Greetings my dear Friends in Metal and Pop Culture Geekiness, today is a super duper special occasion because it marks the 20th Anniversary of the PiercingMetal website being online as a source of entertainment to the world. In previous anniversaries I had pointed out that the online publishing world was a very different landscape when we had started out and TBH that very same notion applies as we reach this 20th Anniversary milestone. Back then, the main competition was a batch of physical magazines that were very hard to keep up with because they had a full on staff and budgets and much more in terms of resources than something like this. That’s not as much the case anymore since so many have gone away and not returned in any format. The web-publishing world exploded and when I began I knew maybe three or four scribes and photographers and today I know a couple of hundred who are all looking for your attention at every turn. Then there is the Social Media “Influencer” side of the fence with those who are legitimate and others who have just convinced you that they are. Has it gotten easier? Not by a longshot since the staffs that we deal with at labels or in management companies and venues often change by the year and sometimes the companies and all the rest go away entirely. My father once said to me that “the only constant is change” and he’s right about that for sure. Despite all these things we push forward and are rather stoked to have reached this length of time as an online medium. Down below I’ll share some of the personal highlights but not too much of that since I really have a lot to get back to business on. Anniversary celebrations are wonderful but the job remains the same and doesn’t get done by magic. Even if it looks like a cakewalk to you out there in the readership.

I’ll start by saying that the site has just published its 8940th Post which is 410 up from last year’s anniversary and while I don’t remember when I retooled the presentation, the framework of it all has not changed for the last few years. Though you will find “15” different categories on the website, they all fall under one of the three main focused areas. Posts are either “Features”, “Reviews” or “Pop Culture”. Its worked out so I don’t see any other changes coming. The biggest of the sections remains the Features one with the Reviews and Pop Culture following suit. Though I love Reviews, my favorite section has been the Pop Culture stuff since I get to talk about the comic book and toy industry stuff there. So while I promised some personal highlights I don’t want to dig too deeply into those. I will say that being able to cover some of my favorite artists over the years like KISS, Judas Priest, Nightwish, Kamelot and so many more have left me feeling fortunate for sure. Walking massive conventions like New York Comic Con, Anime NYC and even Toy Fair which is a trade show are incredible to be a part of and I like to think that I do right by them all. Meeting like-minded Metal fans and speaking about what I find extraordinary and hoping to influence them with these views to raise more awareness is always cool. I’ve also enjoyed giving away more than 1800 tickets even though that kind of stuff has slowed down a bit based on industry changes and listing as many shows as I can to keep the scene vibrant is a little more challenging than it used to be based on so many venue changes. The server logs show that site traffic remains strong but sometimes is a rollercoaster based on world events. We are not a gossip site at all and sometimes that kind of stuff gets the most clicks so many I need to add in a little more drama. I still make sure that “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken” and Ken Pierce Media are working in tandem with what happens over on PiercingMetal and instead of disrupting, it offers a truly tangible flow of creativity between the outlets. Technically speaking I’ve been using Ken Pierce Media as the Senior Editorial branch of the whole creative process for a few years now and it just makes the professionalism a little more on point. Links to the two companion sites will also be down below but let’s quickly review some of the social media for good measure but before we do that let’s once again take a look at how this whole thing used to be presented to the masses. The days of pure HTML Coding and editing thousands of items.

As expected, the PiercingMetal outlet continues to maintain a presence on a most of the main social media platforms that are available and while growth does happen, there have never been historic surges which is a little sad. I’ve pointed out that this is damaging to the brand since this part of the game is so competitive. I’ve been doing a semi-regular “Social Media Sunday” post across all brands on the Facebook Page and at times there is a response but on other occasions not too much. Followers to networks like this are regularly reviewed by the folks who approve access or products that keep the content flowing and I will have the Linktree down below for you to peruse and rally behind. I always try to announce what we are up to on said networks and have been posting tastes of the overall coverage on them as well so if you are there already thanks a lot, but now please tell the masses. It can be discouraging to have millions of website pages viewed and only a couple of thousand followers on a social media platform. Soapbox done. Down below you will find a quick tally of the amount of content that resides on a few of the bigger networks and unlike some folks that I’ve seen in action I do NOT over post on the networks. My own favorites to use are the YouTube, the Instagram and The TikTok with the latter being branded for Ken Pierce Media for business reasons.

Social Media Rundown Over Time:
Facebook Page Posts = Unquantifiable
X Posts = 6,666
Instagram Posts = 11,883
YouTube Videos = 1,083
TikTok Videos = 1,014

I’ll wrap up this already long missive by saying “THANK YOU” to those who are here with us and especially the ones from the humble beginnings. Of course if you’re new to the proceedings then I say “Welcome and Come On In” I’ve plenty to share with you. I’ve done my best to keep it an interesting website to surf on and with a very limited budget as there are no real advertisers or sponsorships. We do have a bit of a tip jar set up with our Ko-Fi and those whp feel like helping to keep the lights on can do so over there. While under the Ken Pierce Media branding, anything we get is applied across the creative board. Thanks again for your patronage, I hope to keep this running for the duration and I look forward to entertaining you all whenever possible.

Update: After the haze of having this outlet online for so many years, I couldn’t resist posting a video overview for the 20th Anniversary. I feel that this kind of editorial briefing brings some additional value to my adventures. Do you agree?

PiercingMetal’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/piercingmetal