. Heartland Institute – 257,924
65. Café Hayek – 265,888
66. John Birch Society – 273,956
67. Concerned Women for America – 277,015
68. Independent Institute – 281,097
69. National Center for Policy Analysis – 290,051
70. La Shawn Barber’s Corner – 300,533
71. View from the Right – 301,593
72. Becker-Posner Blog – 305,780
73. Fraser Institute (Canadian) – 307,688
74. World Magazine – 307,978
75. Tom G. Palmer – 310,087
76. Talk Show America – 318,999
77. Tom Rants – 346,982
78. MichNews – 361,642
79. RealityCheck – 325,321
80. Family Research Council – 332,263
81. National Center for Public Policy Research – 334,388
82. Insight Magazine – 334,429
83. American Center for Law & Justice – 341,008
84. Club for Growth – 341,118
85. Tammy Bruce – 353,769
86. Sierra Times – 359,115
87. John Locke Foundation – 359,971
88. Enter Stage Right – 361,598
89. Judicial Watch – 367,970
90. Eagle Forum – 381,771
91. Sweetness and Light – 390,593
92. Discovery Institute – 398,031
93. Conservative Underground – 406,018
94. Hudson Institute – 419,364
95. Reason Foundation – 426,451
96. Young America’s Foundation – 450,076
97. Republican National Committee – 405,641
98. Scrappleface – 433,108
99. Claremont Institute – 456,349

100. Intellectual Conservative – 458,064

[TFMcGuire]

Mark

[Dante3]

I agree with you.

[George W. Bush]

The “pure” libertarians are incrasingly persona-non-grata for the social positions (legalize drugs? Insanity).

They never were welcome. But the small-government types and the pro-liberty types always were. Still are. In the recent GA-10 congressional election, a Ron-Paul style conservative just won over a typical establishment RINO type.

Furthermore, once upon a time (before he got old and found out his grandkids were homosexual), Goldwater used to espouse social conservatism too, and Buckley always has.

Goldwater's senility isn't an issue. Buckley did venture into international waters to smoke weed but was broadly conservative. And libertarian.

Without our libertarian heritage, we must of necessity abandon part of the conservative message. Just because a few libertine Libertarians adopt those same positions doesn't affect our reasons to embrace them.

[frossca]

I can’t see the difference between a Libertarian and a Democrat on social issues.

The Democrat is the one that wants to pick your pocket to pay for everyone to enjoy it. And don't talk to them about personal responsibility either.

[Kevmo]

I can’t believe World Nut Daily got a higher rating than Free Republic.

[Kevmo]

RQSR?

[rockinqsranch]

RQSR=Rockin QS Ranch

[MarineMom613]

space mark for later reading..

[longtermmemmory]

HA HA THAT WAS MY THOUGHT TOO!

Martinez’s ONGOING AMNESTY push (now with the DREAM ACT AMNESTY BILL) is crippling the GOP.

Not just bad but CRIPPLING.

He is poison.

[Enchante]

I certainly don’t think of “Instapundit” as at all conservative, more “moderate” I think — he gets a conservative rep from the far left who consider anyone right of Hillary Clinton to be a neanderthal.

[acoulterfan]

Please, someone who was on this site back in 98-2000 I believe it was, might remember when Lucianne was on here. WHAT was the story about Jim-Rob helping her get her site up for her and getting it started and then she kind of re-buffed him. Does anyone remember this saga? My memory may have this all wrong. There were some hard feelings and I can’t remember what it was all about. There were some posters that defected to her site and started bashing FR. And I remember JR being a complete gentleman about the whole affair. Wow, I have been on this site a long long time, LOL!

If I am touching on a subject that should not be brought up, please excuse me or let me know by private mail. Thanks!

[Domandred]

What exactly does the number next to the site mean?

They are the Alexa rankings. Drudge is 951 overall. #1 Yahoo #2 MSN #3 Google ... #951 Drudge ... etc

[commonguymd]

Self Ping

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[Perchant]

53. Christopher Hitchens

Huh?

Boggles the mind. You can be a total communist but if you dislike Islamic terrorism you get to be labeled "conservative".

[longtermmemmory]

Interesting,

FreeRepublic is the number one conservative forum.
(that is “blog” if you are an illiterat from the MSM)

The sites that are 1-7 are one way communication sites.

The survey should have only been for two way communication web sites.

[longtermmemmory]

They padded the results to lower FR.

Consider 1-7 are all one way sites. They talk to you not you to them or to other posters.

1-7 are old media models on the internet. (IOW they traded paper printing for websites)

Drudge is just a link site more rather than a true news site.

FR is the only true “new media” site in the top 8.

[jmc813]

91. Sweetness and Light – 390,593

People actually read that dork's blog?!? I'm a bit shocked.

[jmc813]

There’s no such thing as a “libertarian conservative”. That’s as absurd as “liberal conservative” or “marxist conservative”. No such beast exists.

Did you know that Ronald Reagan called libertarianism the "heart and soul of conservatism"?

[DesScorp]

“Did you know that Ronald Reagan called libertarianism the “heart and soul of conservatism”?”

Back then, the Libertarian Party hadn’t adopted its near-anarchist social vision. I’m pretty sure Ronaldus Maximus would have a different opinion of them today.