Tagged: the best and worst of
The Best and Worst of June 2015
This month was generally okay for me on the personal front. I didn’t get much posting done and for that I have to apologize but even with my surgery things should be a bit more regular in terms of post times and dates. Still, my site stats were okay. I received a total of 5,224 views with 3,607 of those being unique views. That’s certainly not my best ever but it’s not my worst ever. July should be a little better overall.
So what were my best posts this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. The Mad Reviewer is Open to Review Requests (Temporarily)
5. Othello by William Shakespeare
None of these are really new or surprising aside from my review of Othello. It wasn’t particularly in-depth or insightful but I guess that since Othello is a common grade 12 English play here in Canada I got some of the traffic from students. Overall it didn’t get that many views but it certainly did better than quite a few of my other more popular posts.
So what were the worst posts this month?
1. Aegis Rising by S. S. Segran
2. The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
4. September Sky by John Heldt
5. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
Most of these are books that aren’t exactly popular or are really dated posts like the Iron Fey one about the release of some short stories tying in to the main series. The only really disappointing one on this list is John Heldt’s book September Sky, which is an unconventional time travel romance that I absolutely loved. But, like most ‘worst’ posts one month, it will likely be off the list next month.
Well, that pretty much sums up my June. How was yours?
The Best and Worst of May 2015
Okay, wow. May just flew by in the blink of an eye. Partly because I was so anxious for my New York trip and partly because work has been insanely busy now that all the tourists have started coming up to the lake. Obviously my trip to New York was my absolute highlight and I had an amazing time there but May has overall been pretty good. I’m almost sad that it’s over because now I really don’t have anything to look forward to until I start the process of moving to the city in mid-August. That will be a relief.
Stats-wise May was pretty good as well. I received a total of 6,367 views with 4,132 of those being unique views. That’s higher than average in part because my post about a certain author got serious Facebook and Twitter attention at least twice when he attacked yet another editor. It’s not surprising and I’m glad my post is getting the word out there that publishing houses need to avoid this guy. I hope that in some way I’ve prevented someone else going through the same thing.
So what were the most popular posts this May?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
3. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
4. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
There’s absolutely nothing new here except for the order. My author attack post hasn’t been #2 probably since the month I actually published it. And that’s because of the aforementioned Twitter and Facebook discoveries by random people. I don’t have Facebook so I wasn’t able to snoop but we did have a good discussion on Twitter about how to deal with this sort of thing. It was sort of heartening to reaffirm that most people in the online book industry don’t have to go through crazy rants and suicide suggestions.
Okay, so what were the worst posts this month?
1. The Redheaded Stepchild by Kelly I. Hitchcock
2. Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman
3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
4. Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran
5. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Wow, I think these are all new and for the first time a George R. R. Martin book has featured on the ‘worst’ list. That’s really, really surprising when you consider the fact that the TV show is going on right now. I guess I didn’t mention sex and nudity enough in my review like I did in my rebuttal post in the ‘best’ list!
That was my May. How was yours?
The Best and Worst of April 2015
Um, where did April go? I feel like it went by in a blur. One day I was doing the March financial statements at work and after what felt like one week later I started doing the April financial statements today. So really I can’t say how my April went other than fast. I was glad Game of Thrones started up again and that the weather has been really nice here in my corner of Saskatchewan. My formal dress that I ordered came in the other day and only needs some tiny adjustments to fit perfectly. Things are really looking up for May.
Stats-wise April was not bad. I received 5,242 views in total, which is down from March by about 600 but I’m not too worried. My unique views were pretty decent with 3,550 in total in April. That’s a lot less than I received last April when my Game of Thrones rebuttal article really took off with the premiere of season 4. I really can’t complain. I’m just happy that my daily views are consistent and that Game of Thrones is back.
So what were my best articles this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
4. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
5. The Game of Thrones Rape Problem
There aren’t really any new ones here except for #5. What’s more interesting to me is that in regards to #3, Bruce Willis was shoved back into the spotlight when he launched yet another highly sexist and swear-heavy attack on an editor who dared to edit. She posted it on Twitter and although I won’t link to it, it was pretty shocking and disgusting. Well, not for this guy, who has previously launched anti-Semitic attacks against some editors, but shocking to polite society.
So what were my worst posts this month?
1. The Best and Worst of March 2015
2. The Mad Reviewer’s First Giveaway
3. My Interview with John Heldt (2)
4. Writers: Beware the False Editor
5. Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword by Christian Kachel
At least this month every single ‘worst’ post on the list is new. Some of them, like #1 and #2 are completely dated by now while others are books that are not very popular, authors that are not exactly bestsellers and articles on topics that are quite common like bad editors. I’m not disappointed by any of these on the list because I know that as usual there will be different ones next month.
So how was your April? Did it go by as quickly as mine?
The Best and Worst of March 2015
I don’t know about you guys, but March just flew by for me. We’ve been having beautiful weather here in general although we’re currently experiencing a bit of a snowstorm. But then it’s supposed to be nice again by the end of next week, so I can’t really complain. Things are generally going well for me and I’m super excited about Game of Thrones Season 5 premiering next Sunday (because I totally haven’t mentioned that before).
Stats-wise March was okay. I received a total of 5,708 views with 3,549 of those being unique views. That’s up from 5,169 views in February so things are looking up. I expect as soon as Game of Thrones begins to get more hits than usual because of my SEO-heavy article (completely by accident, I assure you). And here in April I’m hoping to do another Game of Thrones article as well as another Forgotten Figures article. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done articles on either topic but I feel I’m ready to sink my teeth into both fantasy and history once more.
So what were some of the best articles this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. The Mad Reviewer is Open to Review Requests (Temporarily)
5. Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! I can’t believe that the Game of Thrones article was once again #1. But in all seriousness, I’m really not all that surprised with the top 5 articles this month. I’m getting lots of links from class wiki pages on my Hunger Games article and my speed reading article has always been popular because it’s something a lot of people aspire to. Maybe next month a new article will actually appear in the top 5.
What were the worst posts this month?
1. The Return of the Weird Search Terms
2. Discussion: Blogging Pet Peeves
3. Sins of the Lost by Linda Poitevin
4. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Meh. Once again there are no real surprises here. My reviews of Crashed and The Historian have appeared on the 5 worst list before and I’m sure they’ll appear on here again eventually. They’re just not all that popular in terms of search engine traffic. Which is fine because they’re definitely balanced out by the insane amount of search engine traffic I’m still getting on my usual top 3 posts. As I’ve said before, they’re all pretty good books. They’re just not that popular.
Well, that pretty much sums up my March. How was yours? Which articles of yours get the most search engine traffic?
The Best and Worst of February 2015
February flew by in the blink of an eye for me. I don’t know why because I wasn’t particularly busy or anything but it just did. I suppose that’s a good thing because I’m super-excited about my upcoming trip to New York at the end of May for BEA 2015. And because I’m also super-excited for season 5 of Game of Thrones on April 12. So yeah, February was pretty uneventful and yet it flew past. I can’t really complain about my month this time around.
This month I received 5,169 views in total with 3,407 of those being unique views. That’s down from January when I received 6,644 views but considering that February only has 28 days this year, that’s not so bad. I had some pretty bad days stats-wise this February but I also had some good days where I hit the 300 mark compared to my usual 150-200. Really, like the personal side of my life in February, I can’t complain about the statistics side of things.
So what were the best posts this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. Discussion: One Star Reviews
5. Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
We actually have some different articles on the list this month! My discussion of one star reviews and negative reviews in general was hugely successful both stats-wise and comments-wise. It was very interesting to see peoples’ takes on the issue, both authors and reviewers. As for the chronic pain article, that really surprised me because it was never popular, even when it was new. Since I got more referrals from Facebook than I normally would I’m guessing that someone shared my post on Facebook in either an author’s group or some sort of chronic pain support group. Whoever it was, thank you and I hope it caused you to think.
Okay, then what were the worst posts in February?
1. Rotten Romans by Terry Deary
2. Bullying Under Attack by Various Authors
3. Have you Finished The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge? Tell me Here!
4. Discussion: The Most Underrated Book (For You)
5. Feyguard: Spark by Anthea Sharp
As far as I remember, these are all new ones here on the worst list. As with most months, they’re either posts that are extremely dated (#3 being from 2013) or they’re books that are old or really aren’t that popular. For the first two the latter doesn’t bother me but I was surprised to see Anthea Sharp’s Feyguard: Spark on that list as well because it was an extremely good book. But oh well. I can pretty much guarantee that these 5 posts won’t be on next month’s worst list because the ‘worst’ posts always seem to rotate.
Well folks, that was my February. How was yours? Did it go by as quickly as mine? How’s the weather where you are? Are you as sick of winter as I am of hearing about that stupid #TheDress incident?