With nearly five hundred articles online, published over a five-year period, it’s interesting to pause to review which topics get the most hits and which ones get the most clicks to another website for more information. Some of the results are expected, but others were not anticipated. In general, however, it became clear that most viewers are looking for information of immediate personal benefit or special interest.

Sex is a topic of universal interest, and any title that includes the word is likely to attract viewers, but those for whom sex is a priority are likely to be disappointed with articles for general readers. The next most popular are items in the general lifestyle category, which includes clothing and shoes, food and drink, hair styling, and health. For example, a series of articles on Vietnamese silk dresses for plus-size women were immediately popular and replicated on other websites that shared this interest, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa spurred interest in an article on health of Europeans in Ghana.

Next in popularity are articles about other countries, their climate and landscape, wildlife, resorts, food, people, and culture. These are useful for tourists and vacationers, as well as those with a broader interest in geography. There was more interest than expected in articles on traffic and driving conditions, perhaps because more and more people are trying to drive when abroad on vacation or business. Interest in aspects of culture—languages, oral literature, and native artifacts—is less general and falls into the special interest category.

All the authors have their areas of special interest and in this case they are: engineering, Ghana and Vietnam and their languages ​​and culture, teaching English as a foreign language and children’s books. Articles on computer manufacturing and nuclear-powered submarines are of limited technical interest, but those featuring individual personalities and workplaces appeal to their interest groups of family, friends, and coworkers. One topic that got more attention than expected was ‘helping children learn to read’ but this seems to be of interest to too many parents and teachers to be a topic of general interest.

Relative to stimulating clicks through other websites, this appears to be primarily motivated by the desire to view an image. This is obvious in the case of fashion items: clothing, shoes, or hairstyles, but it also applies to artifacts and engineering products. Topics like ‘Ghana’s homemade logging trucks’ arouse interest in seeing the real thing. Once again, articles about silk dresses for plus size women were effective in stimulating clicks on the websites where the articles were displayed. However, one last factor of primary importance could not be objectively assessed. Ultimately, the most effective factor in persuading the reader to click for more information is the quality of the writing.