Your Favorite 2012 Brainzooming Blog Posts

Friday’s post featured my top ten list of favorite Brainzooming blog posts from 2012. Today’s post features your top ten list of  favorite 2012 Brainzooming blog posts as measured by Google Analytics pageviews.

While there are pre-2012 posts still drawing significant pageviews, the ten posts on this list all debuted in 2012. Not surprisingly, each post is a numbered list. The preference for numbered lists has been consistent each year, much to the chagrin of at least one reader who told me he is not a fan of big list blog posts. While I understand that, the Google Analytics pageview metrics show most of you do enjoy them.

One intriguing (but not surprising) wrinkle to the top ten list of favorite posts is five are compilation posts. These bigger lists are comprised of links to previous content, much of it originating prior to 2012. These posts play a role since with the Brainzooming blog growing to more than 1,300 posts during 2012, finding, compiling, and organizing content is more important for the blog to continue serving as a robust resource. Who would have thought you could wind up with almost too much content?

The final non-surprise on the list is there is only one article overlapping my personal favorites list: 7 Ways to Lie with Focus Groups. This pattern of minimal overlap between my personal favorites and the most viewed posts underscores how my criteria for selecting favorites are not correlated to pageviews. I select most of my personal favorites based on the backstories behind the posts, which clearly has almost nothing to do with what ultimately generates readership.

The Readers' Top Ten Brainzooming Blog Posts for 2012

Here are your top ten favorite Brainzooming blog posts of 2012:

1. Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – 8 Creative Thinking Questions
2. What to Blog About? 187 Ideas and Topics for Blogs, All in One Place
3. Brainstorming Session Success – 21 Brainstorming Techniques
4. 15 Ideas on What to Blog about from Your Daily Life
5. Extreme Creative Ideas – 50 Lessons to Improve Creativity Dramatically
6. Advanced Twitter for Business – 19 Links to 480 Twitter Tips, Lessons, and Apps
7. Research – 7 Ways to Lie with Focus Groups
8. Extreme Creativity – 10 Brainstorming Questions from Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives
9. Implementation Problems? 7 Signs You’re Understarting, Not Overthinking
10. Creative Thinking Right Now? 188 Tips for How to Be Creative

Plus a Few Other 2012 Favorites

Beyond my previous top ten list, here are a few other posts that stand out for me this year written by others:

• Space and Creativity – This was Woody Bendle’s first Brainzooming post in 2012, and he went on to be the most prolific guest blogger of 2012 . . . and I hope in 2013, too!
• Great Strategic Questions – A 3-Step Strategic Question Formula - This post from Barrett Sydnor is a favorite of mine because the formula Barrett shares for devising strategic questions is absolutely ideal for getting great input from others.
• The Importance of a Passion Project - Alyssa Murfey made her Brainzooming blog debut in 2011 and followed it up with several more in 2012, including this one on her passion project. We hope to grow the collaboration in 2013 to include a presentation on personal branding for both early and more experienced professionals.
• Working Cats: A Day In The Life Of An Executive Cat – If you follow my Facebook feed, you have seen pictures of Clementine, our feline Director of Enthusiasm at The Brainzooming Group. She made her blogging debut on Fully Feline in 2012, sharing what her life is like as a working cat. We will have to see if she has a Brainzooming post in her in 2013!

Mike Brown