This morning I got my weekly traffic report from Sitemeter, which shows that sometime this week Joe.My.God. had passed 100,000 visitors.
thud
Even though I've been watching the numbers spike higher and higher over the last few months, I'm still floored.
I made my first tentative post on April 29th, 2004. Sometime in mid-June I learned how to install Sitemeter, which means that in just six months I've managed to draw the daily readership of a small town. I don't know who you Daily Average: 1090 people are, but you are certainly not average.
I'd like to send a few shout-outs to those that pimped Joe.My.God. from the beginning. Cuz I roll like dat, yo.
Natali @ Murderous, And Beauty Kills... was the very first blogger to link me. She writes a breezy/snarky take on tech news, music and pop culture. Check her out.
Belle @ Belle de Jour (now about to launch her book tour, I assume), was one of the first uber-bloggers to link me. It was completely unexpected, I'm not even sure how she found me, but I'm grateful.
Mike @ Troubled Diva was an early and persistent flogger of my shite (that's a nod to Mike, cuz he's like, British and all). Mike takes his pop music OCD and pushes it to sublime heights. A large percentage of the music I've enjoyed over the past six months, I learned about from Mike. He's also rightfully nominated for a Bloggie, in the Best LGBT Blog category, the news of which made me do the Joe.My.God. Happy Dance.
Bob @ Boblog Try and imagine my shock at being reviewed and linked by BOB MOULD, the gay rocker, the legend lionized by critics and adored by fans. I'm still amazed. I mean, come ON...Bob freekin' Mould! Husker Du's Zen Arcade! Bob's own Workbook! Two albums that permanently OWN a part of my brain. On top of all that, thanks to Bob, Jimbo Barrett and Rich Morel (whose Lucky Strike remains my #1 album of 2004), I actually got the nerve to get up on a stage and read a few of my stories in public for the first time. And not to brag (lie), but I even had Xmas dinner at Bob's. Surreal. By the way, the man can throw down with some mean turducken.
It's been a strange but immensely gratifying ride thus far. Still, I'm finding myself pondering a recent rant by the presently-on-hiatus blogger, Palochi, who has made me consider how I'd be feeling about my abilities as a writer, my worth, as it were, if I had not enjoyed this nice bubble of quasi-popularity.
I'm going to keep cranking out the short stories. At my heart, I'm a memoirist, that is clear. But I'm also going to try out some different stuff. Don't worry, I'm not going to start linking news stories and posting pictures of cats or ranting about our oppressive regressive government, others do that much better than I ever could.
So, on this landmark day in my nascent writing life, let me just say...humbly...thanks.
-Joe
Edit: In a grievous oversight, I neglected to thank Jimbo @ Jockohomo, who gallantly resurrected Joe.My.God. from its digital ashes, after the Great Hacking Incident Of 2004. Jimbo, we bow to your hot techy geekness!