When I started, my main goal was to consolidate my hobby posts in a single place that I could both update and keep as an archive. As things age on the internet links break and images are removed, and I hope to have this be able to stand keeping all its content intact.
Some statistics. My most popular post has over 14000 views, which is over four and a half times more than the second most viewed post (which is just under 3000 views). My biggest month was last August with 19,713 views, and while I'm writing this I've had 357,290 total views.
I have yet to miss a post, though a few have been a little late (one day I hit the save button instead of the publish, so it didn't go out until about 9 pm instead of 6 pm). I do share most of my posts on facebook, but I do tend to try to keep them in relevant groups - so, for example, this one will NOT get posted in Kings of War Fanatics and will, in fact, only be posted on the "Until Somebody Loses an Eye" page and in the Ohio War Kings group.
I changed the layout last year after getting some feedback from my youngest son, and I think this is nicer and more mobile friendly. The new layout doesn't like html tables - so tournament results are harder to do though. It also seemed to be blocked by several ad blockers.
I had ads on the blog for a couple of years in the hope to eventually get at least a little beer money. Regardless of how much (or in my case how little) you earn, Google will only send it to you once it is over $100. When I stopped I had accumulated a whopping total of $62.61 over 32 months, so it wasn't that hard of a decision.
I'm not really rolling in freebies either. I've been asked a few times to do product reviews - but in only one case did that ever end up with me actually getting my hands on the product (a prototype for a kickstarter) to review it. The vast majority of other product reviews are products I have actually purchased (some were part of my rewards for being a Mantic Pathfinder - but being purchased in work still counts). A few have been borrowed from friends and family that had models I did not.
While I am a Pathfinder for Mantic, they do not directly support my blog. For a short while they gave out information to bloggers who registered with them (before it showed up on their own blog), but that did not last long, and now the majority of information I get is what I can consolidate from a few places on the internet (yes, mainly Facebook). While a couple of times I have put out some pictures that were not meant to be made public yet (though I had received permission to post them, it just turns out the person who game me permission wasn't supposed to), I know very little that isn't public information. Except of course for REDACTED, REDACTED, REDACTED, and oh yeah, REDACTED.
and in the
with . Of course that means we will see along with the and I can hardly wait!
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It has been a fun three years, and though a bit stressful (especially trying to think of SOMETHING to post about over a hundred times a year (plus any extras) (my wife says I am just doing this to myself, but I feel I have an obligation to at least get my content out there on schedule)) it is still something I enjoy doing. (Speaking of which, I just realized I haven't done my monthly newsletter for February yet - but then who needs sleep?)
I hope you all enjoy my random ramblings, and I very much enjoy the views, shares, likes and feedback I get both directly and on Facebook. If you'll continue to indulge me, I'll continue to try to entertain and inform you twice a week with whatever pops into my little pea brain.
Thanks for indulging me, because it is all fun and games . . .
Great blog, thank you!
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