The end of the year is the time for retrospectives, James McGrath , Bob MacDonald (Dust) and others have posted their lists. This is an easy post to write and it helps to fill space in the otherwise lazy final week of the year. (All the big sites do it too, CNN probably has a list of the top ten fashion disasters of 2012 right now.)
So I thought I would look back at the “top ten” most popular posts in 2012. Reading Acts had more hits in 2012 than in the first three and a half years combined, mostly from home-schoolers filling out worksheets or people writing papers for Bible Students Say (follow @BibleStdntsSay on Twitter). All kidding aside, I do hope that the posts on Reading Acts meet some needs for pastors and teachers preparing to teach the Scripture.
Omitting the Reading Acts Home Page, here is the list:
OK, I know that is 11, but “Top iPad Apps” is so far ahead it ought to be retired.
A few observations about the list which may be instructive to new bloggers. Carnivals generate hits. (This is a good reason for you to volunteer to run a Carnival in 2013!) Only two other posts from 2012 made the list, “Was John the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved?” and “Revelation and Apocalyptic Imagery.”
Top searches to hit Reading Acts include “carnival, john the baptist, who were the judaizers, why did judas betray jesus, persecution” and “domitian.” I get a significant number of hits with variations on iPad and Bible Software as well. Strangely, I get a fair few people searching for “babel fish” despite not devoting much space to Douglas Adams. The top tag on Reading Acts is “Jewish Christian Literature” followed closely by “book review.”
The top ten referrers to Reading Acts are the “usual suspects,” although number ten was the BiblioBlog Library. I was surprised by this, since I do not see that many hits on a daily basis. I have had a few nice link-ins from Koinonia (Zondervan) and ErdWorld (Eerdmans). I appreciate anyone who links to my blog, thanks.
One of the cool additions to WordPress this year was adding stats on countries hitting your blog. After the US, UK, Canada and Australia, the Philippines, India and South Africa are the most popular countries visiting the site. One of the things I love about this new feature is getting hits from countries I never knew existed – Niue? The Åland Islands? I just wish WordPress would add a link to Wikipedia on the stats page.
That is enough shameless self promotion, thanks for a great year!