By Kshell
On this date last year the NBA free agency period was getting hot. This was back when I was waking up at 8 in the morning vs now when I go to bed at 8 in the morning. After talking on the phone with my friend I decided to create the blog. My very first post was nothing special and in fact it was only a paragraph about how the Miami Heat signed Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. I also created a facebook account called "Seattle Sportsblog" where I would friend those who would talk quite a bit on other sports figures pages. I built up quite a following on my facebook account but the problem was I couldn't get people to come over to my blog. In fact the few couple of months were rough far as viewership on my blog. In my first four months I only had 5,758 page views which isn't very much. What also didn't help was my friend who decided to partner up with me didn't want to write for my blog anymore. Then for the second time in two weeks facebook had deleted my blog account. It was looking like my blog was about to disappear until I finally caught a break.
One day in November I logged on and noticed over 300 people had viewed my page. I check to see what increased so much and it was that on twitter Sonicsgate tweeted an article that I had nothing to do with. They tweeted the article of sonics to oklahoma city means lightning in Seattle. From that point on the page views started to pick up as I received 4,246 views in November. Then in December my page views increased to an all-time high of 5,148. That month I was talking about the Huskies going to a bowl game, previewing the entire week of the Apple Cup, Seahawks playoff push. Plus I was pretty vocal on Dave "Softy" Mahler's facebook page at that time. Before Sonicsgate posted on twitter that article I had received just 5,758 views in the eight months after that I had received 33,294 page views. I needed to catch a break and that was the break I needed.
After an increase in page views in November and December my blog dropped off a bit in January and February. Once again I picked up a break when Jeff Aaron asked me to be on his radio show. You can listen to my interviews with my Jeff Aaron posts right here. I must admit those were a ton of fun I was so nervous my first interview but by my third one I felt really comfortable. It was a chance to voice my opinion on various topics and I'll never forget the fun I had from that. Then in March Dave "Softy" Mahler created a witch hunt for me which caused a ton of negativity towards me. He also made my blog pretty popular as I had over 300 page views that day. His act of immaturity whether he realized it or not helped my blog grow even more. In the past four months I've had over 19,000 page views so Mahler definitely helped my blog out. Then in April my blog received some views due to Patton Richard's NFL Draft talk which he would include his predictions and had a live NFL draft chat. I felt like Richard helped legitimized my blog. I think people viewed my blog after Mahler blew up on me as a side show then quickly realized I had some good information in there.
In the past couple of months my blog has really picked up. In the last two months I've had over 11,000 page views due to my Seattle Mariners related posts. I also think the group I created has helped with the popularity of the blog. The group I created is called Seattle Sportsblog which is always busy with traffic. My fan page has over 300 members, the group has over 250 and I've even had over 110 followers on twitter. My group page gives me a feel on some subjects so I write a blog post on it. My favorite debate was when Bryan White and Zach Cecil would go back and forth on Ichiro. Of course Tory Johnson who actually played with Ichiro in Japan would weigh in as well. During the NBA playoffs Chris Rozwood became a regular contributer to the group and whether I agreed with his opinion or not his posts were very well thought out. For baseball season Mike Morris was a regular poster as well and I remember him getting on a fan for calling Felix Hernandez "King Dipshit" that was a mememorable rant. Now our newest poster Ian Korzeniecki has given the group page a new refreshing change of fan point of view. I feel like the group has really helped my blog page and that's the funnest part of my day is get on the group as it's always busy.
In conclusion, my blog wouldn't be where it is without you guys. I want to thank Michael Morrison, Michael Hourigan, Patton Richard, Brian Alfi, Insider Steve and Korey Payne for writing for my blog in the past. I can't believe it has already been a year for my blog and over 40,000 page views. I started off slow if I keep up my pace I expect to be close to over 100,000 page views. Obviously I couldn't have my blog if people didn't enjoy it. This has been a fun hobby for me and has given me a chance to meet several former players I wouldn't have otherwise had an opportunity to meet. So once again guys thanks for a great year and I hope to be doing this for many years to come. Now I'll go celebrate with some friends in Las Vegas this weekend. Hopefully I come back rich but either way I'll still be posting on the blog. I can't believe it has already been a year a year that I'll never forget.
