The Most Popular Blog Posts of January 2013

In January I posted nine articles at SmallBizThoughts.com. As usual, four of them were "SOP Friday" posts. But older posts remain popular.

In the twelve months ending January 31st, I've written 178 posts at SmallBizThoughts.com.


Here are the most read blog posts from the last Month:

#1 = Microsoft Announced the End of of SBS from June 5, 2012
This is the biggest post of the year. It dropped off the #1 spot last month, but it's back. I find it very interesting that this story didn't make the big "year in review" summaries from the big media folks who claim to focus on the SMB space.

#2 = SOP Friday: Employee Onboarding from Dec 14, 2012
This has certainly been a strong article. Employee-related stuff always seems to be popular.

#3 = SOP Friday: How to Maximize Billability of Technicians from January 4, 2013
This is a new post (a January post) and debuts at a very high spot. I expect it will stay on the list for awhile.

#4 = The Most Popular Blog Posts of the Last Month from January 3, 2013
Okay, this surprised me. Apparently the summary of "what's hot" has some appeal on its own. You tell me: Is this because people are busy and use it as a filter of some kind?

#5 = SOP Friday: After Hours Work from January 18, 2013
One of my pet peeves, as regular readers can attest, is after-hours work. You just have either avoid it or make it worth your while!

#6 = SOP Friday: Voicemail Passwords, etc. from January 11, 2013
Another Standard Operating Procedure. I personally don't think this will be a hot article long-term, but all of the SOP posts get good traffic.

#7 = Tune into My Annual "State of the Nation" Address for Small Biz IT Professionals from January 14, 2013
My annual appeal for my annual address. In case you missed it, the recording is over at the SMB Community Podcast site.

#8 = SOP Friday: On Call and Night Staff from January 25, 2013
This was last week's SOP article. Again, list the after hour article, this is a constant topic.

#9 = SOP Friday: Building a Business Plan for Your I.T. Company from Dec 28, 2012
I'm not surprised this one stayed on the list. We'll see if it's just a January trend like going to the gym.

#10 = I Need Your Feedback on Pricing from January 27, 2013
This was simply my appeal for some input on pricing. You can participate or see the pricing at http://www.smallbizthoughts.com/events/SurveyPricing.html. (BTW, I was a little surprised that the $199 price gets the most stars but is not a very popular choice when it comes to actually buying. I would appreciate your thoughts on that.)

I mentioned last month that most of the traffic to this site is generated from my own domains, especially the SOP Friday page at smallbizthoughts.com (http://www.smallbizthoughts.com/events/SOPFriday.html). That single URL generates three times as much traffic as the generic "Google.com" referral URL. At the same time, the combination of all Google search requests is responsible for about 60% of our new traffic.

Thank you once again for reading my blog. If you ever have any suggestions for how I can improve this blog, please let me know.

:-)

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