I've almost finished working on a widget which I'd hoped for months to develop: a "popular posts" widget for Blogger blogs! At present, I have a version which will display the most popular posts here on Blogger Buster. With a little more development, I hope to have a better version available (with a widget installer) which any Blogger user could install in their blog.
How will it work?
The "popular posts" in this widget will be formed from the posts which have attracted the most comments. This information will be pulled from your blog's comment feed, and the output would consist of the post title, linked to the post page with the comment count in brackets beside it:
While I would have preferred a solution which takes page views into account, this was simply not an option for me as it would involve developing a tracking script and relevant RSS feed for each blog.
Time permitting (as I have been rather busy these past few days!), I hope to have this "Popular Posts" widget ready over the weekend, so be sure to check back soon if this would be something you're interested to use in your blog!
Please let me know what you think about this idea by leaving your comments below.
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteWould be interested in seeing this. I often get 100+ comments on a lot of my posts and I've tried a similar one before. My major concern with this is one of speed so that it does not slow page load down too much.
One solution that I came up with is the use of JS-Kit's ratings, which allows users to rate the posts they find useful them selves.
I've used this on the Theories, Forum, and Fan Fiction section of the site. In the right hand side-bar you will see a "Top Rated" widget which shows the posts that users have rated the highest.
Forum
Fan Fiction
Theories
Hope this helps a little.
Looking forward to checking your widget out.
woooowwww, I was hopping for this widget for long time!!
ReplyDeleteI will be here waiting :)
I'd love this widget! I think it's a very good idea to show older, but relevant posts! i'm waiting, thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteFor Dark UFO: I understand what you mean about the page loading time. This is one of the things I need to test extensively before making this widget available for public use.
ReplyDeleteAt present, I have two methods of using this widget: the first relies on JavaScript to display the items, while the second uses Blogger's feed widget. The feed version loads much faster, though is limited to displaying only 5 items.
I'll see what I can do to improve this over the weekend :)
Thanks for sharing the info about the ratings widget you use! I've come across a similar solution before but this didn't have the option of displaying the most popular posts in the sidebar. I'll take a look at JS-Kit's version soon.
For Dav7 and Yo Misma:
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments. I'm looking forward to releasing this widget too. There are a couple of bugs to iron out, as well as the compatibility for both Blogspot and custom domain blogs but I will release this as soon as I've tested thoroughly.
Best wishes,
Amanda
Waiting For The Results Dear..
ReplyDeleteThanks
Vevin.com
Good work Amanda. Spotplex will be a good option if you are looking for popular post widget based on page views.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like their widget, use the RSS they give to make a custom widget. They give the RSS of popular post for 24 hours,7 days,30 days n all time.
All you have to do is to submit your blog in spotplex and add the tracking code to your blog.
I would definitely be interested in this! I've been hoping for a way to highlight my most popular posts for a long time. Can't wait to see it!
ReplyDeleteFor DrWiz: Thank you for lletting me know about this! I'd looked into Spotplex before but hadn't realized it was possible to use an RSS feed from this service. This is excellent news :)
ReplyDeleteThe widget I'm developing runs on the most commented posts rather than page views, so I'll certainly look into the possibilities of Spotplex and will blog about this soon.
For Vevin and Stickygooeycreamychewy: I've almost finished now so you should see this posted later today. Thanks for your comments :)
seria bueno que mas adelante diseñen un Widget con los Mas Visitados (aunque no haya comentarios). Algo asi como un contadora de cual post fue el mas visitado sin considerar los comentarioas que tenga
ReplyDeleteI think this is an excellent idea. Especially when your blog reaches a certain number of posts, it would be much easier for the readers to browse through posts that are likely they're interest as well, via popular posts.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of bugs to iron out, as well as the compatibility for both Blogspot and custom domain blogs but I will release this as soon as I've tested thoroughly. Flour Mill
ReplyDelete