By popular demand (well, some demand, anyway), I’m going through the stats to see what you read on SportsMyriad this year.
Traffic was down just a little year over year, which isn’t surprising even though the blog didn’t operate all 12 months of 2010. In 2010, I was trying to make this a full-service, revenue-generating blog, so I was posting more frequently. This year, I concentrated a bit more on work that actually pays money.
Still, readership wasn’t bad. Here’s what surprised me:
– 2012 medal projections keep getting traffic even without recent activity.
– The Ultimate Fighter recaps really dropped off. Perhaps that’s because Season 13 wasn’t great.
– Single-Digit Soccer started with a bang and dropped to nothing. That might be the biggest disappointment for me. Some of the posts drew less than 20 page views.
– My best MMA writing didn’t do well at all. That included an in-person report on TUF tryouts, my response to a ridiculous Washington Post piece, my take on the media hysteria over an ill-advised kids fight, and the only conference call transcript you’ll ever need.
Here’s what didn’t surprise me:
– Angry Duke-bashers were all over my post on the lacrosse scandal. Angry promotion-relegation backers didn’t bother. And when I angered Title IX critics, I had a thoughtful discussion with them but got little traffic.
– The WPS-Borislow documents and other breaking news all did pretty well.
Here’s the full list (excluding the posts that drew tiny page views), expressed as percentages of my traffic:
| Home page | 25.5 | |
| WPS | WPS and magicJack: Points off the table | 5.57 |
| College | Former Duke lacrosse players win a couple, lose many | 2.83 |
| WPS | Dan Borislow statement on WPS suit | 2.65 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 6: You’re fired | 2.4 |
| WPS | Borislow: Reasons WPS is dead, how to save it | 1.97 |
| WPS | All the Borislow-WPS legal documents (so far) | 1.85 |
| WPS | The WPS vigil, Dec. 5: What’s Division I, anyway? | 1.83 |
| Msoc | 1994-2010 World Cup rosters: USA getting better? | 1.58 |
| WPS | WPS rips Borislow in legal documents | 1.13 |
| Wsoc | Women’s soccer boom, version 2.0 | 1.07 |
| WPS | Tinkering with the 2012 WPS calendar | 1.05 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 13 cast | 0.93 |
| WPS | Borislow-WPS suit documents | 0.9 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 1 | 0.85 |
| Wsoc | Women’s World Cup: Small step for Japan, giant leap for women’s soccer | 0.82 |
| Soccer | How and how not to change the U.S. soccer landscape | 0.82 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: Sharks, minnows and reasonable goals | 0.73 |
| Oly | 2012 medal projections | 0.71 |
| Soccer | A brainstorm on mixing pro and elite amateurs | 0.71 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 7: Close shave | 0.7 |
| Wsoc | Choke! Why there’s no double standard for women’s soccer | 0.66 |
| WPS | Brainstorming as WPS deadline approaches | 0.61 |
| College | Student-athletes: Going on the endangered list? | 0.61 |
| WPS | The WPS vigil: Dec. 2 update | 0.61 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 2 | 0.59 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 9: Shocking end | 0.58 |
| Soccer | Style points: Why everything you think about the present or future U.S. soccer mentality is wrong | 0.57 |
| WPS | Will WPS stars sign up for another season? | 0.57 |
| Oly | 2012 medal projections, men’s track: Bolt, then who? | 0.56 |
| Oly | 2012 gymnastics: China takes show on the road | 0.56 |
| WPS | The WPS vigil: Nov. 29 update | 0.55 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 8: Not how you shut someone up | 0.55 |
| Msoc | The marketing of Landon Donovan | 0.53 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 5: Agent Cope | 0.5 |
| MLS | A realistic 2011 MLS season preview | 0.49 |
| Wsoc | Reflections on “The Man Watching” and Anson Dorrance | 0.48 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 5: Bisping’s bad, he’s bad, you know it | 0.47 |
| Oly | 2012: Field events | 0.46 |
| Wsoc | Could D.C. fans find Freedom in W-League? | 0.45 |
| WPS | The WPS vigil: Nov. 30 update | 0.45 |
| Soccer | Great time for promotion/relegation fans to step up | 0.45 |
| Oly | 2012 canoe/kayak: Hail Slovakia and Hungary | 0.44 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ tryouts and the soul of MMA fighters | 0.44 |
| MMA | UFC 136 and my love/hate relationship with MMA | 0.41 |
| WPS | WPS vs. the semipros | 0.39 |
| General | Are sports monopolies necessary? | 0.38 |
| General | What it takes to make a pro women’s sport work | 0.38 |
| General | Midweek Myriad: Fretting over Freddy, winter winners, soccer challenge | 0.38 |
| WPS | WPS: It’s pretty much officially not going to be six teams in 2012 | 0.37 |
| General | Gender equity debate won’t end, but can it change? | 0.36 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 1: Unlucky 13th | 0.35 |
| WPS | WPS vigil’s final hours: The overseas question, U.S. budgets | 0.34 |
| WPS | The Freedom of the Majestic WPS FCs | 0.33 |
| WPS | Selling WPS tickets in transition (updated) | 0.32 |
| Oly | 2012 medal projections: Old Cold War battles, Jamaica heat up women’s running | 0.32 |
| Msoc | Beckham and the remnants of condescending England | 0.31 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 4: You know the matchup, but can you stop it? | 0.31 |
| Oly | 2012 badminton: Any hope for Europe? | 0.3 |
| General | 2011 in myriad sports | 0.3 |
| Oly | 2012 men’s swimming: Lochte, Lochte, Phelps, Lochte, Phelps, Phelps … | 0.29 |
| MMA | The only MMA conference call transcript you’ll ever need | 0.29 |
| Oly | 2012 women’s swimming and synchro: All about the Franklins | 0.27 |
| Oly | 2012 pentathlon/triathlon: Modern times | 0.27 |
| Oly | 2012 track and field projections: Big year for USA? | 0.26 |
| Oly | 2012 wrestling: Not just an MMA prep course | 0.26 |
| Wsoc | Fifa World Cup 2011 announces mascot. A cat. An ELEGANT cat | 0.26 |
| Soccer | The ups and downs of promotion and relegation | 0.26 |
| Oly | 2012 sailing: Take me away to where I want to be … | 0.25 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: The Shin Guardian “treatise” and the fundamentals | 0.25 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 2: Bigger upset than VCU | 0.25 |
| Cricket | My fractured relationship with Ian Bell | 0.24 |
| Oly | 2012 diving: Can we just say “China” and move on? | 0.24 |
| Oly | 2012 cycling: The wheels on the bike go round and round | 0.23 |
| MLS | MLSSoccer.com “Ramos Project” looks promising | 0.23 |
| Oly | 2012 weightlifting: Only the strong survive | 0.23 |
| Oly | 2012 fencing: My name is Inigo Montoya … | 0.23 |
| Oly | 2012 shooting: Bang, bang, bang on the door, baby | 0.22 |
| General | The effect of arguments | 0.21 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 10: A punchy farewell to Spike | 0.21 |
| WPS | Mad about the Freedom? Place the blame on … | 0.2 |
| General | Rugby terms: Or why most people who say “scrum” are wrong | 0.2 |
| Oly | 2012 judo: No chops allowed | 0.19 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 10: The finalists are … | 0.19 |
| Wsoc | Germany 5: Welcome to Heidelberg, Beau! | 0.19 |
| Oly | 2012 taekwondo: Slightly more violent than Riverdance | 0.19 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 1: Fight! (x14) | 0.19 |
| MMA | Washington Post piece lectures kids about evils of MMA | 0.18 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 7: Ground and … hey! Hold still! | 0.18 |
| Oly | 2012 rowing: More medals for sitting British athletes | 0.18 |
| Wsoc | Germany 4: Stuck inside of Frankfurt with the Augsburg blues again | 0.18 |
| Soccer | What makes a soccer game change? Besides Messi | 0.18 |
| Oly | 2012 ball sports: Yay, team! Except you folks with bats | 0.18 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: Do small-sided games backfire? | 0.18 |
| Oly | 2012 boxing: Welcome, women! | 0.18 |
| MLS | MLS All-Stars, overreaction and reaction | 0.17 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 3: Dodson the Mole? | 0.17 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: Can youth soccer be an afterschool program? | 0.16 |
| Soccer | Book review: ‘A Beautiful Game’ | 0.16 |
| Wsoc | Germany 6: Last legs | 0.15 |
| MMA | Sanchez-Kampmann: MMA judges, statistics and damn lies | 0.15 |
| WPS | 2011 WPS predictions | 0.15 |
| General | Friends, athletes, objectivity and professionalism (SEO adds: MMA and sex) | 0.15 |
| Oly | 2012 tennis/table tennis: Who’s your Venus? | 0.14 |
| General | Midweek Myriad: Marta, Nadal, handball, 1260s, etc. | 0.14 |
| WPS | WPS welcomes the sound of sponsors in Season 2 | 0.14 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 4: Underestimate this | 0.14 |
| MLS | MLS Cup: An experiment | 0.14 |
| MMA | The case for Mayhem Miller | 0.14 |
| Soccer | Best reads on FIFA/CONCACAF crisis | 0.13 |
| Soccer | The Frimpong questions | 0.13 |
| Oly | Amateur boxers: Are you looking at my headgear? | 0.13 |
| MMA | Union opens up in fight against the UFC | 0.13 |
| Cricket | Ashes ‘old guys’ ready to return to action | 0.13 |
| MMA | The curse of Fedor: Former opponents faring poorly | 0.13 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: When do you split the kids? | 0.13 |
| Wsoc | Germany 2: Leaving Berlin, never easy | 0.13 |
| College | The Atlantic, the NCAA and the wrong discussion | 0.12 |
| Oly | Live: Diamond League debut | 0.12 |
| MLS | The annual MLS playoff fretting | 0.12 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 11, Episode 1: 14-fight whirlwind | 0.11 |
| Soccer | World Cup economics and skepticism | 0.11 |
| MMA | Kids in the cage: How not to do mixed martial arts | 0.1 |
| Oly | 2012 equestrian: Horse is a horse, of course | 0.1 |
| General | Myriad most popular | 0.1 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 11, Episode 3: Not that there’s anything wrong with that | 0.1 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 13, Episode 3: Turning points | 0.1 |
| Wsoc | Thunderstruck: D.C. United Women’s home debut | 0.1 |
| MMA | MMA and drug testing: The good without the bad? | 0.1 |
| Soccer | Tales of soccer survival: MISL’s Milwaukee Wave | 0.1 |
| MLS | Is MLS too physical? | 0.09 |
| Wsoc | Germany: Day 1-2 | 0.09 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 9: Efficient, yes, but exciting? | 0.09 |
| MMA | Sort-of review: McCarthy/Hunt, “Let’s Get It On” | 0.08 |
| Wsoc | Germany 3: Bochum’s bad rap | 0.08 |
| Oly | The biggest non-Olympic Olympic sports event is upon us … | 0.08 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: Position papers | 0.08 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: OK, let’s back up a bit … | 0.08 |
| MMA | The Ultimate Fighter: Episode 14, Season 8: Fire extinguishers! Near-KOs! | 0.07 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ Season 12, Episode 7: Kos gets a break, or three | 0.07 |
| MMA | ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 2: Bruce Decoy | 0.07 |
| Oly | 2012 update: Track and field | 0.07 |
| MLS | Virtual Viewing Party: MLS All-Star Game | 0.07 |
| MLS | MLS fans: Shut the *&^&# up | 0.07 |
| WPS | Freedom’s misfortunes touch Gold Pride, too | 0.06 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: Hey! Get out of the woods! | 0.06 |
| Oly | 2012 projections at the halfway point | 0.06 |
| MLS | A modest MLS playoff proposal | 0.06 |
| Youth | Single-Digit Soccer: “Boot it!” | 0.06 |
| MMA | UFC in transition as it debuts on Fox | 0.06 |
| WPS | Maron’s world tour: Loans to Africa, teams in Iceland and Sweden, then Atlanta | 0.05 |
| MMA | A farewell to Fedor? Plus other Strikeforce thoughts | 0.05 |
| Msoc | Alejandro Bedoya, stealth marketing and the U.S. World Cup roster | 0.05 |
| Chess | Why this world chess championship is so exciting | 0.05 |
| General | Here comes the judge … | 0.05 |
| Oly | LaShawn Merritt, male enhancement and unanswered questions | 0.05 |
| MLS | MLS Week 6: How long can Red Bulls’ surge last before crash? | 0.05 |
Duresport.com 
You’ve been one of the very few authoritative sources on the whole WPS-Borislow situation, so I’m not surprised that those entries are high in the standings. (And I, for one, have very much appreciated them, even as I lament what happened to what once was the flagship team of women’s club soccer.)
So these list only the click-throughs? Anything I read while it is on the home page comes up, then, as a home page visit?
Thanks for the list. I missed several things I want to read, and I can find them now that I know what I am looking for.
Interesting about the Single Digit Soccer stuff – some of my favorite posts of the year.
I don’t understand the numbers either. Having coached my sons until they reached the double digits, I greatly enjoyed the single digit soccer entries.
I also enjoyed the Title IX entries, and quoted from them to friends whose daughter is on the Old Dominion U rowing team, but has not been anywhere near the water.