New Links, A Project & The State of The Blog
We’re doing well…It’s been a wild couple of months for me. I’ve done three weeklies in a row—for the uninitiated, that’s where you’re employed on a weekly basis for work on a movie that’s been greenlit and is hurtling towards production.
All movies hurtle towards production. It’s like a rule or something.
Anyway, I’ve worked on three different movies over the course of the last four weeks, and I’ve got two more in the weeks ahead. This had made blogging difficult to say the least, so I apologize if the updates haven’t been coming frequently enough. The good news is that things won’t be quite so frantic…or at least, they’ll just be frantic on one project, so I should be able to crank it up a little more for you guys.
Since I finally got a chance to take a breather, I wanted to do a little housekeeping.
First up…some new links. I’ve added Sam & Jim Go To Hollywood under the “Writing” links. These guys are offering something completely unique (as far as I know) to the screenwriting blog scene. It’s a site of podcasts that they do about their experiences in the writing business so far. Give it a listen. The other new link is Terry Rossio’s new blog about his experiences on the set of the Pirates Of The Caribbean sequels. I get my Pirates production updates from Ted, and California-born Terry inexplicably spells the word “tons” as “tonnes”, but it’s still an excellent read. I’ve put it under “Interesting”, because that’s what it is.
Next, I’ve borrowed the cool “progress bar” code from David Anaxagoras. The bar shows my progress towards a somewhat interesting non-writing project of mine…but while the progress is public, the actual goal is a secret.
Well, okay, it’s only a secret until I hit 100%. Watch the bar move…slowwwwwly. I chose to keep the goal a secret just for fun. Possibly to torment you. Or perhaps I’m just coy.
Finally, I have some good news to report about this blog. I launched it back in the beginning of February. I emailed a few friends and associates to let them know it was up, and hoped that word of mouth would help it build.
I wasn’t quite sure that would be enough.
When I first started out, the site was averaging about 250 visitors a day. That number has climbed steadily. Now, just four months later, we’re averaging about 1,350 visitors a day. The truth is that this might indicate total failure in web terms, but my ignorance is bliss. To me, a 400%+ increase in visitors is a big coup.
As we grow, I’m going to consider offering some additional features.
One possibility is an online forum. The other is a chat room, with regularly scheduled chats for all the artful writers out there.
I’ll probably gauge the interest in those features by using another feature, which is polling. I’ll be checking out some of the freebie pollware out there later, so be on the lookout for that.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone for visiting, bookmarking, linking, commenting in such a consistently thoughtful and civil manner, and above all…thank you for reading.
Congrats on the steady growth! No mystery why, in my book. :-)
Most of all, thank you for writing …
Thanks for sharing the real deal with us every time. The view from the upper stratosphere is interesting, enlightening, and encouraging.
Thank you for creating and sustaining such a wonderful resource. It’s been very helpful in my development as a screenwriter albeit one or little, actually let’s be honest, no fame.
Keep up the great work.
I’ll echo the others. It was your site that inspired me to change the focus of my blog to my writing. You provide a great service and it I eagerly anticipate your upcoming enhancements!
Shawna et al:
Thanks for the kind words (btw, Shawna, don’t know if you noticed, but we have something in common…I commented to that effect on your blog today). Also, since your blog is now focused on writing, I’m moving it from Interesting to Writing.
Love the site, Craig. I write coverage for one of the big agencies, and for a few other companies, and I know visiting your site every day makes me a better reader.
Good work!
Great site, Craig!
This is a great site, Craig. Great resources, great columns, great comments from readers, great links. No surprise at its success, and growth will be continuous. Congratulations.
But dude - progress bar….not going to tell us the goal? I’m calling foul.
i’d love a board. but if you go ahead with that, please select decent software. like phpbb. it’s free, but excellent.
as much as i love what is written on wordplayer, for example, it’s annoying having to click on each post to see what someone has written. doesn’t make for good flow, either.
Thanks for sharing the knowledge. The inside info is great.
Craig,
My $.01,
I don’t want you or anyone else to get “burned out” blogging. I think the way you’ve currently got it set up (writing a new article every so often) seems to work with your schedule. I’m concerned that if you start scheduling chats, create a BBS, etc, you are going to turn this part-time fun blog into a more than part-time work blog which may lead you stop blogging altogether. I guess I’m an “it ain’t broke, so why fix it” kinda guy.
Cheers, Trev
A chat room would be a nice addition, although I thought the Writer Action chat room would always be occupied, and it’s usually empty. Or maybe the majority of people virtually congregate late at night, when I’m offline. Sneaky writers.
Keep up the good work!
Brad
Don’t worry, Mr. Abrasive; Craig knows his way around message-board software. If he adds a board, it’s gonna be an awesome one.
Brad:
I haven’t been to WriterAction in a while, but there were usually chats going on around 11p.m. Pacific Time on weeknights. If you’re online after 9:30 p.m. or so, just go into the chat room and wait. They will come. :-)
Craig:
Congrats on TAW’s success—this is just the beginning!
Thanks again to all of you for the kindness.
Mr. Abrasive, I’m with you on the Wordplayer forum. Using that thing is like riding a tractor mower on the freeway.
I’m a big fan of vBulletin, but phpBB has come a ways since I looked into it last (it still has some security issues that concern me, but the free part is definitely a plus).