Each year, I review which of my blogs have attracted the most traffic. Sometimes, a spike in traffic is because several people tweeted about the blog, or shared it on their own blog. Sometimes, I just have no idea why a blog starts seeing a lot of traffic. I also look at blogs that didn’t go anywhere, that have been seen by just one or two people – that does happen, and I need to figure out why.
I draw my material from my consulting work, from updating the Virtual Volunteering Wiki, from conversations with colleagues, from my own volunteering – even from things I’ve seen on TV or overhead somewhere. I never know what’s going to be popular. I’m frequently surprised what attracts so many readers – and what never catches on.
This list of my most viewed blogs probably isn’t of interest to anyone except me… but it’s something I like to do every year, to look for trends.
My top 20 most viewed blogs that I published in 2017:
I won’t help you recruit a receptionist/volunteer coordinator
Welcoming immigrants as volunteers at your organization
The harm of orphanage voluntourism (& wildlife voluntourism as well)
for volunteers: how to complain
Treat volunteers like employees? Great idea, awful idea
Mike Bright, Microvolunteering’s #1 Fan, Has Passed Away
Sympathy for one group – but not the other?
A plea to USA nonprofits for the next four years (& beyond):
Want to work internationally? Get involved locally.
J.K. Rowling speaks out against orphan tourism
Why Girls Want to Join the Boy Scouts
Creating a Speak-up Culture in the Workplace
When mission statements, ideologies & human rights collide
Volunteering, by itself, isn’t enough to save the world
What effective short-term international volunteering looks like
Resources re: labor laws and volunteering
Short-term deployments with Peace Corps & UNV
Medical Voluntourism Can Cause Serious Harm
Measuring social media success? You’re probably doing it wrong
If humans can do it, so can volunteers (who are, BTW, also humans)
That said… these weren’t my most visited blogs in 2017 – 17 of my 20 most read blogs in 2017 are from previous years, five of them having to do companies that sell letters saying someone has done community service for the courts and also claiming that the service is virtual volunteering (it’s not).
Also see:
My top blogs of 2014 (didn’t track it for 2015)