My top posts of 2014… Interesting…

2014 was a pretty intense year for me online. A ton of writing. My goal was to publish 500 blog posts to kineticbear.com. I got damn close, but was happy with hitting just over 400. A number any write would be proud of in 365 days. Not to mention I wrote my first book around 100 pages long.

I learned a lot about myself, my writing and how readers react to it by simply writing such a large amount of posts. Looking back at the analytics for 2014 was really interesting though. To be honest, all of that writing didn’t really increase my traffic as significantly as I had hoped.

To be clear though, traffic was not my main goal and it never usually is. I’m not sure it ever will be for this site. It seems to be against what I’m all about. On the other hand it is interesting to find out what visitors are reading the most and where they go to from there.

Before I get into the analytics let me share my blog’s top posts. Please take note to the date they were published. In 2014 my blog received roughly 19,000 page views. That’s 6,000 above 2013. I think that’s pretty cool for a personal blog.

1. 4 Big Reasons I’m Leaving Facebook – September 9, 2013 – 1,371 views.
2. How I Increased My Blog Traffic – February 4, 2014 – 679 views. 
3. The Death of Facebook Pages – January 24, 2014 – 670 views. 
   

I had a weird glitch happen with my permissions through my hosting provider in december, so that entire month kind of got messed up, but the rest of the year was visible through Google Analytics. Check out this screenshot below for traffic numbers based on my site’s top posts and pages. 

Most of my visitors end up at my site at my home page. That’s because I have my homepage listed on all of my social network profiles as well as my email signature. When people first find out about me they want to know more, so naturally the home page is a good start. From there they then probably venture to the about page or are curious about my book. It looks like they look into my mobile photography as well.

There are a few other posts that received traffic, but it is not too significant. One is a quote from Ron Swanson which is compeletey irrelevant to most of my blog and the others are about blogging. Those are supportive of my most popular posts in 2014. 

Traits that my top three posts have in common.

1. They are about blogging. They all lead to a bigger purpose – That blogging can enhance your life. The specifics vary, but in the end they all discuss why publishing your own words to a blog is great.
2. They discuss the faults of social networks.. Especially Facebook. The sad part about investing in social networks is that they seem to have a short life span. Facebook still has a stronghold, but investing energy into a platform you do not have control over is risky. Owning your own blog means ownership of control. 
3. They revolve around blogging communities. It seems that most of the traffic was probably relative to my passion for Pressgram, a mobile publishing app. The Pressgram community was a great one. So friendly and supportive of eachother. My kind of people. They cared about what I had to say and the traffic numbers are evidence of that.
4. They were published before or at the beginning of 2014. There was more opportunity for the pages to be seen compared to posts that I wrote in the later parts of the year. They did have a significantly higher number though. So that speaks to something in each of them.
5. They have great imagery and solid facts. Even though I published a ton of posts in 2014, it may have been to my disadvatage with quality of my content. My top posts had “evidence to believe” what I was saying was true and had some clout… or Klout for you social network nerds out there.
6. Readers are spending 3-4 minutes on those pages. That’s a big deal. It means they are genuinely interested and not just scrolling through and leaving right away. 

A quick recap of all this information.

It’s very clear that my top posts of 2014 are about blogging, writing and the struggle I had with Facebook. They all were written to be a resource for others. Something I like to read myself. While they were the most successful, they were not my “best” work or in other words, my favorite pieces to write. They took quite a bit of work and had some great timing to them. With all the images, quotes and data to include, they just take more effort. Something I admire and look forward to actually.

Are these topics I want to write about in 2015?

This is the big question I have to think about. Do I focus on “what worked” or do I decide I want to start something new. Nothing wrong with that right? I honestly could care less about Facebook, but I love to talk about blogging and writing. As long as I am happy and can help others, I’m content with my “content.”… haha. see what I did there?