Image: “2016” in a dark hand against a background of amber lights. Geralt/Pixabay.
I like taking stock of things, and year’s-end is a good time to do it.
Many people sought out the blog from search engines, looking for answers to particular questions. They were, in fact, the bulk of the readers.
The ten articles accessed most often in 2016:
- Bar & Bat Mitzvah Etiquette for Beginners
- 5777: Jewish Years Explained
- 10 Tips for Attending a Jewish Funeral
- What to Wear to a Jewish Funeral
- What’s “Yasher Koach”?
- Why Do Some People Think All Jews are Rich?
- What to Wear to Synagogue?
- “Baruch Dayan Emet” – Why Do We Bless God when Someone Dies?
- 7 Facts about Bar/Bat Mitzvah
- Jewish Greetings 101
Most of these are “oldies but goodies” from previous years that answer basic questions. That’s fine with me: the original purpose of this blog was to support my Intro students and others on the outskirts of the Jewish world with basic information in plain English.
The top five new articles in 2016:
- 5777: Jewish Years Explained
- Rabbis Who Blog (a new feature, not a single post)
- A Voice from North Carolina
- Mental Illness and Yom Kippur
- Men, Women, and the Toilet
- An Unusual New Year
- The Ghost Ship Fire
- Bipolar Disorder and Judaism
- What do Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Mean?
- High Holy Days for Beginners, 5777
Last year the top new articles came from reader questions. In 2016 they came from current events, large and small.
Here is the data from 2016 in CoffeeShopRabbi Land:
The last post of 2016 was my 286th post of the year, down from 327 posts last year.
There have been 157,985 visits in 2016, up from 121, 794 visitors to this blog in 2015.
There were 226,465 page views in total, up from 190,063 page views.
There were 1,385 comments, down from 1,868 last year.
My reading of this: I met my goal of working a little smarter to reach a few more people. On the other hand, some of you were quieter. Any ideas why?
Here’s to a good year of writing and reading ahead!
Hello Rabbi Adar. I enjoyed your Pirke Avot class at Temple Isaiah a while ago. Through these tweets, I appreciate your wisdom and comfort in our current “time that try men’s souls”.
I want to thank you for all your efforts and express my condolences that there are haters who live to tear down goodness on social media. I wish we as humanity could move past this hating pettiness.
With admiration,
Patrick
Thank you so much! I remember you very well.
I’ve been online since 1985 and there have always been some folks who just can’t manage to be menchen. I delete them, block them, and ignore them as needed. I agree, it would be great if we could get past this, but honestly, I don’t think it’s happening any time soon.
Statistics are fun especially this one “There were 226,465 page views in total, up from 190,063 page views”. It usually means many new visitors read more posts. Some may use your writings as a reference point. The statistic also indicates people are sharing and re-blogging your articles. When you are not censored on Twitter or Facebook page views go up.
When looking at stats see what the number is for “unique visitors”. Using unique visitors gives you a much clearer picture. These new visitors could be the reason for fewer comments. Those who have know you longer usually jump right in. Some writing more than they should 🙂 All this gives you a glance at the best statistic “loyalty”.
(I was webmaster for three websites over a 15 year time frame beginning in 1994)
Thanks, Dennis! I will check all that out! Still learning!