My Most Unpopular Articles on Associated Content from Yahoo!

Writers for Associated Content from Yahoo! have developed a sort of trend, writing articles based on a list of their five most popular articles. Always preferring to start a trend than to follow one, I want to share my ten most unpopular articles.

After all, the most unpopular articles are the ones that need a little tender loving care, and perhaps we can learn about how to write an unpopular article, and how to avoid writing an unpopular article. One thing I learned from this list is that three of my ten most unpopular articles are about a holiday, so perhaps I should avoid writing about that holiday. I have written about holidays from various religious traditions, a literary holiday, music for holidays, recipes for holidays, but this one holiday seems to lose almost everyone's interest.

#10 - "The Gnostics: What Were Their Sources for Authority?" Read it.

I wrote a series of articles on the Gnostics, those misunderstood heretics. In fact, I wrote an index article for the whole series (here). Obviously, with a topic like that, I was not expecting great PVs, but this one article falls way below the low numbers for the rest of the series.

#9 - #3 - #1 - Just be patient.

I am going to discuss these three articles on that holiday at the end of this list.

#8 - "Is Voting Republican Bad for Your Health?" Read it.

I have always thought that this satiric piece should have done better than it has. In fact, a few of the people who left comments said that they could not resist the title. Apparently, many people could. By the way, I do not answer the title question; I just point out some intriguing statistics.

#7 - "My Film Reviews" Read it.

Unlike the previous article, this one has a less than appealing title. Maybe it does not deserve many page views, because it is nothing but an index of of over 150 film articles and reviews that I wrote for another site. Some of these articles are over ten years old, and I find that I do not remember some of the films myself.

#6 - "Humpty Dumpty's Guide to a Successful Life" Read it.

To be honest, this one deserves to be here, or to be even lower. I do not remember what I was thinking, why I wrote this, why I posted it. It sounds like the many graduation speeches I suffered through during twenty years of teaching. I almost left out the link to this one. (Although I did include the link, it did not work at first. Unfortunately, it does now.)

#5 - "Singer/Activist Miriam Makeba Dies at 76" Read it.

Within a couple of weeks of the death of Miriam Makeba, Yma Sumac died, and I also wrote a tribute to her (here). Of the two great singers, I assumed Makeba would have been the better known. To my surprise, the article on Sumac drew about three times as many views.

Then, in quick succession, Eartha Kitt and my much loved Odetta died, and I decided that I just did not want to become a threnodist for dead divas. Since I made that decision, we have also lost Mercedes Sosa. I fear that it is as dangerous for a woman singer to have me like her as it was dangerous for any woman on Bonanza to be loved by the Cartwright boys, since any time Adam, Hoss, or Little Joe fell in love, the lady did not survive until the closing credits of that episode.

Although I did not write articles about them, here are links to the Wikipedia articles and to videos for Eartha Kitt
(Wikipedia; video), Odetta (Wikipedia; video), and Mercedes Sosa (Wikipedia; video).

#4 "The Dalai Lama Visits Taiwan, Despite China's Protests" Read it.

It seems that my articles on current events do not do well. But, this article also can be grouped with a number of articles on Buddhism, for which I maintain an index page (here). These articles do not end up among my most popular ones, but none other is anywhere near this low in popularity.

#2 - "Why is Tintin's First Adventure so Controversial?" Read it.

One of my favorite topics for articles on ACfY! is Tintin, the Belgian reporter who was the hero of a series of "albums" or comic books, and will be featured in three films from Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. Although he is known and loved in most parts of the world, he has never caught on in the United States, and I have been trying to change that. In fact, I maintain an index page (which I need to update) to my articles on Tintin here. Few of them have received many page views, although one has topped 3,000.

The biggest losers? Or, real turkeys?

#9 "How to Make a Free Conference Call at Thanksgiving - or Any Day" Read it.

#3 "Thanksgiving: Free Audiobooks and Free Books to Enhance Thanksgiving" Read it.

#1 "How to Find Free Online Stuffing for Thanksgiving - No Money, No Calories!" Read it.

I have written a range of holiday articles, dealing with the changing date of Easter (here), the changing spelling of Hanukkah (here), , the feastday of the patron saint of gardeners and people who suffer from sexually transmitted diseases (here), and a holiday that commmemorates the greatest novel of the twentieth century (here).

They all have been far more popular than my articles about Thanksgiving. In fact, my least popular or most unpopular article is the index page for my other Thanksgiving articles.

Conclusions?

Just as I say about my most popular articles, I cannot make any predictions about how well my articles will do on ACfY! Despite the unpopularity of articles on the holiday devoted to giving thanks, I do give thanks that even with my unlikely topics, I maintain an average of over 1,000 PVs per article.