It all started back in the spring of 2008, spring training was getting under way and I was getting incredibly excited for the season to start again. I had dabbled into blogging before, but was never able to make a serious commitment on one. I was determined to make this time different. The one thing that I had loved and looked forward to every single year of my life was Pirates baseball. Since I was getting so excited for the year season, I decided to strike up another blog and dedicate this one to my favorite sports team.
It started as a free MLBlog called Eat, Sleep, MLB, a pretty lame name. The season got under way and I began getting some pretty decent page views, mainly from commenting and chatting with other MLBLoggers. My analysis skills continued to improve and I actually started making some pretty legitimate posts that would interest even the more serious baseball fans. Not too long after the season had begun, I received an e-mail from some Pirates bloggers who had been reading my stuff. Brian from Raise The Jolly Roger invited me to begin partaking in his daily live game blogs, an opportunity which I jumped at. Jim from North Side Notch and Tim from Pirates Prospects were also involved in the liveblogs and made it a lot of fun to do. I started getting some tips from these 3 very successful bloggers and eventually doubled my viewers (partly thanks to the genius invention of Twitter, you can follow me here).
A few months into the season I realized I needed a name change. I thought for days and days and eventually came up with The "Mc" Effect. This was because the current best player on the team with Nate McLouth, and the future of the team was no doubt Andrew McCutchen, whose debut we were then eagerly anticipating. The title read "The Mc Effect, A Pirates Blog Involving The Present and Future of Center Field Patrol in Pittsburgh", or something of that nature.
There have been a couple other Pirate Mc's that I quickly call claim to, including Daniel McCutchen and the newly acquired James McDonald. I've been keeping my eye out all across sports for Mc's and I hope to soon begin giving out the "Mc of the Month Award". I tried my hand at some humor with the topic when I took a look at the 2 Mc's on the Steelers roster, you can read that post here.
My blog because more and more successful every week of the season, and hit an all-time high with posts involving the trades of Jason Bay and Xavier Nady. I was feeling very confident going into the stretch run of the season. The Pirates were finishing up another 95+ loss season, but the "Mc" Effect was on the way up.
The season came to an end and I focused my attention to offseason matters. Thanksgiving break rolled around and I suddenly had some free time on my hands. I used it, staying up into the late hours of the night working on my new domain name. I found the best option was Blogspot, so I went with it. Over the next month or so I made some design tweaks, added some other features and eventually got to the finished product, which is what you are seeing on your screen right now.
The 2010 season was another successful season for "The Mc Effect", and I expect my viewers to keep rising as we head towards 2011. I currently sit anywhere between 80-120 different viewers a day during the season, depending on posting frequency, and between 50-90 different viewers during the offseason. I'm sure those numbers aren't really close to the numbers that powerhouses like WHYGAVS, Bucs Dugout, RumBunter, and Pirates Prospects put up, but I'm hoping to continue to inch closer to them.
I'd like to thank everybody who reads the site, and encourage you all to continue to read, I'm doing my best to get better and better every single day, and feedback certainly helps. Thanks, have a great McDay.
1 comments:
Congratualtions! you really did the best for the first years.
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