So here we are once again my friends at the end of another year and its around this time that I like to sit back and share some thoughts about the creative process in terms of the year that’s wrapping up very soon. In the years before I had launched the Ken Pierce Media angle, I would offer up a lengthy missive on both PiercingMetal and “The Chronicles” of Piercing Ken but last year I decided to put a shorter brief together for those sites and add them into a post that also discussed this now almost three year-old brand. So creatively speaking, 2022 was a lot closer to normal than the previous couple of years were and thank the fates for that. As a content creator I kept on doing what is expected of me and wrote articles consistently throughout the year. I’ll get right on down into the mix and also discuss the social media side of each site beginning with PiercingMetal and so on into the others. Let’s go.
PiercingMetal
In April 2023, PiercingMetal.com will celebrate its eighteenth year of online life and I really can’t believe we’ve come this far since websites often come and go. Historically speaking I’ve published close to 8.3K posts since launching and I am very hopeful to reach 9K or at least get as close to it as possible in the coming year. It’s a lofty goal for sure since we are talking about 700 posts but based on the news of the day, the review process and other announcements it just might be possible. When the pandemic was in full sway a lot of shows and in-person events didn’t happen at all and that found me really embracing the Pop Culture side a lot more than I felt I would have otherwise. Publishing and virtual events were announced left and right and that’s why the Features and Pop Culture areas are so stockpiled. I’m also a geek so writing about the comic book industry and the films that relate to these kinds of things is now second nature to me. We got to do a few giveaways but these kinds of provisions aren’t as bountiful as they used to be since the entertainment industry really took a beating during the heyday of the pandemic. It’s why we stress to see bands in concert whenever you can. I will say that I sat out a number of shows as I didn’t want to be everywhere all the time and I think that’s because I still think this virus is a serious thing to contend with even if its much better than it was. There were a ton of tour announcements to discuss which I always love to do and I will be putting my creative nose to the grindstone and get a lot more of the single reviews up online when we know about them since sometimes bands release three or four of them without a full album and its a great way to keep supporting them. The traffic to the site was promising but did fall a little short of the 2021 final tally at 1.45 million pages views. Now onto a little about our PiercingMetal Social Media.
Social Networking: I’ve kept the activity on the social media accounts of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube constant over the year and while engagement could be a little bit better I don’t let that sway me. Twitter has never been a success for this brand and now under the new leadership finds numerous creatives killing their accounts. I will be sticking with it for the time being. I’ve also been doing a ton of content on the YouTube and Instagram profiles so if you want to help show your overall loyalty we ask that you subscribe, follow and engage with that stuff. I’ve often said that social media is a numbers game and now with a lot of the folks getting back out into the open they are pushing hard on these networks and a brand can be judged by the lack of larger following. With Twitter we don’t serial tweet and with YouTube we don’t talk as much as we broadcast about those we’ve met along the way. The same applies for the Instagram which has a ton of cosplay photos and all original images. I see too many profiles with other peoples work or selfie after selfie. I don’t think I’ve ever even posted 100 images that is actually me LOL. Like I said if you like this vibe that is how you help it.
Top 10 Countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Australia, France and Italy.
“The Chronicles of Piercing Ken”
In 2023 we will mark the thirteenth year of this lifestyle websites online and sadly some of the pandemic scenario made getting things done for this side of the fence a little more difficult. Though we were aiming towards a better year once it turned into 2022, we lost the Photoplus Expo and the debut of the Luxury Design Fair and even the Motorcycle Show. The first one morphed into a new idea that never managed to launch and the other never debuted and is on hiatus for the duration. To my knowledge those motorcycle shows will not be returning. We didn’t have a Toy Fair in 2022 but the New York Comic Con and Anime NYC event took place which we covered under the PiercingMetal banner. Much like that side of the fence a lot more announcements were dished out in terms of film and television items, and a bevy of award shows which I love featuring now that I’ve done so many. When we hit the trade shows we look into doing a lot of social media stuff but I will talk about that next. It’s not new news that “The Chronicles” posts less than what gets done over on PiercingMetal.com but we closed out the year with almost 1.5K posts and will likely hit that milestone very early in the New Year. Site traffic was a bit higher than the previous year with more than 550K Pages Viewed.
Social Networking: “The Chronicles” has almost all of the most important social media accounts that are currently online. A couple of them were subsumed by the Ken Pierce Media side but more on that coming up. Right now I am most active on both the Instagram and the YouTube Channel for this outlet. We’ve had Facebook and Twitter from the onset but neither network seemed to be embraced despite the positive traffic. The lifestyle events we attend find me loading a lot of images onto Instagram and now even doing Reels while YouTube gets both longer comprehensive clips and their new Shorts stuff. If this lifestyle site is to your liking, I ask that you show your allegiance by supporting those social networks. Especially for the YouTube because we need to hit some milestones in numbers before we have more options. Hitting 1K subs let’s our content get on a monetization track. We’d love that.
Top 10 Countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China, India, France, Czech Republic, Germany, Australia and Philippines.
Ken Pierce Media
When 2023 hits the halfway mark, the Ken Pierce Media website will have been online for three years and its been an interesting growth process for sure. From a Blogspot to a subsumed Tumblr to a WordPress of its own I can hardly believe the level of growth that this brand has had. Initially it was only links to both PiercingMetal and Piercing Ken content from a set point in time and now has thousands and thousands of pieces of content based on our introducing numerous other aspects into its core. Since that first premiere date this has become our centralized editorial branch and is used to facilitate our connections to work better together. I’ve long said that PiercingMetal and Piercing Ken were opposing sides of the same coin and now Ken Pierce Media is the hand that flips that same coin. The content base just reached 5.7K posts and that grows higher and higher on a daily basis. A 2023 goal for KPM is to surpass 6K posts which I think is doable. Remember this site is populated from the other two in addition to any of the editorial pieces and occasional YouTube posts so that kind of growth is entirely possible. The cleanup of the legacy stuff from the original Tumblr import is still an ongoing and very tedious process. Way back when, Tumblr fed from Facebook and Twitter so I’m making them all look very nice even though that kind of content is no longer automatically integrated into the mix. Traffic has been strong and we’ve accrued more than 4380K Pages Viewed for the 2022 year. As that cleanup continues and more posts get the needed tags and structure this will continue to grow and be picked up by Google even more.
Social Networking: In 2022 I continued to subsume the single-used social media profiles and present them now as Ken Pierce Media. I also took on two that were originally for the other websites in terms of the Vero True Social and Snapchat. I use each sparingly but now they will each direct you to our other accounts and the Linktree. I’ve had both of them for years but you weren’t able to change a username and once I could it was “acquired” by KPM. For this branding the most important of networks is definitely the YouTube and The TikTok. I say this because the Facebook algorithm is terrible and Twitter seems to be a hot mess these days while the new leadership sorts itself out. If you are on those networks please lend us some attention for sure since they are published to regularly despite the engagement. There is no branded KPM Instagram as its not necessary, instead the posts are hashtagged with #kenpiercemedia to help tie the sides together when someone clicks it. Reaching some audience milestones in TT and YT are quite important as a New Year initiative. We need subscribers and views on each network. The more we see the audience coming to visit the more I am encouraged to keep posting more and more stuff. It’s as simple as that.
Top 10 Countries: United States, Czech Republic, Canada, India, United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Germany, China and Philippines.
So that’s going to wrap it up for this year’s overview and I hope that you enjoyed what we had to say about this family of brands. I’m glad I decided to do the overview here on KPM as it continues to show it serving as the senior level managerial branch. I will be keeping the site birthday notices on their respective dotcoms of course. We welcome any topical commentary in the comments section down below and the most important links are being served up via individual branded Linktree accounts. It makes it easier to update stuff and organize for our readers. We think you will like it. Thanks for the support and interest. It’s my hope that 2023 will be a fantastic year in terms of good health, prosperity and special memories with your loved one. Happy New Year.
Important Links:
PiercingMetal
Piercing Ken
Ken Pierce Media