Today's blogger introspective theme: What makes for a popular post?
Is it the comments? Comments generated by a post is most obvious marker of popularity. I was just looking through my New Blogger tools to see what post, out of all 191 (gasp) before this one, had the most comments. Funny, it was a Bloggy McBloggerton post that was actually about post comments.
Of course then I noticed that I made three comments on that post, so I wondered which post had the most comments without my own - neverminding the issue that sometimes my own comments might be the reason for a future comment. Hands down, the most popular not-my-comment post was Sociology of Music Blog Titles, where an impressive number of music bloggers wrote in to describe how they chose the name for their blog. Well impressive to me, anyway.
How about links? But comments aren't necessarily the best measure, since that just implies a conversation. Other posts might be interesting, just not comment worthy. I could - and often do - check Technorati to see what posts are the most linked. For this I must go back to my very first week in the blogosphere, where a couple of blogs (one in Germany) linked to (insert verb) this book! I was really on that first week, because "everyday life" in quotes was also linked. Perhaps my heyday ended after four days.
The Google Effect? OR, perhaps popular searches make for popular posts. For the last several months I can't tell you how many people land here by means of searching for "hair style magazines" and find this picture from this post. I'm not kidding: 17 out of the last 50 site visits (nearly 2/5) as of this minute got here in this way, and this is a daily occurrence. Sure enough, I Google-Imaged it myself and found these results, which take a person to my June 06 archives page.
So the most popular thing on my blog turns out to be a canned picture of a hair style. I might have to change my subheading, or at least start up the fashion series again.
McBloggerton Series: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x
Friday, January 19, 2007
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--MAB
Do we blog for comments or for ourselves? That will always be the tetter we totter on.
Hi Lance: From poking around the blogosphere I suppose I've seen both. For example, I recall a sidebar that read, "Don't leave without making a comment!" And while I personally blog as a time waster (when I should be writing lectures or working on field exams), it's always nice to hear from you.
So which is it for you?
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