ANNOUNCEMENT
Last year's preseason prediction BLOGs remain in the top 10 of all-time views. The reason for that is the quality of the writing. Okay, the REAL reason for that is that we had guest analysts Charlie Sheen, Derek Zoolander and Alan Garner (from the Hangover). That will be a tough act to follow, but this winter we've scoured the world for new analysts. To honour our league membership, the overwhelming percentage who are fathers, we have invited some of the most famous fathers of all time to guest on the BLOG. Here's whole be showing up:
Bold Predictions (i) - April 9th - Al Bundy!
Bold Predictions (ii) - April 16th - Homer Jay Simpson!
Bold Predictions (iii) - April 23rd - Clark W. Griswold!
This promises to be a lineup that can challenge last year's cast in terms of both depth of knowledge AND witty repartee!!!
EDITOR'S NOTE: This promises to be the most boring BLOG you'll read this year. I do that for two reasons. 1. To make sure that you're impressed as it keeps getting better as the other 4 or 5 leading up to the draft become increasingly more entertaining and 2. Its a boring topic to everyone except me. And maybe Doyle. And perhaps Peters.
Yes, I realize its January. And its still cold. And its not baseball season. But....
We have new teams in our league this year and one of them thought they would use the BLOG as the vehicle to chose their new team's name! Personally, I think that's pretty cool. Or as the young punks say, "kool". Tim Schrank and Jason Bowers have 'short listed' 5 names that they are happy with and would like to offer an opportunity to the membership of the league to vote on their favourite via the poll on the right of your screen. Now remember, you could be drafted on this team, so pick one that you actually like!!!
Further, there is a prize!!! If you select the winning name you are guaranteed a 1 in 15 chance of being drafted by the _____________'s. Unless of course you're already a captain. Captain's can still vote of course, but are not eligible for prizes as they are considered "management".
The names are interesting, sorted alphabetically they are:
a) Hot Rods - If anyone has seen the movie by this name with Andy Samberg you would already think
this name is hilarious (MOVIE TRAILER)
b) MIA (Missing In Action) - Clearly with permission from Chuck Norris.
c) Smokin' Old Chargers - They don't smoke. They aren't particularly old. They must drive Chargers.
d) SOS (Son's of Sluggers) - Love the double entendre
e) Tap Masters - Sounds like a team that is destined to win the keg, no?
Additionally, Jason & Tim are going to take a page out of Down Town Billy Brown's book and write brief summaries after their games that I'll post on their own tab within the BLOG. I'll name and publish that tab once the team name has been picked. The offer remains open to all other Captains that would like to do this. It can be witty or a factual recap, whatever you like. All you have to do is write it in an email and I'll copy it in. No fuss. No muss. Whatever "muss" is. The only rules that apply are a) no swearing [please use the George Carlin standard of what can't be said on TV] b) no porn [there's lots of other free places to get that online; or so I've heard] c) remember that the difference between comedy and being mean is that comedy generally includes laughter. We don't always hit the mark (I would know), but try and keep it lite.
And now, on to the other reason for a January posting.
I only do this once a year.
Here is a review of activity on the BLOG in 2011 and some over the year trends.
In 2009, the BLOG had 3,395 page loads which I thought at the time was a crazy high in number. Then in 2011 the number of page loads ballooned to 31,221. Last year? 40,099. I remain stunned by these numbers. Some would just say that I remain stunned. Both are true.
STUNNED
The BLOG format is undergoing some radical changes in the off season as I try to maintain its Grisslie loyalty, but be more inclusive of others who have become regular readers. These changes will be announced closer to the draft.
Meanwhile...last year's worst month of the year for readership was February with 598 page loads and the best month was May with 6,941. The average month was 3,342. Interestingly, the average month last year had 50 less readers than the entire first season of doing this. Cool.
On a daily basis, the best single day last year was 478 page loads on May 17th. That was the day the "For Those About To Rock: Bill Sallustio" BLOG was published. That guy sure is popular. The average day from Jan 1 - Dec 31st of 2011 saw 109.86 page loads on average, up from the previous years 85.5. Again, that's staggering to me. Also, there wasn't a single day last year when the BLOG wasn't accessed at least twice. There were only 9 days where it was accessed fewer than 10 times.
For 48.03% of the year, there were over a 100 page loads per day (171 times). 66 of those days had at lease 200 loads. We once had a string of 82 consecutive days with 100+ page loads. The streak was snapped on July 1st with a paltry 97 accesses. Readership was down for the stat holiday I guess. Maybe it was the street party on Fraser?
Just Another Fraser Street Party.
Fraser, rhymes with Taser
There are now 372 consecutive days in which it has be accessed, going back to Boxing day 2010. Considering that I was away the first week of January this year and we still averaged 35 hits a day, I don't see this streak ending any time soon. Surprised? Damned straight, but I'm not complaining. We should really try and find a way to advertise for our sponsors.Interestingly, the biggest activity days are not from the past year. As mentioned, this past year's biggest day was 478. In 2010, that number was topped on 8 different occasions, including 984 on September 22nd. In the BLOG's lifetime there have been 283 days with over a 100 page loads.
Now the weird stuff.
Just under 75% of the readers are from Canada.
Just under 25% of the readers are from the US.
Seriously. 1/4 of the readers are 'maricans. It can't ALL BE Jeff Shultze and Darren Mason can it? Other than a number of guys who travel for work and access while on the road, its a tough one to figure out.
The balance are made up from people looking for Mercats or Derek Zoolander pictures.
Africa and South America continue to protest the BLOG
the rest of the world is onboard (except for Greenland)
89% enter using Windows, 4% using MACs (they are like computers, yet strangely not) and 2% with Blackberry. The rest are a mishmash of things including the 16 times that the BLOG has been accessed using a PS3. Weird, huh?the rest of the world is onboard (except for Greenland)
For those that don't have the BLOG book marked, about 45% find it with a google search. 25% find it from another link from within the BLOG, about 20% form the link on the Old timers site and near 8% from Facebook links that I post. By the way, if you 'friend me' on face book you'll get a message with every new posting.
The most commonly searched word on google over the last 3 years that led people to the BLOG are as follows, with the number of occurrences in brackets: Mercat (696), Derek Zoolander (276), Batman Necktie (112), Alan Garner (111), Moustache (58), Farrokh Bulsara (47), Rose (39), Baseball Cartoon (35), Piero (30). You can't make that stuff up.
Page loads over the last 3 years, we should push
past 100,000 by late summer. Yowza!!!
As far as the "pages" go (these are the tabs, not the main BLOG), the most popular is the Donini Three Stars page. Obviously. That is followed by the Batman page and the Quick Joints page.
That's it for now and no more mention about BLOG stats for this year. Its a little too early to discuss the BLOG schedule yet, but I'm working on it. There are some tentative dates for the draft (March 31st), Rookie night (March 29th) and the actual games starting in the 1st week of May. I would imagine that we'll have one BLOG in February, maybe two and definitely a couple of Draft Prep BLOGs March.
Man, is it May yet????
Please vote for your team name choice!
NEXT BLOG: Valentines Day, Feb 14th (The Free Sample BLOG)
