Tagged: the best and worst of
The Best and Worst of August 2014
This month was very bad posting-wise but now that the summer rush is done at work I think you guys can reasonably expect me to go back to my regular routine of daily posts. I just need to get back in the hang of things, starting today. As a consequence of my irregular posting, my stats were significantly lower than they were in July. I only received 5,308 views as opposed to 6,344 but I expect things to go back to normal this fall as everyone falls back into their routines (myself included).
Here are the top posts this August:
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: Your School Reading Experiences
5. The Mad Reviewer 1,000 Follower Giveaway
None of these are all that surprising, really. They’re either previously popular posts that have maintained their popularity for months (or sometimes years!) or they’re posts that naturally would attract a lot of attention like reading in school or $50 giveaways. I’m definitely expecting my Hunger Games article to rise in popularity as kids start to do novel studies on the book this fall but I’m still predicting that Game of Thrones will reign supreme.
So what were my worst posts this month?
2. Living with Your Body and Other Things You Hate by Emily Sandoz and Troy DuFrene
4. The Fires of Merlin by T. A. Barron
5. The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
As usual, my reaction to the worst list is ‘meh’ at best. None of these have featured before and they’re either outdated posts like the first one or books that aren’t necessarily bestsellers at this point in time. There will be a new line up of ‘worst’ posts next month so I’m not going to lose sleep over any of these particular ones appearing here.
So how was your August? Did anyone go anywhere interesting on holidays?
The Best and Worst of July 2014
Yep, this is another Best and Worst of… installment that’s a little late but it’s better late than never. Especially considering all of the tech problems I’ve had recently (and am still having). My keyboard recently died on my desktop so now I have to use a laptop that is way too small for my long fingers. Oh well, things could be worse.
Sadly on the statistics front, July just couldn’t compete with the previous four record-breaking months. Now that Game of Thrones is done for another several months and school is out (so I don’t get hits on my Hunger Games articles as much) I expected my views to go down and I wasn’t surprised when I only received 6,344 page views with 4,568 unique views. Still, that’s much better than last July, which clocked in at 3,958 total page views. My site is continuing to grow in popularity so I can hardly complain about how tough I have it.
Well, what were 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. Discussion: Who are Book Reviews For?
5. Discussion: Your School Reading Experiences
As with the previous four months, my Game of Thrones article gave me over half of the views I received and the other articles preceding it were far behind by comparison (3000+ hits compared to 100). My discussions did better than they usually do, mainly because I haven’t really posted discussions for a while since my tech problems started. Speaking of which, I still have to reply to all of those awesome comments!
So what were the worst articles in July?
1. The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris
2. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
4. The Fire Within by Chris d’Lacey
5. The Secret War by Matt Myklusch
All of these are reviews this month, which is unusual, but at the same time it’s not all that concerning. They’re all books that have been out for a while so of course they’re not going to get the same amount of hits as newer books that are being talked about all over the internet. I don’t see any repeat offenders so I usually don’t get too worried about which reviews appear on the worst list.
Well, that’s how my July went: lower stats and tons of tech problems but still not too bad. Work is busy, which is good, but at the same time I look back on the slow days of winter with longing because while I’m ringing up customers constantly I’m not getting any cleaning or estimating done. Still, I can’t complain. How was your July?
The Best and Worst of June 2014
I can’t believe it’s July 6th already, but then again when you have tech problems time seems to fly. So yes, it’s a little late for my Best and Worst of article but I guess it’s better late than never. Other than my ridiculous tech problems June was actually pretty good. Work is picking up as the tourists flow into town and the weather is finally, finally starting to smarten up. Luckily I’m not in the part of Saskatchewan that’s flooded or has experienced tornadoes.
Anyway, here are the best five articles of June 2014:
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. Your Open Book Promotion Thread
5. I’ve Been Invaded by Gremlins!
For the fourth month in a row, I have broken my monthly stats record! Instead of the 13,316 views of May, in June I received 14,198 views. As with the previous months, I have the TV show Game of Thrones to thank for that as my rebuttal article received 8,581 views or about 60% of my total traffic for that month. I have the hugely popular season 4 finale to thank for that, I think.
So what were the worst articles in this record-breaking month?
1. Graphic Novel Review: Batgirl Volume II: Knightfall Descends by Gail Simone
2. Discussion: Romance in YA Novels
4. I am More Than Just a Chronic Pain Statistic
5. The Best and Worst of April 2014
Meh, none of these are surprising or worrying. The only real trend I’ve noticed among the five worst articles is that Scott Westerfeld’s books seem to pop up a lot. It’s not because he’s not a popular author but maybe because I actually liked the books. I seem to get a lot more traffic from reviews where I didn’t like the book.
So how was your June?
The Best and Worst of May 2014
May was both a month of sorrow and a month of joy for me. My boss, mentor and role model passed away after his third battle with cancer this month. I’m still grieving for him but things are slowly getting back to normal as I’m trying to move on. Other than that, May was a pretty good month. The weather was so nice that today I finally got the garden in and I broke yet another monthly stats record.
This month I welcomed 51 new followers but also smashed April’s monthly views record, which was 11,905 views. In May I received 13,316 views, which includes 9,771 unique views. I’d say 3 months of breaking my monthly view records is a pretty good trend. But enough of my rambling. What were the most popular articles in May?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
4. End of Days by Eric Walters
5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Meh, nothing new or unexpected here. The only really notable thing was that of my 13,316 views, 8,515 of them were on my Game of Thrones article (or about 64% of my total traffic). That’s up from the 58% of my total views last month! I guess as the season 4 finale draws nearer, more people are searching for Game of Thrones. It’s quite a lucrative thing to write about, statistics-wise.
So what were the worst articles this month?
1. Awful Egyptians by Terry Deary
2. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
3. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
4. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
5. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
As with the five best articles of the month, there’s really nothing new or remarkable here. The books are either older books or books that really weren’t that popular to begin with. No, it seems like Game of Thrones reigns supreme online lately. That’s a good thing for people like me who go off on a tangent and defend the both the TV series and the books.
So how was your May? See anything here that surprised you about my statistics? Are you a fellow Game of Thrones fan too?
The Best and Worst of April 2014
Remember how, back in my January installment of this series I said it would be along time before I broke my monthly views record of 8,228? I broke that record last month in March and then I thought to myself, “Well there’s no way I’m going to break the record again so soon.” Enter April 2014, my best month ever. In April I broke both my daily stats record and my monthly views record. The previous daily record was 861, the new record is 918 views on April 6. My previous monthly record was 8,941 views and my new record is 11,905 views. I was also able to welcome 54 new followers to my blog for a total of 842 followers. Now that is a good month to make up for the stress and general awfulness of my personal life right now.
Now without further ado let’s look at my top 5 articles:
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
4. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. How Not to Criticize a Book Reviewer
Thanks to Game of Thrones Season 4 premiering on television my statistics on my Game of Thrones article, which have always been high, skyrocketed. Just to give you an idea of how crazy it was I have to say that of the 11,905 views I received this month, 6,895 of them were on my rebuttal article alone (that’s 58%!). The second best article by comparison only received 343 views. That’s insane.
So which articles were the worst this month?
1. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
2. The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter
3. The Mad Reviewer’s 2013 Holiday Book Buying Guide (Part Two)
4. Writing the Popular Novel by Loren D. Estleman
5. The Oracle of Delphi Blog Tour Kick-Off and Giveaway
Meh. I think it’s pretty obvious why all of these are in the bottom 5 list this month. They’re either really old posts or posts that just aren’t relevant anymore because of things like blog tours ending and Christmas being 8 months away. As usual, my 5 worst list doesn’t bother me in the least because I know it’ll be different next month.
Well folks, that was pretty much my April: pretty bad in real life, awesome in the blogosphere. How was your April? When do you experience spikes in blogging traffic?