January 12, 2016

Top 10 Commented-on Articles and Click-throughs in 2015

2015When readers take time to leave a comment and/or click through to a link I include in a post, it means they trust me, are engaged, and find what they’re reading valuable–want to extend it. This year, I had many more comments than in 2014–about 4800. This compared to over 14,000 over the life of my blog. Why? I’m not sure. I will say I selfishly have enjoyed my readers much more this year. The perspective I get and the vast range of experience is like nothing else in life. I live in a bubble and you-all let me venture out of it.

The 2015 articles that inspired this kind of activity from readers are special to me. I learn a lot by noticing what contributed to the WordDreams community.

Here they are–the ten most commented and most clicked-through articles I shared in 2015:

Top 10 commented-on articles

  1. 51 Great Similes to Spark Imagination
  2. 10 Bits of Wisdom I Learned From a Computer
  3. 29+ Ways to Market Your Book
  4. Lessons learned in a writing journey
  5. 10 Tips for Picture Book Writers
  6. #IWSG–None of My Marketing Seems to Work
  7. 8 Tips for Historic Fiction Writers
  8. 10 Tips for Steampunk Writers
  9. How NOT to Write a Book Review
  10. 27+ Tips I Wish I’d Known About Blogging

Click-throughs are another interesting metric. They tell me how many of the links I post readers actually investigate. They want more information, or primary sources for data, or maybe to purchase one of the books I review (I have an Amazon Associates account so each time a reader clicks through from my blog and buys the book, I get something like 3%).

On my tech-in-ed, blog, about 35% of readers click-through–a big number! Normal is maybe 10% of readers, which is more like what I get on WordDreams. Here are the top sites that you found on WordDreams and wanted to go visit:

Top 10 click-throughs:

  1. Amazon.com
  2. AskaTechTeacher.com
  3. jacquimurray.net/reviews/book-reviews/
  4. goodreads.com
  5. alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html
  6. StructuredLearning.net
  7. Grammarly.com
  8. Cozy-Mystery.com
  9. openphoto.net
  10. public-domain-image.com

What were these on your blog? Do they reflect the goal set for your writing or were you surprised?



Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer,  a columnist for TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.