What Types of E-Learning Blog Posts Are Most Successful For You?

Good advice. My posts aren't really popular. Most visited of all time has 5200 views.

http://androidgogy.com/2012/09/16/skill-proficiency-expertise-and-shuhari/

Shorter posts or how-to's would probably draw quite a bit of traffic.

Thanks for sharing that, Steve. I'm relatively new to blogging, so 5200 views seems like an awful lot to me!

Why do you think this has been your most popular post so far? Did you have a ready audience using it as a reference or did you publicize it in a particularly effective way?

HI Jackie - I think more practical posts are my most successful; Terminology Tuesday, the Weekly E-Learning Challenge Write-Up, and the newly implemented time-lapse demos seem to be drawing the most traffic. After a week, most page views are still going to my very basic storyboard template!

Is it necessary to track the page views for a blog?

It depends what you are trying to do with the blog...for example:

• Use it to vent - no need to track.
• Use it to help and assist - tracking is useful in terms of what people need help with, and can be used to create the next thing.
• Use it to explain and express ideas - useful if you are trying to create, maintain, and control your online persona/brand.

It is very hard to know why people follow, or hit sites of any sort really. For me, it is all just part of a "package" of activities, but I try to provide something that people can takeaway in terms of a suggestion or theory, or at least just get them thinking about what we do, and challenging the status quo.

In a way, I view these threads as part of my blogging activities, I think it's easy to spread yourself too thinly around cyberland.

Thank you Bruce. Time is valuable.

''I think it's easy to spread yourself too thinly around cyberland.''

+1

Good article.  

Thanks for posting Jackie.

Bruce - I definitely use my blog for points 2 and 3; initially, I would include weekly link round-ups (which are popular in the web-design pockets) and periodic personal posts, but no one really found them helpful or interesting, so I decided to cater more toward my actual audience and their needs/interests, and I have to say that this approach has been working out well. I've had consistent increases in my readership for the past few months, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon!

@Ashley: I think it's really smart of you to have regular features like Terminology Tuesday, etc. Not only does it give your readers a little hook that's easy to remember, but it adds some structure and I'm sure it's good motivation for you to get in there and make it happen!

@Jackie - I will say that it is hard to keep on top of the features; for example this week's challenge - you got the ball rolling in the forum, I suggested we use it as a challenge, and this week I've been so busy, that I haven't been able to complete my submission yet, which left a gap in my Thursday post schedule :P It'll get up there this weekend, but I felt like I was letting folks down! Ah well - life happens, right?

@Nicholas: I don't worry about blog views; though it's interesting to see what people take a look at. Just part of the picture. Do you have a way to determine which of your posts you're most pleased with for yourself?

For me I get the most satisfaction out of - and consider most successful - the posts where I'm sharing something that really matters to me in that moment. As I'm writing it I always think "who in the world would care about how or why I did or learned xyz??" - but not only are those the posts that are most involving and fun for me to write (which I consider a success) but judging from the feedback I get (not page views) it seems like that glimpse into the actual work resonates with people. So I guess I consider those most successful.

I haven't tried out most of the types of posts mentioned in this article, but think it would be fun to give each one a shot and see how I like it. (Hey - there's a blog post right there!)

@Jackie

I asked as the title of the article focuses on how to ''drive traffic' to your blog.

I'm pleased by a blog post that is simple to read and mentally accessible. Given the amount of information I need to absorb on a daily basis I wanted a blog that followed the KISS Principle. I do find your blog quite refreshing to read and the images help.

As I'm writing it I always think "who in the world would care about how or why I did or learned xyz??".

Definitely +1000.

Jackie - I totally agree. When I'm writing a blog post, at least 75% of the time, I'm thinking "This is really neat to me, but who the heck will want to read this?!", but most often if I think it's important, someone else (somewhere) does too. I've got a book in mind that I want to write, and I said to my husband "I want to write a book on X!" and he was like "Awesome!" but he also had a glazed look because he knows minimal information about the e-learning industry. I struggled thinking - who the heck would want to read this? But now I think I've made peace with the fact that someone (somewhere) will want to pick it up :P

When visiting other folks' sites, I LOVE seeing resource or link lists - I find these incredibly helpful, and how-to/tutorial posts are invaluable. Just yesterday, the guys in the digital media department had to consult a tutorial to fix something for one of my faculty members...even if it's not visited right away, someone will need to visit it eventually! Another suggestion is Process posts - behind the scenes information or a look into how you do certain things - I find those really useful.

@Ashley,

Could you think of an example of a Process post?

And any book you write can be interesting to the right audience. Which would be me and everyone here.

What area would the book focus on?

@Nicholas - When I think of a process post, I think of a behind the scenes walk through of how you got from point A to point B in the development of something (E.g. a template, document, interaction, etc.). Or how you run your business, organize your life, etc.

Aww, thanks! We'll see what I come up with and if it grows legs

@Ashley,

Thank you for the idea of a process post. I'll look into it.

@Nicholas: Ahh! Now I see! I was totally focused on the intrigue (for me) of these different types of posts and was wondering what types other people liked and found "successful" in whatever way they define it - which could include views or feedback or just personal satisfaction. I wasn't thinking about the dominance of the "drive traffic" title. (Maybe I should have left out the capture!)

@Jackie,

To be honest I noticed the little explorer with the map first and thought it was about exploring different types of blogs before reading the title.