Happy New Year! I’m excited to start a fresh year of blogging. But before moving ahead, I think it’s 
important to reflect on what stories worked well and drove a lot of traffic and/or engagement in 2014.
So, below are some of my most popular posts from the past year (across multiple publications) and my thoughts on why I think they were so successful.
1. Six steps for setting up a small business in Canada
I kicked off 2014 by writing this story for TELUS Talks Business. I think that this post continues to generate a lot of page views because the topic is evergreen – meaning that it is not time sensitive and people can refer to this post as a check list of things to do in order to get started with their small business.
2. Kirstine Stewart says Twitter offers a new beginning for television
Last May, I attend the Clickz Live Conference in Toronto and really enjoyed Kirstine Stewart’s (managing director at Twitter Canada) talk about how Twitter can help drive increased television viewership and engagement. I think that the reason that this story got so many shares on Techvibes is because the title was extremely compelling and it offered insights/thought leadership from a senior level person at one of the world’s largest social media technology companies.
Although this post didn’t drive a lot of shares on my personal blog, it did drive a lot of conversation on Twitter. I think that the reason some of my Twitter followers chose to respond to this post was because I shared it in the evening (when people are often sitting around after dinner and looking for casual stories to read online). The topic was also very playful and interesting. It’s definitely one of my favourite posts of 2014.
Writing a highly engaging or traffic-driving blog post is an art form. And I am constantly trying to learn why some of my stories tank and others soar. Have a tip for how to drive more traffic and engagement via blog posts? Please share in the comments section below.
It is really tough for Canadians to get financing for new ventures. I was in business for 20 years and was always fighting with financial institutions to expand my business.