I’ve known for a long time how to check JimandJamie.com’s most popular stories of the day (based on how many times each story has been read), but I just found out how to manipulate those stats to rank the most popular JimandJamie.com stories of all time.
Here we go. Let’s run down the ten most popular JimandJamie.com stories of all-time ranked from number ten down to number one. (I don’t know about you, but I can’t read that sentence without hearing Casey Kasem’s voice.)
Number ten: This one is the biggest surprise. It ran only about ten days ago, so it hasn’t had had the benefit of time to accumulate ”reads.” Nevertheless, this story announcing the beginning of our current trip already ranks as the tenth most popular JimandJamie.com story. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number nine: This one is a bit surprising, too. Believe me, once you’ve seen the image, you will never be able to unsee it. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number eight: I knew this one collects page views on a regular basis, but I’ve never understood why, nor would I have guessed that it would rank in the top ten. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number seven: It warms my heart to know that this very personal remembrance gets read so frequently. It must be the result of Google searches for information about the hero of my teenage years. Apparently Huckleberry Chuck was a lot of people’s hero. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number six: Coober Pedy is a very small, very dusty town isolated out in the middle of the Aussie outback. Why do so many people click on it? (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number five: Another surprise. This rough and tumble pub on the edge of the Western Australian outback seems to be surprisingly popular. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number four: Although the Barossa Valley is a very popular tourist destination, I don’t know why this story about a one-man sheep dog show should be read by so many people. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number three: Not surprising because I know it gets clicked on multiple times every day, but I don’t know why. A few years ago I did a story about its popularity and attributed it to people’s odd sexual proclivities. I cannot think of any other reason for its popularity. See more about that theory at the bottom of the list. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number two: This one ranks near the top of each day’s most popular stories, but I cannot figure out why. Madeira is a small island a few hundred miles off the coast of Portugal, but we did lots of other stories about our experiences there and none of them rank this highly. So why do people read this particular story so often? (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
Number one: Drum roll, please, because we have now reached the top of the chart on the JimandJamie.com hit parade. This story is often our most popular story and if it’s not number one it ranks in the top three. (CLICK ON THE STORY BELOW IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.)
The all-time Top Ten came in mostly as I would have expected from looking at the daily stats, but there were a few real surprises.
This is only my hair-brained theory: I’ve read that something like 90% of all internet traffic is the result of viewing pornography. If that’s true, it may explain the popularity of story numbers eight, three, and one. There is nothing pornographic about them, but misinterpreted headlines must have lead to some inaccurate Google search results. If you have any alternate theories, I’d love to hear them.