Below are some of our top posts that were published in 2010. They are roughly in the order of the amount of traffic they received, but the first one is a clear winner. The majority of our searches come from Google searches, so traffic mainly depends on how high we are on Google and how popular a search term is. Usually items that are on TV (news story or advertisement) and we are able to put up a post on them result in a high amount of traffic.
What we need in 2011 is to make some organic traffic gains from our dedicated readers who pass their favorite posts on to their family and friends, who then do the same, and it goes VIRAL!!!! Of course, this relies on us putting up good material! Here's to living even more sustainably in 2011!
Without further adieu, here are Mapawatt Blog's most popular posts published in 2010:
Green Millionaire - It's amazing what happens when :
- A company uses misleading and too-good-to-be-true advertising on a TV commercial to sucker people into giving them their credit card information.
- TV stations air this ad.
- Curious people Google "Green Millionaire"
- You write a blog uncovering their little trick (i.e. - they say they need your card for shipping you your free book, then the fine print hits you with a $39 fee every 6 months for their e-mail newsletter).
- You become the number 1 hit on Google for that topic.
Our most popular blogs are ones uncovering energy scams. I'm glad we could help, I just wish as much people cared about doing the "hard" stuff to save energy rather than relying on "snake oil" schemes.
Turn off your lights with iPhone - an iPhone app commercial airing during the Winter Olympics showing a homeowner using an app to turn off her lights inspired me to write the post. Turns out the method she used can only be used with incandescents! Screw the app, change your bulbs to CFL or LED! There are other ways (which are mentioned in the post) to turn off your lights with your iPhone.
Mira-Cool - When I saw this company's ad in USA Today I knew it was misleading marketing and it would make a good blog post. I was right, as it was near the top of our traffic ratings. The ad does two things misleading: 1.) They make claims about the unit's performance that just aren't accurate. 2.) They make it sound like all you have to do is call and get a "free" unit. Turns out you have to buy a unit first (at an outrageously high price), and then they give you a "free" unit (that you still have to pay shipping on). That's called "buy 1 get 1 free", not just "free".
What is Bloom Box and Bloom Box unveiling - I was notified by a PR person at 60 minutes that they were about to do a story on the Bloom Box. They do this so blogs write about it and people watch 60 minutes. So we wrote a quick blog on Bloom Box, and then when the story aired, our traffic exploded. It helped that we were one of the first people up with a post and were number 1 in Google traffic for awhile. What are my feelings now? Bloom Box is a cool device, but I don't think it will change the world. It uses natural gas for a fuel source, so users are still dependent on a utility and a fossil fuel, they may just be able to get a better rate for the Bloom Box's electricity. I'd be very happy to be proven wrong on this.
Lighting Upgrade: Incandescent to CFL to LED - Pretty self-explanatory. I replaced a light in our hall to a CFL and then replaced that with an LED from Home Depot. It still works like a charm.
GE hybrid water heater - This was from another ad shown during the Winter Olympics of snow monkeys using GE hybrid water heater. The water heater uses a heat pump to capture heat from the air and uses it to heat the water. Of course, if you have the heater in a conditioned space, you're just transferring heat from one place to another, but this would work great in my garage (where my water heater is) because the waste heat from the car's engine would be transferred to the water instead of just slowly leaking out of the garage.
Electric Car Charging Station - This wasn't posted until the second half of 2010 but it's been picking up some steam thanks to a nice google ranking. Learn some of the differences in car charging protocols and what kind of charger you'll need when you get that shiny new plug-in.
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