Every year at this time I try to come up with a different way to address what came during the past year. Last year I did a post titled 12 Things “I’m Just Sharing” Addressed In 2012 and it didn’t get viewed all that well, most probably because it went live on Christmas Eve instead of at the end of the year, or some time between Christmas and the end of the year. The post I wrote for the last day of the year was actually one of my most popular posts of 2012, although most people probably read it in 2013, that being The Last Post Of 2012 Is About…, where I talked about marketing and promoting on social media. That post actually led me to create a video that was one of my most watched of the year, and instead of putting it at the end like I usually do I’m posting it now:
 

 

Anyway, I wanted a different way to present my favorite and top posts of 2013, and I had some problems whittling down my list this year because even though I wrote fewer posts, I feel like I put more effort into more posts. Thus, I couldn’t figure out which of the remaining posts I should get rid of and just decided to go with 14, which is rare for me because I don’t normally like even numbers; yeah, it’s a superstition of mine. But I’ve made it work.

Someone might ask “why highlight posts written earlier in the year, especially if I can’t comment on them”? One, because blog visitors who might come often now probably weren’t readers earlier in the year and thus didn’t see these posts. Two, it’s great SEO. And three, topics don’t become invalid just because one can’t comment on them. You never know if something written earlier will still be helpful now. On Twitter people always post links to posts that are older, and most of the time those posts offer something important. That’s what I’m trying to do here, and it’s something most of you who write a lot of posts in a year should consider as well.

Let’s get to it:

Rolands Lakis via Compfight

What’s Wrong With Being Nice? – Too many people mistake kindness for weakness and I think it’s made this a much meaner world than it should be.

How Do You Accept Criticism? – We all hate criticism but many of us like advice and just don’t know how to ask for it properly.

We’re All Right And We’re All Wrong About Blogging – There’s a lot of us writing about blogging and some of us disagree, but that doesn’t mean that we might not all be correct; now there’s a scary concept.

5 Ways Blogging Is Like Visiting A New Store – All blogs aren’t supposed to be exactly the same, and sometimes visiting a new blog is just like going into a new store selling something you might like for the first time.

You Can’t Please Everyone So Start With Pleasing Yourself – A lot of bloggers feel that you should write all your content with other people in mind first, whereas I tend to believe that writers should write for themselves first and try to make it a pleasant experience for others if they wish to be read.

Decorum And Censorship – Why do some people think that brutal honesty deserves to be said and expected to remain in other people’s spaces when it’s not called for and isn’t helpful?

What Does It Take To Be An Expert? – This one got a lot of attention because some people think experts have to know it all and I disagreed with that concept.

AuthenticAng11 via Compfight

5 Ways To Deal With Problems Positively – We all encounter problems in our lives, but for the most part our demeanor in addressing them can make many of those problems seem petty.

Blogging For The Right Reasons – The idea for this one actually came from a Google Hangout where we were discussing whether or not blogging is hard.

Your Blog Is Irking Me; Check These Gripes Out – Another popular blog post as I talked about things that, well, irk me when I visit other blogs, and it seems I got a lot of agreement on it.

A Fine Line Between Courage And Irritating – Sales people believe that just because someone says no once or even 50 times that one day you’ll be able to get them to buy something from you. Do you see that as courageous or irritating?

Hot To Write A Guest Post – As much as I was irritated by guest posting request and what I had to read and edit this year, I still wrote a couple of guest posts for others and decided it was time to teach others how to properly write guest posts.

7 Ways To Know You’re Getting Bad SEO Linking Advice – I’m always seeing all these gloom and doom posts about SEO, getting penalized and de-listed, and generally bad advice from people you think should know what they’re talking about. Thus, it was time to jump into the fray.

More Concepts on Writing – I love writing and I love reading what other people write. But there are so many more people who think it’s hard and, sometimes when I read certain things, it seems to be for them.

By the way, when it came to true engagement, not all of the articles above ended up in the top 5 as far as comments go. I have to say that the top 5 includes 7 posts because 3 ended up tied for 5th place. The one article not linked to is linked to above. Here’s the top 5:

Happy heading into the New Year

Interview With Brian D. Hawkins Of Hot Blog Tips – 65

How Do You Accept Criticism? 57

Don’t Be Bullied About Your Blog Or Web Space – 50

To End Or Reduce Blogging – The Conversation – 49

Is Social Media Giving You Everything You Need – 42

5 Reasons You Need To Have A Gravatar – 42

Are You Offending People Away From Your Blogs Or Websites? – 42

I think that’s enough of that. I want to thank all of you who visited I’m Just Sharing in 2013 and after this post I’m 20 away from 1,500; based on my current pace I should hit that sometime in February. Have fun, be safe, and I’ll see you again in 2014.