September 4, 2007
Using comments as a measure of blog activity
Looking at a few previous posts (such as Most Viewed Posts of 2006 and Placing Value on your Blog), I would forgive you if you started to think I was fascinated by blogging, and by the inherent ‘is this blog interesting to people?’ thought process I’m sure every blogger has.
As a matter of course for the first few months I used to regularly trawl my blog statistics package, looking for an insight into who reads which posts and when, what posts capture interest, and which don’t. However that quickly wore off, and it’s rare I even check them out at all.
However, back in my Placing Value post, I talked about using comments as a form of measurement tool. So, it won’t come as a surprise to you that I recently started to wonder which of my posts have garnered more comments than others in the last two years of blogging…
So here it is; the top nine posts (who needs 10?), using comments as a measurement:
1. The Web 2.0 Secret Weapon was my very successful tongue in cheek look at the Web2.0 phenomenon, including Photoshop Palette.
2. Job applicants take note was a rant of mine after a recruiting campaign, at the lack of care applicants put into finding that job.
3. If Web2.0 applied to cars was another joke based around Web2.0 - get the feeling I liked to knock that trend?
4. An Absolute Honour, a recent post about my own personal achievement in winning a business award.
5. 39 hints when looking for web industry work allowed me to cover what I consider to be the basics when applying for a position at a web company.
6. Lets use English in HTML was another rant, albeit with the intention of encouraging debate, about the usage of American English spelling in HTML.
7. Make Money Blogging was a discussion around what methods bloggers go to, in order to earn a buck.
8. Design Thieves Part II was a rant about an unfortunate incident back mid last year, when we had a website completely copied. It eventually settled out of court, in our favour.
9. Well explained forms was a chance for me to get on a soapbox about a form I had encountered, and what was blatantly wrong with it.
Now, I need to start re-thinking my strategy. They say you’re meant to pick a niche, and stick to it - I certainly never heeded that advice with the above posts, nor with the other 130 or so. The above nine posts cover one huge range of subjects, albeit with some vaguely similar themes around recruitment and web2.0.
Image: Grapes in our backyard.
