<![CDATA[What kinds of posts bring traffic?]]>Chad did an interesting analysis the other day – looking at the traffic attracted by science posts vs. non-science stuff (e.g., pretty pictures, politics, etc.). This made me look at my all-time traffic here (I know some of the posts are re-posts from the old blogs where they got lots of traffic as well, but I can ignore that for the purpose of this exercise). I rarely ever check Google Analytics, so the first surprise was my 6th place in overall traffic for the past month! And then I looked at the Clock content to see what have been the greatest hits over the past two years.
Considering I have more than 6000 posts and many of them are brief and low-content, I was quite happy with what GA brought out to the top – quite a nice collection, in fact. What can we say?
First, older posts had more time to accumulate traffic. Second, a few silly posts got one-time big traffic because of Digg, Redditt, Stumbleupon, etc., but that lasted a few hours and is gone.
Some pictures got hot-linked by others and got all the way up to the top of Google Image searches, and these keep bringing traffic all the time.
Obvious PZ-baiting also brings a big burst of non-lasting traffic.
Participating in flame-wars, just like participating in community activities (conferences, scifoo, anthology, Ask The Scienceblogger,….) brings a lot of traffic for a brief period of time and then it’s gone.
Politics, as a rule, brings nothing.
The science posts, especially Basic Concepts and BIO101 lecture notes keep going and going and going.
Friday Weird Sex Blogging brought a lot of traffic – but those posts are science!
So, if I intend to keep growing regular readership, I need to write science posts more – they may get few comments, and little immediate traffic growth, but they are a gift that keeps on giving.
Here are my top-traffic posts, under the fold, so you can take a look. I ordered them by total Pageviews (and stopped once I hit posts that got less than 1000 pageviews):


Chuck Norris Creationist 179,340
Cell Structure 156,648 Pageviews
BIO101 – Lecture 7 – Physiology: Coordinated Response 89,646 Pageviews
Harry Potter and The Blind Horses 63,718
BIO101 – Lecture 6 – Physiology: Regulation and Control 62,878
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep (But Were Too Afraid To Ask) 52,351 (several more hundred each time it got reposted as well)
Mananimals in the news again 31,725
Pay attention in biology class if you want to avoid embarassment when you get older 29,491
Physiology: Coordinated Response (repost) 26,324
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – The Birds Do It…. 24,199
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Corkscrewing 24,033
Me and the Copperheads 23,490
We are now officially living in a dictatorship 22,186
Protein Synthesis: Transcription and Translation 18,657
T-rex at night! 15,947
Physiology: Regulation and Control (repost) 14,610
The Work-Place, or, Catching a Catfish Online 14,489
Another Pretty Bird 14,364
Biological Clocks in Protista 14,190
Me and the Copperheads (repost) 13,891
Cell-Cell Interactions 13,311
Biological Clocks in Protista (repost) 12,135
From Two Cells To Many: Cell Differentiation and Embryonic Development (repost) 11,130
Blogging About Bush 10,561
Carolus Linnaeus’ Floral Clocks 9,333
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Losing Your Head For Love 9,240
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Corkscrewing (repost) 8,433
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – The Birds Do It….(repost) 8,255
Circadian Rhythms, or Not, in Arctic Reindeer 7,886
How to use a Squat Toilet 6,994
Did A Virus Make You Smart? 6,626
The Science Blogging Anthology – the Great Unveiling! 5,732
Biology and the Scientific Method 5,611
Current Biological Diversity (repost) 5,409
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Ladybugs 5,072
Admirable….not necessarily accurate…regarding science…in a movie!? 4,943
The Mighty Ant-Lion 4,938
Raising AIDS awareness, using different kinds of talent… 4,732
Hot Peppers – Why Are They Hot? 4,632
The Grand LOL-PZ Birthday Bash Linkfest 4,557
Exclusive: Interview with Senator John Edwards on Science-Related Topics 4,523
Revenge of the Zombifying Wasp 3,974
Lithium, Circadian Clocks and Bipolar Disorder 3,856
Hairless Grey Foxes in North Carolina 3,734
Cloning – what’s the big deal? 3,731
Some hypotheses about a possible connection between malaria and jet-lag 3,575
From Genes To Traits: How Genotype Affects Phenotype 3,445
Doesn’t reading about this make you salivate? 3,280
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Deepest Lovin’ 3,271
Science Blogging Anthology – The Council Has Spoken! 3,011
Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla! 2,909
Michael Egnor. Who? 2,823
The Confederate black soldiers were really Union black soldiers 2,819
Open Lab 2007 – the winning entries for you to see! 2,806
How Global Warming Disrupts Biological Communities – a Chronobiological Perspective 2,765
Some hypotheses about a possible connection between malaria and jet-lag (repost) 2,669
Are you a naked mole-rattist? 2,654
Books: “Snooze…Or Lose! – 10 ‘No-War’ Ways To Improve Your Teen’s Sleep Habits’ by Helene A. Emsellem, MD 2,610
Why do earthworms come up to the surface after the rain? 2,519
Daylight Savings Time worse than previously thought 2,508
Sea Cucumber – the Ultimate Phallic Symbol! 2,495
Parasite of my parasite is not my friend 2,455
Circadian Quackery 2,439
This PRISM does not turn white light into the beautiful colors of the rainbow 2,407
Do whales sleep? 2,324
Serotonin, Melatonin, Immunity and Cancer 2,290
The Work-Place, or, Catching a Catfish Online (repost) 2,272
Circadian Clocks in Microorganisms 2,240
Why teaching evolution is dangerous 2,234
SEED scienceblogs getting more popular 2,159
A fantastic picture of a polar bear exhaling underwater 2,125
What happens in bed, stays in bed 2,121
Lithium, Circadian Clocks and Bipolar Disorder (repost) 2,094
It’s Official! 2,073
On the Nature of PLoS…. 1,922
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – Cooling The Balls 1,872
I Want This Job! 1,855
Open Lab 2007 – Up For Sale! 1,651
Impact Factors 2007 1,638
The Giant’s Shoulders #1 1,636
The so-called Facebook Scandal 1,627
Should we rewrite the textbook chapters on voltage-gated potassium channels? 1,573
What makes a memorable poster, or, when should you water your flowers? 1,514
Friday Weird Sex Blogging – The Giant Stinkin’ Phallus! 1,499
Why Creationists Need To Be Creationists 1,472
Circadian Quackery (repost) 1,464
Framing Science – the Dialogue of the Deaf 1,447
Science Foo Camp – Friday 1,434
Circadian Clocks in Microorganisms (repost) 1,349
Daily Rhythms in Cnidaria 1,326
New York City Blogger Meetup – brunch pictures 1,262
Beauty: Not Just Feather-Deep 1,236
Do whales sleep? (repost) 1,208
Obama wins the First Quarter financial race 1,198
How the Giraffe Got Its Neck? 1,196
From One Cell To Two: Cell Division and DNA Replication 1,190
Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology 1,161
Monster House 1,160
Clock Tutorial #7: Circadian Organization in Mammals 1,157
Let’s play ‘Serbs’ and ‘Croats’ 1,141
When religion goes berserk! 1,137
Associated Press is even dumber than we initially thought! 1,134
Obligatory Reading of the Day – Femiphobia 1,121
Pledge Of Allegiance 1,105
Diversity of insect circadian clocks – the story of the Monarch butterfly 1,104
Hot Peppers 1,045
41 1,037
Kevin in China, part 3 – The First Westerner in Town 1,025
O.J. 1,011
This one is for PZ 1,008

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