Year-end roundup Most loved and most hated posts of 2007

Year-end roundup Most loved and most hated posts of 2007 The best part of blogging is the community. I have been a columnist for a long time, but I have only been a blogger for a year and a half. And I have to say that the conversation part of blogging is amazing, and its something you dont get as a columnist. So heres a thank you to everyone who has been part of the conversation on this blog either by reading or responding or both. You have taught me so much. And my own attempts at perfecting my intersection of work and life are much less lonely and difficult because I do it with a community like this one. And, speaking of community, here are a few statistics about the blog, beginning with this list of posts that received the most comments this year. (This list is very skewed toward the end of the year, because the blog got more popular as the year progressed.) Five Steps to Taming Materialism from an Accidental Expert (77 comments) What Generation are You Part of, Really? Take this Test. (115 comments) My Financial History, and Stop Whining about Your Job (69 comments) Bad Career Advice: Do What You Love (72 comments) Stop Worrying that Your Twentysomething is Lost (89 comments) The End of Work as We Know It (74 comments) Five Situations when You Shouldnt Go to Graduate School (103 comments) Five Workplace Practices that Should be Over. Now. (73 comments) What if the Interviewer Never Calls You Back? (64 comments) Five Things People Say About Christmas that Drive Me Nuts (230 comments) Personal Favorites A lot of people write to me to ask me if I really write all my own posts. And a lot of people ask me how I have time to write so much. Its true that most posts take tons of time three or four hours when all is said and done. But really, the question is what would I do if I werent writing these posts? So often, the blog is a way for me to understand myself, and the people around me, and I have never had a job I love more than writing this blog. These are five posts that meant a lot to me to write, even if they were not the most popular in the comments section. My Name is Not Really Penelope An Unexpected Lesson About Procrastination My 9/11 Day. My Husband. The Meaning of My To-Do List. Stop Thinking Youll Get By on Your High I.Q. Big Announcement: Im Starting a Company! Favorite on Google: Marriage Counseling The first post about my marriage was a turning point in the blog traffic went up significantly, and has stayed there. This might be because even though I have some of the worst search engine optimization in the blogosphere, my blog now comes up number eight from the top when you search marriage counseling on Google. But the traffic surge also convinced me that the personal matters a lot in blogging. Information is a commodity on the Internet, and a good way to stand out is to infuse your posts with your personality. It has been suggested (see comments) that I change my tagline to be advice at the center of work and sex. I can see how this would be popular, and I maybe would do it, if I could figure out how to ever have sex again. For now, Im just having marriage trouble, and marriage-trouble traffic. My First Day of Marriage Counseling (176 comments) My Own Marriage and the Myth of the Stay-at-Home Dad (171 comments) 5 Communication Lessons Learned in Marriage Counseling (84 comments) Favorite Among Haters: Yahoo Finance Column Each week for the past year, I have heard from hundreds of people on Yahoo Finance complaining about the advice I give. Here is the Yahoo column that caused the most number of people to take the time to write a comment saying that Im an idiot: Ten New Etiquette Tips for the Workplace (2798 comments) Top Twentysomething Columns One of my favorite parts of the blog is the Twentysomething column. It was the way that I found a business partner, and its also a great way for me to learn because it always surprises me. The three most commented-on Twentysomething columns came from three different writers: Ryan Healy, Be Responsible, Go Back Home after College Jon Morrow, Why I Regret Getting Straight As in College Rebecca Thorman, The Rising Rift Between Gen X and Gen Y Thank you for a great year. I feel very lucky to be part of this community, and Im looking forward to another year of conversation, controversy and fun.