Top Ten Blog Posts of 2009

I figured I would jump on the bandwagon and post what the most popular posts of 2009 were. It was in the last few weeks of 2008 that I started structuring my blog differently: creating a limited set of categories in which to classify my posts. I know I didn’t post as frequently to some of the categories, but this list clearly showcases what’s bringing people to my blog (whether they stay.. that’s a different matter):

1. What to do with a Wet iPhone (published December 28, 2008)
2. What “No Commitment Pricing Policy”? (AT&T and iphone) (published July 12, 2008)
3. Transitioning to Google Voice with GV Mobile iPhone App (published July 23, 2009)
4. Transparent gifs – Will IE6 Never Die? (published June 17, 2008)
5. 5 Differences Between iPhone Native and Mobile-Web Apps (published February 10, 2009)
6. Incase Power Slider iPhone Case a Must-Have for Power Users (published April 7, 2009)
7. The Difference Between Social Media and Social Networking (published December 18, 2008)
8. Is “Building an iPhone App” Really a Good Mobile Marketing Strategy? (published February 17, 2009)
9. 4 WordPress Themes to Take your Blog to the Next Level (published March 3, 2009)
10. Facebook should take a page from Livejournal’s book on privacy settings (published April 16, 2009)

A few observations:
People love iPhone Posts! The top two are more geared towards users, however, not developers. This is one of those cases where I may be getting some traffic, but is it really the sort of traffic I want? Some of the posts are geared towards development and strategy, which is more in a place I’d like to be. Last year I publicly declared that I wanted to work on a mobile campaign in 2009. That didn’t work, but that remains a goal of mine.

Older Posts Still Have Legs. At first blush, I wanted to assume that older posts (some written in 2008) were ranking higher simply because there had been more time for people to read them. Yet when I reviewed my Top Ten from July 2009-Jan 2010, there was only one new addition: 1.8 Million Victoria’s Secret fans on Facebook (published July 2, 2009) pushed down the Wordpress Themes and Livejournal posts. Another indication why it’s important to highlight past posts: just because something is older doesn’t mean it ceases to be relevant.

Strong Titles Make for Popular Posts We’ve heard it before, but it seems to hold true. Throw a numbered list or a question in a blog title, and people flock to it. (Hmm, can I change the title of this one to “What were the Top Ten Blog Posts in 09?”… sounds awkward)

People Can’t Read What You Don’t Write I just looked back, and I didn’t blog from September 8th through November 25th. That is part of my motivation to start “throwing it against the wall” and publishing posts without feeling this obligation to research and refine until posts are perfect. I know I have an tendency to write too much anyway, and so often I discard a blog post draft because it isn’t exactly how I wanted it to turn out. This year I’m going to try to avoid such drouts, even if it means some posts are a bit more rough than others.

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