Tagged: the best and worst of
The Best and Worst of November 2015
It’s been a rough few months posting-wise but I’ve finally got things back on track. So let’s take a look at what my stats were like despite hardly posting anything throughout November.
In terms of views, November has been the worst month since July with only 4,114 page views (including 2,942 unique views). That’s not surprising considering how little I posted throughout the month. December will definitely be better.
So what were the best posts this month?
1. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
4. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. End of Days by Eric Walters
None of this is really that surprising. Now that school and university are back in session, lots of students are trying to cram in as much reading in as little time as possible. My speed-reading article will always remain popular for that reason. And with the movie Mockingjay Part 2 coming out, it’s not surprising that my Hunger Games article surpassed the usually more popular Game of Thrones article. I was surprised to see End of Days by Eric Walters up in the top 5 but then again I suspect it’s a popular-ish book for novel studies for middle school students.
Now that we’ve seen the best articles, what were the worst articles this month?
2. The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge
3. My New York Trip Day #3: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
4. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
5. The Sorceress by Michael Scott
Like with the best posts this month, none of these are particularly surprising. They’re either dated posts like my New York trip post or they’re older/less popular books that obviously don’t get as much search engine traffic. As usual they’ll probably disappear from the list next month.
So that was how my November went. There was sparse posting but December will be much better, especially once I do migrate over to WordPress.org. How was your November?
The Best and Worst of October 2015
October has been a bit of a rough month. Posting has been sparse but I’m hoping to get back on track sometime in mid-November or December at the very latest. Because my posting has been erratic, my total pageviews this October was 4,902 with 3,646 of those being unique views. I’m still getting a lot of search engine traffic but I’m definitely wanting more of my regular readers back when I finally give you guys some new content to read.
So what were the best posts this month?
1. The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
4. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
My badly behaving author post has once again gone to the top of the most popular list. For whatever reason, it seems to have gained traction on some Facebook group or something similar because I received a lot of referrals from Facebook. This happens on occasion as someone new discovers the bad behaviour of said author so it’s not that surprising. It’s just odd that there were so many views from this particular rediscovery. As usual, the other four on the list are pretty predictable.
Then what were the worst posts this month?
1. Early Poll Results and Future Changes
2. Books that Should be Made into Movies (Part One)
3. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
4. Discussion: Your Christmas/Holiday Plans
5. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Some of these are quite a bit dated, like my discussion post and the poll result post but it’s kind of surprising to see a book by Kelley Armstrong here on the list as she is quite popular. Although to be fair, this is one of her older books. The same goes for The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. That one’s a classic for me but it is old so I can see why the review isn’t that popular. As usual, none of these posts will remain on the list next month.
Well, that was my October. How was yours?
The Best and Worst of September 2015
Well, I’m all moved in and trying to organize my life. Posting is going to be irregular around here but I’m hoping to get back on track before December 1st. We’ll see what life has in store for me, though. As a consequence, September hasn’t been great stats-wise with only 4,839 views, including 3,015 unique views. It’s definitely a comedown from August but I’m expecting things to pick up once I begin posting regularly again.
So what were the best posts this month?
1. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
2. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. The Best and Worst of August 2015
Surprisingly, this is the first time one of my Best and Worst of… posts has made the top 5. I don’t know why it was so popular this month but that may be a consequence of the fact that I haven’t been posting much else. Or maybe a lot of people are suddenly wanting to start book blogs. Who knows? Other than that surprise, there’s not really much else interesting about the top 5 this time around.
What were the 5 worst posts this month?
1. “The Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer” by Carrie Ryan
2. Discussion: Pet Peeves in Fiction
4. Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn
5. My Status Update Journey by Marcus Matherne
Once again these are all older posts from my archives, mostly on books that were never really that popular or on dated discussions. The only really disappointing item on this list is my Writing Pitfalls article but I think when I get back to writing the series things will pick up. We’ll just have to see.
Well, that has bee my September. How was yours?
The Best and Worst of August 2015
It’s September 7 today so my Best and Worst Of… post is a little late this time but better late than never. Particularly when some exciting things happened in August stats-wise if not exactly posting-wise due to my little unplanned hiatus before and after I moved to the city.
In August I received a total of 6,432 views with 2,970 of those being unique views. That’s the best The Mad Reviewer has done in months and it’s largely thanks to one person I’d never even heard of until a few days ago: Jerry Pournelle. He stumbled across my infamous author post and then checked out my reviews, which led to him recommending them to his readers during one of his posts. This in turn caused me to receive 1,076 views in one day, shattering my record of 893 from when Anne Rice posted on Facebook about a review of mine she found. I thought this would be the end of it, but no! The next day (August 30) my record was shattered again with the daily total becoming 1,295 views. That’s simply amazing and I am very grateful to Jerry for recommending my blog to his readers.
So what were the best posts this month?
- How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
- Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
- The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
- The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
- Caesar’s Daughter: Julia’s Song by Alex Johnston
My review of Caesar’s Daughter by Alex Johnston has in the past received very little attention but Jerry happened to stumble upon it and it was one of the reviews he recommended in his post. So that’s why a new post finally cracked the top 5 list! The others are pretty predictable but I was surprised that my speed-reading article surpassed my Game of Thrones article for the first time in a really long time. I suppose with university and school starting, students and teachers alike are wanting to learn how to read faster to study material more efficiently. Well, I certainly hope my article helps but there really are no shortcuts to learning how to speed read.
With such a surprising selection of the best posts, what were my worst posts this month?
- Edwin: High King of Britain by Edoardo Albert
- The Mine by John Heldt
- The Silver Pear by Michelle Diener
- September Sky by John Heldt
- The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf by Gerald Morris
I absolutely loved all of these books in the ‘worst’ category so it’s a bit disappointing to see John Heldt’s books back on here. They are self-published but he has done reasonably well for himself in sales so seeing The Mine and September Sky back on here is slightly surprising/disappointing. Oh well, the posts on the bottom rotate from month to month so it’s not really that big of a deal.
So that was my August. It was busy and inconsistent but September is going to be much better. How was your August?
The Best and Worst of July 2015
Well, July hasn’t been the most consistent month for me posting-wise but it has been quite busy. August will be a little more consistent for me as things wind down but then at the end of the month posting may be a little more spotty again because I’m moving off to the city. It’s exciting and not a little terrifying but I think it’s going to be an overall plus.
Stats-wise July was of course quite bad but I expected that because of how inconsistent my posting was. I had a total of 3,727 views with 2,472 of those being unique views. That’s one of my lowest months in the past year but it was to be expected. August will be much better, particularly with schools starting throughout North America and more teachers and students start searching for resources.
So what were the most popular posts this month?
- Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
- How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
- The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
- Guest Post: #WeNeedDiverseRomance…Now
- The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
The first three were predictable and #5 suggests that my author post made its way around Facebook again, as it periodically does. Other bloggers seem to discover it and share it even years later to warn others so I can definitely say that publishing it was a good idea. No other bloggers (or editors!) should endure the abuse that total arse dishes out at the slightest drop of the hat. What I’m really happy about, however, is how well Madhuri Blaylock’s post about diversity in the romance genre did. She put a lot of effort into it and I was so happy to host it and promote her upcoming romance novel. She’s absolutely right: romance and fiction in general needs a lot more diversity, particularly when it comes to mainstream novels that the big 3 publishers put out.
Okay, then what were the least popular posts this month?
- My Interview with Janeal Falor
- Electrify Me by Bibi Rizer
- Blood Oath by Felicity Pulman
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
- The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
Again, none of these are particularly surprising. They’re either older books or books that aren’t exactly the most popular books ever. It’s too bad in the case of most of them but as always no one article stays on the worst list from month to month. My interview with Janeal Falor was disappointing to see in the bottom 5 but again it’s not a big deal as the worst 5 always rotate.
So folks, that was my July. August is off to a rough start, I know, but things are going to get better.