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Six days ago I wrote 5 Reasons Educators Should Blog and posted it on Connected Principals. Frankly, it was a piece that took less than an hour to write, included little research, and yet has received about as many hits (3000) in one week of any post I have ever written. In its first day, it received 1400 hits alone. Honestly, I did not think that the piece was earth shattering, but there are simple reasons why the piece was well read.
1. The site itself is popular.
I am honored to be a contributor to Connected Principals and I know that I will always have a greater audience on this collaborative blog than I will ever have on Principal Reflections. The blog has spawned the popular Twitter hashtag #cpchat and is read by thousands of readers each day.
2. The post was under 500 words.
Coming in at 429 words, this less than a page entry is a bite size article in the midst of a deluge of online text. Certainly, there’s a place for longer essays but writers need not think that smaller posts are somehow less cerebral.
3. Twitter covered the piece well.
The Twittersphere was kind to this post as it was tweeted out to tens of thousands of readers who in turn clicked on the link and checked out my words. I was fortunate to have a few Twitter “rock-stars” tweet the post.
4. The title was enticing.
Readers like lists. So many of us are linear thinkers or like to think linearly from time to time. Before even reading the blog post, the reader can picture the end of the piece, knowing that there are just five points to be experienced.
5. I posted at the beginning of the week.
The entry was jump-started because anecdotally there are more blog readers on Monday than most days during the week. In a quick check of Connected Principals stats, Monday is one of the largest days for hits. In fact, the largest day ever for this blog was 2660 hits on January 16, 2012, which was a Monday. It would seem that educators would be checking out blogs on a Monday morning over breakfast when the week is about to start and their brains are back into their job after a weekend. However, according to a study from Connecticut software developer Jack Luciani, after lunch or after work are the best tines to post a blog and the best day is Thursday. The worst time to post is early afternoon on the weekends. Of course if you are inspired to write a blog post and you have set aside the time, who cares what time of day it is.
I am pleased at the level of discourse with over 40 comments thus far with a variety of opinions. There have been some tweets sent out redirecting readers to the comments themselves as well.
Now…I need to respond to scores of comments. Thanks for reading and keep blogging!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
