Hello my friends. I’m here to share some pretty awesome news with you once again because today the PiercingMetal website is celebrating nineteen years of online life. When we first launched back in 2005 it was a VERY different creative landscape and the full-on web-based publication had to contend with physical magazines that catered to the genre and had been doing so for quite some time. Then there were several other creators who had also braved the Internet realm as their place of business but they were not in the high numbers back then. Today the magazines are few and far between but websites and blogs are at every turn and don’t even get me started on how many social media pages about the stuff are out there and adding to the mix. As Year 19 gets underway I can share that the site has just published its 8530th post and while I had hoped to reach the 9K mark by the anniversary this year it didn’t happen. I even remember saying that we might when I shared the 18th Anniversary overview. Either way this is still some pretty cool publishing numbers because its all presented for the site visitor on what I feel has remained a very handy and easy to navigate website. Let’s discuss some of the stuff that’s been happening over the past year and how I’m planning for the months ahead.
Content wise the site framework remains the same as its been for the last couple of years and I am speaking of the three top category focuses. For those who are only now just learning about the site (yes it happens sometimes) they are “Features”, “Pop Culture” and “Reviews”. Each has a number of sub-categories that succinctly organize the content for your convenience. Some of our readers are diehard Pop Culture fans and that section is stockpiled with comic book information, movie and geek culture television properties and toys that relate to the comics, films and especially when they are Rock and Metal in theme. It’s been great to deliver that stuff since I am a fairly big geek myself. Now I’ve pointed out in a couple of the previous anniversary posts, the website continues to expand beyond only doing reviews but I am looking to ramp up this area up once again since I get numerous emails about singles coming from artists that we are very interested in. Sure one can wait for a full album to come out but sometimes the work is delayed and if four singles have been released to the masses, one should speak about them as that helps generate an interest. It also upgrades the level of content that can be found on Google which is never a bad thing. Over the past year leading up to Year 19, our “Features” section has grown the most based on what kind of stuff gets posted there. The Features sub-category came into being when the original side blog “PiercingMetal Musings” was sunset and its content merged into the new vision. The tour announcements are the major part of this section since there are always so many of them. The PiercingMetal Says serves as our Editorial space for sharing the more general news and its worked out so far. Our Giveaways went up a few more clicks since last year and though we haven’t yet reached our 1800th Ticket, we are getting close. After the pandemic subsided and the world began to move more normally, a lot of the resources changed and these things are not as easy to secure as they once were. I will admit that the giveaway posts always make me smile because I make the interested reader work for the ticket and these responses make for some good reading. Our website calendar remains a popular feature on the site and I’ve listed more than 3.9K events since using this particular plugin. Overall the site traffic remains strong which is good to report based on just how many websites there are out there. For the last few years I’ve found PiercingMetal working in tandem with “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken” more and more. Certain special events will require a bit of cross-branding happening and now each of the sites shares the latest posts on its companion brand for those who wish to see what is happening on the other side of the same creative coin. These two worlds continue to unite under the Ken Pierce Media brand which was unofficially christened to be our main editorial arm a few months after its launch was announced. We welcome all attention to “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken” and Ken Pierce Media by clicking on the hyperlinked text. Social Media is a constant requirement so let’s discuss that next.
In the site social media realm all of the same networks are being used but I can sadly maintain that the growth is only minimal since the last time discussing it. This is nothing less than brand damaging when one compares the site traffic to such things. Sometimes I wonder if those who are interested in PiercingMetal are really using any of these tools like we are. There are millions upon millions of Facebook Pages, YouTube Channels and Twitter, I mean X accounts along with Instagram Profiles. If you have any of these accounts we are going to ask you right now in the summary to get involved with the brand because by not doing so it works against us. Its very easy to invite ones friends to Facebook Pages, or to re-tweet our tweets to your own followers. I don’t know how it works with Instagram or Threads now other than saying “hey follow us” and after that the YouTube is an easier one. The reason I ask for your engagement is to be reminded that you are out there and that all of these posts and the time involved in them is worth it. Most of these networks are controlled by algorithms and if you don’t it, the stuff just gets pushed farther down the pole where you won’t see it. When it comes to comments I try to react or even respond to each and every one of them. Only the readership can help the PiercingMetal social media thrive and if you don’t rally, well you are probably not in our corner as much as you might think you are. Remember that many competitors in the scene all have advertisers and sponsorships to help fund their efforts and this stuff comes from my own wallet. The links are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. While most of the networks do not help website traffic grow, they expand the brand reach which is quite important too. My favorites of these networks are the YouTube, Instagram and TikTok based on how many different agenda items I can approach with them. You wont find endless selfies of me on our Gram and more visuals from conventions and the concerts. YouTube is a tough one to build up and monetize with what we have right now so please pay mind to that one because its an avenue that I am using more and more each day. The TikTok is actually branded for Ken Pierce Media but that was by design and there are numerous PiercingMetal topics uploaded to that platform. Here’s a quick rundown of the content you will find on the networks.
Social Media Rundown Over Time:
Facebook Page Posts = Unquantifiable
Tweets on Twitter or X = 6,493
Instagram Posts = 11,220
YouTube Videos = 801
TikTok Videos = 558
Wrapping this year’s post up I will say that if you’ve been with us for any length of time or maybe even since it all began back in 2005, I extend a heartfelt “Thank You” for that dedication. If you’re only now just joining us for some reason then its “Welcome Aboard, I’m Happy To Have You”. This site has kept chugging along with a very limited budget and its almost always been an out of personal pocket expenditure to give you entertainment. There are no sponsors or big advertising going on here that help pay the bills and while we don’t have anything to give in a Patreon setting, a Ko-Fi was set up under our Ken Pierce Media banner since that serves as the professional face of all the creativity you’ve been enjoying. All donations to the Ko-Fi go to covering the costs of handling such a process (hosting, domain name registry and tools of the trade). Thanks for your patronage, I hope to able to keep this website online for the duration and also hope is that it continues to keep you entertained and informed about a wide variety of topics.
PiercingMetal’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/piercingmetal
