Greetings loyal readers! We're a couple days into 2014 and I figured, after reviewing readership statistics over the past few years that I think I'm in need of some advice from YOU. Essentially, Tactical Tag had a gradual climb in pageviews from the time we started (April of 2011) until February of 2012. You'll recall, that month, that I covered the Pyragon sighting at the Toy Fair. Things kind of exploded after that, but since that time, the average has stuck around 26k-27k pageviews per month.
I've had a lot of changes in my life since starting the blog. New Car, new Job, getting engaged (and soon to be married), getting a house, I've certainly gotten more busy over the past few years. However, things keep chugging along here at the blog. In that time, we've seen a lot of blogs and contributors to the community come and go, but I've manged (or at least tried) to stay consistent and keep at it.
While I do attempt to report the news (which seems to get the most attention if you're "First"), Tactical Tag has always focused on what projects are on the workbench for me and the events I've attended. Sometimes there's more of a Nerf Focus, sometimes there's more of a Laser Tag focus. It really just depends on what I'm up to. However, with the seemingly flatlined performance, I wondered if there was either more I could do to better serve the community or if I should face the fact that this is where the blog will be without much further growth to be expected. I'm really okay with either, but I figured I'd ask YOU, since reader input has always been important to me and a major driving force to this blog.
Mike, I'm a massive fan of your blog, and have spent a great deal of time actually reading thru your archive man. I personally would love to see you do more rants, challenge and provoke thought. The readers here are all great people and really enjoy getting stuck in. You are one of the few to broach subjects that not many other bloggers want to and its good you give the NIC something else for a change.
ReplyDeleteI love your reviews, they're always honest, quality and concise - would love to see you do more reviews mate. You're a seasoned veteran so your opinion has a lot of weight to it.
Time owns us all, but if you can factor those in to future posts it would be great I know.
Hope this helps, and that you continue to rock the NIC bro
Ash aka MyLastDart
Welp, I've only been following this since a few weeks before I caught up with the lazer tag franchise and it's glory, and this blog has turned into a central point for my modding interests.
ReplyDeleteI can't really offer much of an improvement, but given the case, I have noticed you don't have too many in depth videos or guides to some of your modifications. Maybe I just haven't found them, but other than that off the top of my head, I can't think of much else at the time.
Personally I would love to see more mods and hack nights (I "discovered" the site from your M41A build). That is not to say I haven't enjoyed the Nerf side of the blog, the trials and tribulations with OMW mods and such like have been every bit as enjoyable to read, It's just electronics and lasertag are where my true heart lies.
ReplyDeleteI guess the big question should be "How much more time can I dedicate to the blog?" I don't think anyone expects you to sacrifice real life for page views, so the balance has to be struck.
Either way, thanks 'Zook! I look forward to what the blog has to offer in 2014.
You do some great stuff here, 'Zook. Without knowing the pageviews for other tag blogs this is really more of a guess, but since Tag is not a very popular hobby, and yet fewer people would read about it online, I feel that perhaps the reason your pageviews have plateaued is because that's the limit of interest for nerf/laser tag blogs in general.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I can't think of anything you could really improve on, you do a really great job as it is. If it weren't for this blog there wouldn't be an LTAR blaster sitting on my desk next to me. You turned me from just a nerfer into a tagger. Well done to you, sir. Well done.
It may be hard, but I think it is time to begin a new era in N&MR, mantaining it and this blog may be hard, but I have an idea.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is: why dont you do laser tag related things here and announce nerf events etc. while in N&MR you become a main poster of sorts? it may not be easy, but it will intsead transform techincaly as some form of sorting your posts
Not a bad idea if NM&R didn't just close. http://www.nerfmodsreviews.com/2014/01/2009-2014.html
DeleteI posted it before it closed, darn, still, if you thought of it, it means you ARE the future of nerf blogging
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