Year-end roundup: Most loved and most hated posts of 2007
The best part of blogging is the community. I have been a columnist for a long time, but I have only been a blogger for a year and a half. And I have to say that the conversation part of blogging is amazing, and it’s something you don’t get as a columnist.
So here’s a thank you to everyone who has been part of the conversation on this blog - either by reading or responding or both. You have taught me so much. And my own attempts at perfecting my intersection of work and life are much less lonely and difficult because I do it with a community like this one.
And, speaking of community, here are a few statistics about the blog, beginning with this list of posts that received the most comments this year. (This list is very skewed toward the end of the year, because the blog got more popular as the year progressed.)
Five Steps to Taming Materialism from an Accidental Expert (77 comments)
What Generation are You Part of, Really? Take this Test. (115 comments)
My Financial History, and Stop Whining about Your Job (69 comments)
Bad Career Advice: Do What You Love (72 comments)
Stop Worrying that Your Twentysomething is Lost (89 comments)
The End of Work as We Know It (74 comments)
Five Situations when You Shouldn’t Go to Graduate School (103 comments)
Five Workplace Practices that Should be Over. Now. (73 comments)
What if the Interviewer Never Calls You Back? (64 comments)
Five Things People Say About Christmas that Drive Me Nuts (230 comments)
Personal Favorites
A lot of people write to me to ask me if I really write all my own posts. And a lot of people ask me how I have time to write so much.
It’s true that most posts take tons of time - three or four hours when all is said and done. But really, the question is what would I do if I weren’t writing these posts? So often, the blog is a way for me to understand myself, and the people around me, and I have never had a job I love more than writing this blog.
These are five posts that meant a lot to me to write, even if they were not the most popular in the comments section.
My Name is Not Really Penelope
An Unexpected Lesson About Procrastination
My 9/11 Day. My Husband. The Meaning of My To-Do List.
Stop Thinking You’ll Get By on Your High I.Q.
Big Announcement: I’m Starting a Company!
Favorite on Google: Marriage Counseling
The first post about my marriage was a turning point in the blog - traffic went up significantly, and has stayed there. This might be because even though I have some of the worst search engine optimization in the blogosphere, my blog now comes up number eight from the top when you search marriage counseling on Google.
But the traffic surge also convinced me that the personal matters a lot in blogging. Information is a commodity on the Internet, and a good way to stand out is to infuse your posts with your personality.
It has been suggested (see comments) that I change my tagline to be “advice at the center of work and sex.” I can see how this would be popular, and I maybe would do it, if I could figure out how to ever have sex again. For now, I’m just having marriage trouble, and marriage-trouble traffic.
My First Day of Marriage Counseling (176 comments)
My Own Marriage and the Myth of the Stay-at-Home Dad (171 comments)
5 Communication Lessons Learned in Marriage Counseling (84 comments)
Favorite Among Haters: Yahoo Finance Column
Each week for the past year, I have heard from hundreds of people on Yahoo Finance complaining about the advice I give. Here is the Yahoo column that caused the most number of people to take the time to write a comment saying that I’m an idiot:
Ten New Etiquette Tips for the Workplace (2798 comments)
Top Twentysomething Columns
One of my favorite parts of the blog is the Twentysomething column. It was the way that I found a business partner, and it’s also a great way for me to learn because it always surprises me. The three most commented-on Twentysomething columns came from three different writers:
Ryan Healy, Be Responsible, Go Back Home after College
Jon Morrow, Why I Regret Getting Straight A’s in College
Rebecca Thorman, The Rising Rift Between Gen X and Gen Y
Thank you for a great year. I feel very lucky to be part of this community, and I’m looking forward to another year of conversation, controversy and fun.
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Anything that gets over 2700 comments is a success - even if it’s mostly just people telling you you’re an idiot. At least it gets the dialogue going - and that’s what blogging is really all about, right?? Plus, it’s very entertaining for the rest of us.
Thanks for this re-cap. Now I can catch up :)
Posted by Chrissy - The Executive Assistant's Toolbox | December 26, 2007
Your book and this blog (especially my Coachology session!) has been an inspiration for me this year. I can honestly say both have made me braver in my career and my personal life. In addition to all of that, I truly appreciate the time you take to actually respond to this community in many ways. Thanks so much, Happy, Healthy, and Joyous New Year, and keep it coming!
Posted by Joselle Palacios | December 26, 2007
Penelope, best wishes for 2008. Thanks for all the daily inspiration and cutting through the clutter.
There is a lot of realism in all your advice - thanks for being so honest and putting so much of yourself out there.
Best wishes, Jim
Posted by JimB | December 27, 2007
Best wishes for 2008, Penelope (although I have to say I like the name Adrienne)! I’ve valued your insights about GenX / GenY changes in the workplace, as I’ve seen these changes creeping into the big company where I work, gradually but perceptibly. I agree that your personal comments (your name branding, move out of NYC, marriage counseling) caught my interest also, and yes made you credible, to me. As a career woman with a stay-at-home husband, I valued your comments about the home-person having a part-time job, and it changed my perspective, for the better. I enjoy all your linking, and have found myself reading blogs I would never have found otherwise. (Sorry I can’t offer more gentle criticism!) Because my home life is so important to my overall happiness, and the world is not my parents’ world, I would recommend this web-site: passionatemarriage.com, for awesome insights on appreciating “differentiation” - with some lessons that I think transfer back to the workplace (diversity does add value). I thought my sex life was dead too, after 10 years of marriage, but it seems to me now it is all about intimacy, really, and that love follows. (My contribution for your long list of what works, in the new age.) So thanks, for being here (in cyberspace), thanks for writing, and thanks for educating. The internet rocks! Ciao.
Posted by Yvette | December 27, 2007
You’ve been my favourite read and most extremely useful and inspiring source of ideas all year, and I don’t think it’s possible be to as brilliant and insightful as you are without upsetting billions of yahoos. And I don’t know how people have wonderful careers at the same time as passionate spouses and fabulous families, but then again maybe I just haven’t met them. Most of us are still trying (in my case, on the career side, after years of homemaking).
So thanks for writing, and best wishes in everything you do in 2008. Especially looking forward to more news about the startup.
Posted by Alice Bachini-Smith | December 28, 2007
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