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!