Figuring out why people read what they do is a mystery to me. Each individual reader differs in so many ways: political and religious worldviews, educational levels, life experiences, skill levels, natural or developed interests, occupations, family backgrounds. The list of contributing factors is endless.
If an author's readers' habits are observed over time, however, maybe one can detect reading patterns that begin to develop. Even before my marketing guru began directing my attention to my blog's analytics, I began to notice something that puzzled (and still puzzles) me. One particular blog post kept popping up as having been viewed, long after it originally appeared as a post. I found myself wondering why. What about that post attracted such long-term reader attention and interest? The title? The content? An accompanying photo? What?
After carefully considering these questions, I finally reached a profound conclusion: I don't know!
To find out the answer, I must ask the only ones who really know, the readers themselves. And that's what I'm doing with today's blog post. I would welcome any ideas you might have about why that one particular post has attracted such interest. Maybe by helping me answer that question you can help me improve all subsequent posts! Or at least improve some of my writing.
The post in question is titled "Put the Cookies on the Bottom Shelf." (You can read it at https://www.dennislpeterson.com/post/put-the-cookies-on-the-bottom-shelf.)
The backstory of the post: It is a shortened, modified version of a much longer article I wrote in the fall of 2009 for an educational journal aimed at K-12 teachers. Its purpose was to combat the tendency of some teachers (especially first-year neophytes and advance-degreed "philosophers") who tended to pontificate much as their upper-level college professors had, thereby ensuring that those teachers lost their students in meaningless self-exalting, mind-numbing verbiage. That article was condensed for the August 2018 post, and it was redirected from teachers toward writers, but the principles discussed remained the same.
That post has been, without rival, the most viewed and shared of all my posts since the blog began. Not a week passes without someone somewhere viewing it. (Perhaps you have been among those viewers.) But WHY?
Why do YOU think that is the case? Why has it been so popular? I'd be interested in knowing what you, the readers, think the reason(s) might be. Please share your thoughts. And thanks in advance for your insights!
Comments