Page View Analysis: the Good, the Bad and the Fairly Ugly

Since the idea was thrown out there to review our articles and give others some idea of what did best in the page view game, I decided to play along. After looking through all those pages of titles, I was exhausted. I'm just kidding. I can only imagine how long some are for those prolific writers on Associated Content. As the point seems to be to share some ideas with others, I'll give you my insight into mine.

When I started writing on AC, I tried several different genres. I found an audience with my humor, so primarily I stick with it. I don't expect to get thousands of page views overnight. Humor is different than writing how-to articles or current news articles as there are always people looking for a way to fix a faucet or reading about some sleazy politician getting caught in a scandal. On the other hand, I've learned that people often read humor long after something is published. All in all, though, I feel fortunate than so many people read and enjoy what I write. With all that being said, I offer the following analysis of my span on AC.

I found my top performer is a "Monday Ramblings from the Byrd Nest" article from May 24, 2010. On the other hand, one of my lowest is a "Monday Ramblings from the Byrd Nest" published on March 8, 2010. That loser has only accrued 70 page views since it was posted. AC was kind enough to feature the first listed on the Humor page, and it has twice as many PVs as my next highest article.

"Robbers Hit Home Depot in Horn Lake, MS", which was published in December of 2009, holds my No. 2 spot.. It also was a featured article and did extremely well considering it fell within a specific time frame.

No. 3 was an AC assignment I accepted while my brain was taking a brief hiatus. Later I was sorry I did because I truly know or care very little about hair. But after a little research, a little examination of personal experience and a conversation with my hairdresser, I published "The Best Short Hairstyles for Women Over 40" (here), which continues to do well today. I guess the lesson is there if you have a good search word such as "hair," chances are it will continue to get hits.

No. 4 was an article that I published in August of 2009 called "Why Don't People Like Me?".. Although I'm happy that this article has and continues to do very well, it makes me a little sad that so many people obviously relate to this problem. Although I had written this in a humor mode, many people left me lengthy comments about their own situation, and I realized that many people must suffer loneliness and feelings of rejection.

My largest overnight PV hit was on No. 5, "University of Mississippi is Looking for a New School Mascot", a humor piece I wrote on the University of Mississippi looking for a new mascot since they were forced to give up their Colonel Reb. That one actually got me over my 100,000 mark and stunned me.

Several other articles have done reasonably well, but there's also the stinkers: "Easter Noise in My House" with 17; "The Day Mama Bagged a Big One" with 48; "Ode to Wool Socks" with 42 and "Quiet of Winter's Arrival" with 66. I offer these if anyone is interested in reading and seeing what makes a stinker.

Final Analysis: If your aim is to make money, then write about topics that people are looking for such as how to do this, current news events, reviews of places and people, where to find bargains, etc. If your goal is to write humor, fiction or poetry, it takes time to build a following but eventually readers will find you. I did find one of my favorites on my list, though, so I think I'll feature it just in case someone hasn't read it. Maybe I can get it over the 100 hump.