A Virtual Happy New Year

I started this blog in March of last year in support of a class that I have taught for several quarters. With no expectation and the knowledge that the topics I would be covering are not of interest to the broader community, I have been surprised and delighted by how rewarding it has been.

Besides being part of a larger blogging community, where I have met and corresponded with some outstanding people (and gnomes) it has been an opportunity to explore some broader topics that pertain to my more focused interest of how people are viewed from the information that we find out about them that exists online.

Thank you to the thousands of people who have stumbled across the postings here and have been interested enough to leave comments. It has been gratifying to have as much activity in the comments section that I have, given the number of people who come to this blog. The most frequently visited page was the home page of course, but it is interesting to see which posts people come to most frequently based on the subject matter and specific interest.

Not that the topics are all that proportionate in popularity as they are to my interests, though many do reflect what I like to talk about or at least what the class of that quarter might be interested in.

Top Ten Most Popular Posts for the Year

Nothing says "damage to your credibility" like seeing your name pop up on Google with the title "Doh, Being Simpsonized Was Painful". But no doubt enough people had trouble with this online marketing software that they googled the topic for instructions and ending up on my site. As troublesome as it was, it was also a great deal of fun and I acquired a nice collection of local simpsonized folks as well.

1) Doh! Being Simpsonized Was Painful

This very early post featured an artist named Elana Lindquist who has quite the international following. She sent out a link to her post through her online listserv and the number of hits to the site went up dramatically.

2) A Quote Takes Flight in Cyberspace

The recent South Sound Technology Conference received a lot of attention. In fact two of the top blog postings from this year came from that conference. The first was simply a save the date notice, posted three weeks before the date.

3) South Sound Technology Conference 2007

Nothing says site traffic like mentioning someone famous. I posted about writing a chapter for a Podcasting book, but it was my mention of Stephen King's book on writing that still get visitors coming through a Google search.

4) Stephen King, On Writing

I compared the Puyallup Fair to the NY State Fair after visiting both, but I am sure that it was the time I took to transcribe the lyrics to the Do The Puyallup song that caused the visits to my blog. I was somewhat disappointed that not much attention was drawn by my changing the roasted pig picture to add a spider web in the smoke that read "Some Pig".

5) Do The Fair Comparison

Another posting on SST as stated above. I used this post during my presentation.

6) Some Notable Blogs

Mark Briggs made both the 7th and 8th most visited posts, once in August and once in October. The first was for a book he wrote called Journalism 2.0 and the second was after a visit he made to my classroom.

7)Journalism 2.0 in a Web 2.0 World

8) Mark Briggs, Newspaper Innovation and Webcasts

One of my favorite local bloggers, the TacomaGnome is still making his presence known around the South Sound.

9) On the Internet Everyone Knows You're a Gnome

Finally, my twice yearly Internet Scavenger Hunt made the list. Probably because of the tracking that is done through the comments section.

10) Online Scavenger Hunt Fall 2007

Thank you to everyone who has visited. May the new year bring happiness, excitement and opportunities to learn into your lives.

Andrew