I just realized that this blog is a year old. My first post was May 19, 2008 although I didn’t really get going until June. I tend to think of the blog starting in the summer.
So, in order to commemorate this event I am going to list my 5 most popular posts of all time based on page views in Google Analytics. One of them I know without even looking it up. On most days it gets the most traffic, it rarely gets a comment and it makes me laugh.
- 4 Sites To Help You Decide What Book To Read Next – This article was also featured on my 5 most popular articles of this year post. This is one of those articles that got stumbled and stumble visitors continue to visit. Who knew that deciding what book to read was such a hot topic.
- How to Make an Animated Gif from a Video Clip – Last summer Jim found a funny video clip and thought it would make a cool animated gif. Being the curious dork that I am I decided to figure out how to do this and wrote it up for this article. It’s received very few comments except by people who have trouble with the instructions. My guess is that this a favorite of people who want to make really annoying forum avatars.
- Extract Audio from YouTube Videos – This is the one that I knew would be in the top 5. I wanted to do this so I could have funny sound clips like Bill O’Reilly screaming, “we’ll do it live”. I think though that most people are using it to get songs off of music videos. This, to me, is incredibly lame. The sound quality isn’t going to be very good and most songs can be purchased for .99 cents. Maybe they are using it the way I do … I’m not sure. It just amuses me.
- How to Exclude Pages from the WordPress Navigation Bar – This is a relatively simple code tweak that doesn’t require the use of a plugin. It would appear that a lot of people want to know how to do this. This is the article in this list that I am most happy about receiving traffic. It’s what I enjoy working with and writing about.
- Qwitter: Find Out Who Has Stopped Following You on Twitter – While I originally wrote this article to be funny, it seems that many people want to know who has stopped following them and are searching for a tool. Unfortunately, Qwitter has become unreliable at best. I never did stop the service and I rarely receive notifications that someone has stopped following me. Then I’ll wake up on a particular morning to a full inbox because I have received weeks worth of unfollows. It’s annoying – somehow I have still not been annoyed enough to unsubscribe although I really should. I have put a note on the top of the article to let people know that the service doesn’t really work anymore but I guess that doesn’t stop them from finding it with a search.
While I know that what I value differs from what other people find important, only one out of the five most popular articles really matters to me. I wasn’t surprised by these results because anytime I look at stats these 5 articles are always at the top.
photo credit: PPCC Antifa
Hey I remember these posts!
I actually thought #2 was going to give me the Beckham flop but it was actually dancing Cesc Fabregas! :-)
Jim´s last blog post – Robin’s Egg Watch – May 17th
Hi Jim – Yep. You inspired me to make the Fabregas animated gif ;-)
So which one do you value? Same thing happens to me. I value those “Hardcore or Masochist” post series but they get random traffic and almost no comments. It took me a while to write them though and the research was painful. Guess that’s why i stopped them. No motivation. Anyway happy birthday!
Hi Stratos – Woops – thought I added that info. I like #4 the best
A couple of these are before I settled on what I was going to write about – that took me most last summer.
Wow, a year! Congratulations. I’m a fairly new reader so thanks for gathering these together for me.
Writer Dad´s last blog post – 7 Easy (And Fun!) Exercises to Boost Your Creativity
Hi – Well, if you want to read some older posts I don’t know if these would
be my top recommendations. It depends on what you are interested in.
Thanks for visiting and sticking around :-)
Totally agree with you re: Quitter — I signed up after reading your post — but had to unsign up soon thereafter b/c of its unreliability. I just hated getting a whole bunch of emails one day for every single person that’d decided to quit me —
Siel´s last blog post – Clicklist: Speed up traffic by banning cars, which’ve slowed down trains
Hi Siel – I know. It worked briefly and then turned into a big mess. I feel
bad for the people who search for info about this and find the qwitter article.
Happy one year blog-anniversary! Mine started about one year ago around this time too. It is funny how your top article, traffic wise, is quite surprising compared to what you, as the author, enjoyed writing the most. I guess that is how it works for most sites though.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog post – Wedding Photos and More at SoulmatesWedding.com
Hi Kristi – Thanks!
I guess I need to write more articles about stealing music ;-)
Tool #2 sounds really cool. It wasn’t stumbled yet?? I just stumbled it and it treated my stumble as a discovery.
Vered – MomGrind´s last blog post – Bizarre Vintage Ads
Hi Vered – I guess not. People are finding it via search.
I found the ability to exclude pages very handy. :)
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Strategies Book Review FollowUp – I Name Names!
Hi Dennis – Thanks! I use it all the time.
Happy Anniversary Kim. Did ya have some cake to celebrate? Anyway, about Qwitter, there is another site called Friend Or Follow that does the same thing. I’ve just checked mine and I’ve found another 3 slime balls I have to give the flick. :D Perhaps you could adjust your post?
Sire´s last blog post – Are Google’s Days Numbered?
Hi Sire – Thanks! I didn’t actually celebrate – although I thought I heard fireworks last night ;-)
I have a note at the beginning of the qwitter article that says the service isn’t reliable but I don’t offer an alternative. One time when I tried Friend or Follow it told me that there were people who weren’t following me who actually were so I was hesitant to use it. I suppose, however that if a lot of people are searching for this information that a new article would be useful.
No worries Kim. You know, you may not be able to rely on sites doing what they are supposed to do, but you can rely on me keeping an eye on you, just to see what you are gonna come up with next. ;)
Except 2 and 3 I clearly remember reading those posts :) By the way, how come 3 is a popular post? Did you pick it based on page views, because number of comments on it is not that high.
Hi Ajith – Yes, it is based on page views in google analytics. The most commented are different than the most viewed.
Kim,
Dang… I really need to change my reading style… Guess what, the moment I see titles like 5 things, 10 posts etc, I directly go to those bullet points and start reading (that’s why my previous question on page views/comments :(
And Happy (belated) Birthday to (Anti) Social Development… It’s been a nice journey, isn’t it? Your online social and web presence has really gone high in 1 year, I see. And the difference between the very first post and the latest shows how your blog has influenced and evolved – especially, it’s very much influenced (and vice versa) by your career choice now, right? :)
Congrats again on completing an year with (A)SD !
Ajith Edassery´s last blog post – What was a blog and what is it now?
Hi Ajith – That’s ok – I do the same thing sometimes.
Thanks! I can’t believe it’s been a year – I had no plans for freelancing
when I first started the site. But it had everything to do with why I left
my job.
Now I need to work on traffic to the site ;-)
Congrats Kim on completing a year. It is great to see how your site has increased in popularity ever since the first time i came here. All the best for the future.
Madhur Kapoor´s last blog post – Instant File Name Search Provides Fast File Searching
Hi Madhur – Thanks :-) It has improved, hasn’t it? You were one of my
first consistent visitors …
Congrat of the one-year. Always enjoy your info and look forward to the next year.
Gennaro´s last blog post – Memorial Day Weekend: Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier
Hi Gennaro – Thanks :-) I enjoy your site too even though I rarely travel ;-)
Kim, I believe popular posts also bring incoming links, in your experience can we say roughly “more traffic = more incoming link”, or some other aspects such as number of comments also important.?
Chinese Girl´s last blog post – Photo Xining Dongguan Mosque
Hi – I’m not sure. Most of these “popular” posts are found via search engines.
Happy One Year Anniversary!
Number 5 sounds very interesting.
Jannie Funster´s last blog post – “Sugar Lady” Video
Hi Jannie – Thanks!
Qwitter WAS interesting when it actually worked properly.