Blown away, but ready for more
The last time I blogged was the final part of a 3 blog interview with Barnet FC boss Darren Currie. I had sponsored the then Bees Assistant Manager along with my mum at the beginning of last season, and by Xmas he was the man in charge. As part of my sponsorship I was allowed a photo opportunity with Darren, but I asked via the club secretary if he wouldn't mind conducting an interview, to which he had no hesitation.
It's not the first time I've been in Currie's company, back in the 90's whilst a player at Underhill I was enjoying hospitality on Boxing Day during which he notched the equaliser in a 1-1 draw and was introduced to him after the game, this time around though in a much different situation.
There was no shirking of any question I wanted to ask, not that I even entertained anything controversial to be talked about, I wanted to know about the man now the coach and memories of the player. Putting the interview from audio to print wasn't easy, 3 long nights to do so, but what followed is probably the most rewarding thing I've experienced since I made it the mission to turn this writing into full time paid work.
Pictured above is the screenshot of the figures from the first piece I put up. Now, bear in mind I get 150+ visitors per month, something I've steadily built up over the course of time and now see that as a regular visitor level. To get over 300 visitors in just one day blew my socks off! Granted whenever I post a Barnet piece I do put onto the club messageboard and that does always raise my figures, but not to this level!
The two days following also hit over the 150 visitors and I think I ended July as a month with over 600 visitors. It's not just the amount of visitors too, it's the countries people are in having a read of what I write. I appreciate some people are away on holiday or business when taking a look, but some really surprise me. I always get 3 viewings in Nigeria each month, this time around I've had Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Phillippines to name a few, I certainly have worldwide appeal!
There's no denying that people enjoyed this one, hopefully as much as I did in listening and then writing it up, the question now is what next? Well, it's been asked if it's possible to do something similar on a monthly basis. I don't know is the honest answer, it's something I will explore and so watch this space on that!
There is always plenty to blog covering the non-league game, on top of that there's plenty else I'm also involved in. At Wick this year having relinquished the Secretary role, I've more time to devote to the social media side and get that back to the levels it enjoyed before I got bogged down. Freeing up some time has allowed me to return to Worthing FC to create some articles and interviews for their website, whilst I'll spend greater time on articles for www.o-posts.com, that I get paid for.
That is the eventual aim, to make money from doing what I do, I've got a start and will continue to keep looking until I can either combine it with part time work or I can find enough to make it my work. Having had so much success with this interview I'll be on the lookout for a few more, somehow to find the time to fit them in whilst earning a wage and making sure family time doesn't suffer, but then if you don't have a dream to pursue, things get stale and into a rut, not for me though, I'm plugging away until it's impossible, join me on the journey...……………….