Thursday, January 01, 2009

Looking back at 2008, the year of possibilities!


Life has mysterious ways of presenting opportunities to you. Sometimes you're going with the flow gaining speed and momentum to get you where you want to go. Sometimes it's as if you're fighting up a raging river in early spring.

In late March of last year I hit a speed bump in my professional career and found myself with a lot more time on my hands. Ever the optimistic, I leveraged this opportunity to turn this humble little EVE Online Blog and make it the best EVE blog on the Intertubes! The rest as they say, is history!

Let's review the year together and recap the major milestone for this capsuleer blogger.

From 2005 through 2007:
  • 61,569 visitors
  • 89,582 pageviews
In 2008 alone this blog received:
  • 135,688 visitors
  • 206,217 pageviews
  • 1147 comments
  • 506 Daily Average of RSS subscribers (in the last month)
I'm literally floored when I look at the above statistics. Who could have foreseen such results! A lot of work went into achieving these results, and though a lot of that work was done alone, I could not have reached these heights without the help of others.



A podcaster is born

In an effort to get more involved and give back to the EVE community, in early February of last year I jumped at the opportunity to make a fool of myself along with two other EVE players. A new EVE-focused podcast was thus born: The Drone Bay! With the talented and very knowledgeable Crovan as host and editor, and Alsedrech and I as his faithful companions, we embarked on this amazing adventure.

At the time, Warp Drive Active was the only running EVE Online podcast, and we saw an opportunity to fill a niche that was void at the time: helping new and veteran players alike. At the time of this writing we've done 17 shows, and though we've done only one since early December, the show isn't dead yet (far from), and we're planning on getting back together to continue the adventure.

During the summer months I also had the chance to participate on various other podcast as well, which allowed me to share my passion for EVE and feed my ego ('cause it needs to be fed regularly these days! :p). With short appearances on a few Titan Weekly shows, as well as guest appearances on The Addicted Gamer, Massively Speaking and Aeropodcast, I was becoming more comfortable with the medium and was ready to start my very own show.

So, in early October I got together with YoMma, a stranger at the time really & a new EVE blogger, and started Micro Warp Cast. The show got off to an amazing start and was well received by the community. Unfortunately, RL got in the way and though we've recorded a show some time after my return from Fanfest in mid-November, I still have not had the time to finish-up the editing. The good news is that I'm almost done editing show #4 and YoMma and I are about to record show #5.

Look for more shows in the very near future!


An EVE Blogging Community is born

A lot of the success of this blog is result of hard work on my part. Hard and constant work finding new EVE blogs, adding them up on the EVE Blogroll, commenting on a lot of them (as much as I can) and trying to build strong relationships with all these great folks. It's also about monitoring hundreds of other gaming blogs, setting up Google Alerts on EVE related terms, and trying to link to interesting news about the game we play.

But that's just one part of this whole adventure.

All this effort on my part would go to waste if the EVE Blogging Community was not what it is. I might be the spark that lights the fire up, but if was not fueled and fed by the other bloggers out there, that fire would soon die. These are the folks from the EVE Blog Pack, from the EVE Blog Banter initiative, as well as the friends we have over at Massively, James and Brendan.

Thanks to all of you for making this possible!



Major Highlights of 2008

Looking back at 2008, there are some major events that helped this blog become what it is, and helped this blogger along the way. Here they are in chronological order:
I don't know what 2009 holds for me and EVE Online, but if 2008 is any indication, it'll be a hell of a blast! I had an amazing time blogging, podcasting and writing about EVE during the last year. It allowed me to become friends from people all around the world, some of whom I had a chance to meet, and some I hope to meet at Fanfest '09.



Thanks for being there, really

Though many of you deserve to be thanked for the help and support you've provided me over the years, some rise to the top, and I'd like to mention them here.

Thanks to Crovan and Alsedrech for being great Drone Bay co-hosts, thanks to Zapatero for giving me the opportunity (twice) to be part of the EON adventure, thanks to Krystalle, Mike, Shawn, James and Brendan from Massively for all your support and the opportunity you gave me, thanks to Brent from VirginWorlds, thanks to Winterblink for the example you set, thanks to Ned, Misty & Valerie from CCP for your support, as well as all the other Devs for making EVE possible, thanks YoMma for the patience you've shown and the great MWC co-host you are, thanks to SeriousSally and Smakalicious for your link love, thanks to the EVE Blog Pack members, as well as the EVE Blogging Community, for without your continued support all this would not have been as fun as it is!

And finally, thanks to all of you for dropping by, leaving your comments, sending emails and simply enjoying this blog.

Here's to 2009!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi David,

congratulations to this successful year, if anyone deserves it, than it is you, my friend!

You've done so much for the community and I'm looking forward to another great year for CrazyKinux.com.

Best wishes,
Smak

Kirith Kodachi said...

Congrats on the successful year and great work on making the blogging community thrive for Eve.

Look forward to more of your great work in the future!

Anonymous said...

Well deserved CK! Keep up the good work and remember to always have fun!

Anonymous said...

My congratulations and deepest thanks for doing all that you have done. May you go from strength to strength and I can't wait for 2009!

You are without doubt, a major influence and indeed, an institution in the EVE-Online fan community. I look forward to your site hitting over 1 million page views!

Flashfresh

Anonymous said...

Good times my beloved Canadian friend!

Thank you for your hard work to drive the EVE Community forward and also, thank you for showing me the damn ropes!

You are a credit to us all, here's to continued success in 2009!!

Nuyan said...

Happy new year man.

Anonymous said...

This was a good read. You're doing well, and I'm definitely looking forward to more CrazyKinux's Musing (and The Blog Pack) in 2009.

CrazyKinux said...

Thank you all for your support and amazing feedback. You make it all worth it!

Tony "EVE's Weekend Warrior" said...

Hey David! Happy new years!

All of us in the blogging community look to you as our leader and it is nice to see how your past year has been!

Here's to hoping that your success will continue to come in the years we have yet experienced!

Carole Pivarnik said...

Thank you for being such an energetic blogging force and an inspiration to the rest of the blogging community! Your work has encouraged a lot of wonderful creativity within the community. I'm proud to be part of it.

CrazyKinux said...

Thanks again for all the good words you've guys put in. Means a lot!