Creative Psychosis

Thankfully, 2006 is finally here. Every year, I have to bite my tongue and keep my poison pen on the desk. For I can rest assured that as we celebrate the annual changeover of our calendar, all of the same clichés would emerge to haunt the masses. Since it’s a by-product of our fast food relationship with time and pop culture, it seems that there is no escape.

Someone will undoubtedly quip, “See you next year!” in a moment of pseudo-cleverness (and I heard it three times this year). Dozens of editorial cartoonists will scribble out the same old gag of the old man 2005 and the baby 2006 walking past each other. News programs, websites, and of course blogs will lay down what they thought the high and low lights of the past year were. Top ten lists, year in review, resolutions, blah, blah… blah. I welcome my chilly January with open arms. Let’s get back to the grind, shall we?

But while this righteous spew has its truth, I will not totally alienate myself from reflecting on 2005. If nothing else, this year has given me some hope, no matter how infinitesimal. Aside from getting married (an event that I can only imagine has triggered a cosmic imbalance in the universe), I watched my online universe grow and expand exponentially.

As you can see in the graph below, MagicJunk.com started out with very tiny beginnings. I remember feeling like my work was for naught when I did not get more than 20 unique visitors a day in the first three months. But I kept working, writing, tweaking the site, and launching new creative projects. Each month became the “highest yet”, only to be outdone by its successor.

Considering I have no funds for advertising and have not received any link referrals from a big cat website, these numbers are pretty good. Obviously, in showing this though, my point is not to brag. If most online businesses had these numbers, they’d be laying off employees. But since Magic Junk is totally self-sufficient, the only way it’s going down is if I pack it in, die, or get abducted by aliens. Fortunately, I don’t have plans for any of those.

Therefore, my point is simple and two headed: for you, the reader, the graph illustrates that meager beginnings are okay, as long as you don’t lose focus on your goals; and for me, it has helped me set the goal of 50K for 2006, which would almost triple the total unique visitors from this past year. Yeah, I have my work cut out for me. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.