I get asked (just about) every time I am speaking in front of a group of people which posts are the most popular. On one hand, this is an easy question to answer because I can simply look at the analytics on my site and see which posts have been viewed the most … but this does not necessarily mean they are the most popular.
The way Google Analytics tracks information, the most viewed is sometimes more a function of age rather than overall popularity – the older a post is, the longer people have had the chance to read it. As a result, it’s very difficult to measure real popularity without spending an inordinate amount of time analyzing data and cross checking it – something that I am not going to do. There are a few that are so far in advance of the others in terms of views that it is probably safe to assume that they are certainly in the Top 10 favorite posts. I have written or published exactly 183 posts this year and the following are 6 of the most popular in terms of total page views … for what that’s worth.
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Top Ten Reasons to be an Architect
This post was one of the reasons I think Life of an Architect did so well this year. Along with the post “Top Ten Reasons not to be an Architect (see below), this post caught fire when I wrote it and was republish in several countries and languages. I wrote both posts in about 30 minutes off the top of my head sitting in a hotel room in Galveston, Texas when I was at a trade show. Instead of partying, I wrote these posts … was it a good decision? I don’t know but I had read a interview from another prominent blogger who was complaining about being an architect and I thought his reasoning was flawed – something I attributed to him being a terrible architect.
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How to spot a Hippie
I explained how this post came to be in the actual post but I am truly amazed that so many people have (and continue) to read this post. How to spot a Hippie is among the very highest posts I have that people find through search engines. Want to drive some traffic to your site? …. write about hippies, you’ll get a lot more traffic than if you write about chicken coops (another big search engine winner by the way).
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Top 10 Reasons not to be an Architect
I really hate this post … I really do. If you were to replace the word “architect” with any other profession, the list still works. I even wrote a post specifically dedicated to how much I hated this post but what are you gonna do?
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Modern Fences: Use your imagination
I put off writing this post for-ever because I thought it would be boring. Once I started writing, it sort of wrote itself and I discovered that I could probably write 3 or more posts on modern fences and how to build them. Pretty sure that I have a few in the draft section, just waiting for the right time to publish them.
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Some of my Favorite Things
Another post that surprises me. I can’t really explain it but apparently my favorite things are also the favorite things of other people.
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Architects Salary … Wanna know?
This post – the 4th one I ever wrote – is seriously outdated in only a year. I keep thinking I should go back and adjust what I wrote but when I go back in to make modifications, I realize that this post has more to do with perception of what an architect makes rather than current market conditions. It’s fine the way it is.
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When I went through the data to compile this post, I was surprised to see that posts that I like the most are not represented on this list. Whenever I write “serious” architecture posts, no one cares. I have learned over the last year that the posts that are balanced towards design professionals as well as non-professional are the ones that seem to make a connection with the people. As a result, I have a few dozen posts that will probably never see the light of day because they no longer seem appropriate for the site – and I am okay with that. Every now and then I will publish one that is just for me despite the fact that I know few people will enjoy it as much as I have. Those are the posts that I will focus on in the next post – my favorites from 2010.
Cheers
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