Blog Discussions

How popular is a top post?

Once you have a few posts on your site, you'll start to notice that some are more popular than others.  Perhaps some are getting more views, whereas others are getting more comments.

Many blogs display their top posts so you can easily see the cream of the crop.  It pays to understand what popular posts are all about though.

Show off your best work.

I do think it's a good idea to make your best posts easily accessible, especially for new readers.  This not only showcases how good your content can be, it also gives an idea of how many people are actively reading and commenting on your site.

But it means less at the start.

If you only have 10 posts on your site, is it really beneficial to show your top 10 posts at this stage?  All of the posts will end up being "popular" because that's all there is on your site.

People tend to gravitate to the best content.

In theory this sounds perfectly logical.  In practice what it means is that new readers may always end up reading and possibly commenting on the same posts.  The problem is that your other posts might not get a look in.

It's not just people.  Popular content can be a spam magnet.  I have even noticed some fairly standard posts attracting far more views than I would expect them to.

Your own comments can inflate numbers.

At the moment every comment on my site counts towards the total number of comments on a particular page, including my own comments.  For instance, if 10 people comment on this post and I post 1 comment where I reply to all of them, that's 11 comments.  But if I reply to each comment as it comes in, I'll end up with 20 comments on that post.

I've read some sites that say this isn't a bad thing because it boosts your statistics.  I'd just say that it is wise to be aware of this and that some posts may end up looking more popular than they are.  There are ways around this so your own comments can be excluded, but as I number the comments on my posts, I think this would just cause confusion.

Can you affect the popularity stats?

I have the ability to display stats for my whole site, or stats just for a certain section.  The stats on my home page only show the popular posts in my blog, so if I move a post to the Tutorials section, it will no longer be listed as a popular post on the home page.

This can be a double-edged sword; personally, I like being able to move posts out of the main section if I want to.  It doesn't mean that my stats are inaccurate - it just means that some unusually popular posts have run their course and I want to give the other content a chance to be seen.

New posts do still have a chance.

Looking at the "most discussed blog entries" on my home page, the last item has 11 comments.  That means for this post to get on the popular list I'd need to get 11 or more comments.  As the site grows, the list will get harder and harder to influence.

However, some of my recent posts have done quite well.  And I think it's good to keep pushing yourself further.  Knowing the entry point for the popularity list means I can set my sights on higher goals and challenge myself to keep improving.

What do you think?

Do you find it interesting to see which posts are popular, both on your own site and on someone else's?
Do you agree that a list of popular content can really help you to keep improving?

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