What were the top ten blog posts at MainWP in 2017?
The other day, as the end of the year was nearing, I decided to take a look at some of the blog posts at the MainWP blog in 2017. I wanted to see what resonated with readers. Some of the metrics I observed were social shares as well as comments on the individual article.
MainWP uses the Social Warfare plugin to help readers share the content and it also measures the number of shares. I sorted the 2017 posts by the most shares and looked at the comments.
The articles listed below are sorted by comments first with the top ten share counts. One post got over 500 shares. Another post got over 100 shares.
For the year, there were over 2700 shares (and still counting). The month of April had over 700 shares.
Some of these numbers sound impressive, but there is always room for improvement.
Below I list the blog posts and some of my thoughts for the article. One article was written by Dennis and I discuss that as well.
Top Ten Posts from 2017
How to stop the information leak from the WordPress API
For this blog post, I had to learn more about the WordPress API and the information leak. Our friend Luke Cavanaugh brought it to our attention in the MainWP Users Facebook Group. He had been following a ticket at CoreTrac in WordPress. There seemed to be very little interest from the WordPress folks to solving the problem.
Thus, we set out to offer a solution to MainWP customers. The MainWP team fond a plugin in Github that users can install and protect their sites from the leak. I offered a quick tutorial on adding it inside your MainWP dashboard.
This post garnered 67 shares on social media with twelve comments.
Just How many WordPress page builders are there?
Out of curiosity, I decided to research the number of WordPress page builders. For the record, there are more than I listed here. Ivica Delic told me of more after the article was completed. I added another one or two but never had the time to go back and add the others.
Page builders are becoming the norm in the WordPress ecosystem, and they are getting better. Most of you have your favorite page builder. For example, Delic’s team uses MotoPress, I like Beaver Builder while some others like Elementor. I was amazed how many more simple page builders there were and how good they looked.
With the future of Gutenberg, WordPress will look more like a website builder for the non-technical website owners. Is that a good thing? I think that remains to be seen.
This post clocked in at 68 shares and six comments. It garnered a lot of discussion in the MainWP Users Facebook group as well.
9 Sure Fire Ways to Beat Freelancer Isolation
We as WordPress professionals often work in isolation or alone as remote workers. There is a certain amount of freedom and lots of benefits from doing so, but there is also the dangers that are inherent in working alone. Therefore, with a growing remote workforce, people are struggling with keeping connected and beating that isolation.
Self-care for us remote professionals is imperative, and it is up to us to make sure it happens. We don’t have a boss telling you to go get help or HR that will provide you someone or somewhere to go and listen to our struggles.
I sat out to provide some very practical tips, but, honestly, each one of these tips could be more thorough. Each one can have a book written.
Nevertheless, we can connect via Facebook groups, WordCamps, and Meetups. Even more, meet people in person.
This article had 47 social shares and six comments.
4 Task management tools for WordPress professionals
I’m not sure about you, but as a solopreneur, I’ve bounced around from tool to tool trying to manage myself better.When you have a team, you really have to keep up with the project as a whole and what everyone is doing. That means you have to have something in place.
I’m not sure I would have ever envisioned this article being in the top ten posts based on sharing, but sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. I think a lot of people have things to say about their tools.
The post had 46 shares and four comments.
Escaping the freelance pricing trap and becoming a business
I tell people that the best thing you can do is to stop trading time for money. That is becoming a core principle of who I am. This is the hardest thing for people to learn when they leave the world of jobs. They still treat themselves like an employee, but no one can do client work for 40-60 hours and still take care of themselves, their business, and their marketing.
It is quite an adjustment for new freelancers and entrepreneurs. This article was the result of my own research on the subject and how I want to change what I am doing. I think it resonated with some people as there several shares and comments.
This article had 58 social shares.
SEO Q&A with Rebecca Gill of Web Savvy Marketing
I like doing these kinds of articles because I get to ask some questions that allow us to learn more about an influencer. Rebecca is a well respected WordPress professional with her own online marketing agency, but she really shines when she talks about SEO. I have about three people I follow closely for my info on search engine optimization, and Rebecca is one of those.
I like her because she is talking about SEO as a WordPress professional, so her tactics are easily adapted by us WordPress professionals.
She is doing more training for SEO, so if you are looking to learn more, you might check out her courses.
This article received 60 shares on social media.
MainWP reaches 1000 5-star reviews
Written by the MainWP man himself, Dennis Dornon, this is great news for MainWP! In only three years we have reached this milestone. This is more 5 star reviews than Jetpack, Askimet, and All in One Jetpack.
The article was good for 44 social media shares.
A letter to my younger freelancer self
Hindsight, they say, is 20/20. I was looking for something unusual to do, so I decided to write an article about what I would say to my younger self. It was a good exercise for me.
I think everyone thinks about how their journey progressed and think about what they could have done differently.
The article got 56 shares.
Get started! Three steps to kick off your email marketing plan
The success of this article is a pleasant surprise. I had been thinking about email marketing for a couple of years now and wanted to do an article that discussed the topic more. I decided to do something simple. This article was more of a high-level strategy type of post. The points were simple and short.
Despite not having any comments, the article received 506 shares.
Generating content promotion buzz using this tool
One thing I’ve learned over the years is writing a blog post is good, but doesn’t take you very far. The blog posts you write have to be promoted. Content promotion, often, is a forgotten marketing tactic. If you are going to get your article in the hands of people who really need to read them, you have to engage in promotion.
Any tool that can help you leverage sharing is a tool worth looking into. Such is the case with Viral Content Buzz. It is a tool that can save you time and increase your efficiency.
This article received 109 shares.
Conclusion
The end of the year affords us a chance to take a look at what we have accomplished over the past year. I hope you are doing that with your own content and business.
What were your favorite posts of the year at MainWP? Drop them in the comments below.
