Best of Art of Money in 2006
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This is part 2 of the Art of Money year end review. Yesterday I posted a statistical look at how the site progressed in the 10 months or so that it was online in 2006.
Today I’m calling this segment the Best of Art of Money in 2006 and I’ll be looking at what turned out well around here by using a variety of indicators.
Most Diggs
You’ll notice that most of the digging of Art of Money stories was done by me, so I’m not exactly a force in the social bookmarking arena.
Here’s the top three:
#1 :: 7 Diggs - Google’s Advanced Search Toys
#2 :: 5 Diggs - Getting Rich Is Automatic
#3 :: 4 Diggs - How To Choose An Email Address
The first and third story actually match the classic formula for doing well on Digg [although "what does well on Digg" is worth a post or a series of posts on its own.] The first story is a bunch of tips on how to go beyond the basic Google search box and use the more powerful technical search tools.
The third story is a classic “How-To” which always seem to do well. This story has also brought in considerable search engine traffic, how-tos are of course popular beyond Digg.
The second story is just an example of a hopeful headline…you can sell almost anything if you can promise, in a believable way, that getting rich is easy. Hope is the most addictive and dangerous drug on the planet and “get rich” is one of the most popular flavors.
Top Stories By Comments
Which posts received the most comments?
Here’s the list:
Let’s break them down a bit to understand why these stories got the most comments.
Numbers 1, 2 and 8 all have the word “Help” in them, so a direct plea to the readers to get involved and become part of the process of redefining this site obviously pulls people in and inspires a response.
Numbers 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 are all quite personal stories where I am sharing my reflections on some gut wrenching experiences and the lessons that I learned from them.
Number 5 is a controversial look at Google’s AdSense program.
So what “sells” comments for this site?
- asking for direct response from the readers
- sharing meaningful and personal stories
- controversial idea or points of view
Those are not really surprising results but interesting to make a note of and remember when shaping an angle on upcoming stories.
Most Popular Pages by Page Views
How to Promote Your Website - was picked up on Stumble Upon and brought in a lot of traffic.
Keyword Elite Review - I come up in the top 10 on Google for this popular keyword software. This post is one of my most detailed and I have made quite a few sales as a result of this via affiliate links…so this would be my most profitable post as well.
Job Exit Strategy - This story spent a couple days getting decent traffic from Reddit. I guess leaving your job is a popular topic among bored cube dwellers 
Top Stories by RSS Click-Throughs
I use full feeds in my RSS feed, so these are not clicks just to read the rest of the story. These are clicks to check out the site [number of clicks]:
How To Choose An Email Address [104]
Link Baiting and Permalink Botching [91]
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. [91]
I can’t honestly see much reason for these being the standouts in this department…can you? Don’t forget, they can read the whole story in their feed reader.
To Sum Up
That’s a wrap on the Best of Art of Money for 2006. If you wanted to explore the year that was in more detail, I have recently added a sitemap which provides a way to scan through all 203 204 stories from the year.
There isn’t really any big surprises for me in this look at the site, with the exception of the fact that I consider myself to have a good sense of humor and there isn’t really a representation of that in these lists. I think the reason is that I use it more as a subtle spice rather than a main ingredient.
I’m thinking that in 2007 I may need to consciously write some stories with humor as the main point. Also, let’s hope for a little more Digg-ability and Digging in the articles; having a top number of Diggs of 7 is pretty embarrassing.
Tomorrow I’ll take a peak at a couple other high-lights from 2006 and a quick look at what’s ahead in 2007.
Jon Symons
