The AR "statistics" page will show you-- very clearly-- which of your posts are most attractive to readers.  The statistics page will help you learn to be a better blogger; I promise.

If you click on the Statistics link (which is found on the left hand side of your AR home page, near the bottom), you will see your various post titles.  To the right of your titles, you will see a column for Views and a column for Clicks.

Views are the number of people that had the opportunity to click on your post.  So if your article is featured and is on ActiveRain, page one, you will quickly get thousands of views.  This does not mean that people actually read your blog; it just means that they saw your post title and your little portrait.  So if you are featured, everytime anyone visits ActiveRain.com, it will be counted as a view.  If you write an obscure post, intended for a narrow audience (your state for example), you will likely not get featured and you will not get many views.

However, the Views statistic, by itself, is almost worthless.

But when we combine Views with the Clicks statistic, we can get a very clear picture of exactly what our readers want to read.

The Clicks statistic tells us how many people actually clicked on our post with the supposed intention of reading it.

Now we can take our Clicks and divide them into Views and come up with a ratio.  We can immediately get a clear picture of what works and what doesn't.  Statistics can be very revealing.

This is kind of sad, but I wrote one post about doing charity work.  I titled it "The Perfect Charity for Realtors and Loan Officers".  It was about a Habitat For Humanity type thing.

Apparently, people don't care too much about a charitable cause, because after thousands of views, only about 10% of the people that have seen it actually clicked on it.  That startles me, but stats are stats.

But at least I know that I shouldn't write about charity if I want anybody to read my posts.  I won't make that mistake again.

Then last week, as a social experiment, I wrote a post entitled "The Creepy, Scary Things I Do."

72% of the people that read the Creepy title clicked on it.  Again, the topic of charity got me 10%.

You don't really need to do the actual ratio calculations.  You can eyeball your stats and immediately see what posts get the most clicks vs views.  I can almost guarantee that you will see a pattern.

Here are a couple things I've learned:

Try titling your posts as a question.  For example, "What is Wrong with Sellers?"

Try being provocative.  For example, "Are You Screwing Up Your Business?"

Be precise.  If your post is about cleaning out a septic tank, then lead with the words "septic tank."  For example, "Septic Tanks, Can Your Puppy Fall In?"

That'll get you some clicks, I guarantee it!

~Michael George