30 Days to Being a Better Blogger
Day 16: Your Greatest Hits
On Teach42.com right now, I have 764 blog posts. I’ve written a few more, but they got lost between transitions before I settled on Wordpress. Of those 764, 10 appear on the landing page. So when someone comes to visit my blog, those are the posts they see. If they have some time, maybe they’ll scroll back a few pages, but there may be some visitors that have no idea that I used to be an active podcaster. Or that I aggregated the top free Wordpress themes for education. Or that I wrote up a summary of the things I learned from Twitter in a 24 hour period. Or that I built an iPod battery pack… out of an Atari 2600 cartridge!
The point is, as wonderful as a blog is for sharing your thoughts and ideas, information does tend to get buried rather quickly. Some of those posts, like the ones I mentioned above, are just as valid now as they were a 12, 24 or even 36 months ago. So today’s challenge is going to be adding a spot on your blog for your greatest hits, the posts that you think are your best, your most significant, and the ones that you think visitors to your blog should check out. Idea being, if they’re only going to be on your blog for a few minutes, what are the things that you’d like to show them?
So what posts should you provide links to?
- Posts of yours that have received the most comments
- A post where you describe your ‘blog’ mission statement, or why you got into blogging in the first place.
- A blog post that you’re extremely proud of, whether it got comments or not (some of my favorites have gotten zero comments)
- Any posts that you think would be worthwhile for people new to the blogosphere to read
- In a nutshell, your favorites.
I want to re-emphasize, number of comments does not equal quality of post. There are a few posts I’ve written that have received a decent number of comments, but frankly I’m rather ashamed of. Others generated a lot of conversation, but I don’t necessary feel are all that significant or worth pointing out to people. Perhaps the information is dated and not relevant anymore.
Take some time to scroll through your archives and try to figure out which posts you think are worth sharing with people. There’s no magic number here, but I’d say between 5-10 are a good number. As to where you put them, you really have three options. You could just post it on your blog, which is great to remind current readers of your greatest hits, but doesn’t help future readers. Once again, in 10 posts, it’ll have scrolled off the front page. The second place is to put it in it’s own page. If you do so, you can link up the post as well as write a brief description of why people might be interested in it. Then you add a link to that page in your blogs navigation bar (many blog engines do this automatically).
The third option, which is the one I’ll be doing tonight, is to add it in to your sidebar. If you do that, then those links will appear on every page throughout your blog, so regardless of how people arrive, visitors will still be able to see them. This gets those posts the most exposure, but it also takes up real estate in your sidebar, something we’re trying to keep concise. So long as you don’t let it get out of control though, it shouldn’t take up too much space.
If you’re a new blogger, then maybe this is something that you may want to create space for, and update as you go along. Veteran bloggers, this may take some time to dig through.
Either way, once you’ve done the groundwork, share a comment here with what you think was your most significant blog post to date and why. And don’t forget to share a link to it!
30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
- Day 1: All about the “About” page
- Day 28: Link It Up
- Day 21: Give a comment a promotion
- Day 13: Declutter Your Sidebar Part 2
- I try to remain impartial. Do you care?
mwright103
11/16/2008
Day 16: Your Greatest Hits /Teach42/ – On Teach42.com right now, I have 764 blog posts. I’ve written a few … http://tinyurl.com/6795c4
Jen
11/16/2008
Hey Steve
My most “visited” post was http://jenuinetech.com/blog/?p=110 (140 characters does not a friend make) and I am doing a YEAR follow up on November 23 — a reflection piece.
I know — with certainty — that the comments were not driven by my fantastic writing, but instead by the vulnerability (Hmmm) — passion of the first commenter (which has irony in itself — which you will find out why on the 23rd)
My favorite post is http://jenuinetech.com/blog/?p=94 – which I still believe is very true.
Jen
ps: by having us reflect, I realize now that I don’t have a search option on my blog!! Smiles, learning all the time.
J
Jen´s most recent blog post.. There is NO WAY…..
Dan Callahan
11/16/2008
This kind of got me to do the opposite thing…getting rid of a bunch of posts. I’m still a little too new to have any greatest hits, but i had a ton of old posts that were just daily linkposts from delicious. They basically alleviated my burden of making sure to post without having anything new to contribute. So today I deleted them all! That cut my number of posts from 125 to about 75, but it’s a tighter 75 for it.
Dan Callahan´s most recent blog post.. One way I use Diigo
[...] Day 16: Your Greatest HitsRead more [...]
Martha Thornburgh
11/16/2008
I chose this link as one of my favorites. Most of my blogs are more how to and not so reflective. I enjoy writing the reflective pieces, but am never sure what people want to read. Everyone was on the Wii Fit wagon this summer so this was a fun one to think about. By the way, today was my 100th day on Wii Fit. Had to miss one day when I was at a conference!
http://digital-doors.blogspot.com/2008/09/lessons-learned-from-wii-fit.html
Martha Thornburgh´s most recent blog post.. Educators to End Hunger and Poverty
Mike Curtin
11/16/2008
Awesome idea, Steve. This was a great exercise for me and I think it will help people who stumble upon my blog to get to know me quickly. I created a page and linked to it in my sidebar. Here it is:
http://mikecurtin.edublogs.org/my-best-posts/
Thanks!
Mike Curtin´s most recent blog post.. The Return of Anonymity
Sean Nash
11/16/2008
Actually- I have been wondering about doing something like that on the sidebar. I haven’t been blogging forever, but it does seem like sometimes when I post late on a Sunday night (one of the time I can actually get one in) that it gets drowned out.
I also like the idea of adding a page to highlight particular posts that might characterize your mission, beliefs, philosophy, etc. Good idea. I will think about that one.
It is funny… today I noticed that the one blog post that had always been my biggest “hit” in Google Analytics, http://nashworld.edublogs.org/2008/10/18/blogging-building-bonds-within-the-brain/ was overtaken today by a very brief post where I essentially shared a great Picasso quote: http://nashworld.edublogs.org/2008/11/11/and-what-do-we-teach-our-children/
I find that quite… interesting. Always makes me reflect on tags, topics and ideas of the day.
Sean
Sean Nash´s most recent blog post.. How do you spell constructivism?
[...] Day sixteen in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series was yesterday and asked us to look at Day 16: Your Greatest Hits. Essentially, we were asked to create some links on our blog that would link to entries that [...]
Pam Shoemaker
11/17/2008
My favorite post was an entry describing a 6th grade science project where students wrote a song about astronomy. http://shoemap.edublogs.org/2008/01/11/6th-graders-write-science-song-and-perform-dance/One group also choreographed a dance. I posted a video of the students singing and dancing and comments came in from all over the world. It meant a huge deal to the teacher and the students!
Pam Shoemaker´s most recent blog post.. Week 2: 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger
Pam Shoemaker
11/17/2008
Sorry, that link above went to the wrong entry! I’ll try again….
http://shoemap.edublogs.org/2008/01/11/6th-graders-write-science-song-and-perform-dance/
Pam Shoemaker´s most recent blog post.. Week 2: 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger
[...] Day 16 and I have nowhere to go! This one is about posting your greatest hits, well I don’t have any. I keep this little ole’ blog to help keep me focused on what’s happening out there in the tech ed blogosphere. I am not a writer, maybe this will help me become a better one? Who knows. As for my past posts, there aren’t a lot and none that jump out at me. I’ll keep on keepin’ on and maybe the hits will start pouring out! Share and Enjoy: [...]
[...] See the rest [...]
Shortcomp
11/21/2008
Done this. Created a whole page, but only have one page at the moment. Will have to post more, to get more favourites
[...] Day nineteen in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series was yesterday and asked us to look at Day 19: Who do you love… and why? Essentially, we were asked to visit other bloggers of our own genre and then size up what they [...]
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