Monthly meta for May 2016

May 2016 was the second best month on the blog, surpassing April 2016 with 20,967 page views and 37 comments for 33 posts over 31 days.  That translates to 676.35 page views per day, 635.36 page views per post, 1.19 comments per day, and 1.12 comments per entry.  For the second consecutive complete month of the new blogging year, I'm still meeting or exceeding my goal of between 16,500 and 17,500 page views per month for the current blogging year.

I begin with the most pinned entry on Pinterest last month, "Drink recipes for July 4th from Tipsy Bartender" from July 4, 2015 with 10 pins and 2 likes.  It also earned 105 page views, including 38 from Pinterest.  A total of 90 page views came from Pinterest last month, 68 on the last week of May.

Two entries earned honorable mentions.  The first was "Happy Star Wars Day from North Star and NASA" from May 4, 2014 with 174 page views, enough to sneak it into the top at the end of the month and place it 13th overall.  It earned its readership from being shared at the drum corps groups and community on Facebook and Google Plus.

The second entry to earn an honorable mention was "Darth Vader on Dubstep" from May 4, 2013.  It earned 189 page views, enough to place it 11th overall by the last day of the month, by being shared at the Star Wars groups on Facebook and being retweeted several times on Twitter by someone else.

Follow over the jump for the top ten posts for May, both posted during the month and overall.  These included the most liked on Google Plus and the most commented on entry.

The first post of the ten most read entries from May 2016 is "Solar Impulse 2 lands in Phoenix" from May 3, 2016.  It came in tenth with 139 page views, which it earned by being shared on the technology and green energy groups on Facebook and Google Plus.

The next two entries tied for the most liked on Google Plus for May with four pluses.  "Drum corps for the Oregon primary" from May 17, 2016 placed ninth with 142 page views, which it earned by being shared on the drum corps and politics groups and communities on Facebook and Google Plus.

The second entry tied for the most liked on Google Plus for May with four pluses was "Music from the Dark Side for the Revenge of the Sixth" posted May 6, 2016.  It earned 165 page views from being shared on the Star Wars and Science Fiction groups on social media to end the month in eighth place.

The seventh most read entry posted during May was "Colbert clowns as Cruz and Kasich capitulate" from May 7, 2016.  I shared it at Kunstler's blog in addition to the political groups on Facebook and Google+, which earned it 206 page views on the raw counter.  It also popped up on the default top ten on the last day of the month with 183 page views according to the default counter, placing it twelfth overall for all posts during the month.

"Sometimes, it isn't such a quiet neighborhood" kicks off the overall top ten for the month.  The entry from September 17, 2011 earned 191 page views from web search to tie for ninth.  I only posted it on Facebook once as part of Throwback Thursday/Flashback Friday.  It was an appropriate entry from the back catalog to re-appear last month, as my current neighborhood became busy and noisy with construction of new homes across the street.

"Game of Thrones D&D character alignment charts" posted April 6, 2014 tied for ninth overall with 191 page views.  It got its readership from web search related to the broadcast of the sixth season of the show.  Those page views weren't enough to keep it in the all time top ten, as sharing "Corn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet" at the start of the month knocked it out.

Three posts about drum corps maypoles made the top ten.  The oldest was "Drum corps maypoles for May Day" from May 1, 2014.  It earned 270 page views from being shared at the drum corps groups on Facebook and Google+, placing it eighth overall for the month.

"Baby names inspired by fandom for Mother's Day" from May 9, 2016 earned 275 page views (288 according to the raw counter) from being shared at the science fiction and fantasy groups on Facebook.  Those were enough to place it seventh overall and sixth among entries posted during May.

The second entry about drum corps maypoles was "A big top drum corps maypole for May Day" from May 1, 2016.  It ended the month with 280 page views (319 according to the raw counter), placing it sixth overall and fifth for entries posted during May.  Like the other posts sharing this theme, it earned its page views by being shared at the drum corps groups on Facebook and Google+.

The winner of the Revenge of the Back Catalog Trophy for May was "A drum corps maypole in motion for May Day" from May 1, 2015, the third and final entry about drum corps maypoles to make this month's top ten.  It earned 316 page views by being shared at the drum corps groups on Facebook and Google+, enough to place it fifth overall for May.

While I shared "CNN and MSNBC interview Libertarian candidates William Weld and Gary Johnson" from May 24, 2016 at the political groups on Facebook and Google+, it got most of its 401 page views (410 according to the raw counter) from Infidel753 sharing the link at Crooks&Liars.  That brought in 252 visits in June, 235 in the first 24 hours; it had 55 page views before then.  The result was that the entry came in fourth both overall and among entries posted during May.  It got a second life in June that placed it fourth on the all time list, but that's a story for next month.

The most commented on entry last month was "'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' alignment charts and music for Star Wars Day" from May 4, 2016 with 7 comments.  It got all of those thanks to an extended exchange with Paul Wartenberg of You Might Notice A Trend.  I shared it at the Star Wars and science fiction groups on Facebook and Google+, earning the post 463 page views (493 according to the raw counter) making it the third most read entry for the month.

"Tyrion Lannister ties Sanders and beats Clinton and Trump" from May 1, 2016 may have come in second in page views with 3422 (3486 according to the raw counter), but it tied for first as the most liked on Google+ with 4 pluses.  It earned the page views from being shared at the Coffee Party Facebook page, which helped draw 897 page views to the site in the first hour and 3472 page views in the first day from being posted at the Coffee Party Facebook page.  It got 3000+ page views in the first 24 hours.  I later shared it at both Kunstler's and Greer's blogs.  Those links didn't add much to the readership.  It got he pluses from being shared at the political groups on Google+.  It ended the month as the third most read entry of all time, knocking "James Robertson ABC's Person of the Week" out of the top ten.  That had been the top post for the fourth year of this blog.  Sic transit gloria mundi.

The top post of May 2016 was "2016 could be a good year for minor party candidates" from May 14, 2016 with 3669 page views (3676 according to the raw counter.  It also came in second for most comments with 6.  It earned its page views from being shared at the Coffee Party Facebook page, where it got more than 3400 page views in the first 24 hours, and helped attract 3440 page views the next day, 883 the first hour.  The entry also ended the month as the second most read of all time, knocking "Corn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet" out of the top ten after it had briefly re-entered the leader board at the start of the month.

I'll get around to posting the retrospectives for January and March later.  Stay tuned for the final post of the month, which should be about Asteroid Day the more widely recognized, if more more recently inaugurated, version of Apophis Day.