Paul Wolfe was kind enough to nominate me for this “contest” and, in an effort not to let him down, I’ve produced the following rin response to the 7 questions / categories of links:
Your most beautiful post
While I hesitate to call any of my posts beautiful (as none of the prose qualifies), there have been one or two posts on beautiful and heartfelt subjects, and this interview with Steven Pressfield is one of them And just in case an “interview post” is considered cheating, I’ll throw this one in as well:
Your most popular post
In looking back through Google Analytics, the front-runner for page views was this pre-release review of Dan and Chip Heath’s highly anticipated book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
But I tend to suspect that the front-runner position of that post has a lot more to do with the popularity of the Heath Bros’ (deservedly) best-selling book, and a lot less to do with any particular blogging excellence on my part. Luckily for me, my close-second most popular post was also my most controversial…
Your most controversial post
I had no idea this post on the Website for Best Made Axe would be as controversial as it was, but I stand by my initial premise: if you’re going to declare yourself the “best made” it’s only natural to expect to find substantiation of that claim on your Website. When that evidence isn’t found on the site, it causes doubt in the mind of the consumer.
Fortunately for Best Made Co, they do so many other things right with their marketing, that the lack of substance on the Website hardly matters. And I think it is to their great credit that both the head of Best Made Co.‘s Facebook fan page and one of the founders of the company came to comment on the post.
Also, for what it’s worth, my intent with the post was always to help other small-scale producers understand an important aspect of persuasive websites, and not to slam Best Made Co. Anyway, it’s still good reading, IMHO:
Your most helpful post
This is a tough one because all of my posts are aimed at being helpful. But I think that this post managed to tie together a bunch of really worthwhile insights in an interesting and fun package centered around the blockbuster flick, Inception:
A post whose success surprised you
This particular post was fairly personal and off-topic for me, so I was surprised to find out that it resonated with as many readers as it did. Of course, after a moment’s reflection, it wasn’t surprising at all, since the core essay featured in the post has been consistently popular ever since it was first penned by Keith Bell. Check it out, you’ll probably like it too:
A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
I think most web and direct response copywriters have been so ingrained with the “reason-why” advertising mantra that we sometimes don’t know quite what to do when we’re either short on demonstrable points of difference or benefits, or legally prohibited from proclaiming them in our advertising. This post represents at least one tried and true solution to that problem, but it got precious little attention. I think you’ll like it:
The post that you are most proud of
I’m proud to have written a handful of guest posts for Copyblogger, and especially proud of how well this one turned out. It was a very solid post to begin with and Sonia Simone did a brilliant job editing it while Brian Clark did his usual amazing job at creating a must-read headline:
And that’s it. Thanks for reading and a special thanks to Paul for nominating me to participate in this contest in the first place 
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Sonia Simone on 11.10.2011
We were proud of that post as well! Thanks so much for sharing it with our folks.
Now I’m off to read your First Class Ticket post …
Jeff on 11.10.2011
Ah, thanks, Sonia.
Paul Wolfe on 11.10.2011
Hi Jeff
That’s a good list of posts — I’ve read most of them. Missed the Copyblogger one somehow — so it was good to get a link to that so I could go read.
In fact Copyblogger is how I first stumbled upon you in the first place — forget which guest post it was, but I instantly connected with it and wanted to know more about teh guy who wrote it. That’s you!
I love the Pressfield interview too — one of my ‘non business’ goals is to get my edition of THE WAR OF ART signed, I have a First Edition! (I think i bought it in the first week of publication).
Talk to you soon. (Thanks for the loop advice too!)
Paul