Since I started this blog six-and-a-half years ago, I’ve had almost 1.2 million visitors, 3300 on my busiest day, with over 14,000 comments on the 1,238 articles I’ve written on every facet of writing. I have several columns:
- writer’s tips (sign up by clicking here)
- book reviews (Fridays)
- tech tips for writers (occasional)
In between, I write what’s on my mind. It may be about the craft of writing, trends in the industry, how-tos, or how my writing business is doing. I like to keep articles short, so you can finish them with your coffee. You’ll rarely find one over 1000 words. Do you like short articles, or long ones? Take my poll, and then read on:
If I didn’t look at the statistics on my blog, I would guess that the most read posts were about the art of writing–how to do it and how to market it. I would guess that the series I wrote on Genre Writing Tips was up at the top of the list because it was wildly popular. Interestingly enough, while these did get lots of comments (see my upcoming post on my most-commented articles), they didn’t get the most visits. In fact, the most popular articles this year are the same categories as last year–a series I call Descriptors–how to describe a variety of stuff you include in your stories. The secobnd most popular was Tips by Genres–covering 23 genres from Cozy Mysteries to Young Adult.
Here they are–my top 10 and bottom 10 of 2015:
- 51 Great Similes to Spark Imagination
- 103 Most Beautiful Words? You Decide
- 35 Weird Traits Your Characters May Have
- How to Describe Nature
- How to Describe a Landscape
- How to Describe Your Character’s Home II
- How to Describe an American–if You Aren’t
- 65 Ways to Describe Sight and Eyes in Your Writing
- How to Show (Not Tell) Emotion–E to O
- How to Describe a Fight
This year, all top ten are about describing characters, setting, and plot. That’s a first–I see readers are definitely looking for writing help.
If I remove all the description articles, here are the remaining top ten:
- Word Count by Genre
- Plotting a Story–with a Spreadsheet
- How to Write
- 10 Tips Guaranteed to Rescue Your Story
- Funny One Liners I’ve Read in Books
- 5 Reasons I love Research
- How Many POVs is Too Many?
- What’s an Amazon Vine Voice?
- Grammarly–online or resident grammar checker
- The 15 Biggest Writing Blunders (And How To Avoid Them)
Here are the ten that received the least amount of activity, but were no-less carefully-written:
- 17 Tips on How to Market Your Books Online
- 18 Good Reasons I’m NOT Doing NaNoWriMo
- 15 Tips Picked Up From Twitter
- 10 Tips Guaranteed to Rescue Your Story
- How to Add Humor to Dull Characters
- 6 Tips That Solve Half Your Tech Writing Problems
- Why I Don’t Get Writers Block
- Book Review: Spycraft–Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs
- I Heart Neologisms
- Yes You Can Publish Direct to IPad
What were your most popular posts on your writer blog? Give me some topic hints for this year!
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
This is fascinating. I was initially drawn to your blog because I needed help with descriptions. I kept reading because I loved your writing style and appreciated your feedback. I’m not actively working on the novel I was, but I read now because it keeps me connected to my craft and gives me a relatable voice; you understand how I feel as a writer and share that with us. That’s what I love. And yes, 1000 words has been my mantra too for blogging. I think that’s usually enough to say what you want, and enough for the reader too. It is sometimes a challenge to stay under 1,000, but that’s the fun of it😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me, too. Yours BTW are a perfect length. I never understand posts that go on and on and on. Who has time to sit and read that long?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: A Look Back, A Look Ahead | Jennifer's Journal
Jacqui, your blog is one of my favourites for writing advice. Bookmarking this post to keep all this great info handy.
I prefer shorter posts unless the topic is something I am extremely interested in, so I try to do the same on my blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad so many people like shorter posts. It’s my leaning. I do have a quite long one coming up, but it’s on my other blog. I’ll be interested in how it’s received.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jacqui its fun to look back and see what was the most popular post, for me funny it was the one about Magpies. Not sure that gives you any ideas for posts though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha–yes, my experience with magpies is limited. But, in your case, I enjoy your personal observations. So, that does tell me something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOWZA – your stats are impressive but not as impressive as you are!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aww <>.
LikeLike
I haven’t looked at my stats in a long time.
I always enjoy your writing and tech tips. I prefer short posts (but not super short). Long posts make me less enthusiastic about reading and commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too–about the long posts. I find myself skimming, trying to finish before my coffee runs out.
LikeLike
Jacqui, I liked your survey. As you, who has so many followers, know it’s almost impossible to read every blog that comes our way and so I like it when it’s not too long. I love your blog. It’s informative and written in an interesting way. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Carol. I like short, too. Just enough, then we can carry on in comments, but that in-depth stuff–that has it’s place, but not as a blog (IMO).
LikeLiked by 1 person
So many years and so many viewers very well deserved. I wish you a lovely new year, full of accomplishments, and to many more posts to come!! x
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Lucy. I’m looking forward to this year. There should be some good stuff in the pipeline.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I only had one blog post that flew off the charts. The rest tend to stay within my little bell curve. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
LikeLiked by 1 person
My one is that first–about similes. Every day, it leads the pack. I love it, but have no idea how to replicate it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welcome back Jacqui. Look forward to getting more tips and guidance from your columns in 2016. Wish you a wonderful 2016.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a good break. I ended up doing a ton of reviews, but those are quite different from my normal blogging, it was still a wonderful break.
Happy New Year to you, too, Ankur!
LikeLike
Thanks Jacqui – all your posts are/have been extremely interesting and useful. Am saving this one even though I am pretty sure I’ve saved those posts you mentioned ..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yours too are fascinating. I love hearing how my South African neighbors view the world. It pulls me out of my bubble.
LikeLike
I love your blog, so they’ve all been hits with me! I’m not a statistics girl, but it was fun to learn what worked and what didn’t in general – fascinating stuff 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like seeing that, too, on other people’s blogs. What articles draw the most interest–usually that inspires me in my search for topics.
Hope all goes well, Mel. Talk more this year!
LikeLiked by 1 person
An amazing achievement! I love the stats on WP…they give motivation. Happy New Year!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love them too. I usually post them, but then realized my posts were the same information just presented differently, with more detail.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, great stats, Jacqui, and I’m not really surprised. There are some posts in your “tops” that I missed so I’m favoriting this post! Keep up the great work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Most of the top ones are reference types so do well being bookmarked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your statistics alone, never mind your always valuable posts, are simply amazing, and dwarf mine on every level. Well done you
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, blogging is so different from fiction writing. Likely, we can’t make money at either, but they’re both addicting.
LikeLike
Of the 30 posts listed here, I remember nearly all. There are a few I’m going to re-read. Best wishes to you, Jacqui, in the New Year. May you go from strength to strength.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Shari. I’ll see you tonight I hope?
LikeLike
You write about a wide variety of helpful topics that will prove useful to readers years down the road. I wrote a post about Pitchmas (a Twitter event where you pitch your book to agents and publishers), and that one got quite a few visits during the most recent Pitchmas event.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well that sounds exciting. I haven’t seen one of those. That abbreviated synopsis–a basic for every writer about their novel. I’m still struggling to say it right.
LikeLike
Yes, trying to pitch our novel in 140 characters or less tests our summarization skills immensely!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow you have done very well! congrats!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Then there’s you, with your scores of comments. Kudos!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations on your hits and your misses just prove your still alive and learning. And I am impressed on you daily visitor count. On a good day I get 50.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was stuck around 500 per day and then it took a leap. I have no idea why I got stuck or why it took a big increase. Just dunno.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I seem to be stuck around 50-60. Not sure it matters, but it would feel good to see lager numbers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I will say that getting more visitors makes it seem more worthwhile to spend lots of time on posts. I have another blog that gets few visitors and I struggle to focus on its content.
LikeLike
Evidence that your post are useful. Good job!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I appreciate that. I feel closer to my blog writing community than my real one over here in California. Isn’t that interesting?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Congrats on such outstanding results to your site! I knew you were an outstanding teacher, but – WOW!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would be surprised if you didn’t have similar numbers. You offer a niche that no one else I’ve found does, for military primary stories.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not even close to you, Jacqui, but thanks for vote of confidence.
LikeLike
This is interesting to see the breakdown of your topics. Honestly, I never look at my stats or the end of the year report from WP, so I couldn’t tell you what the popular topics were. Keep doing what you’re doing, Jacqui…it seems to work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I look at them a lot less than I used to. They don’t change a lot, despite my marketing efforts!
LikeLike
Over six years blogging! Wow, Jacqui, that is amazing! I am just coming up to my first full year. This is an interesting selection of information regarding the top posts and the not so popular. I would argue that even if some don’t have as many hits, they will be highly regarded by those who have read them. The ‘descriptors’ as you call them are valid in so many forms of writing I’m not surprised they are the most popular. My own top hit was a surprise, being ‘Colour Your Way to Stillness’ – glad it struck a chord with so many – and another surprise was a book review! Have a great year of blogging in 2016!!😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are two interesting top choices. Not so much ‘Colour Your Way to Stillness’–there are so many visual people out there, it would definitely appeal to them–but the book review. Mine are usually moderate interest, but none even in the top 20!
LikeLiked by 1 person