Well here we are, folks. Another year in the books for Nashville’s favorite degenerate internet personalities. We started a podcast and a blog on a different platform in August of 2013. The blog was a joke – hardly anyone read it, and I was only writing once a week. Our podcast was a lot of fun, and actually had more listeners back then than they do now (probably because we did it more regularly).
For nearly two years, I languished about, picking up writing gigs for various media outlets where I could. But, I found that I still wasn’t truly happy with my writing. I really wanted to take the reins off and put much more of personality and my humor into my work (read: I wanted to curse and make dick jokes). I thought I had it figured out back then, but boy was I wrong. So, fast forward a couple of years (September of 2015) and we decide, “We’re going to make SoBrosNetwork.com happen.” And, we did! We did it!
This time of the year, I always look back on what we’ve accomplished since then and where we want to go in the future. That’s good for you, y’know? Remain self-aware, understand your successes and your shortcomings.
Back in those days, I can remember celebrating a post getting 50 reads. On numerous occasions, I had to actually bring up a post on my phone so that it would register at least one page view. Yeah, that bad. But, through it all, I believed in what we were doing here.
Perhaps my greatest accomplishment here is convincing others that we can make something of ourselves through this web site. This is something that has truly been a team effort.
We started 2017 on a different platform (hosted through WordPress), scrambling just to get 1700 page views in January. I was writing for Pro Football Spot, Wrestling News, and Bama Hammer. Ultimately, I knew it wouldn’t work, and I knew that if I ever wanted to make this happen, I would have to get serious about it.
I made the decision to quit all of my other writing gigs in March and go all in on this bitch, for better or for worse. We set a few simple goals: make some money, get some page views, and have some fun. Thankfully, I reconnected with an old friend who took an interest in our company. We determined that we wouldn’t be able to set up a store on the site hosted through WordPress, so it was time to get out on our own. Self-hosted: the way to go.
I’ll never forget all the Google Hangouts with Ralph Wiggum late at night, the hours we spent migrating articles, and constantly trying to work out all the kinks. But, we finally got through it, and the site is bigger and better for it. More importantly, it allowed us to add a store….sure, it’s December, and I still haven’t been able to add inventory, but it’s still there.
We’ve spent the last two years pretty well honing what I call “the SoBros voice.” So, we decided it was time to branch our content out a little bit….let people get to know the faces behind the names. We launched our YouTube channel, thanks in large part to the work of Rubber Rooster. Later in the year, we added a few new bits, such as the SoBros Jam Session, The Hot Minute, and NFL Game Picks. To start the year, I said, “let’s get five bits on YouTube.” As of this writing, we’re up to five regular bits and an additional five one-off videos. It’s been better than I anticipated or projected.
Our podcast was revamped and we made the switch to Facebook Live. Poppa Bear and I sat on a live show for three hours, covering the NFL Draft. We’ve done remote shows, and the numbers are 10 times better than our initial podcasts were. We’ve had hundreds of people tuning in.
We also decided to start doing more live journalism – such as the Watertown Yard Sale. Boy, what a shit show. It was hilarious, and was essentially trial by fire. We’d never done something like it before, but the results were staggering. Far more people tuned into our yard sale coverage than were at the yard sale on the Saturday we went.
All of this gave us a little bit of momentum, but it wasn’t until May when we really picked up steam. We probably wrote 20-30 articles on the Nashville Predators’ miracle run to the Stanley Cup Final, and the traffic poured in like we’ve never seen before. That was such a cool time for our city, and to think that we got to be a part in it, albeit a minuscule one, is incredibly humbling.
We opened our Redbubble store. Yeah, it’s pretty shitty….but we sold a lot of those catfish t-shirts, and several of our branded t-shirts. We made some money! That’s something to cross off the vision board.
Then, in July, something miraculous happened. We wrote a piece about Paul Heggen that raked in thousands of page views. Our inbox was flooded with people writing in to support Paul, and it began a tirade against WSMV that we’re still rambling about today. Paul would become the first recipient of the Tom Arnold ‘SoBro of the Year’ Trophy who we could actually hand the trophy to. That was pretty surreal.
After testing the waters with a few short content trips, and getting used to being on camera through Facebook Live and our YouTube channel, we buckled down and committed to covering the Scenic City Invitational live from Chattanooga. Thousands of readers, viewers, and listeners tuned in, and we branched out to something we haven’t really covered much on the site: indy wrestling. That trip took years off of my life, but it’s honestly some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time. We learned a lot about ourselves on that trip, including how ready we are to cover live events and how good we are at making friends. I still keep in contact with several of the friends we made that fateful weekend in August.
Gin Friday caught on in a big way – it started as a stupid post one evening….then, I just kept doing it…and kept doing it. For absolutely no reason. Then, one day, I noticed people started sending us pictures of themselves enjoying #GinFriday and it just stuck. Talk about something catching on that I never saw coming.
After Watertown and Chattanooga, we developed a pretty strong sense of confidence, so we set our sights on local establishments that we could go and review. Cadbury set up a trip to the Corsair Brewstillery, and “Nature Boy” Brandon Vick got us in the doors at Casa de Montecristo. Both were fun “work,” and our readers responded well, so it’s something we plan on exploring more of in 2018.
Lastly, we held our first SoBros Awards ceremony, and we learned a lot about who our most loyal readers are, the ones who took time out of their lives to fill out a stupid survey.
We’ve accomplished nearly everything we set out to do this year. We have over 1,300 articles on the site, our page views are higher than ever, and we’ve convinced a lot of folks in Nashville to hop on the SoBros train. By the time the year’s up, we’ll have actually crossed everything off of our list. But, what’s most astounding….and I have to ask…are you ready for this? Our following has grown 395% since 2016.
Thank you all. I hope we can make 2018 just as big together.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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