What blog posts bring in the most readers?
Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, August 8, 2008 – 12:10 am
It is always interesting to see what brings readers to a blog so I thought I might share with you guys what blog posts have brought the most visitors into Just Creative Design. Maybe you could employ the same strategies to get more readers to your blog?
According to our stats from the past 7 months (see below) these are my top 10 most popular pages on JCD.
- 92 More Awe Inspiring Creative Photographs
- 56 Awe Inspiring Creative Photographs
- 30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Own
- 99 Sites ALL Designers Must Know About
- Home Page
- Graphic Design Portfolio
- Why logo design does not cost $5.00
- The Best Graphic Design Articles from 37 Top Design Blogs as Chosen By The Authors Themselves
- 15 Signs Your A Bad Graphic Designer
- 192 Creative, Smart & Clever Advertisements
So What Blog Posts Bring In The Most Readers?
1. Long Large Numbered Resourceful Cool Lists
Upon further study you will notice that half of my top 10 posts are all geared towards the social media and they really lapped it up.
Any post that is a huge resourceful list will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to your blog… so once in a while rather than writing 5 small posts, why don’t you spend 3 times as long writing a large list… Smashing Magazine is proof that it works and my top 4 articles prove this also.
2. Original Articles with Catchy Titles
These were my three other posts that brought in tons of visitors. Each of these posts are unique and have a catchy title and are further proof that a good article with a catchy title will work for itself.
- Why logo design does not cost $5.00
- The Best Graphic Design Articles from 37 Top Design Blogs as Chosen By The Authors Themselves
- 15 Signs Your A Bad Graphic Designer
For some ideas why don’t you try find something that hasn’t been written about before in your niche? Try going around to all the blogs in your niche and ask for an interview, ask for their favourite post and compile them together in one large post? There are heaps of other unique ideas out there. I highly recommend you visit our Ultimate List of Blog Heading Templates & Titles post for some inspiration.
Where Do All The Readers Come From?
Social Media and Google without a doubt… For some more information on social media I wrote about it in length in this post: What is the best social media website? Digg, SU, Delicious, Reddit or? and for some tips on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) read 10 SEO Rules for Designers.
The main traffic from JCD comes from StumbleUpon, Digg, DesignFloat and Google with the rest coming mainly from other design blogs… It really helps to be on other people’s blog rolls especially if they are in the same niche as you…I can assure you of that. Try to get on them, even if you have to ask.
Anyway, I would be interested to hear what everyone else’s most popular posts are… leave them in the comments!
If I Could Only Read 10 Blogs…
Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, June 1, 2008 – 2:19 pm
Recently Steven from Vandelay Design listed his “Favourite Sites for Web Design Tutorials” and JCD was one of the twelve mentioned due to my unusual tutorials that walked through my design process, so it made me think… If I could only read 10 blogs what would be the top 10 design blogs I would choose?
Narrowing down 100+ feeds into 10 is no easy feat (nor fair) but in no particular order, here is the list I would choose if I could only read 10 blogs. I have done this based on variety, the quality of their content, how often they post and the range of topics that they cover.
Abduzeedo
Seriously if you have not heard of this blog, take my word for it, subscribe. They post every day (sometimes three to four times) with something unique every time. They interview great graphic designers and have regular best of the week summaries, a best video of the week series, inspiration posts, general design resources and just recently, contests too.
PSD Tuts
I had to list PSDTuts not just because they are Aussie but because they have the best quality tutorials on the net. Period. Keeping up to date with the latest effects and techniques is crucial as you should always be improving your skills and these guys make it a breeze.
Vandelay Design
I do not know how Steve makes time for his quality resourceful posts as well as maintaining his business but he does a very good job of it. He posts mostly about web design resources but his posts vary into social media such as his 50 Designer To Follow On Twitter and also blogging posts such as 101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog.
Subscribe to Vandelay Design Blog
Creative Curio
I have been reading this blog ever since I started blogging back in November 2007 and still do to this day. Lauren has also put together a handy graphic design glossary aka definitions for words used in the design industry. Her blog has also just recently under gone a new redesign and as her blog title says “Learn, discuss and enjoy the realm of graphic design.”
I Love Typography
Does this blog even need to be given an intro? You can never know enough about typography as a designer.
Subscribe to I Love Typography
Inspiration Bit
InspirationBit is another blog that I have been reading since I started blogging… how I came across it I have no idea though I am sure glad I did. Vivien’s articles on design are usually very discussion worthy and one article of interest (of many) is her 16 best loved fonts in web design post.
David Airey
David Airey’s personal design blog / portfolio site was the first blog that I ever read and still continue to read today. David writes about his personal design projects as well as many other topics. Something that does make this blog stand out is the quality comments that his readers leave on on each article adding value to the subject at hand.
Freelance Switch
Freelance Switch is a multi author blog that focuses on the business side of freelancing. Every article published is of extremely high quality, something that is made sure by their team of brilliant editors. I am just about to have a (paid) guest article published on Freelance Switch too so keep an eye out for that but in the mean time check out their most popular post The 12 Breeds of Client and How To Work With Them.
ProBlogger
Although technically not a design blog, I put this in my top 10 list because a blogger should always be learning new ways of doing things to improve their blog and this site makes that job a breeze. If you are new to blogging this should be your first stop.
Smashing Magazine
I am pretty sure that everyone would have heard of Smashing Magazine by now but if not I suggest you subscribe… They smash you with information to make your life easier… 74 000+ Subscribers can’t be wrong.
Subscribe to Smashing Magazine
Write Your Own Top 10 Blog List
Why don’t you write a blog post about your top 5 or top 10 blogs of choice? Leave a trackback to this article to let other readers know about your post! It is also a good way to clean out your feed reader.
Discover RSS: May 1st is RSS Awareness Day + The Official Logo I Designed For It
Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, April 27, 2008 – 8:10 pm
On May 1st it is the first RSS Awareness Day. The objective of RSS Awareness Day is to get as many people as possible talking about RSS and its benefits and for them to educate the not-so-tech public about the benefits of RSS.
- Have you heard about RSS? If not, check out What Is RSS?
- If you already know about RSS, spread the word, write a blog post about it and try telling a friend or family member about RSS too. At least digg the official rss day page.
Logo Design
Below you can see the official logo I designed for RSS Day. You will notice the original RSS logo plus the number 1 to remind users of May 1st. You can check out more of my logo designs in my just updated portfolio. You can even read my new testimonials page. This is what Daniel (the man behind RSS Day) had to say about the logo.
Jacob did outstanding work with the logo for our RSS Day initiative. Not only was it beautiful, but it was also meaningful for the project.
Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.
Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter
Written by Jacob Cass on Monday, April 7, 2008 – 10:46 pm
Guess what this post is about! Yes you guessed it… Twitter!
I have noticed that about 90% of all twitter posts are pages and pages on end explaining what it is and the benefits of using twitter so I am going to keep this short for ease sake and get straight to the point of this post…
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
If you do not know what it is just sign up, it is the only way to get your head around it.
- You will find my twitter feed in the right sidebar of Just Creative Design.
- You will also find my Twitter feed in my facebook profile.
- While your on Facebook you can also join the Just Creative Design group.
- You can see all my other social media sites here.
Just incase you forgot… Follow Me On Twitter.
How To Customise Your Wordpress 2.5+ Log In Screen
Written by Jacob Cass on Thursday, April 3, 2008 – 10:54 am
Here is how to customise and brand your Wordpress Log In Screen for Wordpress 2.5+ (and probably many more versions to come). If you are running an older version of Wordpress you may want to check out this post. You may also want to check out the live demo of my log in screen here.
This post comes after updating my Wordpress to version 2.5 and losing my old custom log in screen. Just a word of warning, I am not the best tutorial writer and this tutorial is for an intermediate to advanced user of Wordpress.
Update:
There are also 2 WordPress plug ins available which can customise your Wordpress 2.5 log in screen.
- Wordpress Custom Admin Branding - This changes the log in screen, as well as the logo in the header and footer of your admin panel.
- Branded Wordpress Log In Screen - This is a plugin that brands only the log in screen.
To change the logo from the Wordpress logo to your logo
- Login to your site via FTP or your preferred method and locate the file ‘login.css‘ which is found in your wp-admin/css/ folder. Open this css file in your favourite editor.
- In the login.css file look for the line:
background: url(../images/logo-login.gif) no-repeat;
and change it to your own image for example… background: url(../images/YOURLOGO.gif) no-repeat;
NB: You will probably want to make the logo around 290 pixels wide. - For the more advanced users this is where you can customise the look of the login anyway you like using CSS which I know you will. I just changed the fonts to Helvetica to match my site.
To change the colour of the background (ie. the baby blue colour)
- Open the colors-fresh.css file which is also found in your wp-admin/css/ folder.
- Locate the TWO #eaf3fa colour’s in this file and replace them with any colour you like. I would recommend a light washed out or neutral colour. I chose my site colour which is grey. (#EAEAEA)
- Don’t stop here, you can customise your log in screen as much as you like! Mine was just a quick example.
Just a note to remember to backup these two CSS files (colors-fresh and login.css) before you do any Wordpress updates as these updates will overwrite these files and you will have to do it all over again!
Once you have finished, upload your login screen to the Wordpress 2.5 Log In Screen Flickr pool.
Why?
This is a a very simple and effective way to customise and brand your wordpress login screen… It would be very beneficial for web designers designing for clients as it’s the attention to detail in your work that makes all the difference when you deal with your clients.
If you have designed a wordpress blog for a client I would highly recommend making this small, yet important, inclusion. For myself, it’s not as important as I am the only one who writes on this blog, however for those with multiple authors it surely is a must.
You also may be wondering about what that OpenID log in is? You should definitely read about it… you will regret it if you don’t.
You may also want to check out WordPress Plugins You Must Have or the Ultimate List of Blog Heading Templates & Titles for Blogging. Also don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.
If you have any questions (and I am sure you will) please let me know.
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