If you’re here for the title of this post just skip to the last question. If you want to see my goals for the year and THEN see how you can help, feel free to read the entire post.
You know the study about the people who write down their goals achieving them more often than people who don’t. I wrote down some goals for myself and this blog this time last year:
1. Have PFB average 8,000 pageviews a day for football season – Settled in at about 6,100 which I’m still excited about.
2. Total redesign of Pistols Firing – Mission accomplished. Also, I can’t give you any higher recommendation for Standard theme than I am right now. Spectacular.
3. Get a full-time job writing/blogging – Yes.
4. (personal goal) Read 20 books – I got to 16, then football started. My favorites: Unbroken, The Big Miss, Secretariat, and Art of Fielding1.
One thing I want to do for 2013 on a personal level is create more specific goals. Here’s the start of that, these are all for PFB:
As an aside — I appreciate you guys reading stuff like this and not thinking I’m nuts. It’s a little scary to discuss the behind-the-curtain stuff sometimes but I feel like our community is fun enough (and strong enough) that it helps the site more than it hurts it.
PFB is something I always want to push forward and make more interesting and entertaining for you guys.
1. Write better posts - Real specific, huh? I think I let this slip a little at the end of the year. I started focusing more on pageviews than I did on quality content. Thankfully @OKC_Dave picked me up once a week, but you guys deserve better than what I’ve been giving.
2. Build out of pages - I’m a huge fan of sites like UM Hoops that have built out pages that leave me scrolling for hours on end at historical data and players gone by. I really want to let PFB become more robust in the next 12 months
3. 10K Twitter followers – With my new job I decided to split out my two Twitter accounts (@KylePorterCBS and @pistolsguy) and make the @pistolsguy one more for this blog than my personal use (multiple people are contributing to it now). Twitter has been one of the main reasons we’ve experienced success as a site and I see no reason we can’t double our following again like we did in 2012.
4. 10K pageviews/day during football - New uniforms would help (where you at, Nike??)
5. At least 10 former player interviews – @mattamilian has done a good job with these but I want to do even more in 2013.
6. More products – I have some ideas for new t-shirts and a few other goodies but if you have something you want to see, by all means, let me know.
7. One I can’t share – It’s a long shot, but why not dream big in 2013?
What would you like to see happen with the site? There are so many great sites on the Internet and I take ideas from them all the time. Have you guys seen any features or ideas you want me to expand on? Or is there something you want me to stop doing? Anything at all, mention it in the comments and I’ll consider it.
Or if you don’t feel comfortable sharing you can email me at pistolsfiringblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
- These are all affiliate links to the Kindle store — if you click on them and purchase them, I get a cut from Amazon. ↩
The moment you care a lick about page views is the moment your quality drops. No where in your tag line does it say “i love me some page views”, no, it says you love jump balls and Dana Holgorsen. Guess which people actually come to your site for? I guarantee it’s not to pad your page views.
Stop looking at the numbers. Just have fun, and your readers will too.
I think I have to agree with this.
You are on the right track about “Build out Pages”. Think of ESPN’s top nav. You can sort through each sport and get specific information. Now you do that have, but the ‘pages’ on your site are just for reference. They aren’t live.
Speaking of Live, what about community? Meet ups on game days, drafts, NFL games, etc, would be great.
How about a “Power Lunch” segment like the daily Oklahoman does?
Even better – think of a game day… chat, for lack of a better word. Think ESPN Gamecast + twitter, for OSU fans only. Maybe yahoo or ESPN already has something like this that could be licensed?
A good friend of mine is a Notre Dame blogger on a site called nocoastbias. She does a series, one a week I think called ‘Where are they now’. I’ll see if I can share one of her posts w/you. But it’s interesting to see where the high profile athletes have landed 10-15-20+ yrs later. That kind of story would be interesting. I mean, we know where Barry Sanders went, but what about like Hart Lee Dykes or some players like him? He played w/Sanders & Gundy, but then what?
Yes, that’s terrific.
Don’t mess up a thing of beauty. You have a fine blog going here. It reads like a personal conversation with a good friend who knows all the good OSU scoop. As an old alum, I don’t need another ESPN format. I trust your angle. It’s unique. I look forward to it everyday. No changes.
I agree with Michelle and Taylor York. Focus on the OSU quality (you already do a good job of this, in my estimation) and the numbers will come. One of the lesser obvious, but more refreshing aspects (to me) of your posts is that they are not laced with expletives. It shows you take your responsibility seriously, but not so much that you can’t provide informative and entertaining posts.
Ditto, ditto, ditto. As another older alum, this has become my one stop shop for all things OSU. I wouldn’t worry about the hit rates, that will happen. I think working on community is not a bad idea, maybe some kind of pre-game discussion Fridays at lunch so folks can attend. Honestly, I like finding the mix here, you might even turn me into a basketball fan one day….(a challenge when you were a wrestler for 8 years; we’re typically not fond of basketball)…Keep up the good work!
Keep up with the coverage of the other smaller sports especially. I’m especially enjoying the wrestling coverage. Great blog!
Agree 100% with foxhoundadamn. I have really liked the wrestling coverage. Soccer, golf, baseball, even cross country, I would enjoy following their seasons like I did while I was in school. It doesn’t even have to be unbiased, if the team trainer who is at each game wants to send in a write-up, that would be a fun read.
I do like the community idea mentioned above. But keep doing your thing and keep writing about the same stuff you have been. I really enjoy the blog as I can see the passion you have for our alma mater.
I miss the In-Game chats for hoops you used to have last year. Even if you didn’t offer it for EVERY game, but pick 4 or 5 when the schedule comes out. Maybe with it being a limited number of games, the attendance might be stronger.
Reading tweets from the games are really fun. Let’s face it, Twitter is fun, but Twitter and sports are made for one another like Golf and Hi-Def TV. However, I also like to read funny, angry or sourgrape tweets from the opposition. Maybe include some of those too. For instance Saturdays KU game had some good twitter nuggets if you search the hashtag #KUBball.
Someone else mentioned the “where are they now” stories. I know you have done a couple, and those are fun to read. Hope to see more in the future.
Love this site. Keep up the great work.
First thing I would suggest is keep writing. You do a wonderful job keeping us informed in an entertaining way. Something I would find interesting is to talk with current or former cowboys about the science of the game, an example might be to hace coach ward talk about hitting or with signing day coming up talk with pat jones about the qualites coaches look for in high school players. Basically something similar to the article grantland had about the osu offense. While its a cliché keep working to refine your writing and keep writing about things you enjoy, and last but not least influences are good but remember to tell your story and not someone elses.
Might be nice to have some updates schedules on the home page.
Someone else once made a point if it is not broke, break it. Sometimes you make changes to confirm you were right the first time. Just keep it up; feel free to experiment on us. Its one of the first things I check on at the start of the day. We all really enjoy your views.
I would open up the site for more contributors and let your fans add some content.
PFB Koozies!!!!!!