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Blogging Guide > Unsorted Posts > Helping readers to find your best posts
Furthermore, writing posts where there's an incentive to leave comments - such as a competition - may get the most comments of all. If the competition finished months ago, do you really want that post in your "most popular ever" list?
How else can you measure popularity? Look outside your site. Perhaps you have posts that generated a lot of discussion on forums. Perhaps you get a lot of emails about those posts. Maybe you're frequently asked for a particular type of post that people can never find - either they know it's on your site somewhere but can't find it, or they just hope it's there.
For instance, if you write beginners guides, why not create a page linking to your best guides? If your entire site focuses on that kind of content, why not sub-divide it by subject matter or experience level? Some of this might be doable without manual intervention, but you may have to do a little work yourself.
The content at the top of the home page will be seen far more than the content elsewhere on the page. In fact it will probably be seen more than anything else on your site - but that really depends on how the traffic is balanced across your site. In theory, a relatively low traffic site could get a lot of views on a very popular post, with most of the visitors never actually seeing the home page.
The thing to remember is that if you have a really good post at the top of the home page and you usually update every day or two, writing a new post will move the really good post so it's further down the page. If that post is doing well but some people haven't had time to read it yet, you may be inadvertently cutting off the views.
You could argue that this can go on forever. Leave a post at the top of the page and people will always see it. However, it goes the other way; if people keep seeing the same post over and over again, they will think you're not updating. So they may move on.
The lesson to learn is that sometimes it's wise to let a popular post stay at the top of the page, rather than posting a new post the next day simply because you've committed to writing daily posts.
I'll leave that one up to you.
Do you sometimes give posts a bit longer than usual to attract a few more comments, rather than writing a new post and cutting off the old one?
Helping readers to find your best posts
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Most readers don't have time to read through all of your old posts. As time progresses, you'll find that you have more and more posts in your archives. How do you get people reading the best ones?Lists of popular content
Many publishing systems allow you to display a list of your most popular posts. What does popularity refer to? Perhaps one of the following:- Posts with the most comments
- Posts with the most views
- Posts with the most votes on social bookmarking sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
Furthermore, writing posts where there's an incentive to leave comments - such as a competition - may get the most comments of all. If the competition finished months ago, do you really want that post in your "most popular ever" list?
Setting up your own lists
While it may be interesting to see the posts with the most comments and views, it might make more sense to build your own aggregate lists. This isn't a feature that you'll find in your blogging system of choice (perhaps it should be added). In this case, aggregate refers to information that you collect from a variety of sources. If views or comments aren't sufficient for you to measure the true popularity of your posts, why not combine several other measurements to create a far more interesting list of popular content?How else can you measure popularity? Look outside your site. Perhaps you have posts that generated a lot of discussion on forums. Perhaps you get a lot of emails about those posts. Maybe you're frequently asked for a particular type of post that people can never find - either they know it's on your site somewhere but can't find it, or they just hope it's there.
For instance, if you write beginners guides, why not create a page linking to your best guides? If your entire site focuses on that kind of content, why not sub-divide it by subject matter or experience level? Some of this might be doable without manual intervention, but you may have to do a little work yourself.
Watching out for new posts gaining popularity
Some people find your site because they found a post that you wrote. Others will start at your home page. If you list your latest posts on the home page, chances are you'll have the newest post at the top.The content at the top of the home page will be seen far more than the content elsewhere on the page. In fact it will probably be seen more than anything else on your site - but that really depends on how the traffic is balanced across your site. In theory, a relatively low traffic site could get a lot of views on a very popular post, with most of the visitors never actually seeing the home page.
The thing to remember is that if you have a really good post at the top of the home page and you usually update every day or two, writing a new post will move the really good post so it's further down the page. If that post is doing well but some people haven't had time to read it yet, you may be inadvertently cutting off the views.
You could argue that this can go on forever. Leave a post at the top of the page and people will always see it. However, it goes the other way; if people keep seeing the same post over and over again, they will think you're not updating. So they may move on.
The lesson to learn is that sometimes it's wise to let a popular post stay at the top of the page, rather than posting a new post the next day simply because you've committed to writing daily posts.
I'll leave that one up to you.
What do you think?
Can you think of any other ways to highlight your best posts?Do you sometimes give posts a bit longer than usual to attract a few more comments, rather than writing a new post and cutting off the old one?
Related Content
Comments on Helping readers to find your best posts
As a reader, I like seeing the "best of" type lists on a blog, especially for my favorite bloggers. The other list I really like see these days, is the "related posts" list. I first saw this type of list used on YouTube, and it usually keeps me watching more videos then I have time for.
Edited: June 07, 2008 12:58
I find the related content links particularly useful. As I use my own blogging/website system, it was very good to get that working! :)
I use a page for my best stuff. It's found via the "Greatest Hits" tab just below my blog's header. A lot of people visit there, which is good, but I do need to periodically update it. The last one in the list is months old. Thanks for making me think of this. Time to update!