Some years just start with a struggle that make you wonder if the entire year is going to be so bad. For this site, 2017 was one of those years.
As some of you know, this site was down when we rang in the new year. The problems started with a malicious attack and continued through the transfer of all of my sites to a new host server.
Finally, after almost two weeks of internet darkness, it seems that 2017 may redeem itself.
I initially wondered if I should go back to talk about my most popular posts of 2016. But, after thinking for several days that a decade of content from this site might be lost, those posts certainly seem worth celebrating.
So, here are the five most read posts on this site in 2016.
1. How to Write a Professional Bio
I wrote this post in 2013 to assist students in my public relations writing class with an assignment. It has been the most popular post on this site since, with most readers finding the post through search.
The popularity of this post (and others on this list) prove that many people are searching for basic information on important topics.
2. 12 Tips for Finding Story Ideas
My second most popular post has three things in common with the first.
- It also was written in 2013.
- It also was written for a class, this time it was to help media writing students identify story ideas.
- It also is what I consider basic, yet helpful, information.
The great thing about the story ideas post is that I can use it as handout and discussion point each time I teach a writing class. It keeps me from spending an entire class lecture or two discussing news values and finding ideas. In a different way, I find this post just as helpful as my readers do.
3. Why You Should Read Every Day
My third most popular post of 2016 is one I wrote for me.
I also wrote this post in 2013. Apparently I produced some great, lasting content that year.
I wrote the post to remind myself of the benefits of reading and to justify my crazy reading habit. I read more than 100 books a year.
4. 10 Writing Truths from Ann Lamott
The fourth most popular post of 2016 is a review of sorts of Ann Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
I wrote the post after reading Lamott’s book with my mass media writing students.
The post is an overview of my 10 takeaways from the book, which is one of the fundamental works on writing.
5. 11 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing
The popularity of the fifth most popular post of 2016 on editing your own writing seems like a no brainer to me. As the post reads:
If editing other people’s work is challenging, editing your own writing is downright painful.”
My goal with this post was to assist readers with the difficult task of self editing.
There they are, the five most popular posts on this site in 2016. I hope you enjoyed them when you first read them or are enjoying them now. I’m also SO glad they’re still here for you to read.
Happy New Year!
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