10,000 Strong... And Growing

When I started this blog in August of last year, I didn't think it would be much more than a blip on anyone's radar.  It turns out I was wrong.  Well, sorta.

In the grand scheme of things, this blog doesn't really receive a whole lot of traffic.  Still, yesterday I passed 10,000 hits and this will be my 84th post.  For me, that's a lot of hits.  Considering that I'm a middling artist who is late to the blog party, and considering also just how many art blogs there are I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out.  Fact is, I didn't expect to reach this point within my first full year.  I was just hoping to get to the point where I might reach 1,000 hits per month by then.

In all reality, I have three other sites to thank for much of my blog's traffic, and I'll take this opportunity to plug them.

First is Matt Stewart's blog (link).  While I'm unsure whether or not he's ever specifically mentioned me in a post (I've been following and I really can't remember), I cannot imagine what I did to get listed among his friends.  The fact that I'm on that list has funneled quite a few folks in my direction, and I thank him.

Second is Star City Games website (link) where my FAQ entry about card alterations was mentioned in an article about collecting all things Magic.  According to said article, "Steven Belledin is strongly anti-alteration," which I guess if fair, though I would qualify that with my being against doing alterations rather than being strictly anti-alteration as a while.  Still, the article sent a lot of folks my way, and is actually a nice article in general for the collectors and the collected.  It's always good to see how folks on the other side of the table see things.  So, thanks to John Dale Beety and Start City Games for the shout out and the link.

Third is The Starkington Post (link), a website about the trading card game industry.  I assume it was Bill Stark who wrote up the article featuring links to my series on reference, as well as giving my blog and website plugs.  I really appreciate the the mention and the kind words.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this blog, regularly, irregularly, or what have you.  The next few months will be trying at times as I'll be jostled around quite a bit by work, taxes, and some minor fixes in my old apartment.  Despite all this, I have pretty big plans as far as content.  I have a few interviews I want to conduct, and I'll be putting up process shots of a personal piece or two as they happen.  Hopefully that'll be worth everyone's time.

Cheers!