Popularity? Hadn’t occured to me until today

Well, it appears I have been “tagged” with a blogging meme. My friend Scott Monty at the Social Media Marketing Blog looked at his most popular blog posts

in terms of traffic. Such an exercise might seem egotistical– it is, for me anyway– but it does put one’s writing in perspective. What gets the most traffic, anyway?

This blog isn’t designed so much to maximize traffic– if it were, I would slap some ads on this sucker and start getting that vacation home down payment together. Rather, it is here to help me “create with the mind”– that is what “Gischeleman” means– and work on my writing and thinking by doing it regularly. I am also interested in what posts spark the most reaction, but have not been obsessed enough with stats to sort out my audience numbers properly. Trust me, I do not have much to brag about.

Anyway, here are the top 5 posts I could determine in terms of the traffic stats I do have.

1. Webkinz, or Why I Can’t Get on My Own PC at Home: It appears that Webkinz is a very popular but under-exploited search term
2. “Life with Cancer” Columnist Lauren Terrazzano, 1968-2007: The recent death of a high school classmate brought out my favorite post to date, written on the strength of her final column for Newsday.
3. That Summer Camp You Went To: What if They Wrote a Book About It?: This is a recent post, and not one I expected a lot of traffic to, but I am glad some people have read it. By the way, you can purchase the book about my summer camp here. 50% of proceeds go to building a new boathouse at the camp.
4. Why the Hanson Brothers Weren’t at the Oscars This Year: One of the first posts when I relaunched the blog this winter, it was a blast meeting the stars of “Slapshot.”
5. Tut Tut, Sunglass Hut: Just a tale of poor customer service. People seemed to stumble over this post gradually over the last few months

Now, I would much rather look at my five favorite posts in the short life of this blog, not all of which are on the above list. Feel free to click on these to make them more “popular.”

1. “Life with Cancer” Columnist Lauren Terrazzano, 1968-2007: Yup, definitely a favorite
2. The Legion of Creepy Actors: An idea I came up with a few years ago. I spent a lot of time thinking up this list– please feel free to add to it.
3. Which Comic Book Super Hero are You?: Partly because I had an unusual answer, partly because I knew Chris Brogan would have to comment. The things you think up while sick in bed…
4. Twitter Adoption to Burnout: Approx. 23 Minutes: I found that many fellow Twitter addicts had the same initial reaction.
5. Bringing Social Media to the Masses: or Vice-Versa: I got a lot of good reaction to this topic, here and elsewhere.

Now that I am done gazing at my own digital navel, perhaps some visitors will discover what I think are some pretty decent posts. If you like them great. Either way, let me know.

Now, to extend the game of tag. I would be curious not only about popular posts, but favorites (you too, Scott):

• Chuck Tanowitz
• Chris Brogan
• Ed Lee
• Jim Horton
• John Wall

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