05 Apr The Year’s Top Five
We have been publishing this blog now for a full year. Throughout that time, subscribers have received a cover email containing a link to the Principle Based Politics website’s “landing page” on which the new blog post resides. To read the article, they clicked on the link and voila.
Sometimes, the number who click on a particular link has been four times higher than others. Now that we have published “four score” posts (to borrow Lincoln’s famous way of saying 80) in twelve months, we thought it a good time to take stock of what topics interested you, Dear Readers. And what did not.
In case you missed any of these and want to read them now, here are links to the five most popular posts:
#1 Principle as the Basis for Political Actions and Issue Positions (March 30, 2021). This was our very first post, and recipients no doubt were curious about the new blog. We rolled out our idea.
#1 (tie) Ukraine and the Need for Reconciliation (March 1, 2022). War grabs attention.
#3 My Father’s Politics (September 28, 2021). This was published the day after your blogger’s dad died. The cover photo of him was a classic, and he was well liked by many.
#4 It’s Time to Move Forward, Democrats (November 12, 2021). Not sure if Democrats or Republicans found the cover graphic’s reference to “Donald Who?” more intriguing, but this received a lot of clicks (as both President Trump and the Democrats are prone to do).
#5 Peace: Counting Down the Top 7 Principles for Federal Leadership (April 16, 2021). This post, which focused on the need for leaders to help us overcome strife in America and abroad, was published during the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis.*
*Just two weeks ago, We’re Talking about Gas Prices? provided our answer to the question, “What do you think about these gas prices under Biden?” This topic, if included, would have ranked third in reader attention so far.
Thank you for clicking on our links and your presumed interest in the idea of promoting the use of principles in politics.
What You May Have Missed
Much can be learned also from what topics do not produce clicks. The lowest number of all was “achieved” by Federal Regulation: Applying Principles (July 23, 2021), which later was tied by Labor and Employment: Applying Principles (September 3, 2021). The others in our Bottom 5 were Law Enforcement: Applying Principles (August 10, 2021), What the Bible Says about the Role of Government (June 11, 2021), and Truly Helping People or Buying Votes? (August 6, 2021). All of these received only a third or even one-fourth as much interest as the first list above.
Messages We Take from This
Our primary conclusion from a first year: People are most interested in the severe problems facing our nation. Conversely, people are less intrigued by what may be perceived to be relatively dry, boring topics, especially during peak vacation season.*
*You may have noticed that all five of the lowest ranking posts were published between Memorial Day and Labor Day last year. Consecutive posts entitled Federal Gun Control: Applying Principles (July 16, 2021), and Abortion: Weighing the Principles (July 20, 2021), received significantly more clicks than any others during that summer, but these still did not make even our Top 10 for the full year.
We are heartened also by seeing that the mission of Principle Based Politics is catching on. Reviewing the data for the full twelve months from April 2021 through March of 2022, posts in the last six months received 50 percent more clicks on average than those in the first six months.*
*This also coincides with when we began shortening our articles considerably and publishing only once most weeks. Less can be more.
Thank you especially to all who have helped us spread the word. We expect our second year to continue this growth. If there are specific topics about which you think we should blog, please let us know.
As we head toward the midterm elections and the world is at war, the cause of principles is more important than ever.
Written by Quentin R. Wittrock, founder of Principle Based Politics.
Look for his posts each week, as this blog will explore and promote the idea of principle in politics, both as to individual elected leaders and our federal government as an institution.
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