Another year is coming to a close, and that means a time of reflection and resolution is upon us. 2016 was rather tumultuous, to say the least (we’ll miss you, Princess Leia!), and many are happy to see it go. Some good things happened, though – I heard a bunch of people in India planted millions of trees, for example.
Good things happened on the blogging front, too. I’m nerdy and like numbers, so I dug into them to discover what you guys viewed, liked, and commented on the most. The most viewed posts by far, with thousands and thousands of views, were Songs To Teach Figurative Language and More Songs To Teach Figurative Language. I suspect most of those were from teachers searching for resources.
Setting aside those outliers, we have the more “regular” posts. Since the blog is divided by category, I’ve broken up the data that way.
Most Popular Writing Posts
The most-viewed writing post was We Need To Go Deeper – Into POV, That Is, which I published in 2015. If we’re just looking at posts from this year, these three had the most page views:
Four Things No One Tells You Will Happen When You Publish A Book
Three Writing Cheats To Avoid (Maybe)
Three Writing Rules That Are Kinda Dumb
Two of these – Four Things No One Tells You and Writing Cheats – also had the most likes in this category. Rounding out the top three most likes is Four Questions To Ask Before You Hit “Publish”.
As for comments, Writing Cheats goes for the hat trick, joined by Writing Rules and one new arrival: Is There Room In Publishing For Original Stories?
Most Popular Social Media/Promotion Strategy Posts
These apply to anyone who creates/sells things or has a brand, so I put them in a category separate from writing. These had the most views:
Is Facebook Still Worth It For Authors?
Is Facebook Worth It had the most likes in this category and also the entire blog. The Promotional Graphic post also ranked in the top three for likes in the social media category. Rounding out the top three posts for most likes is a tie between these two: Have You Stumbled Upon StumbleUpon? and Five Reasons I Stop Reading Your Blog Post.
For comments, we have two hat trick posts in this category – Is Facebook Worth It and Promotional Graphic. The third most commented is When Promoting An Ebook: To Free Or Not To Free?
Most Popular Short Stories
Short stories have their own readership, so they get their own category. The top three most-viewed stories are:
Deadly Diamonds is one of the top three in likes, but two of the 99-word pieces round out that group: The Storm and The Gem.
The Gem and Blind Tattooist were also the top in comments, and because of a tie, there are two others that round out the top-commented flash pieces: Get Out! and The Next One.
Most Popular Miscellaneous Posts
500 Reviews and Prepare To Be Wrong are also in the top three for likes. Rounding out that group is Writers Can Help Themselves Get Lucky.
No hat tricks in this category, but Get Lucky is in the top three for comments. Rounding out that group is Drake And The Fliers Has A Trailer! and Ebooks vs. Real Books: Who’s The Winner?
It should be noted that because the blog more than doubled in the number of followers in 2016, averaging one new follower every day for the entire year, most of the posts listed were published in the last 4-6 months (more eyes = more views, likes, and comments). So if you’re new to the blog, you may enjoy some of the posts that happened before you got here.
Not a bad 2016 over here! How did your favorite post do? Did it make the cut?
Allison Maruska 
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Dammit, now when my 2016 Year In Review post comes out tomorrow everybody will think I copied the idea from you! DAMMIT!!
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Okay, now my blog for tomorrow references this post. But also calls it lame. (In a nice way.)
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I’m still gonna think you copied. 😂
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Meanie.
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