Most Popular Blog Posts - Highlight them!

don't bury your classic hits

Show new visitors your 'best' stuff.

Every blog has some posts that are much more popular than others -- and they're ALWAYS a surprise to the blogger.

Your statistics can tell you which these are (you are tracking stats, right? Like via StatCounter, Google Analytics, SiteMeter, Feedburner, etc.), as well as comments, links, etc.

I call these your classic hits - don't bury your classic hits, your most popular blog posts. Highlight them.

You can see mine listed (in no particular order) in my right sidebar currently under my book pictures. Some of you may even notice I've very recently enlarged the font to emphasize them more!

Many people have found them valuable. It only makes sense to somehow highlight them as new visitors to your blog may also find them interesting and hopefully useful.

Check out how other bloggers highlight their most popular posts too for ideas, for example ConverStations,  Entrepreneurs Journey, CopyBlogger, and many others.

Part II here

Comments

[Mike Sansone]

Great suggestion, Ted. These "cornerstones" are as important (more?) as your tagline. It can quickly show a new visitor the foundation of your work.

[andyp]

Over on WP.com, you can get it to automatically add your most popular posts (of the past 24 hours) to your sidebar in a widget, which is what I have done. I should also pull out my historically most popular / own "picks", I guess. Good advice.

Small typo in your post, start of fifth para.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Mike,
Amazing how a few "little" things can add up and matter -- no surprise when they add value to visitors

Andy,
Good input. I'm going to write some thoughts about how to pick "Most Popular" posts soon.

Me -- a type? :)

[Joseph Thornley]

Ted,

A GREAT idea. So simple. So right.

I'm going to add my most popular posts to my sidebar.

Thanks for this great, practical suggestion.

[Dennis D. McDonald in Alexandrioa, Virginia USA]

Ted, I agree completely. I started to do a "top ten" each week (http://www.ddmcd.com/my_top_ten_posts.html),

I highlight the link in my main page and in some of my email signatures. It's good shorthand to show people what I'm thinking. It's also very interesting to see what titles are consistently popular and what titles come in and go out of fashion.

Interestingly, some of my most consistently popular posts are also the longest and most complex, which seems to go against the advice to "...keep it short and sweet."

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Joseph,
Amazing how so many great ideas are simple! I can't claim credit for this one. Not sure who first came up with the idea as several people have mentioned it to me, and I've noticed it on several (but not enough!) blogs.

Dennis,
Love your ideas. Never thought about the email sig, but I may play with that one!

[seo australia]

Good point. I found that it is also true that good posts tend to be longer. Never underestimate most popular posts!

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

I am a fan of longer posts, although I sometimes find myself thinking I'll come back to read them in detail later, which unfortunately never happens!

[Murad]

I got lots of visitors from sitemeter.com I am not sure why I got them or how I can check them. I looked on their site and couldn't find my blog. Where do I look for a list of blogs?

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hi Murad,
People using sitemeter to track blog/Web site statistics see the referring URL (if any) for blog visitors. So if someone clicks on a link on your blog and visits a sitemeter enabled site, the blogger/Webmaster/etc. of that site will see your URL as the source of a visitor. They in turn are quite likely to check out your blog, resulting in a visitor from sitemeter.