Each year, towards the end of December I take time to assess my blog, and set some goals for the following year.  Last year my main objective was to lower my bounce rate by at least 10%.

My overall my traffic was down in 2014 by 11% but my bounce rate improved by 25% (yes! I exceeded my goal).  That means I had slightly fewer readers but those who came were more engaged.  That works for me.

Here are my top 20 post for 2014

1. Creating Want The Way Nike and Mars Blackmon Did 
2. Hubshout Review
3. Finger Me (my prostate cancer story)
4. Do You Care More About Customers of Competition (response to David Meerman Scott)
5.  7 Things Anyone Can Do To Be Successful
6. Online Marketing Strategies
7. Should You Have A Blog
8. How To Develop A Website or Blog Strategy
9. Are Content Marketers Addicted To The Facebook Crack Pipe
10. JP Morgan Formula For Success
11. Dennis Rodman North Korea
12. SEO & SEM Strategies
13. Betty White Snickers Ad
14. What Einstein Would Say About Multi-Tasking vs Focus 
15. Do Senior Citizens Use The Internet
16. Back To School Message To Parents, Teachers, & Students
17. How I Save Hundreds on Razors by Using Blade Buddy
18. Best Social Media Platforms For Reverse Mortgage Marketers
19. What Marketers Can Learn From Ebola
20. Marketing Tips From Food Network Magazine

Here are 5 things I observe when I study this list.

1. Write about famous brands and people – 7 (thats more than 1/3) of the post on this list are post I wrote about famous brands, or people I like.  If you can find a way to do this the content serves as evergreen content because famous brands and people tend to stay that way.

2. Don’t just comment respond – For two years now a response I made to a post I read on David Meerman Scotts blog has sent a lot of high quality traffic my way.  That’s because instead of just putting my thoughts about his post in his comments section I wrote the response on my site, then I commented on his blog that I’d responded with some different thoughts.

David of course has one of the top marketing blogs so his articles and comments get read by lots of people.  The biggest benefit I got from this was that David himself sent me an email telling me how much he enjoyed my response, and that he loved my 7 Things Anyone Can Do To be Successful post which is currently ranked #5.

3. Talk About Something Really Important – This year I was fortunate enough to discover via a routine physical that I had prostate cancer.  I learned that nearly every American male (and the females that love them) will deal with prostate cancer in their lifetime.  Instead of hiding this I wanted to do my part to inform men that early detection is easy and possible, so I blogged about it.  The post is only a few weeks old and is ranked # 3.  Additionally, so many men and their wives have come up to me and told me that  because of me they or their husbands have gotten a prostate exam.

4. Try Not To Make Any Money – I know that sounds odd.  But I don’t write this blog to earn money.  I write it because I enjoy it.  Money comes because I write what I like.  When I’m not enjoying it any more I’ll stop.

That’s not to say I don’t want to earn money but I find that if I write with $$$ in mind then writing feels like a chore.  I woke up one morning and wrote the 7 Things post (ranked #5).  It just flowed out of me.  A few months later some guy read it and paid me $1,000 to come talk to a group of students for an hour about it (I would have talked to them for free).  They then offered me a $65,000/yr job…which I declined.

5. News Jack – News jacking is finding relevance in a topic that’s hot in the news, then writing about it on your blog.  The post I wrote on the Dennis Rodman visit to North Korea (#11), and what marketers can learn from the ebola virus (#19) served has news jacking opportunities for me.