For those who are new to my blog, I wanted to do a compilation of some of my most read posts of all time. Some will appear on the right of my home page, but for those who read my posts in the WP browser, you’ll never see that list. Not surprising, my most popular posts, without exception, pertain to cycling. I’ll do a separate list for recovery posts another day. So without further ado…
10: With just shy of 12,600 hits, I wrote a review post on my Specialized Venge after 700 miles back in October of 2013. It’s actually time for another review on that bike… This one for 15,000 miles.
9. With just over 13,000 hits, I was infatuated with trying to slam my stem to get in the most aggressive position possible ever since I brought home my first real road bike. The post is The Noob’s Guide to Cycling: Want Speed? SLAM THAT STEM!!! To a Degree.
8. How much Faster is a Road Bike than a Mountain Bike Pt 2: It’s not just the Tires comes in at number 8. I did quite a bit of research for this post and laid it out simply… There’s a reason road bikes are chosen for speed…
7. Road Bikes: Internal vs. External Cable Routing, with 16,200 hits, comes in at number seven. This is an opinion piece on why I’d choose internal over external routing any day of the week and twice on Sunday… External has its place, of course, it’s as simple as you get, but in terms of saving maintenance, internal routing is as good as it gets.
6. With 18,700 hits, A Newbie Comparison of Shimano Shifters…UPDATED is a look at Shimano’s line of components from back in February of 2012. Not much has changed since, except 10 speeds, 11 speeds, electronic shifting…. Well, a lot has changed, but the post still stands.
5. Coming in at number five is part one of the two-part “How much Faster is a Road Bike than a Mountain Bike” post. In this post I actually give numbers and times. This isn’t a guess at how much faster a road bike is than a mountain bike. Interestingly, I got those numbers on the Trek… If I’d had the Venge back then, the difference would be greater.
4. With more than 20,000 hits (and climbing, this post still gets 20-60 hits a day) is my Noob’s Guide to Buying Cycling Shorts: Exactly what to look for and what to avoid. The post gets right down to it, including the difference between a 20 mile pair of shorts and a 100 mile pair.
3. Next, I wrote a post back in December of 2011, just twelve days into my blogging experience, about how I made my mountain bike fast, on a budget. The post only got five “likes” at the time (which I thought was awesome) but it continues to bring people in. Of course, now that I’m not a noob (cyclist or blogger) I know the best way to make a mountain bike fast is to buy a road bike…
2. Number two on the list, with 23,400 hits is one of the best posts I’ve ever written on cycling: Cycling, Speed and Cadence – Why the 90 RPM Cadence is So Important to Cycling Fast
Finally, with a whopping 55,622 hits, 38 “Likes” and 75 comments – and second only to views on my homepage/about page, from May 15, 2012, I wrote How I Got Fast – A Noob’s Guide To A 23 mph Average. If you haven’t read the post and think I’m full of it, you aren’t the first. I’d direct you to the proof post, here. Please know, while the proof is real, the anger is tongue in cheek. That said, be sure to scroll down to the bottom to get the full effect. 😀
The chica in all of the photos above is my best cycling bud, my wife.
Fit Recovery 
This may be a really strange thought for you – but have you ever considered doing a Kindle book or two? You write very clearly on maintenance issues, pro’s and cons of different bike components and speed training techniques. I
Thanks, man. I have but I’ve never had the time to sit down and actually do it. I appreciate the compliment, brother.
Impressive counts. Do you share through social media to drive those numbers? Or is it SEO?
I don’t do anything through social media… I just write the posts, hit the publish button and call it good. Nothing more.
What is the ratio between the number of followers you have for your blog versus the number of hits you’re achieving on these posts? Is there a 1:1 there? Are 25,000 people following you? And like your friend said, it’s quite easy to create a Kindle book or even a paperback. Would be happy to advise you on that. The content’s there.
I’d love to get into that, just don’t know what to do. I think I have 2,300 people that follow the blog, the rest is web traffic.
That’s really good then. You’re doing something right with the headlines and the SEO. Are you big into tags at all?
I didn’t do much with tags until recently. I do have several categories that my posts get labeled with… cycling, mountain biking, recovery, gravel biking, etc. I just started tagging posts a couple of weeks ago, so now I do both.
Nice work growing the blog. I think it has more to do with your natural writing talent and interesting topics than SEO stuff. Love reading your posts. Awaiting your “how I got to a 25mph average” post. Pedal harder… 😜
Pedal harder my ass… “Throw a lasso around Greg Jenkinson and hold on!”
In all seriousness, man, thank you.
No worries. I have a long term plan to holiday in the US at some point and ride with you (okay, try and hang in your draft).
I’ll put together a few rides with the gang. I have no doubt you’ll be right there, brother.
Jim it shows that you are writing a lot of great content that is super helpful to people. that you are continuing to get traffic without social media but by web searches is even better. Congrats!
Thank you, Sue!