TIB @ 1 E+3

This is one of those arbitrary milestone posts: number 1,000. I have no idea what I’m going to write about except for stating that this is the one-thousandth.

TIB has been an interesting site. It’s a web magazine with no specific editorial view. It’s part journal, part creative, part opinion, part links, and has room for a wee bit of actual reporting. Except for the comments and the forum, I’ve been the sole author. All 1,000 posts were writ by me. By a very crude estimate, that amounts to the lexical scales being in the neighborhood of 750,000 to 1 million words (not including scripts). By far the most popular section has been The Connor Wars and all other things related to Terminator and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I’ll admit to a fair amount of traffic-envy when I read other site admins complaining about getting only a few million visits per week/month/season. While TIB isn’t exactly obscure, I don’t get anywhere near that kind of traffic. Partly that’s due to a lack of editorial focus, partly it’s due to not being sensational, partly it’s do to me not being a good marketer, and partly it’s due to being the work of just one person. I try to write at least one new thing a day when I’m not laden with work, but that doesn’t compare to the amount of content other blogs generate with their multiple-author-model.

It’s fun, though. I meet a lot of interesting people from around the world because of this site.

What would I like for TIB? Ideally, I’d like for it to generate enough income that I could consider it a job. Short-term, I’m just happy on those occasions when it comes anywhere near paying the ISP and other ‘net-related bills. Mostly, though, I want it to be a place where people (hopefully lots of people) can drop by and–without too much effort–find something they don’t mind reading. If they become regular visitors, so much the better.

When I look at the access logs, the two things that tickle me are: 1) When a recent article achieves some interest and spikes the normal traffic pattern; 2) When people find something I wrote a while back and still find it useful/entertaining. It brings a smile to my face when any of my bloggity children succeed like that.

From time-to-time I’ve tried some serial editorial ideas: boomerang characters/actors; time-machine musings; armchair script doctor; etc. I think those will continue popping up because they fit into some editorial threads I enjoy without making them actual categories I feel I need to keep continuously filled.

All I know is that I’m going to keep on writing. I expect that I will still be getting comments and emails and other feedback from y’all. That’s really all anyone can hope for, I think, when swimming in the informational ocean.

Thank you all for dropping by and reading. I really do appreciate it.