Wow, has it really been another year? I wanted to take this first day of 2013 to give you a little update on the year that was and also offer up some thanks and appreciation for what was an incredible 2012 for MetsMerizedOnline.com
Despite being in the throes of the offseason, MMO has experienced exponential growth and we closed out the year with a bang. While we’ve had several days in the last three years where we’ve experienced over 13,000 unique readers for one day (our all time record is 15,673 unique readers in one day), December was the first time we “averaged” over 13,000 readers daily for an entire month!
The growth did not go unnoticed, prompting a hearty congratulations from FOX Sports. We’ve previously had some rough times on MMO over the years, and I even reached out to our readers for financial help when we finally outgrew shared hosting and needed our own dedicated servers at a substantial cost in addition to new maintenance fees that were now tripled.
I’m happy to say that the monthly revenue now generated by the site has enabled us to easily pay all of our operating costs and also give some back to you with more contests and giveaways than we’ve ever had before. In 2012, MMO gave away well over $1,500 in tickets, Mets merchandise, and Mets memorabilia to our wonderful readers.
We’ve even tried some new things like publishing our first MMO Mets Annual for 2012, and trying our hand with our own Metsmerized Radio Show. We also have some exciting new projects in store for 2013 that I can’t wait to share with you in the next few weeks!
Metsmerized has also experienced great growth in terms of followers on Social Media. Last weeks Twitter report had us at 4,463 for the year, and this week we’ve already surpassed their prediction with 4,501 Followers as of this New Year’s morning. Follow us on Twitter @Metsmerized.
Our community has also seen a renaissance in terms of growth, with over 200 new IP Addresses leaving a comment for the first time ever on MMO in the last sixty days. Overall, we just missed 100,000 comments for the year. I’m talking real comments from passionate Met fans and this number isn’t inflated by game threads. On average, we had out finest year in 2012 averaging well over 250 comments a day, and reflecting a rich and vibrant Mets community. Thank you for being such a big part of this amazing Mets fan site created just for you.
In 2012, we had 37 posts that were submitted by you, our readers! Our MMO Fan Shots have been one of my favorite features on the site. It tells me how engaged and passionate our readers are. I want to thank Rebecca, Mike, Pete, Donal, Rob, Max, Noah, Eileen, Tiffany, and all the many others whose names I’m forgetting for being a significant part of the MMO family and I look forward to even more contributions from our ever-growing community. Thanks so much to all of you!
A big, big thank you to all the Mets players, both major leaguers and minor leaguers, who took the time to talk to us this year and give us over 50 different interviews in 2012. R.A. Dickey gets a big shout-out for interviewing with us three times including an exclusive at the MLB Fan Cave. Thanks also to Wally Backman, Mike Piazza, John Franco, Ike Davis, Tim Byrdak, Josh Thole, Mike Nickeas, Scott Hairston, Darin Gorski, Rob Carson, Josh Edgin, Matt Harvey, Wilmer Flores, Jon Niese, Zack Wheeler, Hansel Robles (pictured wearing his “Get Metsmerized” button), Kevin Plawecki, Gavin Cecchini (twice), Brandon Nimmo (three times), Phil Evans, Michael Fulmer, Steven Matz, Danny Muno, Also special thanks to Adam Rubin, Mark Simon, Ken Davidoff, Mike Puma, Ken Rosenthal, Mrs. Joan Hodges, and John Sickels.
Thanks to the entire gang at the New York Mets Media Relations department led by VP Jay Horwitz and his amazin’ team of Shannon, Danielle and Ethan.
I save the last of my gratitude and praise for our MMO writers. We had posts from 41 different writers on MMO in 2012, yet another new high for us. Our writers are so rich in diversity and their varied opinions and it only adds to the balance we strive to bring you on MMO. From the timely news and reports from Craig and HoJo, to the always original and unique posts from longtime Metsmerizers Ed Leyro, The Coop, Joe Spector, Elliot Teichman, Gregg Hopps, Barry Duchan, Sean Kenny, Stephen Hanks, Doug Branch, Dave (Retire 31), Jessep, Jim Mancari, Satish Ram, XtreemIcon, Ben Yoel, Tyler Moore, Brandon Butler, and Rob Silverman.
Our new additions in 2012 struck an immediate chord with our readers and they quickly established their own followings on MMO and of course I’m talking about Rob Patterson, Mitch Petanick, Connor O’Brien, Tim Burns, Nick Campione (NYMets945), Michael Barrett, Tyler Moore, Drew Staley (72MetsFan), Clare Lafferty, Fonzie13, Matt Balasis, and let me not forget the return of Jessica DeMattia.
Special thanks also to our editors Dan Valis, Clayton Collier and John Delcos who is also our resident BBWAA member. I can’t even count the many times they’ve had to step in and cover for me while dealing with some health issues, and in my absence the site never skipped a beat. Thank you, guys!
On behalf of everyone of us at Mets Merized Online, I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year in 2013, and thank you for continuing to make MMO the number one independent Mets fan site on the web!
Lets Go Mets!
