January’s top 5 popular posts & the ones I enjoyed writing the most

Okay, bit of a cop out but I 110% stole this idea from the lovely Sophie over at Glowsteady. If you haven’t visited Sophie’s blog yet, I would highly recommend you do because it’s bloody brilliant and one of my most regular blog reads now after discovering it during a comment swap on Twitter sometime last year. Alright, enough grovelling. So I saw Sophie do this post and it instantly piqued my interest. Although my WordPress app quite clearly shows me what posts have received the most views that month, I’ve never really well… paid attention to it before. And after seeing Sophie’s post I thought maybe, it’s be good idea to start.

Of course we all want to write about stuff that we’re passionate about and enjoy but I personally also want to write stuff that my readers want to read. I don’t think there’s any harm in that and I’m always looking for ways to grow and ways to connect with my followers more so surly, writing things they want to read is a good way to do that? It never occurred to me that taking a proper hard look at the type of posts which do well might help me in that direction. And saying that now, it’s really stupid that I haven’t realised that before. I mean, it’s so obvious!

So I wanna have a little look back over January and show you which posts that I published in January got the top 5 amount of views throughout the month – not including my “about” page. Then I wanna quickly share the 5 tops I enjoyed writing the most and see if they match up – at all.

Top 5 posts which had the most page views in January

5. Always being the go-girl

I’m really surprised that this one is so high up because it was basically just a load of word vomit haha! It was definitely one of my more un-planned posts and a bit of a ramble because I needed to get it off my chest but I’ve noticed during my time blogging that sometimes, those posts do the best because they’re so authentic. A year ago, one of my best posts was one I whacked out in Sainsbury’s car park! You can find this post here.

4. Practical tips for coming up with blog post ideas

I’m also surprised to see this one up here because as interaction goes, this didn’t get the best of it but I guess it’s the kind of post that people need to read, they take what they want from it and then leave. And that’s cool! You can find this post here.

3. Tips to improve your daily page views

This was one of my later posts, being published on 25th January so this did quite well to get such a high spot when it hasn’t been live for as long as some of the others. I can only imagine this one did so well because, it’s something a lot of bloggers want to know how to improve on their own blogs. I’m always wary of blogging tips and advice style posts and I despite it when a blogger claims to know everything and that “their way is the only way”. So I try and be a bit more low-key with my advice posts and I always state that whatever I’m advising worked for me and may not work for everyone. Because I think that’s sensible.

2. Things you can do to help and encourage new bloggers

I liked this post and it had a great response and I think it did well because we’ve all been there, we can all resonate with being a new blogger or we are a new blogger at the moment. You can find this post here.

1. Sponsored posts, earning money & blogging as business – tips and tricks

I’m not at all surprised that this got the top stop with over 200 extra views than the post in second place. I really liked this post and I’m glad it did so well and again, I think it only did so well because it’s something a lot of bloggers would like to know and work on. I also think we’re bored of other people being stingy with their information on how to find opportunities when there’s simply no need to be. Like yes, we do need to work hard in order to gain these opportunities but that doesn’t help me find them. I think I was quite to the point in this post and I hope it helped some people! You can find this post here.

Top 5 posts published in January which I enjoyed writing the most

1. What I Got for Chrsitmas Haul

2. Things I Would Tell My Future Child

3. Nothing to Smear! Tips to Tackle Your First Smear Fear

4. Ryman Stationery Review

5. What I Read in January

As you can see, what my favourite posts to write were and what my most popular posts were are vastly different. None of them match up and there’s a whole different genre of posts in each category. I prefer writing more personal posts, such as my What I got for Christmas haul and Things I Would Tell My Future Child. These ones make me feel warm and fuzzy and less like some sort of blogging machine just churning out content which is how I often feel. I enjoyed writing my smear test tips post because it’s something that’s close to my heart and something I can relate to.

You can see that the majority of my popular posts are blogging related, more specifically tips and advice. Which is funny because every time I put out a poll on Twitter about which topics people would want to see, that is always the least popular and I’m sure you’ve heard as well as I have that some bloggers don’t like those sorts of posts. Hmmmmm. I mean, I’m glad my ones have done well of course but I’m a bit confused as to why they’ve done so well. Maybe it’s my approach to the advice within them? Maybe, that’s be nice. Or maybe bloggers aren’t making it obvious that they like advice posts in which case, why? There’s nothing wrong with wanting help and advice.

So, what have I learnt from this? Uhmmmmm…. I’m not sure haha! I mean, I’m still going to write about stuff I enjoy and personal type posts. I’m still going to share blogging advice if I have the advice to share on a particular topic. I might think about doing more spontaneous rambly type posts as one did so well last month. But I figure that I can’t continue giving out advice on blogging related things if I’ve got nothing to give and I won’t just post mindless content for the sake of it.

What type of posts are your favourite to read from me? (or anyone!) Do you have a favourite post of mine from January? What are your favourite posts to write yourself? Let me know!