What Were My Top 12 Blog Posts of 2012?

The interwebs is a funny place — especially when you’re a blogger.

You write all kinds of posts, hoping people will read and enjoy (and share) them.

And you make them as optimized as possible, with great headlines and plenty of cross-linking, so search engines will put them at the top of the page when people go looking for related topics.

And then, when the dust settles, you look back and see which posts actually got traffic and which ones didn’t. The results are often surprising.

Such is the case for me in 2012.

To back-track a little bit, this was a big year for Martin’s Musings: In March, I relaunched the site, switching from Blogger to WordPress.com. I’d like to think the writing got better (at least in some cases). I celebrated my seventh blogiversary. And from what I can tell, my traffic grew significantly year-over-year.

So what were my top blog posts of 2012?

Well, I wrote a lot of movie reviews, but the most-viewed ones weren’t Oscar contenders like Lincoln or Argo, or big blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises. I wrote about social media a bit, but my post about quitting Facebook, Twitter, et al cold turkey didn’t crack the top 15. My review of the movie The Campaign, which featured the headline “Let’s Win This Thing for America,” wasn’t a leader, despite it being an election year. And surprisingly, my post about what small businesses can learn from the Summer Olympics didn’t win the Gold either.

No, when the data was tallied, these were the 12 blog posts I wrote this year that had the most views:

1. What Am I Going to Do This Summer?
My annual summer to-do list

2. Two Great Gifts for My Birthday This Year
My annual state-of-the-state

3. Please Don’t Hurt Blake Lively!
My review of the movie Savages

4. Email Is Not Dead. Now Shut Up.
A call for email marketers to stop being so defensive

5. There Was Magic in the Night at Fenway
My review of Bruce Springsteen’s second night at Fenway Park

6. He’s Taking It One Game at a Time
My review of the movie Wreck-It-Ralph

7. Change Is Good
I relaunched my blog, left my job, and started to work out

8. The Song Remains the Same for “Once”
My review of the Broadway show Once

9. 31 Reasons Why I’m Unfriending You on Facebook
A list of the behaviors I don’t like on Facebook

10. Let Me Touch You with My Words
My review of the movie The Sessions

11. 5 Reasons Why Guys Shouldn’t Be Embarrassed About Seeing “Magic Mike”
My review of the movie Magic Mike

12. Sometimes to Create, One Must First Destroy
My review of the movie Prometheus

I guess it just goes to show you that the people want what the people want. Next year, I’ll be sure to write much more about the great gift Blake Lively gave me when we celebrated my birthday over the summer, and how we listened to Bruce Springsteen while sending emails. Stay tuned.

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