The view from here, looking back at 2008

Well this is the first Blog of 2009, so it’s only fitting I take a look back at my first calendar year in Second Life. This won’t be so much antidotal but rather sticking to the cold hard unfeeling numbers.

But before I get all-statistical I feel I should mention there is a pre-history to all these events. Back in the day when I was blundering about looking for gigs and trying to figure out how to explain what I do to anybody that would listen. I don’t have any data for this time. Only the cave drawings of my past remain, there meaning lost to me as time dragged on. I mention all of this only to say there was once a Cro-Magnon Zorch.

In April of 2008, Harrie showed me how to use Google calendar to keep track of shows, and these nascent dates represent the emergence of Zorch proper. Please note, that there were some dates played before the 26th of April 2008, but between the 26th of April and the 31st of December there are some 341 shows documented.

On May 8th of 2008, the Zorch Boomhauer MySpace page was posted. In the intervening months some 2,498 people have viewed my humble initial web presence. There are also 1,356 plays on the music posted to MySpace.

On July 7th 2008, I established the ZorchBoom.com web site. This is currently my primary web presence. During it’s six month run, ZorchBoom has logged in 340 unique visitors, but more important that just the bulk number is the growth it represents. It breaks down as follows.

Jul 14 Unique visitors
Aug 22 Unique visitors
Sep 37 Unique visitors
Oct 52 Unique visitors
Nov 77 Unique visitors
Dec 138 Unique visitors

Significant growth in December, but most important is every month show an increase over the last.

ZorchBoom.com is also the server from which I host my MP3 downloads. The year total is 2.39 GB of files downloaded. That is a lot of MP3s.

As a footnote, all expenses in promoting Zorch Boomhauer have been covered by monies made in Second Life. The web site/file host is paid for in full by profits from performance and sales of MP3s. So when looking back at 2008, we see not only growth, but profit.

2008 also saw the release of 5 music collections.

Songs in the Key of Green.
White and Black.
Black and White.
Get Zorched.
Love songs, hate song, in-between.

The first collection of 2009 is already in the works and slated for release on January 20th, 2009.

Finally, our group, The Zorch Nation started December with 180 members. I commented I wanted 250 members as my Christmas gift. On December 23, we hit the 250 mark.

Looking back at 2008, I see a year of hard work and much growth. I do intend to keep working hard and as an optimist I’m expecting growth to continue. Much thanks to all the people that made it happen.