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Top Posts of the Year In Page Views
So first, let's just take a look at what the top posts were in terms of page views. This is to get an idea of what most Auburn fans were clicking on and sharing with other Auburn fans. We seem to have a small (but loyal) readership here at College and Magnolia since daily page views remain constant, but occasionally some posts get shared more or picked up through other outlets due to the nature of the post content. Some of them are not the most pleasant to say the least.
9) BCS Championship Game Recap
8) Why Nick Saban Needs Josh Floyd of Hewitt High School to Fail
7) A Tribute to the Auburn University Marching Band
6) Auburn TE Jakell Mitchell Killed in Shooting
5) Auburn Defensive Coordinator Search Updates
4) Auburn Football 2013: No Apologies, No Regrets
3) SEC West Scenarios: How the Remaining Four Big Games Will Decide Who Goes to Atlanta
2) The Ten Commandments of the Auburn Student Section
1) An Open Letter to the Auburn Family
Some of these were no-brainers that they would receive a large amount of hits. Breaking news - particularly of the unexpected and shocking variety - tends to lead to a lot of hits. I'm a little shocked Dr Z's piece on the Trussville Coach did as well as it did, and I tried to see where the referrals for that piece came from, but I guess it turns out we have a lot of readers who saw "Nick Saban Needs This Guy to Fail" and clicked on it, since most of the hits were from organic site traffic.
The controversial nature of Tuco's Open Letter ensured that it would be #1 on this list. And wow is it. At 177,003 page views, it is far and above the #2 article which has 25,611 page views.
Month To Month
So what was moving the needle each month? What news got Auburn fans talking (and reading) the most each month of 2014? We're not going to do Top 10 here, but let's go Top 3 just to get a good feel.
January: No surprise what the big topic here, was.
1) Auburn Football 2013: No Apologies, No Regrets
2) BCS Championship Game Recap
3) BCS Championship Game In All time Losses
February:
1) Signing Day Announcement Times
3) The 10 Second Rule is Dumb - This one sure is fun after we see how Nick Saban upped the pace of his offense this season.
March:
1) Auburn Basketball Coaching Search Candidates
2) Bruce Pearl Hired As Auburn Basketball Coach
April:
2) Phil Steele Projects Auburn in AP Top 25
3) A-Day Recap
May:
1) Auburn and Unclaimed National Championships
2) Jovon Robinson Commits to Auburn
3) Dee Ford Drafted By Kansas City
June: The first part of June was fairly empty, since Chris left to take the Eater.com position and there were a few weeks where not much was happening until SB Nation tabbed me (Walt) to take over the reigns. Unfortunately, I had two major stories to report on within the first week of taking over in the arrest of Jonathon Mincy and the death of Philip Lutzenkirchen.
2) What Tray Matthews Means For Auburn
July:
1) Ten Commandments of the Auburn Student Section
2) Why Nick Saban Needs Josh Floyd to Fail
August:
1) A Tribute to the Auburn University Marching Band
2) Discussing Auburn With Ignorant People
September:
1) Review of Auburn's Defense vs Arkansas
2) You Serious Bert? - Note: Not real proud of that one. I really should have held off for a number of reasons
3) Auburn Senior Safety Jermaine Whitehead Will Not Play Against Kansas State
October:
2) Auburn's Gimmicky High School Offense vs LSU
3) Q&A with And The Valley Shook
November:
1) An Open Letter to the Auburn Family
4) Auburn's Amazing New Pads: An Interview with Russell Athletic
I added the fourth in there because it was 4th, the Iron Bowl preview wasn't much of an article, and I think y'all should check it out again. It was very well done.
December:
1) Auburn Defensive Coordinator Search Updates
2) Auburn TE Jakell Mitchell Killed
I think my personal favorite things that I wrote this season were the Auburn band tribute and the Damnatio Memoriae piece on [NAME REDACTED].
In terms of honorable mention of "posts that didn't make the tops in a month for page views, but you should REALLY go check these out anyway," I must present to you these:
1) Undercover Barner: Sara Smacks Cancer
2) Undercover Barner: Sara is Smacking Cancer
3) Marinara, Hoops, and Chris Davis: A Lesson in Patience
What were your favorite articles we wrote this year? Favorite stories? Things you liked, disliked, want more of, etc? Hopefully we can make 2015 an awesome year, here.