My Top Five Best Performing Articles

Several Associated Content contributors have written about their best performing articles. These articles can be instructive on what makes a top performing article. Or maybe they just show that you never know what will be popular! Linda Lou has no idea why her top performing articlewas an overnight success. Maria Roth calls her most popular article her "most boring" (and it was from the AC assignment desk!). So if nothing else, these articles let you know what kind of page views you might reasonably expect to get on a single article at AC (unless, of course, you are Crystal Ray).

I have been on AC almost ten months and am slowly working my way towards Clout Level 8, with a little over 25,000 page views to date. I have published 76 articles (including this one) and 171 slideshows. I have uploaded 1350 images, nearly all from my own camera. I average 160 PVs/article and 76 PVs/slideshow. As you can see, I am more of a photographer than a writer. My most views (page views/pages) for an article was 423 and my best total page views for an article was 777. Both of these articles landed on the Most Commented List. Some of my slideshows would have made this list as well, but slideshows are NOT ELIGIBLE for being on the MCL?!

So without further adieu, here are my best performing articles with my in-depth analysis so that you too can rake in the performance money, as I have! You will notice that very few of my articles are based on news events or other time-limited topics, so they could be considered "evergreen". This isn't due to any higher strategy; I just write about whatever "strikes me" as interesting. Because of this, 39% of my page views this month are from content published earlier. This is how I can consistently rake in up to $4.00 in performance payments each month! (Editor's note: This seems like "further adieu" to me. I'm glad you got that off of your chest.)

Top Five Articles

The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity 777 PVs; 44 comments (MCL); 4 pages = 194 views

This article was based on a series of discussions I led at my church. It is based on a popular book by Edwene Gaines and continues to receive regular page views (65 this month).

Living with a Pacemaker 531 PVs; 22 comments; 5 pages = 106 views

I wrote about my experiences and struck a chord with other pacemaker patients and relatives. This article also gets regular page views. It has received 128 page views this month even though it was published in February. This is the good thing about pacemakers - they establish a regular hit rate!

How to Take Better Pictures with Your Digital Camera 446 PVs; 32 comments; 4 pages = 111 views

I was disappointed that AC wouldn't offer any upfront payment for this article, as I thought it was better than other similar articles on AC. There are a lot of articles on the internet on photography, but I put the focus (so to speak) on the foundational principles. It continues to pull in consistent page views, with 44 this month.

More Clout Means More What? 423 PVs; 51 comments (MCL); 1 page (poem) = 423 views

This article was a poem written to celebrate reaching Clout Level 6. I can understand why it got so many comments, since the AC community is good about supporting and celebrating milestones of other contributors. But I have no idea why it got so many page views! The 423 views for a single page article are by far the most I have received; being on the Most Commented List certainly helped. If you didn't read this the first time, don't click on the link now, because you will learn nothing from it! It is NOT an evergreen article and has only earned 7 page views this month (more than it deserves!).

Riddles with Answers 307 PVs; 16 comments; 1 page = 307 views

I was just trying to have fun writing haiku puzzles. As it turned out, my haikus weren't - I didn't know the 5-7-5 syllable rule. But the riddles got a lot of page views anyway, especially when I put the answers with them. And people still look at these riddles, with 39 more page views this month.

Top Five Slideshows

Since slideshows are treated differently than articles on AC and since most of my content consists of slideshows, I have also listed my top five slideshows.

Flower and Garden Pictures 298 PVs; 64 comments

This was my first piece of content and received a lot of welcoming comments from Maria's fans (since she introduced me in another article). This is my most commented content and it is still a popular slideshow, with 33 page views (and several new comments) this month.

Zach and Audrey Go Nuts! 176 PVs; 38 comments

Slideshows with kids are always popular and this is my best to date. It was a fun time with Zach and Audrey playing at our house and a nearby playground.

Renegade Tulip 163 PVs; 24 comments

The popularity of this slideshow has surprised me; it is a single slide with an anomalous tulip petal. I guess the unusual is always interesting!

Princess Audrey's Christmas 157 PVs; 27 comments

Another slideshow of kids; this was published while interest in Audrey was high due to her leukemia diagnosis last September.

Florence, Italy - Home of the Renaissance 150 PVs; 31 comments

This was one of my favorite cities to visit on our Italy trip several years ago. I think Italy is a popular travel destination for many (at least in their plans).

Bottom Content

One slideshow with 32 PVs and five more slideshows under 50 PVs

Slideshows don't usually score well in the page view category. There are at least a couple of reasons for this, I think. The first reason is that the slideshow only counts as a single page view no matter how many slides it contains. This is because the ads only load once. The second reason is the inexplicable (at least, to me) rule that slideshows cannot be on the Most Commented List - this should be changed!

March Madness 56 PVs (poem)

This poem about the NCAA basketball tournament is my poorest performing article (i.e. non-slideshow). It is well-known that poetry doesn't get a lot of page views for most contributors. Like slideshows, they are limited to a single page. However, they ARE eligible for the MCL and often appear there.

Summary

I can't believe you think a contributor with less than 800 PVs on their most successful article is going to give you any helpful wisdom to writing popular articles here! But if you insist, I would refer you to my much more popular daughter's advice in this article. The bottom line from me is to write what you know. If it interests you, it may interest others, and no one (except maybe the aforementioned Crystal Ray) can predict what articles will be their most popular. And, thanks to AC's new ability to feature articles on our profile pages, we don't really have to resort to pitiful attempts like this article to get people to checkout our work!

I have joined AC and stay on AC because I enjoy the community of writers here, with the flexibility to write about almost anything we want. I truly enjoy the comments I receive much more than any money I get, so leave me a note! And I look forward to reading and commenting on your work in the future.