1 Million Views Later: Our Most and Least Popular Articles Ever

We’ve never set out just to get clicks, but I think it’s completely natural for any writer to want people to read their work. So, we have tracked our articles’ statistics carefully over the years. 

It’s been 7 years since our launch, in fact. And about 4 months. We have produced 857 articles. And now, as of Easter Day, we have seen our site hit 1 million views. Our home page accounts for about a sixth of those views and we have author bio pages and other similar miscellaneous pages that help contribute to that total.  Even still, an average article for us has been viewed nearly 1,000 times.

Some articles, as you see below, have helped us up that average and accelerate us to a million views much more quickly. Our Top 10 have all been viewed at least 10,000 times, including a mammoth (for us) 75,000 for our article in the top spot. Other articles have been viewed less than 100 times, and we wanted to highlight some of those as well. First to show that we do not always see great numbers when we write, but also because we’d like to see these articles feel more love!

One special thing about Rambling Ever On as we celebrate this major milestone this week is that it has been a team effort since December 2015 when we went public. Not just from our staff, but with our readers as well. And we want to thank you today for reading, sharing, commenting and even disagreeing at times. You have helped us gain visibility that we strongly desire.

The Least Viewed Articles

Before we dive into the Top Ten most viewed articles in our history, we’d like to shine the light on ten articles that for whatever reason, fell through the cracks. These aren’t necessarily the least viewed articles we’ve published, but they are definitely on the lower end of the spectrum. We think they are interesting and unique reflections of what we are about here. In no particular order, here are Ten articles you probably didn’t read but should have.

First up, perhaps our longest title ever? “Experts Now in Development of Artificial Theology (or A.T.) Designed to Update Scripture and Christian World to Modern Technological Standards” by Ben Plunkett.

Usually, our sports content does pretty well. Not when Gowdy wrote about his “Favorite Moments in the Joe Maddon Era.” Maybe Cubs fans don’t read Rambling Ever On. Their loss.

Next up, we have an ode to singing in the car written by Phill Lytle: “Automobile Star, We Salute You.” Clearly people don’t love music or singing in their cars as much as we do. Sad.

Ben Plunkett clocks in again with “In Earnest Praise of the Multitalented Knife”, the third in a series about kitchen utensils. The fork and spoon did really well with our audience but like many third installments in popular trilogies, perhaps the knife felt superfluous to many.

“Life Lessons from Les Mis, The Book (Part 2)” by Gowdy Cannon failed to connect like Part 1. That’s too bad because it was really good and everything.

From time to time, we revisit older films or albums or books and write little reviews about them. They seem to be well-received most of the time. Not “Independence Day”. Phill, the author, still weeps about this rejection.

We have published a lot of poetry on Rambling Ever On. It’s something we are very proud of, particularly because our primary poet, Ben Plunkett, was such a gifted poet. This one didn’t connect liked we had hoped, but we still love how deeply personal and loving it is. Go read “Father Rakes Leaves” right now and then come back and finish this article.

This one could be excused for not bringing in the views since it was one part of a 5 Part series during Covid. (Everything was weird back then.) The series is fantastic, for what it’s worth. Gowdy’s installment, “You Don’t Have to Understand to Obey” is worth a few minutes of your day. In fact, the entire series is applicable now just as much as it was back in 2020.

Phill Lytle loves movies. He loves to go to the theater to watch movies. At one point, it looked like the movie theater industry was dead. (It might still be on life support but is showing signs of reviving.) In that spirit, Phill wrote an article called, “Five Reasons I’m Rooting for A Quiet Place.” None of our readers cared as much as Phill. The end.

Finally, we published a collaborative article celebrating Book Lovers Day. And all the book lovers were too busy reading, and loving, books to read Rambling Ever On. Typical book lovers.

That does it for the “least viewed” articles. We hope you discovered something that perhaps you missed the first time around. Now, let’s move to the more fun part of this article – The super popular articles! (Click each image to go to the article.)

10. Five Reasons You Should Read “The Chronicles of Narnia”

This is easily one of our favorite things we have published. Five writers contributed to it, each brining a unique perspective. It continues to connect with our readers and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

9. Five Reasons You Should Watch “The Chosen”

The Chosen Facebook page has helped us gain visibility by sharing some of our content about them, but the content has earned it. Phill does a masterful job here explaining why a Christian should watch this groundbreaking TV show.

8. Tom Brady is the Overrated Quarterback in NFL History

Our most controversial article ever. Gowdy still gets made fun of on social media for writing this.

7. The Forgotten History of Christian Rock: Part One

This series really connected with readers and brought in many new viewers who hadn’t discovered Rambling Ever On. The whole series is worth reading.

6. The Five Fundamentals of Christianity

Ben cared deeply about good, cornerstone theology and this is his magnum opus on that topic.

5. The Chosen: The Conviction of Good to Better

Sometimes a TV show can cut you so deep you feel it for the rest of your life. When a TV show about Jesus cuts you that deep, the change can be eternal. What Phill writes about here is tearjerking, convicting and as powerful as anything we have produced.

4. Five Stories On Why Larry Bird Was The Greatest

Gowdy is a self-professed stat nerd, but for once in his life he opines about sports with stories, not data. Larry Bird is a legend in the NBA because everyone, even his most hated enemies, has a story that will blow your mind. Here are five of them.

3. Why Dobby is My Favorite

Harry Potter is rich in characters just as other similar fantasy epics are. And people will for the rest of time adore and debate Snape and Hermione and Dumbledore and Sirius Black. But for once, Rambling Ever On gives tribute to one of the most polarizing yet indubitably humble characters in House Elf Dobby.

2. The Invisibles: Bible Characters Christians Never Discuss, But Should

Famous Bible Characters are famous for good reason. But the Bible has hundreds of characters, and many of them are crucial to the story arcs that bring God great glory, and we rarely if ever hear about them. We tried to amend this with this article.

1. Top Ten Bible Characters

The joke for us has always been this article has astronomical numbers because pastors and other Bible teachers are often scrambling for content for Sunday and Wednesdays. It’s over 7 years old and there are still days it gets 100 views or more. One day not long ago it got over 400 views. That’s more than many of our articles have in their entire runs. Still, we are proud of the bracket that produced this Top Ten list, and of the blurbs we wrote about each saint of God in our Bible.

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Thank you again for taking this journey with us. We are having the time of our lives and are quite grateful for the passengers we pick up on the way. Keep reading, sharing, commenting and even (respectfully) debating!