stumbling with the mets.
my new crack.
allow me to do some free advertising for a product i like…
for a few month’s now i have been jocking stumbleupon on this blog with very little explanation as to why. here is the reader’s digest version of why i think stumbling is great:
it helps me discover random websites i will enjoy based on the stated and implied preferences that i and my peers have input (in the same way i understand tivo boxes “learn” what types of tv shows viewers will like).
ok, it’s not THAT serious…
for example: do you like comedy? click the stumble button on your bowser and get directed to arbitrary web-pages that others with similar taste found funny. it has become great way for me to discover sites i might never have found on my own. almost every post i’ve made on this site featuring multiple links has been created based on the sites i stumble into. however, as fun as posting that kind of article has become, the true reason i love stumble upon is unrelated to its terribly entertaining primary function.
it is with great sadness that i acknowledge that my enjoyment of stumbleupon will forever be linked to the 2007 new york mets becoming history’s bitch.
let me explain…
on more than a few occasions i have used this site as a platform for bragging on the greatness of the 2007 mets. my folly became evident a few weeks ago when the team began putting the finishing touches on one of the worst collapses in the history of sports. as their hold on success ebbed away, i began to think about how to address this horrific event on my blog. by the time those chumps met their inevitable end, my thoughts on the matter had been perfectly crafted into blog-entry form.
in fact, the moment the mets’ failure was clinched i posted this article. i was so amused with what i had written that i immediately registered the article with stumble upon.
the next day my blog stats turned upside down.
first – a word about consumption addict. for months after i created this site (in may of ‘07) the average number of daily visitors has been about 150. this number was comprised mostly friends and co-workers – to my knowledge only one person ever surfed in and became a regular reader (shout out to LV). needless to say this is particularly small and humble little blog. the most hits i had ever collected on one given day was 248. in fact, in late september i remember feeling oddly proud that it took only a few months for my site to collect its 10,000th hit.
it was then that i stumbled the article about the fall of my beloved mets. the next morning i reviewed my daily statistics and this is what i found:
holy hell.
1,586 hits. my site’s new “best day” was 500% bigger than its predecessor. wordpress listed my site as the #2 ranked growing blog on their hosting service. news aggregator sites began picking my little article up. almost every link on the front page on my site was being clicked through. for 1/98673th of a second i was an internet phenomenon.
it was all because of that stumbleupon button.
any service that can turn my ramshackle site into something that strangers can discover and enjoy enough to recommend to others is one that i have to appreciate. still – now that i have a blueprint on how to go about expanding the audience of this site, i’m forced to reconsider what i should do with this project all together. to be honest, i only started blogging to impress/entertain my friend urban. now i feel as if i should be entertaining more people.
this inclination begs these questions:
what would all of you like to read here? which articles are the ones that make you come back? which articles are you most likely to share with others? which articles need to stop? what can i do to improve?
feel free to drop any suggestions into the comments box below.
strangely, the most popular article on this site remains this one. odd, i know… the article was not stumbled, yet it never fails to pull anywhere between 15-30 hits per day. you have no idea how many people discover that page by googling the terms “taino indians” and “puerto rican girls.”
by the way, to the end of publicly validating my own creepy proclivities i’m using this opportunity to note that the “other” most popular search terms used to discover this site involve sex toys and midgets.
what can i say? people of the internet… i like your style.
I found your blog when I googled “puerto rican flag” (i forget why I was googling such but it brought me here). I read that blog, laughed hysterically and was suckered, I mean hooked
into coming back to read more. What can I say, your dark, twisted sense of humor appeals to me. LOL Ok its not dark and twisted, just slightly mangled at times.
But F*CK suggestions. When you start tryin to appeal to the masses you are going lose the originality of this blog- this is your place to say whatever it is that comes off the top of your dome. So, if people want to place suggestions, tell them to write it down, fold it up real nice and stick it where the sun dont shine! *well where it SHOULDNT shine.*
this reminds me a bit of the episode of the office where ryan prevents creed from developing a blog because he thinks creed is too much of a creep, so he sets up a fake webpage for creed to post to…hahaha
LV – you’re far from the only person i’ve used my puerto rican-ness to sucker.
saucy – yeah that episode was hilarious. nbc actually made the blog real, too. check it out HERE.
but wait…
am i ryan or creed?
well obviously ur creed…u have a blog! jk. come to think of it, you’re a bit of both, no?
I like the Santa/Candy Cane Socks blog the best.
Oh- wait. The copy machine incident….also classic.
Give it up though- what are you going to be for Halloween.
I know that I, personally, throw the link to your blog out to the growing masses that read mine. I think you need to write a blog about the Dnabb incident at Delt. Or, how about writing about your obsession with butterflies?
What should you write about? How about just writing? I mean, you ARE a writer and in that case I think you should do what you know best. Get to it Pimpin!