At the onset of the TBL @ 10 Series, I intended to write one column per month from July 2005 through April 2006, thus writing 10 columns – one for each year of our existence. However, as is to be expected, life and work got in the way; and that’s ok with me. I’d like this column – the final column of the ten – to be a brief discussion of where I’d like to see TBL go in the next ten years.
One of the areas that I’d like to see The Balrog’s Lair stay active in is being a creative force online. From TBL Soundoff to Pardon the Ring to being the first to put simple Top Ten Lists and weekly columns online, this site has been the leader in internet wrestling’s innovations. There is at least one major innovation in the plans for the future, but I’m not sure if we’re leading the online market in its delivery (an original, true, self-updating podcast). There are a lot of opportunities that have made themselves available to the TBL Family as we grow older (such as co-sponsoring an actual wrestling event) and we’re going to pursue each of them to the fullest.
I’d also like to move forward on some other opportunities that have come forward. For example, a lot of advertising and marketing opportunities have presented themselves to me, specifically, in the last two years. Those of you that know me know that I worked in marketing and advertising for a night club, a restaurant, and two hotels in the last few years. I’ve made a lot of really good connections and I’m hoping to move forward with some of them in relation to advertising TBL to a larger audience. I guess my only problem with the whole advertising thing is that I’d actually prefer not to bring in a crowd to TBL that doesn’t want to be here in the first place, you know? We like having a small, intimate website!
The future of The Balrog’s Lair will undoubtedly include an increased presence on this website by Eddie T. and I. Personally, I’m winding down my scholastic career (believe it or not, I’ve been going to school for about 23 years straight). Once I get the Master’s Degree I’m going to spend more of my free time working and building Usable Web Solutions, LLC, but I should also have some time to make more contributions to the website. Eddie is progressing along with his collegiate career and has struck a great balance between updating TBL and doing his schoolwork. So look for more of us making more contributions in the future.
I think it would only be fitting to envision more columnists and more content on TBL in the coming years. At this point in time, we have almost 1000 pages of content on this website. That dwarfs anything that any other website has out there. I don’t know if we’ve ever made this public or not, but more than half of our current hits come from Google and Yahoo, not any button or link exchanges that we have in place. I want to see a continued growth in our overall content and an increase in the amount of hits that we get via search engines. An increase in that type of visitor fulfills another goal that I have for the future of TBL – to be a resource for anyone looking for general information on professional wrestling!
But most of all, I’d like TBL to remain true to it’s roots. We have been successful in this for ten years and here’s hoping that we have another ten years of the same success!
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