Ah, been a while since I really sat down and typed up what’s on my mind in regards to this site, future projects, and what have you. It’s also 3AM and I really should be heading to bed, but of course, I can’t. GO ME right? Anyway, let’s get down to business.
I’m happy with the progress I’ve made the past few months here; I’m writing almost daily, at least a few articles a week during “dry” spells, and I went through October without missing a day (save or one day that I had to post date, due to being out with a good friend, but the post dating fixed that) and indeed wrote about 45 articles in the month – a rate of just under 1.5 articles per day for you to enjoy. I have mixed statistic on the site, but via the more “public” page listings, I got about 30K page views over the month, around 7K views in a given week period, and anywhere from 700 to well over 1000 views a day. It was amazing, but it took quite a bit of effort, and also some forcing – such as splitting my coverage of Monster Madness into 5 day chunks, and sharing as much other random content as I could.
Some events required multiple articles, such as the announcement of the Nintendo Switch. Other things, however, I just went with because I felt like it, or the videos, article ideas, etc, caught my interest. The fact remains that regardless of the origin of the content, or the subject, it was getting written. Thousands upon thousands of words expressing what I think about all kinds of things, even if it’s just basically “this is cool to me, check it out!” I feel like a blog like this, a website like this, isn’t supposed to be purely my own ideas, but those ideas I support and wish to share – especially others YouTube videos. I will never claim as my own content that I didn’t create, of course, but I sure as hell will share anything I like (or anything I’m willing to support, under the right conditions *wink wink*).
I do love writing, even if I have an odd style, and it sometimes hurts physically to type out more extreme works. I hate when I miss a day (such as the past day) and I have a ton of articles that need to be written, but I just haven’t had time to put into them, or I’ve been distracted – I will get to them soon enough.
On to other projects, I’m getting back to YouTube video production, this time I’m going to focus more on what I originally intended to do with my channel – cover random tech finds, discuss things I’m interested in, and maybe play a game here or there. Less focus on “news” type things (that can be done here much more quickly) but that brings with it less chance for hate and trolling, shit that I just don’t feel like dealing with.
I’ve also got quite a few reviews I need to write, but I’m thinking about refining the review format before I continue. It would be a minor tweak, but I’ll get to it when the time comes. No rush here. Xadaracast is coming along nicely, and I’m slowly refining it into a worthwhile podcast that will be both good to cover “news” with as well as to just cover random tidbits of interesting fun. Who knows where it will go.
Xadara is about expression. It’s about honesty. It’s about being yourself. That’s why I let my friend Stephen, A.K.A “Prince Watercress” online, use the Xadara branding – It’s not about having my brand identity on his content, but to show that in his content he is being is true to himself. With all the content creators out there who shill out for views, for site hits, for, well, anything they can get, I would rather be one of those wild cards that does what they want, when they want, how they want to, and he is no different. Hell, my “close” content creating friends online are all like that – they have something really special about their content that not everyone can appreciate, but still shows passion for what they do, and what they love.
Wow, that was a tangent, wasn’t it? What am I getting at here? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m just typing as ideas come to mind. That’s what I do, and is the reason some articles are so out there, while others are more refined – I just go with the flow, and only edit when I feel the need to.
Xadara is reaching 10 years old. I don’t even recall how I came up with the name, anymore, or when, but this site was created just a few months shy of 10 years ago. I have plans for 2017, for sure, but for now, I’ll just stick to what’s working. Xadara, as site, is healthy and strong, getting fewer views than I would hope, but more views than I would expect. Xadara, as a brand, is getting known. It’s a niche group, but it’s there. The sub-branding that I have, as silly and complex as it is, is there. I have fans. I have friends. I have multiple projects under my belt, and more are coming as time passes. I just have to get back in action on all fronts, and just keep on moving forward.
Thanks for reading. It does mean quite a bit to me.