The 12 Top Posts of 2012

Last week, I posted a list of my 2012 interviews with over fifty thought leaders. From sports to business, I’ve been fortunate to learn from such distinguished leaders from all walks of life. Apart from the interviews, what posts proved to be the most popular in 2012?

What Works Is Often A Surprise

Talk to any blogger and you will likely hear the same thing. It is always a surprise to see what becomes popular. I may work like crazy on something for hours, post it and it may see very little traffic. Something else ends up taking off and it was almost a last minute thought. You just can’t predict.

In putting together a list of popular posts, there are also so many ways to look at the data. Do you measure purely by the traffic? If you do it that way, doesn’t that give an unfair advantage to content posted in January?

After looking at the statistics, I decided to pick the top posts by traffic with a weight based on the date. If a post was dated later in the year, it received a slightly higher weight to equal things out.

I also decided not to put them in any order, so this is a random list:

13 Reasons To Guest Blog

Image courtesy of istockphoto/jgroup

If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have started this blog without first guest posting for a number of blogs. For a long time. Maybe even so long that I would’ve just done that instead. (I digress.)

By guest blogging, I would have seen some benefits by:

Gaining blogging experience
Establishing authority
Developing relationships
Allowing the opportunity to share perspective
Testing the water to see whether it was something I enjoyed
Improving blog writing skills
Increasing influence
Learning online rules and practices
Adding to industry reputation or brand building (self or company)

Now that I have a blog, I know that the benefits include all of the above and also lead to:

3 Steps to Building Your Online Presence With Ron Edmondson

Ron Edmondson is quick to tell you that he is first and foremost a pastor. And, while that is true, he also has a strong online presence that uniquely qualifies him to talk about social media. His leadership blog is widely read, and he is active on Twitter and Facebook.

I met Ron online through Twitter, and we began discussing various leadership issues. Just north of Nashville Ron started one of the fastest growing churches in the U.S. He recently moved to Kentucky to lead another church. Before he joined the ministry, Ron was a business owner. His experiences running a small business, starting and rapidly growing organizations, and leading online were all topics I wanted to ask him in person.

In this nine-minute interview, we discuss:

The similarities and differences between leading a business and a church
How he has grown a church through the use of technology and social media
Why he was an early adopter of the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging
How he found his “blogging voice”
Mistakes he made along the way

I especially appreciated Ron’s advice to leaders who want to start building an online presence:

Michael Hyatt’s Advice on How to Get Noticed in a Noisy World

In a previous post, Michael Hyatt talked about leadership. After that discussion, we talked about his new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

The subtitle of the book sums it up well: “A step by step guide for anyone with something to say or sell.” It’s a book for small business owners who need to increase their visibility. It’s a book for aspiring authors who want to publish and sell their book. It’s a book for anyone who needs to differentiate a product or service and stand out using modern technology.

Michael wrote it because, as a publisher, he would turn away excellent work because the prospective author didn’t have a platform. Where “Content is king,” he says, “A platform is queen.” He wanted to write a book that would help people build their own platform.

In the book, five directives are outlined:

1. Start with wow.

Michael Hyatt on Leadership

Michael Hyatt is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson. In addition, he is a New York Times best-selling author, a speaker, and a personal friend of mine. He also runs a hugely popular leadership blog, which consistently is ranked among the top in the world.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Michael about what he has learned about leaders from his storied career and his social networking experiences.