When I first started TDYLF in March of 2010, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I had hoped to create a holding cell for all of the synaptic goo that springs forth from my skull. That’s really all I had hoped to have, and so I started out with a ridiculously long URL–thedroidyourelookingfor.wordpress.com–and a clunky masthead, which laid atop a clunky design. It’s now almost two years later. The URL has changed (tdylf.com), the masthead has changed, the fonts have changed, and the background has gotten a recent renovation. Even the content has evolved through the 22 months. And now, I’ve reached a milestone that I never would’ve thought possible.
I sort of imagine that my synaptic goo looks a lot like Ethiopian food.
This article will bring me my 500,000th page view. That’s half a million hits for my little corner of the internet. And that is almost unfathomable to me. For that, I owe a humongous debt to each and every person who’s ever dipped into my synaptic goo (also, I apologize to everyone who just read that sentence, because ‘dipping into my synaptic goo’ sounds gross). I’m honored that all of you felt that whatever I wrote would be worth your time. Regardless of the content, half a million never would’ve been possible without my readers. Thank you.
Now also seems like as good a time as any to roll out some boring meta garbage to give you a peek at Oz behind the curtain. How the hell did I get to 500k? Brace yourself for humblebrags!
The ten most popular articles, along with their total page views:
- The Six Stages of Movie Geek Evolution 42,006
- 12 Great Moments in Movie History, Using Stick Figures, 27,582
- Seven TV Characters I Wish Dexter Morgan Would Murder 21,113
- The Movies That Have Influenced Edgar Wright Films 19,978
- Ten Movie Moms That Would Be Acceptable Substitutes for My Own 16,785
- Movie Charts 15,429
- The Six Best Moments on Mad Men 14,427
- Ten Fictional TV Businesses that I Wish Were Real 13,920
- 100 Things I Love About the Movies 13,043
- Eight Movies That Would be Better With Futurama Characters 11,612
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point something out about the first article on that list. The genesis of the idea came directly from the fantastic Beer and Whiskey Brothers blog. In retrospect, I wish I’d been much more original, and I regret that my version so closely mirrored theirs. In the very least, Jim and Don deserve a huge thank you for letting me borrow their idea and I’ve promised myself to be more original with my content ever since.
I’m also indebted to my friend and guest writer, Josh Katz, whose two-part series detailing his life in original motion picture soundtracks was some of the best writing this site has ever seen.
Total comments: 5,124
The five websites providing the most referral hits:
- imdb.com 194,537
- Facebook 11,145
- StumbleUpon 8,452
- Twitter 3,014
- Neatorama 1,467
As you can see, IMDb has been a tremendous part of reaching this milestone. To date, they’ve placed 19 of my articles on their daily Hit List. It flattered the hell out of me the first time it happened, and it still flatters me every time that it happens. I’m extremely grateful to them.
Total number of subscribers: 136
136 people want to receive notifications every time I write something. That pleases me to no end. Thank you to all of you.
Busiest day: October 19, 2010, with 24,885 hits
Five busiest months:
- May 2011 70,012
- November 2010 55,570
- October 2010 55,230
- April 2011 45,352
- March 2011 33,387
Here’s another little known fact. I was operational from March 2010 until the end of August 2010, but only updated sparingly. Even in September 2010, when I started updating several times per week, traffic was incredibly slow. I had made my first appearance on the Hit List in May 2010. Subtracting the traffic I received that first day on the Hit List, the total traffic in TDYLF’s first seven months of existence totaled 2,270 page views. Or put another way, I received 12 more hits TOTAL in seven months than my daily average in May 2011. Or another way to think of it–484,922 of my 500,000 page views have come since October 1, 2010.
I have inadvertently disappointed a lot of furries. Sorry for that, furries.
Search terms:
Last but not least, I always get a kick out of the search terms that people use to find TDYLF. The top search term has been “film six”, netting 1,620 views. There are a slew of phrases centered around “best French films” which lead people here. I’m a devotee of French cinema and if I can entertain or educate people seeking to find out more, that makes me very happy. I’ve gotten 4,325 hits from folks searching for several variations of “best french films”. A search of “coolest tattoos” has gotten me 971 more hits. More disturbing search terms that directed people to TDYLF: animal costume porn; mom son incest; national pornographic; rape movies; little house on the prairie porn; and the most bone-chilling one of all, penis amputation.
Thank you all once again for reading, and here’s to another half a million hits!
