Tagged: the best and worst of
The Best and Worst of December
Yes, I know it’s only December 31. However I don’t think my stats will change all that much in the next 24 hours. Since it’s December and the holiday season for most people out there, monthly traffic is down from 5, 346 in November to 4, 222 views. According to WordPress’s new unique visitors feature 2, 255 different people have visited this month. So what did all these people view? It may surprise you!
1. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
Yes, for the first time in two months we actually have a new top 5 post! My Favourite Books of 2012 did surprisingly well, gathering 93 views since December 10. My post The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge came in a close sixth, however. And now for the worst posts of December:
1. Introducing my New Guest Poster: Caleb Flanagan of 20four12
2. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
3. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
4. Just Thought You’d Like to Know
5. The Three Best Books to Read in the Bathroom
Meh, I’m not really that surprised about the bottom five. I can absolutely understand why #1 was my introduction of Caleb because it’s no longer relevant and wasn’t particularly search engine friendly. The only real surprise is that Seraphina, after all the hype it received, is at the bottom. Perhaps the hype has finally died down. As for the rest, well they’re either old books or awkward non-SEO friendly articles. Oh well.
So that is how my December looked stats-wise. What about yours?
The Best and Worst of November
It’s already December, so let’s take a look back and reflect on November, shall we? For starters, I just want to say that overall traffic is down this month, likely due to the travelling madness Thanksgiving causes in Americans. (How dare you people want to spend time with your family!) However, the good news is that in October I had 5, 421 views while in November it was only slightly down at 5, 346. Not that bad, considering. So what articles were the most popular in November? Let’s take a look:
1. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
5. Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
If you’re thinking this sounds familiar, you’re absolutely right. A quick look back at October shows that all 5 articles that were at the top then are still at the top now. The only difference is the order. So what about the bottom articles?
1. The Historian by Elisabeth Kostova
3. The Horus Road by Pauline Gedge
4. The Necromancer by Michael Scott
Once again you’ll notice that the bottom 5 are rarely consistent. Not one of these articles I listed above has made an appearance on the worst 5 before. The only really surprising things are that The Necromancer and Uglies are part of the 5 ‘worst.’ I guess Michael Scott isn’t as popular now that his series ended and Uglies is an older YA book. Maybe the current generation will discover it like I did.
That’s how my November went. How was yours?
The Best and Worst of October
Well it hasn’t exactly been a record-smashing month like September was, but in comparing it to my normal stats, everything is up since August. In October I received 5,421 views, as compared to 4,846 in August. That’s not bad because I’m only around 1,500 views down from September, which more than makes up the difference Anne Rice’s publicity gave me. Now let’s look at which articles received the most traffic, shall we?
2. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
5. Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
Okay, I completely understand the first four being on the list. I mean, most of my traffic is from search engines and looking at the search terms makes me suspect it’s mostly kids doing homework for novel study. But what is with Ark Angel‘s sudden appearance? There seems to be a resurgence in the now finished Alex Rider series, although I’ll likely never know why. But why Ark Angel in particular? It’s the sixth of nine books.
I’ll be puzzling over that for a while, so let’s take a look at the five worst articles in October.
1. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
2. YA News and Upcoming Releases
3. The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa
4. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
5. Genghis: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
Okay, I can see ‘YA News and Upcoming Releases’ placing on here. I wrote it ages ago and those kinds of articles don’t age well. However, what is with Julie Kagawa’s Iron Legends anthology placing on the worst list? Has all the hype for it died down now that The Lost Prince has been released? Who knows? The good thing is that while the best articles seem to be consistent, the worst articles seem to rotate. Well, except for ‘YA News and Upcoming Releases’.
So how was October for everyone? Stats-wise and life-wise.
The Best and Worst of September
Well folks, it’s October already. September went fast, especially since many of my previous stat records have been smashed. My old record for views in one day was 305, but now it’s 861. Why? Anne Rice herself linked to my review of Pandora on her Facebook page and her Twitter account. I suspect it will be a while before I break that record, so let’s look at what articles gathered the most hits in September:
3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
Pandora‘s rise to #2 isn’t all that surprising because of the extra publicity it gathered. What is surprising is that Matilda is now the top article. Most of my traffic for the day comes from Matilda, which makes me suspect people are either revisiting their childhood or teachers are doing novel studies way earlier than they did when I was little. Of course the bottom three are related to your typical novel studies both in Canada and the U.S.
So we know what the top articles were, but which articles did the worst in September?
3. Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust
4. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
5. What’s New in the World of Books?
The bottom books aren’t really that surprising, but what’s interesting to me is how they keep changing from month to month. It seems like no article/review is consistently bad, which is nice. The book reviews on the bottom 5 aren’t surprising because they are either obscure or were once popular, but the hype died down. The articles aren’t surprising either because ‘My Favourite Heroines’ isn’t exactly the best article I’ve written and ‘What’s New in the World of Books?’ was a current events article.
In September, I also broke my record for views in one month, which was 4, 846. It is now 6, 927. The publicity from Anne Rice sure helped with that, but I’ve noticed that now I’m getting more views on the average day than I used to, which is how things should be as I get more content up.
So how was September for you guys?