Have you ever had one of those posts that you think is going to be hugely popular with your readers and as you anticipate the droves of traffic you realize that you were far too optimistic?
Earlier today I published 10 Reasons Being a Dad Rocks over at Dad Balance. When I scheduled the post to be published, I had visions of the traffic pouring in throughout the day.
Pffft.
While the lack of traffic does not detract from the experience of writing the post – which I thoroughly enjoyed as I searched for photos to match my reasons – I would be lying if I didn’t say that it has been somewhat disappointing. However, as I thought about went wrong I could not help but think about which posts of mine have been the most successful.
When considering which post could be considered the most successful, there are a few different ways to define success.
The natural instinct for many bloggers is to define the most successful post as the one that has received the highest number of visitors. While it is hard to argue with this definition of a successful blog post, you also have to consider the level of personal enjoyment as well as the value that your readers find in a post, which really seems like a better definition of a successful blog post.
Looking at this blog, there are two posts that stand out in terms of pure traffic as being the most successful.
The post with the pictures of an exploding CD is by far the most successful with over 28,500 pageviews courtesy of being a front-page digg. That post would be followed closely by something that I just happened to see and thought was rather humorous – Yahoo! News Mentions Starbucks’ Ass Hairs. This post checked in with over 14,500 pageviews.
As nice as it is to see a post receive a huge influx of traffic, publishing a post that really connects with your readers simply cannot be matched. With my post today over at Dad Balance, I really feel like the readers have embraced the message that I shared as the feedback that I have received has been tremendous.
On this blog, I believe that my most successful post in terms of the message and what it has meant to me was my post about being a better husband. While this post has also received a nice amount of traffic with over 3,700 pageviews it is the feedback that I have received which simply cannot be compared.
It is important not to lose the perspective of what a successful blog post means to you. When my vision of receiving thousands of visits to my post at Dad Balance proved to be a mirage, I admit that I briefly lost this perspective but then I remembered what a successful blog post means to me and in this regard I could not be happier.
How do you define success? What is your most successful blog post ever?
Provide a link to your most successful blog post in the comments below and I will compile a listing of everyone’s most successful blog post to share with everyone.
What Is Your Most Successful Blog Post Ever?
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Your post at dad balance sounds like it could be a great read, i’m going over there now.
I checked out your post over there and really liked it!
I’ve never really thought of it. I can’t imagine getting 20,000 pageviews at this point…well, I can imagine it, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet. Well, one step at a time. My most successful post has to be the one from yesterday – top 10 ways to be a good husband.
I also trying to create a succesful blogpost that generate traffic but until now I have’t get any succesful blogpost.
A post is successful if the post gets huge response and lot of traffic. But a post gives satisfaction if the topic of the post is close to your heart and you love writing about it. It is a very rare combination to have a post which gives you satisfaction and gives a lot traffic too. That means all the people who visited your blog are like minded to you which is very rare now a days. I had this experience in only one post up till now in which I got satisfaction and traffic.
Great post, Derek. I was expecting some laundry list of to do’s for Dad’s. Mixing the pictures with the captions was a brilliant idea.
As for my idea of a successful post – I keep trying to insert my ideas, or passions, on specific subjects into blog posts. When somebody gets what I’m tryiung to say, and understands the importance of the idea, that’s a success. It may just one person, or a front page digg. But so long as someone gets it, that’s still a success.
Success is in the eye of the beholder. For me, success involves having a great discussion with readers about the content of the post. If I can walk away when it’s all said and done while learning something new, then the post was a success — even if my original ideas were wrong. I have no problem learning something new from readers who might be better informed than I am on a subject.
That said, if we’re looking strictly at numbers, my two short fiction stories have each pulled in 20,000+ hits in the last four weeks thanks to StumbleUpon, and the most popular blog post was about Japan’s misguided attempt at internet regulation.
That said, the posts I tried hardest to make my “signature articles” turned out to be duds. Very few hits, and zero comments. This was something I had discussed earlier last month, and I’ve learned that regardless of how many hits my best work might receive, I can take solice in the knowledge that someone around the world might find it useful one day.
Well … that’s what I tell myself 😕
Well, success is a hard thing to define. I’ve had quite a few visits to my site today, 100 – 200 on a stylish radiator I posted about. Here’s a link:
http://www.goodnightmoonfuton.com/blog/2008/02/funky-radiator.html
I think people really enjoy the post on site that are show casing artistic pieces. But, who really knows.
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better….to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to be successful….” —–Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Your post covers quite a bit of ground on the above scale. Can you imagine the traffic that RWE generated with his writings? He has been dead and gone a long time and here we are quoting him. Who knows, your last sentence, may indeed come true!
Regret I am unable to give you one of my truly satisfying posts. Perhaps if this topic came up again in a few months’ time, I will be able to.
I also had those visions of traffic pouring in to that post. At the end of the day I had a true “WTF?!” moment wondering what the hell happened! It was one of your best posts ever!
But I also have to say that sometimes posts I think will be a huge hit don’t go nearly as far as other posts that I think are just good. I guess you never know what an audience will think until you get in front of them. 🙂
Also keep in mind that something like a blowing up CD which is probably considered your standard viral post which appeals to a lot more people than something like 10 reasons why being a dad rocks. 10 reasons why being a dad rocks can be viral among that community, and can probably be a lot more successful even with 1/10th the traffic…because it’s targeted traffic in which readers may check out other posts, subscribe to your RSS feed, etc. aka the retention value is a lot higher.
Great post topic Derek. My definition of a successful post if one with the higheset relative permalink views (ie; my highest ever was 2k so I’m not judging by 20k). AND also comment count and most importantly, my pride in the article to date. For me, that post is “Teaching, Inspiration, and Rock n Roll” I wrote some months back.
It has 958 Permalink views
21 Comments
and I am still very proud of the message it contains.
I’m looking forward to reading your latest post at Dad Balance Derek. It sounds like another great topic.
Curently on my blog new daily visitors has been around the 100 mark (as reported by awstats), and I’m quite pleased with this as only a few months ago I was barely hitting 40 a day, so I guess my overall success is improving. My most successful post, however, is this one:
http://www.brewsterware.com/archives/johannus-opus-1400-classical-organ-for-sale.html
I managed to sell the organ for quite a bit more than I was told I would get for it, and was able to buy a wood burning stove which is currently keeping me nice and warm 🙂
I like your posts most 🙂
I would have expected that post to be a blockbuster as well. I would have bet money on it too.
Not so much on my blog, but I’ve found that my most successful review/article at my tech site is always something I didn’t see coming. For example, a review of Logitech’s diNovo Edge keyboard… yeah, a really cool product, but at the time, it had been out for a while, yet somehow it hit front page on Digg and got nearly 1,000 Diggs. All this, when other articles that I think will do well totally flop on Digg.
WOW! there is a lot of response. Thanks for the nice post and also thanks for shearing this nice post.
The following post received the highest traffic, stumbles and was really close to my heart. I wrote it out of pure inspiration hoping to climb higher in life. Here is the link:
http://www.greatpriceshere.com/2008/01/04/rich-richer-richest/
Your post makes one think! Great article. Thanks for allowing me to comment!
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