My top five posts in 2012
I’m a bit late with the summing up of my blog successes of 2012. Mainly because I was a bit disappointed. According to those awfully nice “helper-monkeys” at WordPress, my top five blog posts of 2012 were very similar to those of 2011 and not one of them was actually written in 2012.
At first I thought hey, I’m not “hitting the spot” the way I used to! Then I realised that on the bright side my posts have “staying power”. They aren’t here today and gone tomorrow like topical blog posts. And the later the posts were written in 2012, the less time they had to build up hits to go into the yearly stats.
Anyway, for the record, my most read posts in 2012 were:
1. Designer birds: Penguin
2. The sadness of white tigers
3. Designer birds: Peacock
4. Design icons: Letraset
5. Designer birds: Owl
All of these came from 2011 apart from the Letraset post, which came from 2010. And of course the reason for the success of all these posts is the power of the search engine.
As far as I can tell, my most popular post of 2012 to have been written in 2012 was Words: Crestfallen and ring rusty from mid March, but it was way down the list.
In March 2012 I pulled apart the meaning of the word crestfallen…
The most commented-on post of 2012 was Flame tree and burning bush from November.
My post about flame trees and burning bushes attracted most comments in 2012…
My best day of all time was November 28, 2012, when I had 700 hits in one day. I had just published this picture of a seagull attacking a crow, but that’s probably coincidence…
I was surprised to snap this seagull attacking a crow with its food on a neighbour’s roof…
I published 56 new posts in 2012, so kept up my aim to average one a week. One of the most serendipitous posts for me was probably Coins: An albatross in my pocket, which I wrote when I found a 5p Falklands coin in my change – coincidentally near the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.
A Falklands coin I found in my pocket…
On the nature front, I had a few new identifications/spots. There was the rare (for us) goldfinch, the ubiquitous enchanter’s nightshade, the never photo-shy fox and magpie and perhaps my favourite of the year, the young starlings…
Young starling, May 2012…
Thanks to everyone out there for their support in 2012 and I hope to speak to you again through 2013…
I have to admit Pat that I didn’t even read my 2012 automatic roundup. Love what you have done here.
I must admit my one frustration with WP is that my ‘home page/archive’ gets the most hits and I don’t know how to change this. The home page is the blog post of that day but in retrospect, how do you know which post it relates to? Grump over
Not sure if this is the answer to your grump, but have you tried just starting off the posts with a teaser on the home page, so that the post itself registers when the reader hits “more”? It seems to work for me. You know what I mean by inserting a “more” in the middle of the post?
If I’m talking rubbish or you are doing this already, just ignore me
I do know what you mean but not sure if my theme supports that because I haven’t seen the option …
So when you are writing a blog post, you don’t see the word “more”? See this image.
Oh yes I do have that code. Tried inserting into post due to go out on Friday but when I previewed it didn’t look any different? Do you need to do something else as well as insert code? How exciting …
thank you Pat!
Does that mean it worked for you?
You only see the result afterwards, when it’s published and you look at the home page and see just the beginning of the post.
And I can’t claim I discovered this myself – I was told long ago by Ron at Ron’s Rants…
Ok I’ve added the code and await with bated breath *bites nails*
Thanks for your help Pat. I kept the faith and it worked
I thought it didn’t work because the post looked exactly the same … bit scared to try it in case it doesn’t. I like to see what’s going out
But I will! Thank you
I’m embarrassed that my most popular post is our fever trees. The six of them were quite chirpy when I WROTE the post, but we are losing them one by one. Feels a bit of a sham to draw traffic.
I know what you mean. It’s difficult to know how long someone stays on a page once they find it through a search engine, and how disappointed (or otherwise) they are!
Keep up the good work at Elephant’s Eye
Don’t feel bad about your blogs..I can hardly keep up with any of my obligations anymore..between writing,medical research,seeing after my G-C,excercise everyday,cooking,cleaning,trying to stay out of trouble..oh youth is wasted on the young..love your blogs regardless 2011/12 BC or AD ( heheheh)they’re always special..look forward to 2013…kj
Thanks so much, your comments make me feel it’s worth while.
I felt depressed before Christmas when WordPress hinted they are one day discontinuing the “Misty Look” theme I use for my blog. It suddenly made me think that nothing is forever…
And then the last week has been VERY busy with work commitments. But hopefully I am seeing the light now. Hope you are, too!
Best wishes for 2013