Thursday, September 1, 2005
One year later...

Today I'm pleased to celebrate a milestone as Comic Related completes its first year on the web.  365 days ago today, our site launched posting our first links, stories, commentary and comic reviews.  We may have been a bit shy on design and depth at the start, but I hope you'll agree we've quickly made up for it loading the site with fresh, daily content.

Looking at the numbers...
 
Over the course of our first year, the site has expanded and with that growth our following has increased.  In September of 2004 the site enjoyed 3150 hits with 210 unique user sessions.  In August of 2005, we saw 37,386 hits with 1,996 unique user sessions.  In under one year our web readership has grown by over 950%. 
 

Content flows during year one...
 
Over 2000 news pointers, over 800 website links, over 800 forum stories (within over 320 unique topic areas), over 23 original articles and over 2000 comic images have been posted in just under a year.  I think you'll agree considering our tiny staff (two), we've been strong out of the gate in year one.  That said, trust us when we say the next few years will blow you away (but more on that in a moment).

We started the year by posting news stories Monday through Friday, adding our first review, pulling together an original commentary and sharing about 150 links.  Since then we've enhanced those existing areas by adding links every other week, posting quite a bit of original content and further expanding the news area with daily graphics, stories you might have missed from around the web and additional, story specific, links.  Once we succeeded in adding a bit of punch to our our existing content we immediately started to grow the range of information we offer...

	Forums:  In March of this year we launched our forums and just three months later we expanded and upgraded them integrating a full featured suite of options for fans.
	Cover Gallery:  In April we shared our first cover gallery (a tribute to Jim Starlin and Vanth Dreadstar).  Upcoming galleries will continue our celebration of comic covers as art.
	Release Dates:  In April we started tracking which comics are being released each week by the major companies.  You can find this info in both our news and forum areas.
	Site of the Month: In June we choose our first "site of the month".  Each month we pick one site we visit regularly and feature it graphically in the links area.
	Road Trip:  In July, looking beyond the printed page, we visited New Orleans looking for comics and found art (see "Comics art just off Bourbon" above for more on our trip).
	On Sale:  We launched this area posting some great comic deals for those looking to pick up a few choice titles to build their collection.

Looking to the future...

Where are we headed?  What does the future hold?

First and foremost, we plan to build on what we already have within the site.  We're working toward increasing news sophistication, adding more original content, growing our cover galleries and providing an increasingly robust and insightful forums.

	Live Coverage: One primary goal as we grow is to get out to a few conventions and run some live coverage through the site.  I have a few shows in mind, but I'll save those announcements for another time.  The idea is to do photo and text commentary with some audio/video uploads each evening. I used to do this type of coverage professionally for a group boat racing series (Unlimited Hydroplanes, Unlimited Lights and the Formula One Tunnel Boat tour) as a form of live web-based media coverage.  I traveled with the series for about six years simply pushing everything I heard and saw into a form of rolling coverage which was well received.  I plan to mold this into a new form of comic convention/event coverage.
	Interviews: I plan to bring interviews to the site as we grow.  We're looking forward to talking shop with some current and up-and-coming industry professionals.
	New Technology:  We're kicking around the idea of integrating podcasting [learn more] into the site as an audio "what's happening in the world of comics" presentation.  I did an on-air radio show for four years and like the idea of finding an excuse to talk about something I love... Comics!

Get in on the act...

Contributions welcome!  Have thoughts about a comic you just read that you would like to share?  Have a comic related product you would like to promote?  Interested in seeing your work on the web (with full credit of course)?  Feel free to send me an e-mail at chuck@comicrelated.com and let's talk.  I'm always open to new ideas!

Join our forum!  We're working hard to build more than just a website here.  We hope the forums develop into the an on-line version of your favorite neighborhood comic store.  A place where you can visit, kick back and enjoy the world of comics in a growing community of friends who gather to share their passion for comic collecting in all it's related forms.  In year one I've been pouring a lot of content into this area.  I would love to see other voices commenting on what's happening in the wild world of comics.  Please join, post, enjoy!

Thank you for visiting our site.  We appreciate your stopping by
and sincerely hope you make Comic Related a daily stop of your web surf.

"If it's Comic Related, you'll find it here!"
Cheers, Chuck

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