Top Posts and Commenters for September 2011

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In case you missed them, here are my top ten posts for September 2011, along with my top ten commenters. I am sending each of the top commenters a free copy of StandOut: Find Your Edge. Win at Work by Marcus Buckingham.

Wordle Graphic for September 2011

Graphic courtesy of Wordle.net

Here are my top ten posts:

  1. Fix for Wireless Connection Problems on MacBook Pro (01/01/2007)
  2. Three Questions You Should Ask Before You Buy an iPad 2 (03/09/2011)
  3. Creating Your Personal Life Plan (03/11/2011)
  4. Why I Stopped Following You on Twitter (09/06/2011)
  5. 7 Ways Successful Creatives Think Differently than Unsuccessful Ones (09/07/2011)
  6. A Review of EntreLeadership, a New Book by Dave Ramsey (09/26/2011)
  7. How to Setup Google Calendar on Your iPhone 4 (07/05/2010)
  8. The Fastest Way to Get a Book Contract—Guaranteed (10/03/2009)
  9. Marketing Is Dead (09/12/2011)
  10. How to Use Evernote with an iPad to Take Meeting Notes (06/11/2010)

In the list above, I placed the date the post was first published in parenthesis. Several items worth noting:

  • Four of the posts I wrote in September made it into the top ten.
  • The #1 post was written in 2007—four years ago.
  • Four of the top ten were written more than a year ago.
  • Half of the posts were about tech topics.
  • The list is very eclectic—leadership, tech, social media, life planning.

My blog traffic continues to grow, but the rate of growth slowed from last month. September was my biggest traffic month ever, but the growth was only 8% over August. Nevertheless, it represents a 239% increase over August of last year in terms of unique visitors.

As I have pointed out before, if you are a blogger, you can continue to generate significant traffic from your old posts. You just need to be intentional about it. (I outline my strategy in a blog post called, “Recycling Your Blog Content.”)

My top ten commenters were:

Note to commenters: Please sign up for a free Disqus account. This is the commenting software I use on my site. That way, when you comment it will create a back-link to your blog or website. Also, if you upload an Avatar (picture), we will get to see what you look like. This is just way more personal—and social.

For October, I’m going to give a free copy of Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by Greg Paul to each of my top 10 commenters. I haven’t read it yet, but Dave Schroeder, Senior Marketing Director at Thomas Nelson, told me it is one of his favorite books this year. Check out this video trailer:

Question: If you blog, what was your top post for September? Why do you think that was the case? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are snarky, offensive, or off-topic. If in doubt, read My Comments Policy.

  • http://joannamuses.com Joanna

    My top post was “Loving the truth about God.”  (http://www.joannamuses.com/2011/09/loving-truth-about-god.html). It is about some of what I learned from Jonah.

    • http://joannamuses.com Joanna

      Looks like that link messed up. The correct link is http://www.joannamuses.com/2011/09/loving-truth-about-god.html

      • http://smallgroupbooks.com Ryan K

        Really enjoyed your post on Jonah. There’s always more there than we realize the first time we read a story.

      • http://brevis.me Robert Ewoldt

        Good post, Joanna.

  • http://smallgroupbooks.com Ryan K

    My most read book review at smallgroupbooks.com in September was for the book “For Men Only.”

    I made it an editor’s choice and highly recommend it to men in a marriage or thinking about getting married. Great advice and an easy read.

    http://smallgroupbooks.com/2011/for-men-only/

    • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

      Sounds like a great book. I’ll have to check it out.

  • Anonymous

    Looks like the men are talking this month…!

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I just noticed that myself. Women, where are you?!

      • http://www.cheriblogs.info Cheri Gregory

        I realize that correlation does not imply causation, but September was back-to-school month…

  • http://www.warriorshepherd.com/blog Dave Hearn

    My top post was “Hero, or Idiot?” … it described the UCLA student who thought it would be a good vacation to join the Libyan rebels… you can find it here: http://warriorshepherd.com/blog/an-idiot-or-a-hero/

    My second highest was the follow up called “A Battle To Fight”… http://warriorshepherd.com/blog/a-battle-to-fight/

  • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

    My top post was “Preparing for my first 5k”(www.jmlalonde.com/archives/preparing_for_my_first5k/)

    I just started my blog last week and only have two posts up. I would surmise that is why it was my top post.

    • http://smallgroupbooks.com Ryan K

      Great new blog Joe. Keep it up and keep up the running.

      • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

        Ryan, thanks for the encouraging words! I hope people will enjoy it and that it will encourage others. Also, thanks for the comment on the blog. I appreciated it!

  • http://jasonfountain.blogspot.com Jason Fountain

    My favorite blog post of the month was titled, “EMBRACING YOUR STORY” (http://bit.ly/qtTEWD). This post was/is very personal to me and something (I believe) we can all relate to. 

    My most popular post was “THIS IS YOUR LIFE” (http://bit.ly/ptknGr). 

  • http://modernservantleader.com/ Ben Lichtenwalner

    I especially liked how you handled Why I Stopped Following You on Twitter.

    For ModernServantLeader.com:
    The top post was Leadership Quotes for Servant Leaders (9/10/2010).

    My most popular post written in the last month was Cleaning Baby Poop Helps Make Great Leaders. I think this was a big hit because it was picked up by some of the top Mom Bloggers.

  • http://www.cathrynhasek.com Cathryn Hasek

    My top post was:  http://cathrynhasek.com/2011/09/06/left-behind/  It was one that I wrote for my one-year anniversary of my blog start.  I believe my best posts are the ones that I write where I bear my own soul.  People take an interest in what you write when you are transparent and upfront with your readers.  It is not easy to do, but God writes through me so it is truly a dual effort.

    Blessings!

    Cathryn

    • Jobaker

      Thanks, Cathryn,  for the Proverbs scripture.  I just subscribed to your blog.

  • http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress John Richardson

    It is a privilege to be one of your top commenters again, Michael. Thank you very much for the great book. As far as my blog goes, September was my best month in years with over 30,000 page views. What is interesting is my top post for the month, entitled Improve your SEO ranking with Klout,  was way down the list at number 23. Your point about garnering traffic from older posts is so true. My Goal Setting Toolkit from 2007 is still number one month after month. Keywords and links are what powers the search engines, and one of the best ways to improve your SEO is to leave comments and become part of the conversation on popular blogs like this.

    Your readers were number 7 on my referral list, looking at an average of 3.4 pages/visit and staying for an average of 4.23 minutes. Both of these stats are much higher than average. While blogging is an important activity, so is social media. Using services like Buffer to tweet links to your previous content, can really bring in great traffic. My Twitter visitors were number 6 on my referral list, and they looked at an average of 1.7 pages and stayed for 2.1 minutes. 

    With Nielsen saying the average web visit is 43 seconds, you can see that blogging and tweeting bring in much better traffic than average. My post above on using Klout for SEO shows you how  to find influential people in your particular niche. This is a great place to start in building your platform and becoming part of the conversation.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Congratulations, John, on hitting this new milestone. Impressive. You have the momentum now. Keep it up!

    • http://www.warriorshepherd.com/blog Dave Hearn

      John, who are you using to track your site visitors?

      • http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress John Richardson

        Mainly Google analytics. Do you have any different recommendations?

        • http://www.warriorshepherd.com/blog Dave Hearn

          I use Google Analytics and Statcounter… I’ve been using Statcounter longer and I find it easier to find the information I’ve been looking for.  But their free account is limited…

  • http://blog.cyberquill.com Cyberquill

    My top post for September was one I published in April titled Equality for Ketchup, in which I used the practice of “marrying” ketchup (as they do in restaurants, i.e., pouring the contents of one partially filled ketchup bottle into another partially filled one) as an aid to illustrating my position on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. 

    For some reason, last month I logged a wild spike of hits from people Googling terms that involved marriage and ketchup (“marry the ketchup”, “what is marrying the ketchup”, “is it legal to marry the ketchups in ny”, etc.) . 

    I am at a loss to explain the provenance of the sudden curiosity regarding condiment unions. 

  • http://brevis.me Robert Ewoldt

    My top post for September was part of my “Cross Examination” series called “Faith and Belief.”. It sparked a lot of interesting discussion in the comments, too. http://brevis.me/faith-and-belief/

  • http://www.nginaotiende.blogspot.com Ngina Otiende

    My top post for September was “Why I am no longer frightened by what i do not understand” .
    Just recently relocated from Kenya (Africa) to United States, I am learning many new things and the post was about learning to love others even when i do accept their choices. 

    It was my top post because friends spread the word through facebook & twitter and promoted it in their blogs.

    You can find it here http://nginaotiende.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-i-am-no-longer-frightened-by-what-i.html

    • http://www.nginaotiende.blogspot.com Ngina Otiende

      Sorry, that was “learning to love others even when I do NOT accept their choices”

  • http://snappycasual.tumblr.com kelsey williams

    My top post on my fashion and style blog was a classic fall outfit. The photo turned out really great! http://snappycasual.tumblr.com/post/9991411294/hats-off

  • http://LookingForPurpose.com Dylan Dodson

    My top posts for September was “Doing whatever makes you happy won’t make you happy.” (http://www.lookingforpurpose.com/2011/doing-whatever-makes-you-happy-wont-make-you-happy/)

    It was about how what we often think will make us happy, doesn’t. In fact, it’s just the opposite!

  • http://uma-maheswaran.blogspot.com/ Uma Maheswaran S

    I did not involve in active blogging during the month of  September. I just posted a thought on Christianity and Bible Reading. That was my only one for last month.

  • http://www.leahadams.org Leah Adams

    My top post for August was how common courtesy seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur.  (http://www.leahadams.org/whatever-happened-to-common-courtesy/

  • Jobaker

    I am not a blogger…yet. I am an elementary teacher and a single mom to 2 girls..13 and 16. Therefore, time to blog is an issue. I do have a close friend nudging me in that direction. I have no remembrance of how I discovered your blog, but I am so glad that I did. Today, I needed to see that clip on Greg’s book…had one of my  ‘life is too overwhelming’ moments. You helped me get it back in perspective. Thank you.

  • http://brandonweldy.wordpress.com Brandon Weldy

    I only started this blog about 2 weeks ago. I still have not had any comments but one day last week I had getting my site “out there.” I tweeted about the post, I put it in google+. I even commented on a couple other blogs. That day I 9 views and they were referred from everywhere I posted, well except google+. I even had a refer from donmilleris.com (I was VERY excited about that)! So I am still writing, and still trying to put the link out there and be involved in other communities to try and draw a community that will also meet with me. 

    • http://uma-maheswaran.blogspot.com/ Uma Maheswaran S

      Just keep going on Brandon! You will rock.

      • http://brandonweldy.wordpress.com Brandon Weldy

        Thanks! It is refreshing to get encouragement!

  • Rachel Turner

    My top post for September was “A Reluctant Member,” (http://rachturner.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/a-reluctant-member/) a post about my new life as a cancer patient currently receiving chemotherapy for non-hodgkin’s lymphoma.  The post talks about becoming a member of the “cancer club.”

  • Anonymous

    My top post for September was “Coco ~ The Timid Puppy” (http://wp.me/p1Llsq-11)

    Why? I wish I knew!  It was a cute story, but not the most creative, in my opinion. 

    My conclusion, at this point, is that people simply like stories about cute puppies.

    • http://uma-maheswaran.blogspot.com/ Uma Maheswaran S

      ” His discipline is not because He is angry with us, but because He loves us too much to leave us blind and selfish.  His discipline is an act of love to guide and teach us, not to vent His anger.” – That was a great insight Joseph!  Thanks for sharing the link.

      • Anonymous

        Thank you, for the feedback, Uma!

  • http://twitter.com/CHiltonDyer C. Hilton Dyer

    My top post for September was: “My Night at Ground Zero”, understandably so.  More interesting is that in August my “Understanding the Famine in Africa” did better, and better still is a video I post on Friday under the title “Water Bottle = Light Bulb?”  http://www.CHDyer.com

  • http://www.bradandlindsey.com Brad Bridges

    5 Ways to Overcome Mediocrity – http://bradandlindsey.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/5-ways-to-overcome-mediocrity/

    5 Positive Responses to Change – http://bradandlindsey.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/5-positive-responses-to-change/

    These two posts were the basically tied for first. I believe the primary reasons for this was that both (1) provided helpful information to the reader (2) gave clear calls to action (3) were very personal challenges anyone could relate to.

    Looking forward to the Buckingham book.

  • http://www.facebook.com/louise.thaxton Louise Thaxton

    My top post was “Retreat, Reflect, Renew, Redesign” ( http://b799c7d.activerain.com/post/2521427/retreat-reflect-renew-redesign-best-practice)

    And congratulations to the top commenters! 

  • http://jonstolpe.wordpress.com Jon Stolpe

    My top two posts for the month of September were:
    1.  Top 10 Things To Do At Grove City College – http://jonstolpe.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/top-10-things-to-do-at-grove-city-college/

    2.  The Birds and The Bees – Talking to Your Kids About Sex – http://jonstolpe.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/the-birds-and-the-bees-talking-to-your-kids-about-sex/

    I think the Grove City post was number generated a lot of traffic as it was in line with this year’s homecoming for the school.  The second post generated a lot of topic due to the topic and title.

  • http://jonstolpe.wordpress.com Jon Stolpe

    Ryan’s got a great blog/site going.  You should definitely check it out!

  • http://www.jeffrandleman.com Jeff Randleman

    Thanks for creating such a vibrant community!  Glad to be a part of this. 

    I just posted my top seven posts for September at http://www.jeffrandleman.com.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the opportunity.  And the book.

  • http://www.christianfaithatwork.com Chris Patton

    Interestingly enough, my top post was only my third post from the beginning of my blog.   It was called “Why I Decided To Walk Away From The Family Business”.  

    I guess people wanted to know what would cause someone to leave a successful, third-generation family business.  My hope and prayer is that others would realize God wants to use them right where they are…they do not have to leave!

  • http://www.tophatrank.com/ seo

    I completely agree with this. If people are involved with you on an emotional level, they will be much more likely to refer friends and family to your business, as well as talk positively about your brand.

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