Dead End Follies in 2019

Well, 2018 was a successful year. At least, statistically speaking.

- Dead End Follies doubled its traffic from last year and reached its best numbers since 2012.

- Half of this traffic were users that never visited the site before.

- One timers were obviously higher, but I was able to convert a sizeable amount of newcomers (10-12%).

This success can be explained by merely three factors:

- I closed to review submissions in April and was able to realign my editorial line towards content I deeply cared about, so I was able to crank out more quality pieces.

- I stopped chasing the rainbow of social media success and focused on being found via search engines (it really, REALLY worked)

- I reviewed more films and pop culture material, which has a larger appeal. The most successful book review this year was Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, which I wrote in 2017. It topped at no.7. The most popular 2018 review was for Maddox’s F*ck Whales, which topped at no.11. And it was largely due to Maddox sharing it on his social media platforms himself. Thanks, man.

2018 was not the best year for motivation largely because of shit that happened outside of the internet. It was a tough, busy year and finding the time to fulfill every slot with great content was an added stress more than the pleasure it once was.

So, given the renewed popularity of the site going into its 10th year of existence, it’s going to undergo perhaps its biggest changes yet, which I hope will help with motivation and to improve the quality of content. I got better in 2018, but I can always improve:

- Number of monthly contents will drop from 20-25 to 10. Reviews, essays and new formats that’ll come along the way. One week will have a piece on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the other will have material on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

- At some point, I’ll resume chasing the great social media rainbow, but using a different strategy and targeting a different crowd. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined got me 8% of my traffic in 2018. Doesn’t warrant all the effort I put into it.

- It might also be time, 2019 being the 10th year and all, to finally venture unto a new platform. So, stay tuned…

Thank you for tagging along in 2018 and let’s become even better for one another next year,

Happy new year, folks. Stay safe!

Ben