My Top Five Viewed Pieces on Associated Content

I joined Associated Content over three years ago, and I've written a lot over that time period. Some articles, like my very first article, gets almost no visitors (that first ill fated article has only received 140 page views). Others have been wildly successful. Here's a quick reflection on my top five articles, and hopefully this will help you figure out what you should spend your time writing about.

How to Create Custom Tooltips with Just HTML and CSS. This basic HTML/CSS tutorial has received over 13k page views since I wrote it 3 years ago. This is the best performing article out of one fairly successful topic: webdesign and computer technology. Articles that are based around how to do things in web design, programming, etc are pretty popular because people learning those things will often search the web for answers.

Guide to Non-Stamina Food Buffs in World of Warcraft. This guide to World of Warcraft food and buffs has over 15k pageviews in the past three years. What does this tell you? Way too many people play World of Warcraft, and they are always searching for information. Video games in general are gold mines for viewers. If you play a game, write about it.

WoW Guide to Getting Revered Reputation with Lower City and Keepers of Time. This was another quick World of Warcraft guide, and it has received over 20k pageviews in the same 3 year span. Again, this provided useful but specific information to gamers who were often searching for it.

How to Create and Use Foldable, 3d Graphic Organizers in Your Classroom. This article boggles my mind. It has about 28k pageviews over three years. Although I love teaching and I love writing about teaching, this is about the only article on education that I've written that consistently does well. I can't explain why... I'm guessing I got real lucky with a search phrase, because this routinely brings in 500 - 1000 page views a month.

Best Gems for a Paladin Tank to Socket in World of Warcraft. Perhaps no surprise, the number one all time article I've written was about World of Warcraft. When I played the game, I loved tanking as a Paladin and I loved trying to educate people on how to do it. This article received a whopping 50k+ page views in the past three years. Gamers. Gotta love 'em.

I write about a lot of things - home improvement, gaming, web design, programming, education. What I learned from these top five articles is that gaming is clearly the most dominant and profitable topic that I write about. The others can be, but the articles are often hit or miss.

The ironic thing about the three World of Warcraft articles is that they are completely out of date. They aren't even remotely useful to people anymore (except maybe the reputation guide) because updates to the game have drastically changed the content and gameplay. But, still people are stumbling on these articles and viewing them (and earning me money).

Find a lucrative niche, and stick with it. If I still played World of Warcraft, I would have written a ton more articles. Unfortunately, I gave it up years ago to reclaim the rest of my life. Although I really don't regret quitting the game at all, I wish I could still consistently write articles like this that pulled in tons of page views.