Friday 19 April 2013

Happy Blogday to me!

Introduction

It's exactly a year since I started this blogging lark, so I thought it would be a good time to recap what I've done in the past 12 months.

Statistics

Over the year, my blog has had:
  • 99 posts (this is the 99th).  My goal of 2 updates per week  almost worked, but there were periods when holidays or other events intervened.
  • 30550 views.
  • Visitors from 89 countries, including every single state from the USA.  Some countries have a single visitor only, so a special message to these individuals: you're not alone as long as you have a shared interest with so many others around the world!
  • 59 followers.  My most sincere thanks to each and every one of you!

Here's a rough breakdown of the articles I've posted:
  • 6 battle reports (Hordes of the Things)
  • 8 battle reports (Full Thrust)
  • 14 battle reports (All Things Zombie)
  • 5 battle reports (The Rules with No Name)
  • 5 battle reports (Adventures in the Lost Lands)
  • 8 battle reports (other rulesets)
  • 12 articles on designing and making cards and other game accessories
  • 26 posts showing off or reviewing models
  • 15 others (workbench updates, competition and award announcements, 20 questions &c)

Highlights and Lowlights

It's been both exhilarating and humbling to see how much (or how little!) interest has been generated by some articles.  After a while, I thought I could predict which posts would gather a lot or a little of response - but on looking back I realise that my estimates weren't always close.  There have been a few real surprises in there!

Most popular post (by a long way):
  • ATZ Event Cards: Finally!  The most sincere form of praise is when people start to reference or to copy your work.  Some of these random events made it into All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out and I'm always delighted when I see such events or ones from the card set appearing in other people's games!

Least popular post, at least when judged by lack of response.  Tie between:

The Future

So, where will the Infinite Legion go next?  I'm not really sure, though I don't imagine there will be many changes to the format.  I still expect to publish roughly twice a week: one battle report after Games Club night (at least during school term times when the club is running) and one "other".  I may add more different rules to my stable of rulesets.  I've already got SAGA but haven't finished painting figures for it and 5150: Fighter Command is demanding that I play it.  I might start writing the occasional piece on scenario construction; this seems to be of some interest to many players.

Finally

Once again, many thanks to those who read my articles and to those who respond to them (either here or by replying on other forums such as various Yahoo groups, The Board of the Living Lead and The Miniatures Page).  Special thanks are also due to the group of players at my local games club in Helensburgh.  Without you guys, I wouldn't have nearly as much material!

20 comments:

  1. Happy Blogday mate, You post up lots of interesting stuff we all love it :D Keep up the good work mate!

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    1. Thanks, Simon. It's always good to know I'm appreciated!

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  2. Congrats on you 1st Blog Birthday!! Keep up the great work!

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  3. Happy Blogday C6 and I hope you'll keep entertaining me and your other followers for the foreseeable future.
    Please don't give up on what you label as some of the least popular posts, it is after all your blog.

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    1. Glad you like it, Joe. I certainly won't be giving up on anything just because it might arouse little interest. At least in part that's because I cannot always tell what will be popular or not!

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  4. Happy blogday, keep up the good work mate

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    1. Thanks to you too, Dave. I'm pleased you like my stuff :-) .

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  5. Happy bloggiversary! Your blog is really good. It's really hard to tell what will catch peoples interest (besides boobs), but don't let that stop you. I'll put in an early vote for scenario construction. All of your games seem to have a great story to them and I always enjoy reading them.

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    1. Well, I don't plan on putting boobs on my blog anytime soon! Mind you, looking at traffic sources occasionally yields odd results. I wonder what the chap from Hungary thought when he encountered my blog after searching for "locker room nudity"?

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  6. Congratulations of making it through a year with a fairly hard and fast publishing schedule! Wish I was as diligent. Best of luck with the coming year and make sure you keep it fun for you, too!

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    1. Thanks again. It works in 2 ways, I think. Yes, it's a fair bit of work to publish on the blog, but it does also encourage me to be more inventive with the games I host at the club. After all, I can't just write about yet another 2000 point head-to-head battle each week, can I? That would go stale *very* quickly.

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  7. happy blogday. I like your blog anf wish you can maintain it for a long time.

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    1. Thanks, Cedric. I'm certainly not short of material for the foreseeable future!

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  8. Congrats on your blog's first birthday. I always like to read your blog, even the games you play that I don't as they are always entertaining.

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    1. Thanks! I realise that I put out quite a mixture of different genres &c and that this won't necessarily be of interest to everyone. Still, it's what I do...

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  9. Always a pleasure to visit, we'll done and happy blog day

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  10. Good on you buddy! Congrats, many moreto come I hope.

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    1. Thanks. I'm not planning to stop any time soon!

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