Well, well, well – look who just took over as the baddest bitches on the block! That’s right – it’s the SoBros Network. You know what they say – if you can make it through the first 100 blogs, you’re destined for success and millions of dollars, Persian rugs, fine chocolates, and literal pirate treasure. Straight from Treasure Island – Muppet Treasure Island, I hope.
Anyway, since we started out on this long, hard road (I just typed ‘rod’ and laughed so I hard I thought about leaving it – then, I remembered we are professionals here and changed it. Still wanted to let you guys LOL, too though), to greatness, we’ve shelled out some real high quality content.
I’m the type of guy who likes to remember his roots and always reflect on what brought us to this triumphant point. It all started eons ago, in September of 2015. All this time later, and we have a substantial body of work to look at.
This list is largely based on hits and interaction. FYI, I left out all of our power rankings – or else, by that criteria, this would’ve been a really monotonous list.
10. Movie Review: The Hateful Eight (Brandon)
I loved this piece – particularly for two reasons. First, this is one of a small handful of movie reviews that I’ve read that actually made me go to Redbox and rent said movie immediately….four months after it was published. Second, Brandon did a masterful job of getting this up just when anticipation of the movie’s release was reaching a fever pitch. Pageviews for days, bitches.
9. I’m Going to Say Swinging an Ax at a Mapco Is a Tad Bit Excessive (Stoney)
I’m going to be honest, I don’t know where this thing caught fire, but it crawled around the interwebs somewhere and found itself as one of the most read articles of 2016. It has a special place in my heart, as I felt real creative release from the chains of what is and isn’t socially acceptable. For the first time, I was able to just be me.
8. The Abhorrent & Let Downs of 2015 (Brandon)
Brandon doled out article after article in his ‘Best of 2015′ series – really put in some hard work for this site. Still, I thought it was kind of funny that the highest rated of all of this hard work was his list of the WORST movies of 2015. In total, his series brought in 345 views. For a site that (honestly struggles, but) considers 100 hits a success at this point, those are solid numbers. This piece is its’ highlight.
7. History Lesson: The Battle of Culloden (Roxanne)
Roxanne’s most popular History Lesson – her work usually gets more ‘likes’ on WordPress than any of our other pieces, and gets a lot of positive feedback on Facebook. Like, what? Our bullshit articles aren’t also substantial and informative? Sorry, I’m jealous.
6. SEC Championship Drinking Game (Stoney)
I don’t know if I can necessarily celebrate this one. Everyone likes a good drinking game – so it feels like a cheap way to get hits. Still, they’re always fun to write, and this ended up getting the second most pageviews in SoBros history.
5. David Beckham Wins ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ Despite it Not Being 2001 (Stoney)
Look, I was just as shocked as anyone when this actually happened – somewhat surprised that it got so many hits. Alas, someone shared it on a Julian Edelman appreciation thread on some forum. We’re still getting clicks from that site.
4. Georgia Southern Throws 4th Pass TD of Season & I Know Nothing About American Football (Stoney)
This one was a hoot – not only was it a success in terms of pageviews, but it really got some play on Twitter. It was picked up by quite a few Georgia Southern fans and some Georgia Southern blogs. A lot of the readers reached out to me and told me they thought it was hilarious, which made me feel like a veritable champion. IT FELT GOOD. Georgia Southern is now one of my favorite fan bases.
3. Movie Review: Daddy’s Home (Brandon)
The underdog of all underdogs – Leicester City, who? A long time ago, Brandon wrote a review for Daddy’s Home, and it is still unexplainably getting hits. It is his most viewed article, and other than some Spanish-language Hollywood blog, I just can’t find where this link was shared. Brandon’s reviews are great, but this one was released with reserved fanfare. It didn’t start taking off until a month after it had been published. Those 4-6 hits a day add up when they’re coming in daily for four months.
2.The Few Universal Truths from Making a Murderer (Stoney)
This was a weird blend of honest analysis and bullshit redneck jokes – so, you may understand why I’d be surprised to see this was our most shared article on Facebook. Not only that, it became our most viewed non-sports related article after only two days of being published. I won’t call it my best work, considering I’ve written for actual legitimate sites like Outkick the Coverage, Pro Football Spot, Fansided, and Wrestling News, but it may be my best in the realm of the SoBros Network.
1. The Third Saturday in October (Bill)
The crem de la crem. Bill hasn’t done much writing outside of the SEC power rankings and weekly college football betting column, but he really struck gold with his emotional encapsulation of what the Third Saturday in October means to people in fan bases on either side of the legendary rivalry. It blows away the 2nd place article in terms of pageviews, getting nearly 500 hits MORE than it. The article was passed around SEC fan groups on Facebook and was picked up in 247Sports’ Tennessee forum, netting us a ton of hits. And, since it’s a pretty timeless piece, it’ll continue to get hits every October.
Fine work, lady and gentlemen. The vision of ‘slice of life’ coverage has really come into place, and the work you’ve all put into this has made this ol’ papa bear proud. Here’s to many more celebrations – I have a feeling some legitimately grand ones are on the horizon.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley,@PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo
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