Written by: Greg Ellifritz
Seth Godin made a very powerful statement in a recent blog post.
“My most popular blog posts this year…weren’t my best ones. As usual, the most popular music wasn’t the best recorded this year either. Same for the highest-grossing movies, restaurants and politicians doing fundraising.
“Best” is rarely the same as “popular.” Which means that if you want to keep track of doing your best work, you’re going to have to avoid the distraction of letting the market decide if you’ve done a good job or not.”
I agree 100%. If find it amazingly interesting. I generally consider myself a “software” writer. I like talking about ideas and tactics rather than hardware. But that usually isn’t what my readers click on. This year has been quite an anomaly. In past years’ top 10 lists, 60%-80% of the list consisted of gun and gear reviews (despite it being only 4% of my article topics). Not this year. None of the top 10 articles are gun and gear reviews.
“Most popular” is a very specific metric. It is an indication of broad or enduring appeal. That appeal may not be the market I’m targeting as future students, but it is a group of people who like what I am writing and are sharing it with their friends.
I am attempting to create enduring content, not just “click bait.” While I write timely pieces, my overarching goal is to create articles that are just as useful as a reference in years to come as they are interesting today. By that metric, I am succeeding. Only three of the top ten articles were actually written in 2021. I wrote some of the others as far back as 2012. Three of the ten also appeared on the Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2020 article last year. People are digging back and finding useful information. That makes me happy.
So, keeping that in mind that “most popular” doesn’t equal “best,” here were my most popular blog posts (by pageviews) in 2021.
10. How to Spot a Bad Guy- A Comprehensive Look at Body Language and Pre-Assault Indicators– 10,290 page views
9. Handgun Bullet Penetration Through Interior Walls– 11,245 page views
8. A “Car Gun” for Riot Defense– 11,299 page views
7. Using the .22 for Self Defense– 11,306 page views
6. An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power– 11,349 page views
5. What Happens to my CCW Gun if I am taken to the Hospital?– 11,377 page views
4. Old Ammo- Will it Still Work?– 13,060 page views
3. Don’t Use Bird Shot for Self Defense – 13,709 page views
2. Is the .380 ACP an Adequate Caliber for Defensive Use? – 23,384 page views
1. Post-Shooting Procedures for the Active Killer Gunfight – 41,314 Pageviews
These are the top 10 posts by popularity, but by and large, I don’t think they always represented my best work. Stay tuned for next week’s compilation of what I think is my best writing from 2021.
