1,000,000

The Cave has officially passed the 1 million page views milestone. Say what? How the heck did that happen?

Launched on February 28 2015, it took 953 days to get here. Technically, if you count the New Stories blog I used at launch, I passed a million in August. I don't count that way, though. Somehow it's just not the same as seeing that little counter on the lower right actually hit seven figures.

So that's when we got here. HOW did we get here?

The Bat contributes a lot of views
with my #2 and #3 biggest stories.
(vs. Spartan and vs. Mr. Riddle)

1,000,000 page views for my little wrestling story blog starts with my three-legged stool of support: Readers. Bloggers. Producers + Wrestlers.

Readers:

Now, a million views is not a million visitors. But it still means that there's a lot of people stopping in. Real, actual people. Yes, my personal visits are in the thousands from me checking in on the blog, but they're not as many as you might think. I clicked for Blogger to not count my visits. I also stop in less than once a day, actually, more like once a post for the past year and a half as I've gotten more comfortable that things are actually posting. And there are a few from spam bots, but I don't think it's that many based on what I can see.

Tarzan and the Twins of Tibor = 2% of my views,
making it my #1 viewed post by a mile

Ty Alexander vs. Chace LaChance
My #1 viewed review from W4H AND overall

So 99% of the traffic is from you guys (and a few gals). Some of you I know better than others. Some of you I don't know at all. Whether you visited once or a thousand times, every one of you owns a share of this milestone. Congrats.

Bloggers:

Other bloggers have been very helpful and very supportive. I'm so happy that we're not in competition. Even when we don't agree, I love reading other blogs and get positively giddy when I get a link, a mention or a comment from another blogger. It's really quite cool.

Bard is obviously the most responsible for this blog existing. He provided a platform for my stories and thoughts, which morphed into this place.

By agreeing to post Flag vs. Flag,

Bard launched all of this!

In terms of views, though, it's Lucky Stallion that blew this place up when he posted on Tarzan and the Twins of Tibor. I suddenly had a 2,000 view day when I was getting 200 if I was lucky. It didn't keep up forever, but it was a huge boost and I'm sure some stayed. Reverse plug: If you're not supporting Lucky Stallion's Patreon, you're missing out!

With gorgeous images for Hercules Unbound,
Lucky Stallion has contributed more than just a link.

And in addition to being one of my most supportive commenters, Sean Pford is actually the single biggest source of traffic from another blog, thanks to Inner Jobber. I also get a lot of folks from links through Ringside, Fricks Sexy Pics and more. So I've been propped up a lot by the community, which feels great.

Sean has great taste, so I'm proud that he's a fan
(Caleb Blanchard from his 7/4/17 post)

Ace and Xaq are just two of the
guys I learned about from Frick's.

Producers + Wrestlers:

I view my blog as a story blog first, but there are only two of those a month. Reviews mostly fill up the rest of the month. When it comes to them, they are intended to be informational, not promotional. I don't like everything. I post about things that I don't like. Even on videos I love, I'll point out issues that I think you should know about before you buy.

Marco x 2 is my #1 post for Thunders, who've
been really generous with their support

When I was first blogging, I was nervous about not being 100% positive. Would I get hate mail? Nasty comments? Cease and desist notices? Banned from buying? It was tense for me, but I had to be honest. Luckily, nothing bad has happened. Admittedly I've preemptively avoided reviewing one promotion that asked La Sustancia P not to cover them, but no one I've featured has directly asked me to do anything differently.

I had an issue with the language used in Steve v Jake,
but it's my #1 Muscleboy Wrestling's post so far

In spite of my dubious tastes and editorial choices, I've received support in the form of videos and promotion from Krushco, Movimus, Thunders Arena and Wrestler4Hire. Ty Alexander drove people to check out my reviews of his matches. Cameron answered a bunch of questions for me. I've also received comments/acknowledgement from BGEast’s Kid Leopard and Muscleboy Wrestling. I'm impressed with how cool everyone has been.

You liked Krush getting crushed:
Krush vs. hottie Stan Torum is my #1 Krushco post

And the second time was the charm for Movimus:
Duke vs. CT: Rematch is #1 for them.

This obviously drives page views. When Wrestler4Hire re-tweets about my review, there's a bump. Same for Krushco and Movimus. When Thunders uses my review in their promotional efforts, there's a bump. And so, if they're using me for promotion, in a way, I'm using them the same way. It doesn't change what I do or don't post, but I can't deny the symbiotic relationship. And so they also helped push me to 1 million.

You liked my 3-part interview with Cameron,
which ranks as my #2 W4H content.

A lot of you checked out the Trophy Boy's debut ...
Ty vs. Beauxregard is #1 for BGEast.

So that's that. 1 million. Yay!

Now back to work.

Alex