It’s Been Eight Years Already?

Another year has come and gone and Asteroid G just keeps plugging along. It’s crazy to me to think that I’ve been doing this site for this long but it is true. May 10, 2018 was when I started it back up (after a number of short-lived attempts at doing the format before that) and it’s been going functionally non-stop since (outside the occasional holiday or vacation here or there). Considering no previous version of the site made it more than four years, and none of them were consistent when it came to posting, that’s actually a pretty huge accomplishment. We’re closing in on four thousand articles written for the site, which massively dwarfs the few hundred articles I wrote over all the other sites combined. Wow.

Still, it’s another year, and we’re going to keep going, so it’s good to look ahead to what we’ve done differently this year, and what we’ll be doing in the future, as Asteroid G keeps on heading on for the foreseeable future.

Podcasts

The podcasts have been doing well, and we’re in the second season now where it’s not just audio podcasts but also videos (which are featured over on my YouTube page). Co-hosting with Ghoul Mike has been great, and while viewership is still small, we are steadily building a fun, tiny fanbase. This is, of course, where I say, “if you’ve watched them and you enjoyed the videos, please like and subscribe.” It’s the one time of year where I mention it (we don’t even say anything about it in the videos, we only put tiny images in there to remind), but when you like and subscribe you tell the Google algorithm, “yo, this is decent content. Spread it around.” And if it helps grow the fanbase then it generates more comments and that’s fun to read.

Like everything on the site, I have no plans to monetize the videos at all, even if one day the channel qualified for it. We do put fake ads in the podcast now because it’s funny (and being sponsored by Skynet amuses us), but I have no plans to ever make money off Asteroid G. Like Blofeld, I’m just here for the love of the game.

You may have also noticed that the podcast has been fairly regularly updating twice a week, with a main ‘cast (over ten minutes) on Fridays and a mini-cast (less than ten minutes) on Mondays. It’s a format that’s been running well so far, but Ghoul Mike and I only make the minis when we have something specific to talk about. So I wouldn’t bet on it being an every week thing… just a most weeks thing.

Features

We’re going to overhaul many of the recurring features because, over the last few years, they stopped “recurring” at all. I’m planning to archive Slasher Grindhouse, Superhero Cinema, and Monster Madness, removing those features from the site. I’ll still review the movies and other media that fit within those sections, but it’s become sporadic and unpredictable when I do and I’d rather just review them as I feel like it without tracking when I do. It’s a minor thing, but it helps clean up the site.

Note, though, that monthly features like Action April and the Five Days of Die Hard will remain around. I enjoy doing those and they actively get me to watch stuff I might not have otherwise, which is the real goal of any of these features. The deeper I dig into genres the more I get reviews across a whole spectrum, and that makes me happy. I do all of this to entertain me, as well as you readers.

Redesign (Or Lack There Of)

When I made the most recent design for the site three years back I wasn’t sure if it would stick. It was a refinement of a refinement of a refinement as I tried to narrow in on how I wanted this site to look and what I liked about it. Now we’re at a good place and I think the site looks really solid, so I don’t know if another redesign is really needed. The most I might want to do is rearrange a couple of things on the front page, maybe to separate out podcasts from the normal articles, but I haven’t decided on that yet.

Best I can say is that at some point the front page might change slightly, and some interior layout chunks that no one notices might update a little as well… but I doubt anyone other than me will even notice or care. I just have a habit of redesigning my sites, and three years is a long time for me to go without touching anything. The fact that I haven’t really wanted to do much to Asteroid G I think shows how strong this design is. But we’ll see if I get the bug sometime soon to change everything… again.

Vacation

And that’s it. That’s all the site news we have right now. The site keeps going, everything feels steady, and I’m looking forward to another year of running Asteroid G. I will note that next week I will be on vacation, so there won’t be any updates here on the site. There is a backlog of podcasts, though, so if you hit the YouTube page you’ll find the podcasts posting on schedule. That will hopefully sate your Asteroid G needs until I’m back and updating once more.

Until then, and for the future! Here’s to another great year of Asteroid G.