Tag Archives: Don’t Blink

Why Sundays Are So Important For “Don’t Blink”

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I think we can agree that everything is bigger on Sundays. Undoubtedly the hallmark day of the week, many of us notice that restaurants, television networks, and movie theaters place a high emphasis on the Lord’s Day. The same rings true for bloggers.

By a very wide margin, Sundays are the busiest day for Don’t Blink. So busy, in fact, that my blog receives almost double the traffic on Sunday than it does on the next busiest day of the week. Why is this though? Is it because I cause it by producing my best content of the week for this day? Or is it because Sunday is just simply the day where more people around the world jump online?

Sunday is a huge day for "Don't Blink."

Sunday is a huge day for “Don’t Blink.”

I can confidently say that it is the latter.

Even if I didn’t write a blog post on Sunday, there would still be a very good chance that the day would still generate the highest numbers of the week. Theoretically, I could lay in bed all day and decide against disturbing my weekend by taking 1-2 hours to tend to my blog. So, why not do what the bible says and rest on Sunday? After all, the numbers will take care of themselves.

Well, the reasons to avoid being lazy are numerous. First, although Sunday will most likely be my highest rated day despite if I write or not, a new blog post will add dramatically to the bottom line. A fresh piece of content will increase the views on my blog on a given Sunday by at least 30%. Of course, that 30% is made up of my regular readers, the ones who receive email updates when I publish something new or the ones who follow me on social media.

Speaking of my regular readers, a big reason why I don’t take Sunday off is because I put a lot of pressure on myself to deliver for them on this day. You see, my dedicated Don’t Blink fans have come to expect my best work on Sundays. It goes along with what I said at the beginning about the tradition of the day. Also, my Sunday blog post comes after my “blogging weekend.” I write for five straight days and then take Friday and Saturday off. After a break like this, it is expected that I come back rejuvenized and fresh with ideas.

I have capitalized on these expectations by giving my longtime readers what they want. Yes, I do try to save my best blog post of the week for Sunday. I mean come on, there is no excuse for bad quality, right? I have all day to write on Sunday (actually all weekend) whereas I am up against the wall writing after work on the weekdays. There better be a noticeable distinction. On social media I have marketed my first blog post of the week as my Sunday Blog Post. I post all of Sidney’s blog takeovers on Sunday as well.

To capitalize on the tradition of excellent content on Sundays, I post Sidney's blog takeovers on this day.

To capitalize on the tradition of excellent content on Sundays, I post Sidney’s blog takeovers on this day.

But the most important reason why I make it a major priority to blog on Sundays goes back to the influx of new readers I receive on this day. The heavy traffic I garner comes from random internet users typing something into Google and being directed to one of my 1,000 blog posts I have written over the years. After someone reads the specific blog post that corresponded to their “weird Easter bunny” or “Does Dickey’s BBQ sell beer” search, they will most likely click on my header and go to the Don’t Blink homepage. It is imperative that they see I am active and producing fresh content. When they notice that not only am I active but that I have actually blogged that day, the chance for them to become a regular reader increases. It is all about building my audience.

Here are some of the search terms that random internet users typed in to find my blog. As you can see, "Bar Rescue" inquiries are high. I write about this in the next paragraph.

Here are some of the search terms that random internet users typed in to find my blog. As you can see, “Bar Rescue” inquiries are high. I write about this in the next paragraph.

In closing, I want to just point out a quirkier source of my high Sunday blog traffic. Spike TV routinely shows “Bar Rescue” marathons on Sundays to lead up to the new episode at 9 p.m. Because episodes are shown for hours throughout the day, viewers are very much exposed to the program. This of course leads them to look up the show on Google. Because I have written a couple different blog posts on the show (here and here), every Sunday I get many “Bar Rescue” fans directed to my site. I am more than happy to welcome them.

If I ever decrease my blogging activity, Sunday won’t be one of the days I take off. I am thankful to all who choose to spend this special day of the week reading my blog. Have a great rest of your weekend! Don’t Blink.

Spreading My Pens Across the Nation and Throughout Myrtle Beach

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About three months ago I gave people even more of a reason to think of me as a nerdy, self-absorbed loser. As I opened up a cardboard box of 262 pens marked with my website, social media handle, and personal slogan I know I did very little to prove to others that I am actually a normal person. But people’s doubts about my sanity couldn’t hide the ear-to-ear grin on my face of having yet another cheesy promo item to push my blog.

I happily took this picture in March right after I received my shipment of pens.

I happily took this picture in March right after I received my shipment of pens.

But you might ask yourself what I have done with my massive stash of pens. After all, my own mother called me out on what many thought was a boneheaded, unnecessary, and mildly egotistical waste of money. But while some may have shared my mom’s thinking I firmly believe that I made probably the best $94 purchase of my life by ordering those pens. You see, not only have I used them to write pretty much every single word I have written in the past 90 days I have also used them to spread the good news of my blog far and wide. Let me explain.

My mom's reaction when she heard I purchased 262 personalized pens.

My mom’s reaction when she heard I purchased 262 personalized pens.

Before making my cross country trip to Myrtle Beach I spent time in Missoula, Spokane, and Iowa City. In these three places I distributed pens to everyone I came in contact with and left them everywhere I could. When I headed out on my 2,700+ mile journey I made sure that my box of writing utensils was up front with me in the U-Haul. Every single rest stop or gas station we stopped at I would leave a pen. All hotels we stayed at or restaurants we ate at I would do the same. The trail of ten states and numerous cities we traveled through could all be traced by a pen trail. I spread my pens across the nation better than Johnny Appleseed spread his seeds.

I spread these pens all across the country.

I spread these pens all across the country.

Since arriving in Myrtle Beach I have not stopped distributing the love. As many of you know from reading this blog, I have ate at many restaurants here. Each time I receive the check I take whatever rinky-dink pen they provide me with and put it in my pocket. I then replace it with one of my Don’t Blink pens. As I always carry no less than four of my pens in my pocket I have no problem making several switches in a single day. My boss watched me do this last week as we ate at a Mexican restaurant and I am pretty sure he thought I was crazy. He tried to make it sound like he didn’t think I was completely insane by saying that he thought it was a good idea and that he might start doing the same thing with Coastal Carolina pens.

Obviously I feel way too cool for school with these pens.

Obviously I feel way too cool for school with these pens.

The best is when you return to a place and you see that your pen is still in circulation! This has happened to me at a local neighborhood hangout where the pen I left two weeks ago still gets plenty of usage by the staff as I witnessed this past weekend. Or it is pretty cool to get a random Twitter follower and upon reading that person’s bio you realize he/she is an employee at one of the restaurants you left a pen at. These occurrences all add to the great fun I have had with my personalized items.

Surprisingly, I still have a lot of pens left in my cardboard box.

Surprisingly, I still have a lot of pens left in my cardboard box.

You know the crazy thing? It seems like I still have A LOT of pens left. Despite the sense that I have given away more pens than Santa Claus has toys my cardboard box is far from empty. With that said, I wish to give my friends in Myrtle Beach the exact same opportunity I gave my friends in Missoula. If you would like one of my coveted personalized pens just let me know and I would be more than happy to provide you with the finest writing ink around. You will swear that your penmanship had never been better. So please make sure to hit me up, I have more pens than even my oversized ego can handle. Don’t Blink.

More Than Meets the Eye

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On Wednesday night my boss took me out to dinner. We went to probably the most recommended place in Conway, the Riverfront Bistro. During the start of our delicious dinner he looked at me and said, “So do you have any questions for me? It seems like I already know pretty much everything about you.”

My dinner at the Riverfront Bistro. Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with apples and onions. The side is the macaroni and cheese noodle cake.

My dinner at the Riverfront Bistro. Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with apples and onions. The side is the macaroni and cheese noodle cake.

Bill reads my blog on occasion so he has a pretty good grasp on how I spend my time, what I value, opinions I hold, etc. After he asked the question I had a good laugh and admitted that I don’t know if it is exactly a good thing that I pretty much tell the whole world everything that is going on in my life. But then again I really don’t…believe it or not I have a small personal life (just like anyone) that doesn’t show up on a nightly basis in Don’t Blink.

But for the most part Bill’s question spoke a lot of truth. If anyone takes the time to follow me on social media or read my blog they are going to pretty much know what is up with me and who I am all about. I am very transparent and I give my audience a very real look into my life. If anyone wants to know how I feel about something they pretty much just need to do a keyword search on my blog and chances are I have already covered it in a post over the years. No need to actually ask me in person.

Since moving to Myrtle Beach, Bill is not the only one who has pretty much said “I feel like I already know you.” Numerous people on and off campus have told me that introductions and small talk aren’t necessary because they pretty much know so much about me. At first I am always flattered that they take the time to read what I have to say and follow me but then that feeling I alluded to above of doubting myself for putting so much out there starts to creep back. However, I am usually always able to shake it.

You see, I think having a solid foundation built by the time people meet me for the first time is a plus. Pressure is taken off, both for me and the person I am meeting, when you feel like you aren’t on ground zero. Like Bill said, he felt like he already knew me and I much rather start a relationship at that point. It also builds confidence to know that if someone is talking to me for the first time and they mention that they read my blog and follow me on Twitter that they have some interest in me. Cause let’s be honest, if you think what I say on my blog is junk and that it makes me sound like an arrogant jerk chances are you will do what you can to avoid me.

So in this roundabout way I don’t have a problem with my transparency over my personal new media accounts. I credit my blog and my social channels for helping me easily connect with lots of people here in South Carolina. Now that the blog reading and the initial in-person introductions are done I am excited to move onto the next phase…showing these people the Brent that doesn’t live behind a computer screen or an iPhone. I will do my best not to disappoint. Don’t Blink.

The Analytics Part of Don’t Blink

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Quite often people will start talking to me about my blog and ask if I have any idea about the analytics that my site garners. The answer is yes. Thanks to my friend Chris Lynn who installed it within the backend of Don’t Blink, I have a program called Jetpack that gives me a day by day account of the number of browsers that access my site. This information is invaluable to me as I like to have a good idea of how many people visit my blog and what topics the majority of my readers prefer over others.

Besides the volume of traffic statistics that I receive, I also get other really interesting pieces of information delivered to me regarding my blog. I am told what key words people type in to search engines to find Don’t Blink, what outside sites are referring people to my blog, what links people are clicking on once they are reading my posts, and a breakdown of what individual posts are getting accessed. I assess this information about two to three times every week to have a better understanding of my readers.

When it comes to my daily volume of readers there are a couple trends. I usually always get a large audience on Sunday nights, especially if I post something (which I always try to do). Also, the more consecutive days I post, the more traffic I will get on the latter days in that string. For example, if I published a new blog post Monday through Thursday my web traffic would increase each day, with an exceptionally high impression number on Thursday night. Readers reward you for consistency. However, there are random days when my traffic will shoot right through the roof even though I had not posted anything in a couple days. For example, last week when I was too busy with work to even think about writing a sentence for Don’t Blink I checked my analytics and saw that 900 people (browsers) had visited my site on Wednesday. After looking at the full report I saw that roughly 700 of those hits came by referral of a Japanese website. I had written a blog post 10 months back about Barry Anderson, the mascot of the Chicago Bulls. For whatever reason, Japan LOVES mascots. Barry visited Japan a couple years back and to this day he still has rock star status in the country. On this site there was some thread about Barry and someone found my blog post link and shared it on there. The floodgates opened.

I love looking at the key words people use to find Don’t Blink. Of course I get lots of searches dealing with “Brent Reser,” “Brent Reser Don’t Blink,” “Brent Reser Bio,” and “Don’t Blink Blog,” but many of the other searches are much more random. Just for today, here are some of the key words people typed in to find my site: “random ugly guy,” “Rascal Flatts time on stage,” “double pan fried noodles at PF Changs,” “cheer camp arrival,” “red robin mascot head, ”Boston Bruins stadium,” “iron horse queso recipe,” “embarrassing loss for Loyola football program,” and “don’t waste money on autographs.” Yep, I am proud to say that I have covered such a myriad of topics while authoring this blog that internet users from all over can type in seemingly random phrases and be directed to my little space on the web. Definitely a little creepy too.

I enjoy seeing which blog posts are performing well. As I mentioned in my 2 year anniversary blog post, my passage titled “Instagram Spam” is my all-time most read post. Even right now it is still the most read post pretty much each day. My newer posts are usually always right underneath “Instagram Spam” and then it is whatever post got shared on some random website rounding out the top five most read posts for that particular day.

Speaking of random websites, I pay close attention to which sites are contributing to my site’s traffic. Of course Google, Facebook, and Twitter are my big top three referrers but I am more interested in the websites that will pop up for a couple days and give me rushes of traffic. Because I wrote a couple posts related to Montana Athletics this week, I have had a lot of people from the popular blogging site eGriz take a gander at what I got going. Many times when I review a restaurant or a product the company will get wind of it and share it from their website or social media sites, thus sending people to Don’t Blink. Sometimes, just like with the Japanese website example, a link to my site will get shared on a random platform and I hit viewership gold.

Part of the fun of authoring a blog for me is definitely scrutinizing these statistics and identifying trends. It is cool to see that my writing has an impact on many people from all over the world. Seeing this evidence on a daily basis motivates me to continue to write and to do my best to put out quality work. Don’t Blink.

Don’t Blink’s Second Year Anniversary

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Two years ago today I sat down and wrote my first ever entry for Don’t Blink. As I look back on that initial entry I shake my head at my stupidity for titling it the way I did. I am sure many people looked at it and thought I was writing about something other than just the introductory post to my new blog. Well, you live and you learn.

Over the past two years I have definitely lived and learned quite a bit, both through authoring a blog and through life in general. The best part is that this two year period is all documented through more posts in my blog than I ever thought I would compose. If you took the time to read my initial awkwardly written post, you will see that all along this was my number one goal. I started a blog because I wanted an electronic record that chronicled my life’s adventures as well as my thoughts and opinions. Mission accomplished (thus far). After 24 months, I think of myself as a pretty dedicated blogger.

Thanks to all for supporting my blog over the past two years.

Thanks to all for supporting my blog over the past two years.

Today’s entry marks my 313th post for Don’t Blink. When I started this project back in May of 2011 I didn’t know if I even had 50 things to write about let alone over 300. But as I started to get in a groove, ideas just kept coming and new experiences continued to find me. Throw in all the trips I went on, new restaurants I tried, unique social media mediums I played with, inspiring people I came across, random situations I got myself into, and social norms that I felt compelled to comment on and you can definitely see that I have been very blessed with plenty of blogging content.

But a good blog doesn’t just depend on good content. The quality of writing and the presentation of the site are two crucial factors that will determine whether readers will give your blog the time of day. I try to improve my writing each night I compose a new draft. I am definitely not the best writer (what do you think I am, an English major?) and I like to think I am not the worst either (I have seen some scary things before). I consider myself an average writer with some skills but with a lot to improve on. My pledge to my readers is to get better over the next two years. A year ago I switched from an elementary looking blogger page to my current www.brentreser.com website. Over the past two years, this change has no question been the most important development in my blogging career. The credibility, readers, statistical tools, and search engine optimization that I have gained from this move will always have me wondering why I didn’t do it from day one.

Enough though about my reflections on the boring things regarding Don’t Blink over the past two years. How about I sum up the last two years using a couple of lists? Everyone loves lists! I first will present my top five most viewed posts over the past two years. I will then provide my top five favorite posts that I have written the past two years. Here we go!

TOP FIVE MOST VIEWED POSTS

1. Instagram Spam (April 9, 2013): Even though I just wrote this a little over a month ago, I still get at least 70-80 views on it a day. It just goes to show the obsession that people have with social media along with the negative role that spam plays in it.

2. The Feud: Colin Cowherd vs. Dan Patrick (May 8, 2012): Until “Instagram Spam” overtook it, this was by far my most popular post. The sports talk radio industry has a very large and loyal fan base, and many of these people are tied to the internet and blogs. I get comments sent to me from radio junkies referencing this post all the time.

3. Thanks, Jim (April 4, 2012): A few days after our athletic director Jim O’Day was let go I wrote down my thoughts about what he did during his time at Grizzly Athletics. The first full day the post was up it received over 1,500 views. It garnered around the same amount of views the next day as well. Even though the post was entirely for Jim, it picked me up numerous readers who still view my stuff today.

4. #HashTags (February 16, 2012): I wrote this as a tutorial to everyone who felt confused about hash tags and I couldn’t be more pleased that the internet community continues to read it every single day. I did my best to explain hash tags during a time when people did not have the grasp that they have on them now.

5. Serving the Youth (October 29, 2012): One October night, Christie and myself turned the championship game of a youth football league into a Grizzly Game Day production. I wrote about the experience and parents of the kids shared my post like wild fire, resulting in the fifth most viewed post of all-time for Don’t Blink.

 

MY PERSONAL TOP FIVE

1. The $25,000 Man (October 19, 2011): Undoubtedly my all-time favorite post, I got such a kick out of telling the story about the time my brother hit it big and the shenanigans that followed.

2. Naturally Dark (September 3, 2011): I think this might be one of my favorite posts just because of the absurdity that made me write this in the first place. I have a few very outspoken people who challenge me on why I turn so dark during the summer so I felt that I had to write it all down for them.

3. Posting Food Pictures on Social Media (June 11, 2012): What a hot topic this is! I love debating with people when it is okay to post food pictures and when it is not and that conversation grew even more after I wrote this. I literally laughed out loud while composing this one.

4. Treat Your Waiter Right (June 5, 2012): Man, I was on during June of 2012!! I honestly judge people by the way they treat their restaurant server. I have a great respect for the people who wait on us and serve us our food so I tried to defend them as much as possible in this particular post. I think it is in my top five just because I believe in what I say so much.

5. An Amazing Day in Grizzly Athletics (March 19, 2013): On March 16, 2013, Grizzly Athletics experienced a day for the ages and I was right in the middle of it. In this post I talked about what it was like to work a day in which we sent both our women’s and men’s basketball teams to the NCAA Tournament on our home court. It will forever be one of my favorite memories and only natural that it is one of my favorite posts as well.

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THANK YOU TO ALL MY READERS! It has been a great two years and I can’t thank you enough for all the support you have given me regarding this blog. I look forward to continuing to take you inside my head on all subjects and experiences. You are the best. Don’t Blink.