Yes, this blog is officially a year old! And like a 1 year old, my blog tends to poop it’s diaper with bad grammar and punctuation. My apologies. But it is starting to walk a bit thanks to the help of you, the reader!
Last July thru September, I had an average daily readership of six people. Now over 200 people read this blog daily. Who the hell are all these people? I haven’t a clue, but I thank them! Apparently they don’t mind a little green baby poo.
Of course, there are a few reasons the readership got a bump lately from 100 readers a day to 200, but we’ll get to that in due time. I’d like to start at the beginning and reflect on The DC Douglas Blog’s birth and evolution. And I promise to do it in under 40,000 words.
I’ll admit it; I started this blog to help my SEO. Yeah, I know, that’s kind of a boring and semi-nerdy reason. But, Daddy’s gotta bring home the bacon, baby! So, initially, I just wrote about any random voice over job here and there. If some TV gig I did was replaying late night on cable, I’d blog about it. It was like filling the blog with gas. Throw in a few keywords and my baby blog could drive through the Google results a bit better. I think there were three Resident Evil 5 fans who’d pop in occasionally to see if Albert Wesker was rising from the dead.
Then, one swirling-wine night, I had to get all sentimental and write about my early influences with Barbara Gill: Voiceover Mentor. (Sure I had a keyword phrase in the title, but it was genuine… and my blog got a little squishy.) That started the cheese ball rolling. No longer did I just want to pop onto my blog like an actor in heat and spray the page with my latest audition or job anecdote replete with google-friendly keywords. (Aside from the burnt-plastic smell of self-promotion, it just didn’t sooth the creative crack-addict monkey on my back.) I wanted something more…
So after a few more perfunctory posts, I wrote about the gig that (in conjunction with a pre-iPhone Apple stock purchase) bought the house I live in; A Love Letter To My GEICO Campaign. That led to my wanting to thank the various other things in my life that elevated my career: Albert Wesker Died For My Career, Love Letter To Kohan And Mutchnick (about my recurring role on NBC’s Boston Common), and my first Los Angeles acting coach.
Then I was totally screwed.
I had to start putting in more thought and reflection — you know, like a blogger. (“Huh?! But bloggers are frustrated creatives using the internet as their imaginary friend and therapeutic outlet!” … Oh. Right. That would be me.) Now I could only start a new blog post if I had something involving video, audio or an interesting backstory. Posting went down to twice a month. (I blame a slow career and drug addled memory!)
Well, thank God I was impetuous enough to call a disingenuous astroturf PAC and inquire about their mentality! That certainly powered my blog for awhile! (Weeeee!) It garnered 100 more blog subscriptions, 500 more YouTube subscriptions, and 1000 more fans on FaceBook! (Yippeeeeeee!) It also confounded my on-camera agents, (Oops) lost me a possibly lucrative campaign (argh!) and alienated two “red state” clients of mine who’d hired me for their voicemail systems. (Yeah, that last one was devastating.)
Yet, after all the emails, voicemails, Geraldo’s mustache, Jon Stewart’s reprimand and Joy Behar’s career kiss, I can still tap into the joy of writing a blog post that gets my monkey high (what a laugh he has). Only I’m not as worried about offending people… Imagine that.
Two months on from the circus and I feel liberated enough to even write a blog post that, as you can see, has no video or audio and a rather flimsy backstory. I hope you’re not disappointed. I just felt it appropriate to acknowledge my my little baby blog and how well it’s doing controlling its bowel movements.
As for self-promotion, sure, I still raise a leg occasionally.
And politics? Well, I’m not really political. I just know what smacks of injustice or manipulation. I may do another political YouTube video soon so as not to disappoint the newest 1000 FB fans. Yet, at the same time, I just might do something completely ridiculous that only appeals to my own warped sensibilities. If I do and you feel it’s time to stop reading this blog, no worries. I appreciate all the help you gave to my Google rankings. 😉
If you stay, thank you! And I’ll try to avoid my navel and only share the good stuff.
And if you landed here from a search engine, why not check out My Voiceover Guy? (Sorry guys.)
