Commentary: More on 2018 from V&R-Land

Looking forward… – Photo by Randy Stern

Perhaps in the past few weeks, everyone came out with either a "looking back" article or a "looking ahead" one. Obviously, I had a few of these on here. Just your standard fare here…

However, I had a few thoughts about those posts in comparison with other posts that are all over the interwebs and social media. I did a list of my favorite vehicles of the year. I also looked back at the highlights of the year. Then, I took a final look at 2017 with a look ahead at 2018.

OK, fine, I covered all of the bases. What else should I say about 2017…or 2018?

First of all, I reviewed the stats from this site and I am encouraged for this year. The site peaked in 2014, with 227,416 Visits, 57,493 Unique Vistors, and 923,423 Hits. In 2015, those numbers dropped in half on the average.

Last year, I saw some growth in my Unique Visitors, with 36,501 – up from 27,450 in 2016. Visits and Pages were up in 2017, as well. Hits went down, however – from 455,158 in 2016 to 366,314 in 2017.

This is encouraging news going into 2018. That means I need to keep up with the volume of content on here if I want to increase my traffic. It's not that easy, but I have a few things up my sleeve.

However, I have taken on some additional work from my other endeavors. Though the magazine work remains the same, I do have two themed issues I work with every year. One of them is coming up in March. Plus, my work with a consulting firm may be growing. I'm doing what I can to deliver to their clients based on their needs.

I also added two content clients to the mix. One is a return from last year, while the other is new. The additional work is necessary, but it would cut into some time devoted to other tasks – including Victory & Reseda.

Luckily, I have some help coming. I will have guest columns and a new column coming from other writers. Stay tuned for more on these fronts. Plus, there is more collaborative content coming from slashMedia. Stay tuned as to what they got up their sleeves for V&R.

There are a couple of things I need to address. One, I believe that transparency is an ethical way of doing this work. Yet, I also believe in the element of surprise. You may never know what vehicles would show up on this site. Because I also have a magazine to feed and there is a caveat toward creating unique content for each vehicle I work with, you will see multiple yields between here and the magazine, but with different stories. That was something I began in 2015 and will remain the same. That also includes video work via our YouTube channel. I will also repost those videos on here, as well.

Last, but not least, I am also doing a Patreon page. This is not to beg for money towards the success of this page and my other endeavors. Rather, to help ensure the future of this page. I really want to upgrade basically everything – website design, the tools of this work, the home office, etc. However, the income from all of the above is really not enough to be able to accomplish what I would like at the speed of keeping up this work. I'm going to give this Patreon bit a try. If it doesn't work – I tried, right?

Here we are. I'm sure there is more to come in the days, weeks, and months to come. Besides, V&R is celebrating its seventh year this year. I have a feeling this is going to be a lucky and heavenly year…I'll keep thinking that way, at least.

Thanks for everything you do for V&R! I'm glad you're reading this site!