The Stats That Killed 2019

It’s a New Year’s Day tradition: sharing boring numbers while you nurse your hangover!

Top 5 New Posts of 2019:

1. TV REVIEW:  American Dad – “Persona Assistant” – 1517 hits

3. #738: Mike and Bob’s Cross-Kitchener Adventure – 857 hits

Old classics from past years continued to make a showing, year after year after year!

In general, views were down this year from 2017 and 2018, back to the levels of 2016 (which were not bad).  403 posts were published in 2019.

Top Ten Countries by Hits in 2019:

YouTube views:

For the first time, I have YouTube stats to share.  From the VHS Archives, here are the Top Five YouTube Videos by views:

1. VHS Archives #26: Motley Crue spill the dirt on Vince Neil’s car crash
2. VHS Archives #43: The best Blackie Lawless interview you’ll ever see
3. VHS Archives #38: Slash N’ Duff interview
4. VHS Archives #55: One of the best interviews with Bret Michaels that you’ll find
5. VHS Archives #53: Motley Crue interviews from Much Spotlight

Although the VHS Archives have been great for YouTube views, they don’t result in a lot of clicks directly on this site, which is the bread and butter.  That’s probably because I post them here without a lot of pictures, which tend to result in multiple hits from singular readers.  It’s also because someone watching on YouTube isn’t necessarily going to come to this site just because of a video they liked.  And no, I’m not changing platforms to a YouTube channel.  My videos aren’t monetised because they have copyrighted musical content.

Guest Shots of 2019:

There were new guest contributors in 2019, and plenty of regulars from the past too.  Not including the annual year end lists, we saw contributions by:

New guy Max The Axe’s Stunt Double with two Sunday Chuckles.

Thussy also had a Sunday Chuckle and wrote the true story of what happened to his Vince Neil guitar.

Dr. Kathryn had some photos and words from a Cheap Trick concert.

Musician Derek Kortepeter returned with a killer Van Halen – Balance review.

Uncle Meat wrote the Claypool-Lennon Delirium concert review and also penned a review on the Mighty Kiss!

And finally Holen MaGroin went above and beyond as usual with some great stuff.  He wrote:

A big thanks to all these folks for their contributions in 2019!

A Look Ahead:

The goal in 2020 is to resume growth.  In 2019 I tried adding some new features and that maintained the status quo but didn’t really bring in new readers.  How do we do that in 2020?  I’m not a big fan of tagging artists for attention when I write reviews.  I write these reviews for you and for me, and artists can sometimes take offence, and I’m not here to put that in their faces.  A hard rock bass player contacted me because he was upset I didn’t mention his bass parts in a review.  Kenny Hotz once asked me how my show was doing when I tagged him in a review.  I’d rather just throw this stuff into the ether and whoever finds it, finds it.  I don’t want the niggling thoughts of an artists’ impressions in my head when I write.

How do you suggest we grow this site in 2020?

Unlike last year, I have don’t have new gimmicks lined up.  The only plan is to keep writing stories and keep reviewing albums.  The collection has many dusty corners yet to explore.  Many discographies yet to be written.  A number of good bands that remain untouched on this site.  Will this be the year I finish all the remaining Judas Priest reviews?  Or perhaps it will be one to write up all the Zeppelin deluxe editions?

Let’s see what 2020 brings and try to make it a big one.

 

Happy New Year!

Mike

 

18 comments

  1. Looks like a good year to me! I really like your artist series like the Kiss Re-reviews and such. It is fun walking through an artist from beginning to end. I stole that from you with my Ratt and Billy Idol series…as well as David Coverdale. I also like the VHS archives as well. But I have no new ideas so I am no one to take advice from. Just keep up the good work, that is all we care about.

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  2. Yeah man just keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t worry about what’s pulling in views and whats not. You have a core bunch of followers who will follow no matter which way u go!
    Speaking of new series I got one starting tomorrow which will be fun to do as its kinda retro with a twist.
    It’s funny as sometimes ideas just pop out. But I hear ya sometime it gives the creative juices a kick in the arse to get it into another gear!

    Keep it going Brother!

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    1. Maybe I should pull a Nikki Sixx and sell out! Review some Taylor Swift and just gush over how gosh darn clever she is with references to other celebrities! If I ever do that, you know I sold out!

      One thing I like about New Years is thinking ahead. April 1 is three months away, and I just know that something must have happened up at Deke’s Palace. Time to start plotting away!

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      1. Nah don’t sell out like SIxx. Stick to your Guns! (haha).
        deke’s palace is in foreclosure. No matter what is lost personal holocaust foreclosure of a dream!
        Bam and were off!

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  4. Happy new year LeBrain, and forgive me if I’m wrong, but I do believe that 2019 was the first year in a couple that didn’t suck balls

    Also, perhaps for next year, although it is a bit of work, you could do a sort of discography spotlight, where you sort of go through an artist’s discography pointing out essential purchases, giving trivia and thoughts, rare and obscure releases and pointing out which ones don’t need buying because they’re covered elsewhere

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    1. How about album commentary? Play a favorite record and comment on the details in real time. You don’t even have to include the music in the audio file, just tell people when to press play. Obviously would work best with people who have the same mastering to account for speed differences due to tape aging.

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    2. That’s a nice idea. I’d be interested in reading these and finding out what are everyone’s favorites in the comments.

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        1. It is a lot of work for just one post though. I’m trying to think of a way to break it into smaller, more sporadic bits while still maintaining cohesiveness

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  6. Happy New Year Mike! And Happy New to everyone else too!Hopefully there’ll be many interesting new releases in store for this year music/ movie wise. Looking forward to reading about them here!

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  8. I’m a new (2019) reader/subscriber, and I love your site. For the site to grow… Maybe you could make videos of more popular albums you’ve reviewed (and embed that video on the review you’ve already written)- if you don’t include music, that could be monetized. Yes, perhaps YouTube won’t bring in the links, but if you mention your site in your YouTube video, and mention your wonderful newsletter, that could bring traffic in. As Google owns YouTube, we are starting to see a lot of YouTube results in the search engine results pages as well. I think you should also include affiliate links in your reviews to Amazon, etc for videos/text reviews. There’s an interesting YouTube channel called Income School you should check out as well. They have lots of great videos that can help you figure out where you want to go next. I’ve been following their strategies and have grown my site significantly.

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    1. Hey thanks for this info! I’m definitely wanting to do more in terms of video, and I’m looking for some new (free) video editing software so I can look a little more professional.

      Thanks again for the tips!

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