May’s blog traffic: Copy editing and Pinterest push a strong month

Some quick observations reviewing May’s traffic on my blog:

• I didn’t pass, or expect to pass, April’s record of 31,197 page views, driven mostly by my Dear Newsroom Curmudgeon post. Still, at 27,361 views, May was the second most-viewed month in the three-plus years I’ve been doing this blog.
• By far the most popular post of the month was my advice to copy editors and to journalists who need to take more responsibility for their own work. Posts with advice for journalists have always been some of my most popular content. I don’t think that’s necessarily because my advice is so valuable. But journalists are hungry for advice in these turbulent times and I offer a lot of it. With 4,620 views in just the past week, that post is already my eighth most-viewed post ever.
• My tips on how journalists and newsrooms can use Pinterest also did well with 2,951 views. Two related posts, on my own use of Pinterest and helpful links for journalists using Pinterest, each topped 1,000 views. (I’m overdue to finish that series with a post on Pinterest basics. I hope to finish that in the next week or so.) Pinterest is a hot new social tool and journalists are interested in help figuring it out.
• Posts about social media remain some of the most popular on the blog. Another leading post of the month was my advice for being personable but professional in your use of social media, also over 1,000 views.
• Career advice continues to do well on the blog: My posts about Randi Shaffer using Twitter to make a connection that led to a job and on using digital tools to showcase your work both did well, 1,000+ in the first three days for Randi and nearly 700+ in the first two days for the digital tools.
• I already noted that my post about aggregation guidelines didn’t do as well as I expected in its first day, but it had some staying power and topped 1,600 views.
• Weekend posts can still draw some traffic. My Mother’s Day tribute to Mom and Mimi drew more than 900 views and my Saturday post about the Times-Picayune got more than 800.
• In these monthly reviews, I have noted regularly the flukey search-engine appeal of last year’s post about the 5 W’s of business. It has now become my most-read blog post ever, passing my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection with more than 9,000 views.

No great insights here, but I think an occasional review of what’s working is a good idea for any blogger, so I try to do it monthly.

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