During 2014, we published 60 posts on Skipedia, covering brands as diverse as Lidl and HSBC, destinations from Flaine to Denmark and tour operators from Crystal to AliKats.
But which were our most read blog posts? Here’s our top ten – in reverse order – from 2014:
10. Mountain Base hit a PR goldmine
We reported on how this Morzine-based operator achieved huge PR results from one simple Facebook post – this was our 10th most viewed post.
9. Is Banksy working for the ESF in Meribel?
Back in March, Skipedia was the first site to report on the mysterious mural now known to have been created by graffiti artist Caesar.
8. New Zealand Tourism invest the ‘dronie’
It’s still very early days with drones, but this article about innovative use in NZ created a lot of interest.
7. Five Winners from ‘The Jump’
Snowsports rarely features on TV in peak viewing hours – whether you liked it or not, Channel 4’s ‘The Jump’ couldn’t be ignored.
6. Anti-ESF protest at the Ski Show
A ‘modern day Batman’ demonstrated against the French ski school. The considerable public support showed how far the ESF have fallen.
5. When La Tania met Gordon Ramsay
Tim Wall from the Ski Lodge played the fall guy when he featured on Gordon Ramsay’s TV show.
4. Crystal go digital
In September, Crystal Ski deflected attention from a shrunken industry report with some ambitious announcements about their digital customer service.
3. LISTEX insights
This trade show moved up another level in 2014, added a summer session to the autumn conference. Our summary of May’s event was our third most viewed post of the year.
2. The Folie Douce expands…again
The new Folie Douce in Megeve is the third new venue in as many years. We considered whether the brand values will survive further growth.
And the most viewed Skipedia post of 2014 was…
1. The Top 40 Ski Resorts on Facebook
Top of this list is another list. Yes, people like lists, but also people like data. Our list of the top ski resorts on Facebook looked beyond absolute figures to consider how they were performing relative to the number of visitors they attract.
What did we learn?
Three of these posts featured celebrities and another three are about viral successes, so there’s a certain logic to their selection.
What is most encouraging is that the ‘Top 40 Resorts’ post was original research by Skipedia. It look a long time to collate and organise the data, but the payback was worth it.
Well-researched content
Not only was it our most viewed post of the year, but it was indisputably so. It generated 70% more page views than the second placed Folie Douce article and 148% more than our third most viewed post about LISTEX.
So if there is a lesson to take from this, it’s that original, well-researched content – on the right subject matter – will generate traffic.