In all the hoopla over the Chargers winning 11 straight games, taking the division title and getting a playoff bye, I completely forgot that Bolts From The Blue just wrapped up it's first full calendar year. That's right, this little ol' blog/community of die-hard Charger fans was around for every day in 2009 and got stronger as the year went on.
Every once in a while I like to offer you guys a peek behind the curtain. I'm no professional and, while I sometimes come across as pompous in my writing, I never want you guys to think that this blog is anything more than a fun place for us to all voice our opinions, debate and generally kill time. BFTB is not ESPN and it's not the SDUT. It's yours. You guys own it and you make it run. If my memory serves me correctly, 100% of the readers/commenters that I've met from BFTB have (at one points or another) said to me that their favorite part about the site is the comments section. I'm not offended or surprised by that. It's my favorite part of the site too, and it always will be.
So, since I'm here to serve you, how'd you like to see some progress? I don't want to go too in-depth, but watch as the number of BFTB visitors rises during the season:
- Aug 09: 51,425
- Oct 09: 82,939
- Dec 09: 97,450
Our best month ever, because of both the hopes of a new season and then people who wanted to rip Norv's head off, is September. That's still the only month we've gone over 100,000 visits. Pretty incredible stuff, huh? I know there have been times that I've been looking around at posts and comments and felt like there was absolutely nobody else reading BFTB at that moment. Chances are, I was wrong. At this point, somewhere between 3,000-4,000 people are visiting each day.
There are a ton of people that read this blog, on a daily basis, and never bother to sign up and start commenting on their own. To those people I say, come on in, the water's fine. Seriously, we won't hurt you or even berate you. We just want more people to talk football with. Oh, and before we get off the site's traffic, I particularly like this comparison:
- Jan 09: 10,638
- Jan 10 (on 1/7): 24,309
That's right, we'll probably triple the monthly traffic from January of last year by the end of this week, with more than a half-month to go (I don't think it's unreasonable to expect 100,000+ visits this month either, which would mean a 1000% improvement in a year's time).
Onto the big finale. More stats! But this time, the stats are about you (I'm in there too):
Stats For 2009
New Members
1252
Total Comments
50366
Total Stories
603 (1.65 Stories Per Day)
Total FanPosts
304
Total FanShots
772
Most Active Commenters
User | Count |
---|---|
John (obviousman) | 5844 |
Zach (maestro876) | 4523 |
Sam (sdsuaztec4) | 4380 |
Wonko | 3194 |
Dude52089 | 3041 |
CaDuck | 1870 |
Richard Wade | 1860 |
Axion | 1143 |
Gorditoe1 | 1121 |
tonoxtono | 1003 |
Most Stories
User | Count |
---|---|
John (obviousman) | 368 |
Brian (DaBolts) | 91 |
Stephen (shaynes41) | 43 |
Steve (Grey Suit) | 31 |
Andy (allfield) | 22 |
Richard Wade | 18 |
Sam (sdsuaztec4) | 9 |
Jeff (sliderockmpc) | 8 |
Jonny Dub | 5 |
creanium | 3 |
Most FanPosts
User | Count |
---|---|
Brian (DaBolts) | 55 |
Zach (maestro876) | 13 |
calipatrick | 9 |
j-man | 9 |
Stephen (shaynes41) | 9 |
Wonko | 8 |
Andy (allfield) | 5 |
Gorditoe1 | 5 |
BFTB_zach | 5 |
bringbackbuddytrees | 5 |
Most FanShots
User | Count |
---|---|
John (obviousman) | 284 |
Stephen (shaynes41) | 71 |
Brian (DaBolts) | 69 |
Sam (sdsuaztec4) | 56 |
Richard Wade | 37 |
Zach (maestro876) | 25 |
Wonko | 21 |
Lenny Suckerpunch | 21 |
Axion | 18 |
creanium | 17 |