I always find it interesting to look back over the year to see which of my posts generated the most traffic. Interestingly, of my top 10 posts for traffic in 2012, six were actually posted in 2011 or 2010. This first list shows the top 10 in traffic for the year, regardless of what year they were written. The second list shows the top 10 among posts actually written during 2012.

Top 10 posts of 2012, regardless of year written:

  1. What Do You Pay for Westlaw or Lexis? (July 13, 2011).
  2. ABA Survey Shows Growth in Lawyers’ Social Media Use (Aug. 16, 2012).
  3. Problems with Adobe Acrobat X Pro (Jan. 21, 2011).
  4. A Cute, Cheap Alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro (Dec. 23, 2010).
  5. Lexis Launches Advance, its Next-Generation Research Platform (Dec. 5, 2011).
  6. The Art and Science of Lawyer Bios (Aug. 27, 2010).
  7. Shared a Dropbox folder? Don’t forget! (June 13, 2012).
  8. Popular Legal Directories, Ranked by Traffic (June 8, 2011).
  9. Lawline Opens its Full CLE Catalog to Free Access (June 20, 2012).
  10. A First Look at the Newest Casemaker (March 4, 2012).

Top 10 posts of 2012, showing only posts written in 2012:

  1. ABA Survey Shows Growth in Lawyers’ Social Media Use (Aug. 16, 2012).
  2. Shared a Dropbox folder? Don’t forget! (June 13, 2012).
  3. Lawline Opens its Full CLE Catalog to Free Access (June 20, 2012).
  4. A First Look at the Newest Casemaker (March 4, 2012).
  5. ‘Lexis Advance’ Advances Again (July 19, 2012).
  6. Bloomberg Law Now Fully Integrates BNA Content (April 3, 2012).
  7. Court Says 1st Amendment Protects Lawyer’s Blogging (June 14, 2012).
  8. Another Site for Lawyers to Share Legal Forms (March 15, 2012).
  9. New Contract Drafting Tool: ACC Contract Advisor (April 9, 2012).
  10. Virtual Lawyers Earns Lawyer a Bar Reprimand (Aug. 30, 2012).

The best I can conclude from these lists is that there is no predicting which posts will fly and which will not. My brief 2011 post asking for feedback on what people pay for Westlaw or Lexis generates lots of traffic still, no doubt driven by people searching for the answer to the very question I asked. The two posts on the top list about Adobe Acrobat Pro probably also owe their popularity to search-engine traffic from people encountering problems of their own or looking for PDF alternatives.

Generally, as I’ve also found in past years, posts about legal research services are popular. You seen several on these lists, covering Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg Law and Casemaker.

Beyond that, a post’s popularity is often subject to the vagaries of who else links to it or even sometimes simply of timing. I’ve been doing this long enough that I often have a feel for which posts will draw higher traffic numbers. But I continue to be surprised by some that I would never have expected to take off.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.