One Year

Well, The Cave blog is officially one year old.

I have to say that it feels like an accomplishment. A lot of people start blogs, but can't keep them going. Sure, I’ve been writing these stories regularly since early 2012, but it’s different running a blog. There's a little more control and a lot more responsibility. While it can be frustrating, it has mostly been fun, interesting and source of relaxation. My TV viewing has declined, but that's no great loss.

I don't want this to be a duplicate of my 2015/2016 post. I already thanked folks just two months ago. And I shared some previews of 2016, too. Instead of doing that again, I'm going to focus on results for this anniversary post.

WARNING ... a lot of boring numbers below the fold ...

Who Visits The Cave?

I know some people are scared by all the information that's out there and the death of privacy, but I'm not. I don't worry that advertisers know what I buy or read. I'm not particularly worried that the government knows, either. As part of having a blog, I have these analytics that supposedly tell me about whose visiting.

According to Google, odds are that you most likely are male (95%), between the ages of 25-54 (66%) and American (57%). More specifically, 28% of my readers are 25-34 year olds, the biggest single group and that's a higher percentage than the general US population. Only 9% of you are over 65, which is a lower percentage than the general US population.

Not surprisingly, the most common interest Cave readers share is being "Sports Fans/Fight & Wrestling Fans". Not sure I needed a fancy algorithm to tell me that or that many of you are news junkies and into movies and TV. That's all pretty standard stuff. However, Cave readers are also into comics, animation, photography, health & fitness and spending more time on sites for dating and travel. You sound like a fun bunch of guys!

What Do You Like?

Here's what you like, based on a review of the results. Because of the two-blog thing, I couldn't directly compare everything, nor did it make sense to just add them together, so I just pulled the info since I switched to one blog in November.

My stories and Ty Alexander are tops so far

I've been posting new reviews on The Cave since July, so there's a pretty big pool to gauge results. Here are the most popular reviews. Links factor into the success for several of them, but many have made it to the top on their own. Interestingly, Marco x 2 and Guido x 2 are re-posts and yet they're still top seven on their Cave views alone!

5/10 are Thunders, while
Ty, Jersey, Marco, Guido and Frey
all show up twice

Counting only my new reviews posted on The Cave since July (no re-posts included), CameronWrestler is the top promotion based on average reviews thanks to Ty Alexander. The next 3 (Rock Hard Wrestling, Thunders Arena, BGEast) are all pretty close together then there's a big gap to the bottom 3.

I have four times that really stand out for big traffic. First, July 10/11, which was driven by my biggest post ever, Tarzan and the Twins of Tibor. This is thanks to a link from Lucky Stallion's Barbaric Brawn.

Next was January 1-3, but I don't know why. Yes, I posted a story, but it's actually not that big. Folks were checking out other content, but there was no new traffic sources. Maybe guys just had more free time on their hands over that weekend.

I saw another boost on January 25/26, thanks to links from Ty Alexander's vast social network empire (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr), which pushed my review of his match vs. Chace LaChance to be my most popular review of of all-time.

Ty's fans checked my blog out
to check him out

And finally on February 16/17, Cameron Matthews linked to reviews on my blog on Facebook, which drove those days to new highs, as well.

With the link, CameronWrestler became the third producer to acknowledge this blog's existence. Movimus was first with a promotional video and a link, followed by Thunders Arena with a few promotional videos.

Interestingly, some of my older posts keep drawing new or repeat readers (I can't tell which). It's funny how certain posts continue to draw month after month. Below are the older posts that stay near the top of my views.

Tarzan and the Twins of Tibor

Guido Genatto x 2

Marco x 2

Jersey vs. Dozer

Guido vs. Superman

Mitch vs. Skotch

How Are New Readers Finding The Cave?

Some of the most popular search terms (not including terms like Alex Miller Cave) that lead people here are interesting, too. I've learned, for example, that there's a straight porn comic book called The Adventures of SuperStar about a busty masked vigilante. I imagine the straight boys searching for a super-powered babe were disappointed when they clicked to my blog.

So what are some of the most common terms people use that lead them here?

"bgeast.com"

"nick diesel wrestling"

"dash decker"

"dozer wrestling"

tarzan + one or more of
gay, naked, fiction, stories

How Are Results?

Success is relative. I might not have millions of views, but I'm happy with what I'm seeing. Page views continue to grow, even compared to the artificially inflated results from my initial two blog format. And it's not all one user just clicking away, at least according to Google.

March 2015 - January 2016 combined results
Cody and Jae lead 7 out of the 19 months

One surprise for me is that there is too much of a good thing. It appears that daily posts are too much. Both views and comments drop significantly. One post every 2-4 days seems to be the sweet spot for readers to keep up and comment. It enables each post room to brief, get noticed and get commented on.

Why Does This Matter?

Results matter, because validation is important. I think the value of it is sometimes under-appreciated by readers. A blog is a public space. If I didn't care what others thought, I could just write a diary or imagine my own stories. A blog is also free. When you sell your creativity, money can help validate your output. Selling a book, a song or a piece of art tells you someone likes what you're doing.

When you post stuff to the public for free, validation comes from views and comments. Views are great, but comments carry more weight, in my opinion. It's why I try to respond to your comments. The fact that people take the time to share a thought energizes me. Even if it's one nice word, I want you to know I read and appreciate it. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad that more and more people are finding the blog, but comments impact me to a greater degree.

While 12 guys make up over 70% of my total comments, there have been a total of 46 different guys who have commented at some point. And that doesn't include any of the ton of unidentified Anonymous comments (a whopping 15% of my total comments). I think that's pretty cool.

One closing note ... you may have noticed I re-did all the tags at the start of the year. With the Indexes, the way I was using them seemed duplicative. Instead, I'm trying to identify the content by its themes and content for those of you who have specific interests. If you noticed, please let me know what you think.

So that’s one year down. On to year two …

Alex