Last week I revealed how well we did on achieving the goals we set forth heading into 2008. I thought it might be cool to share with you the top posts from the previous year. Criteria for popularity of a post is based purely on page views. So without further delay, in descending order, here are the top 15 most popular Tailgating Ideas posts from 2008.
14. Lumipic Lighted Cornhole Lights Available From Tailgating Ideas – Everyone must love playing cornhole at night because the day we started offering Lumipic lighted cornhole overlays for sale via tailgatingideas.com, this post blew up. Over 4,100 page views and the YouTube video demonstration was viewed almost 2,000 times from this website as well.
13. Video: Slip ‘n Slides Sold Out In State College, Pa – People like seeing other people act like jackasses. What can I say? When you post three videos of Penn State tailgaters sliding through muddy grass created by a broken water pipe, hilarity ensues. It also does not hurt that this post was picked up by Sports Illustrated Campus Clicks on October 1st bringing in over 5,300 page views.
12. Tuesday T&A: Riley Steele Edition – Tailgaters like hot girls in yellow bikinis I guess. At least over 6,100 of you do. Or it could be the same guy looking at that post over 6,100 times. I doubt it though.
11. Off Topic: Layla Kiffin Looks Like Casey Parker – Anytime you make a side-by-side comparison of a college football coach’s wife to an adult film star, you are going to see some eyeballs come into your website. That’s exactly what happened with this post that gathered in over 7,500 page views. The traffic was helped not only by being linked to by Sports Illustrated Campus Clicks but also The World of Isaac, Cuzoogle, The Beer Goggler and Ballhype.
10. The Definitive List of Unattractive Female Sports Reporters – We all like a little eye candy on the sidelines of our televised sports. So why are these girls roaming the sidelines with a microphone? Good question. In another off tailgating topic post this one was picked up not only by nationally syndicated talk show host Tom Leykis but by Sports by Brooks and The Drunken Stepfather. Over 7,700 page views for this post.
9. Exclusive Interview With Playboy Playmate Laura Croft – What do you get when you cross a super hot girl that gets naked and likes to go tailgating? (not necessarily naked tailgating mind you.) You get a blog post that reels in over 8,300 viewers. Although this was a bit of link bait and was picked up by Busted Coverage, this post’s traffic mainly came in from Google searches.
8. YM Sports Grates Take Your Tailgate To The Next Level – I discovered a small company in Ohio that was making grill grates with the logos of a handful of colleges right on them. The designs are flawless replicas of the school’s logo or mascot and it seemed like a fantastic addition to any tailgating kit. Apparently the folks at Sports Illustrated, both Extra Mustard Hot Clicks and SI on Campus thought so too by linking to this post complete with photos. This post ranks No. 8 in 2008 with over 8,800 page views last year.
7. 10 More Annoying Tailgaters – They say the sequel is never as good as the first but this one did pretty well for itself in 2008. This post was the follow up to The 14 Tailgaters Who Annoy the Crap Out of You that appeared back in May and although it did not trump the original in popularity this post did take in over 10,000 page views. This post was helped by big traffic coming in from Sports Illustrated Campus Clicks but also Mondesis House and also a number of visitors came in via StumbleUpon.
6. The Bucket List For Tailgaters We’ve all seen the movie so I decided to borrow the concept from Hollywood and come with my own bucket list for tailgating. I had no idea leaving LSU off the list and including The Grove at Ole Miss would create such an uproar. This post generated 22 comments, mostly LSU and Ole Miss fans sniping back and forth at each other like my blog is an extension of their fan forums. No matter what, this controversial post stirred up some emotion and thoughtful debate to the tune of over 11,000 page views.
5. Video: Butt Painters At Florida/Georgia Game – I’ve seen face painters and body painters while tailgating. We all have. But not until I came across this video from the Florida/Georgia World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party had I seen butt painters. Thankfully it was three girls with rather nice hind ends that were demonstrating their school spirit. Had it been guys, this post would have never seen the light of day. Over 12,000 visitors are probably thankful I made the right choice.
4. Play Beer Pong Anywhere with Port-O-Pong Inflatable Beer Pong Table – This is a post that was originally published in October of 2007 but apparently it still has some legs. Over 13,000 page views for this post in 2008. Maybe it is the girl in the bikini top playing beer pong that helps it.
3. Tuesday T&A: Gabriella Fox Edition – The second attempt at putting up some scantily clad women in hopes of attracting eyeballs was a home run when we chose Gabriella Fox back in July. Close to 16,000 visitors would agree that she was the most popular of all the Tuesday T&A segments we did.
2. A Kegerator For the Booze Hound On The Go – Our first big taste of what link baiting is all about. First this post was picked up by all the major gizmo and gadget blogs online. Then Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated Hot Clicks linked to it and the traffic rush nearly blew up our servers. Not really because we have excellent hosting but still, the page views were mind boggling. Over 19,500 visitors have learned that you can indeed carry a keg of beer and a sound system off your tow hitch to go tailgating.
1. The 14 Tailgaters Who Annoy the Crap Out of You – The undisputed champion of all tailgating blog posts this past year. Numerous college message boards and forums picked up on this along with all of the top sports blogs linking into it. This one wins going away with nearly 35,000 page views for the year.
That puts the wraps on 2008. Was there a post on Tailgating Ideas that was your favorite but may not have gotten the larger traffic numbers to put it on this list? If you have a favorite that was not listed here, feel free to share it in the comments below.
