The First Six Months

It's been six months now that I started The Mighty Quinn Media Machine and I have had such a blast joining the blogging world. I thought I would look back on this half year with some observations about my online blog site.

I nearly joined Blogger back in the summer of 2005, but I thought I would rather just start my own web site, so I decided not to do it. But then, on a whim, on the morning of March 13th I woke up and thought I should start my own blog. I had come up with the title "The Mighty Quinn Media Machine" when I previously thought I would start a blog, so I used it. I knew my blog would be mostly about the Red Sox and baseball, but I wasn't going to give it a "Red Sox" name, as I knew I'd be talking about other things in my life as well.

Putting my thoughts down in cyberspace has been so much fun, and I soon became addicted to it. I've been averaging about 11 posts a week (this is post number 293), and the reactions I've gotten back to the blog has been really nice. I've gotten to know some really great people out there simply through the blog, such as Matty in Washington, Peter in Connecticut, Christine in Pennsylvania and Suldog in Massachusetts. Their blogs, and the blogs of other people I know here in New York (FINY, WelshSoxFan, EVI, Jere, the BLOHARDS, Michael and others), are my morning stops as soon as I get online every day.

I've gotten to know the ways and means of Blogger, and one of the best things I've done since I started the blog was putting a "site meter" on it on April 20 (thanks WSF). It's so cool to see who's checking out my blog and where they are from. I noticed that whenever I put up a new post, my blog is usually checked out by someone around the world who is blog surfing. (I guess it goes into a type of queue, and when you hit "next blog" it will pop up.) I've had people from almost all 50 states, as well as from every continent come on, and from places as distant as Iran, Russia, Ivory Coast, Singapore, India, China and New Zealand come on. To me it just seems so cool that someone 12,000 miles away can be reading my words, even if they are just blog surfing.

Most of my readers are from New York and New England. Massachusetts is the second most popular state where my readers are from, due to all the Red Sox columns I write. I've also seen that I've got many repeat readers come back again and again. Many of course are friends of mine, and I recognize them right away. But I've seen people come up time and again from places like Iowa, California, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Texas, Georgia, and as far away as England and Ireland, and I have no idea who they are. But I am so happy that they do return again and again to see what I'm up to. I would imagine that many are Red Sox fans around the country (and even around the world), who have found my site through various web search engines, like Google, MSN, Blogger and Yahoo.

I've also seen that my blog is read by a lot of people on college campuses. I've seen such schools as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Penn put up on my site meter locations. I guess my blog is popular among the intellectual types! I've also seen such readers from such places as NASA, the IRS (uh-oh), NESN, the United Nations and the Department of Defense finding my site.

Of all the articles I have written in the first six months, the ones that have gotten read the most by the most varied people are the "Alex Rodriguez Sunbathing in Central Park" story I commented on (which was just a couple of lines, but dozens of people found it through web searches), and the funny post I put up about a fictional day lived by Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli, back in July. I was truly amazed at the number of people who were finding my site because of it. And when Doug hits a homer, it goes up again. I've also noticed a few people coming back to it again and again (they've obviously bookmarked it). Even with the Red Sox out of the postseason hunt, I still get people finding the post on my site. (Red Sox fans are the most savvy Internet/baseball fans out there.)

Thanks, Dougie.

The most responses I've gotten from any post I put up was the tribute I did to my late friend Joyce this past week. They were all beautiful, and really helped me get through a very difficult day in my life. I thank all of you so much who took the time to let me know your thoughts.

I've really enjoyed putting together my extensive links section on the left hand side of the main page (and it is still growing). Of course, anyone who wants to exchange links with me, please do let me know and I will be happy to put one up for you. (As long as you exchange the courtesy to me as well!)

It's been a real pleasure to be part of the blogging world for six months now. I'll be writing more about football and hockey as the fall approaches and the baseball season concludes (but I will be following the Red Sox offseason as well as the Mets fortunes). I will of course be writing about other things as they warrant my attention, especially my continuing adventures as Trivia MC at Professor Thom's.

Thanks to all of you who check in with me. It's nice to know so many of you are out there reading The Mighty Quinn Media Machine.

Even if I have no idea who you are.