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My 14 Favorite Posts From The Past Year

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 12, 2011

My bet is that most people don’t go back to look at what they’ve written before. Not that I think many people repeat themselves, but what I do believe is that not enough people bring to the forefront posts they’ve written before, mainly to give your newer visitors some insight into what you’re previously written, and of course for its SEO benefits.

Why don’t I think people go back? How many people ever went back to read a paper you wrote in school, no matter what the grade was? In our minds, even if it was enjoyable, we did it and now it’s time to move on.

However, blogging is a somewhat different prospect. You never know what people are going to read when they visit your blog, and I know that every once in awhile I’m shocked to see a comment on an old post. I love it, though, but sometimes I have to go back and read what I said so I can respond to the comment in the proper way.

I do this type of thing on a regular basis, but every year I like to put together a compilation of posts based on some criteria to bring some of those older posts back to life. It would be nice if I’d gotten to a nice round number like 10, but it just wasn’t happening. My time criteria is based on the same kind of thing that Billboard Magazine used to do back in the 70′s. When they’d do their best of the year, they went from the previous December through November of the current year. This is what I’ve done.

My criteria for my favorite posts was, well, just how I personally felt about some of what I’d written and what I considered as either my best writing or my most important posts. I had to go through 277 posts to end up with these 14, and what I found interesting is that I didn’t find myself having at least one post a month that I thought was one of my best.

Anyway, here’s the list, along with something brief about each post, and I hope you check them out; if not, hey, I’ll just accept my own SEO benefits and move on.

5 Things Bloggers Can Learn From Poker – For some reason I always like my posts that compare blogging to something. I had a post last year that totally compared blogging and poker, but this time around I talked about the types of things bloggers could learn instead.

What Is High Quality Content? – I wrote this post because I was tired of visiting blogs that tell people how to get more visitors or how to get more comments and the like and have this as one of their points because none of them ever say just what they believe high quality content it. I did.

Are You Waiting For Someone Else To Make You A Success? – I was inspired to write this because it seems so many people are hoping for an A-lister to notice them to help make them famous, to the extent that they’ll do almost anything to get that attention except be themselves.

Bettet Blogging, Part One
Better Blogging, Part Deux – This was my long 2-part series on blogging, offering blogging tips and processes, mainly to new people.

Are You Ready For Controversial? – I wrote this after reading another person saying not to be afraid to write controversial topics, yet not mentioning how people need to prepare themselves for possible backlash.

Why It’s Hard To Trust People – I wrote this as a follow up to a previous story on why we don’t trust sales people, and talked about the concept of “trust” in general.

Blogging Responsibly, Part 2 – Though this was an addendum to a post I originally wrote in 2009, I was inspired to write this after reading how some people were going through some interesting times based on things they’d written and how some weren’t quite reacting well to it; see that post about “controversial” above.

21 Of The Top Black Social Media Influencers – In my opinion this was an important post because based on so many lists I’d seen, black people weren’t being considered by almost anyone as having any significance online. I thought it was important to do it, even if I used criteria that I now don’t trust, and what I found interesting is that some of the people on the list ended up not caring that they were on the list at all; you can’t force people into accepting praise, right?

5 Ways Your Blog Might Be Irritating People, Part 2 – This was a follow up to a guest post I actually wrote on Ileane’s blog because I actually had 9 specific ideas in my mind for the original topic, but that first article went kind of long on its own.

June 12th, The Internet And A Video – This was actually more of a video blog, one I thought was my best video even now, talking about the milestone of the day and the dangers of people believing that freedom of speech actually allows them to be and do whatever they want to do without consequences.

The Lament Of An Old Black Radical – This was a really personal post on how it seems like things people fought for and griped about when I was younger aren’t cared about anymore, even if some of the same negative things continue to this day.

What If Your Dreams Came True – I was inspired to write this question because of a movie and an interview I’d listened to, and I think it’s an important question many people don’t ever think about asking themselves.

Making Money By Blogging? Let’s Talk – The last post of November, I thought it was time to talk honestly about how hard it is to make money online and how it might not manifest itself the way people might think.
 
 

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My Favorite Eighteen Blog Posts Of 2008

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 31, 2008

It’s nearing the end of the year, and many bloggers will be going back through their content and trying to identify their favorite blog posts for the year. I’m no different in this regard, though some of you might equate it with a post I wrote about Stuff You Probably Missed; nope, this is a true year end post. The one difference might be that I have so many posts for the year that I’m violating one of my own usually internal rules, that being that I’m not ending my number with a “0″ or “5″. I decided that I had eighteen blog posts that I particularly liked that I wrote, and therefore I’m going to list all eighteen of them. I also decided to spell out “eighteen”, though I can’t really tell you why.

Now, along with these eighteen, I want to list the top five blog posts of mine that got the most page views, that I wrote, and this time I’m adding that bit because the blog post with the most views was the guest post on Squidoo. I’m sure that didn’t hurt Jerry Low’s feelings at all, and it trumped anything I wrote with 337 page views; ouch!

But that’s okay. First, I’m going to list four of the top five blog posts as far as views are concerned. The reason I’m not mentioning all of them is because, as it turns out, the blog post with the most views is in my top eighteen; I’ll mention it when we get there. Anyway, here are the next four top viewed posts:

Another Rant On Internet Taxes – 158

Dofollow/Page Rank Discussion – 140

A Point About Commenting On Blogs – 133

The Dance Off – 133

And now, my favorite eighteen blog posts of 2008, in date order:

Watch Out For Secret Shopper Scams, based on my wife’s friend trying to find work as a secret shopper.

How Far Are You Willing To Go For Promotion, talking about the way people get attention and how far they’ll go for it.

Do You Avoid Scams, talking about how people see things that seem too good to be true, and whether most people fall for them or not.

Blogging Step One – What To Write About, was actually the second post of my blogging series, and probably the most important one.

How Big Are You Ready For was based on reading a blog where the writer talked about how much it cost him when his blog took off and suddenly had lots of visitors.

Let’s Talk Offline Marketing detailed some help I tried to give someone who was having problems getting her business noticed.

Why Don’t More People Comment On Blogs was basically a lament I had based on multiple conversations I’ve had with friends of mine concerning my blog and theirs.

The Computer Guy was probably my first really fun and long post, detailing my encounter with a real throwback computer geek and repairman.

Be Responsible For Your Own Life was my most visited post of my first year, with 198 views. It was a rant based on some help I was trying to give a friend of mine who didn’t seem to be owning up to her own responsibilities.

Credibility, Article Writing and Marketing Products was an article where I talked about trying to market products while staying credible in the eyes of others.

Can You Stomach Sales asked the question of just how far you would go in making sales and possibly irritating others.

What Will You Do To Get More Traffic discussed methods people, including myself, to entice more people to visit their websites.

Blog Action Day – Poverty was probably the most important article I wrote all year, and I was disappointed that it didn’t get more views or comments. I actually wrote two posts, one on this blog and the other on my business blog on the same day.

Book Writing Series, Part Six – Publishing Your Book, was probably the best article of both of my series, and the title speaks for itself.

Planning For Building A Commerce Website was not only my tale of wasting my time with a “potential” client, but also gave some tips on things to think about if one is looking to build a website to market products from.

World Diabetes Day – My Story was probably my most personal article of the year, about when I learned that I was diabetic. It also got fewer views and comments than I thought it deserved.

What’s Your Market talked about the types of people I hope would visit my blog; if you didn’t read it, you’ll be somewhat surprised on some of them.

How To Be A Prolific Writer was actually the inspiration for my book writing series, and it was prompted by a couple of people asking me how I was able to write so many blogs posts.

And there you go, my top eighteen posts of 2008, and if this is my final blog post of the year, since I have a lot to do in the next few days, I hope I’m leaving on a good note. Everyone have a wonderful New Years holiday, and I wish you all great success in 2009.

An addendum. I can’t believe I forgot one post in particular, where I gave my opinion on what I consider are the Top 5 Presentations In History. I really liked this one, and felt it deserved more attention and comment also. Guess that means I’m up to nineteen now, which pulls me back into a tie with my business blog.

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