Happy New Year, and here we go with 2018....
2018 is our fourth full year of operation and this year I am hoping to take the Mephitsu Archives on the next few steps in our journey.
2017 saw us hit quite a few milestones, most notably our application to be considered for a spot on the Feedspot Top 50 Action Figure Blogs. We ended up being placed number 28 and are now proudly sporting our Top 50 blog medal on the site. We also expanded our YouTube presence, with 222 video's now online and our video's themselves have progressed from basic slideshows to mini reviews. Facebook and Twitter did grow slightly, but not as much as we would hope - our base now seems to have hit that point where both want us to regularly use paid adverts to grow any further. Instagram is another new avenue we've opened, but I am still learning the ropes on this one. I do have some thoughts also around our Facebook Group and our website Forum - and for these I may need to get some help if anyone is interested?
2017 did have some downpoints to. Saying goodbye to Clect was one of them and we wish the team all the best for their next project. We also struggled to grow our readership on Issue and via direct mailing. I also personally spent too much time and money in 2017 obsessing on having the newest figures first and up for review. In hindsight this is not practical considering we are UK based - the big US sites will always have first dibs on the figures and the reviews and it is not practical for me to spend so much trying to keep up. 2018 therefore will see me concentrate more on the figures I purchase for my collection - I think this will bring back my own personal enjoyment whilst not bankrupting me or getting me in trouble with Mrs. M.
With this slightly amended approach on reviews, the site will concentrate more on News and I intend to continue the #SatTOYday newsletter feature and have some other avenues to explore with our regular news updates. I also need to be practical about the site and the costs now associated with hosting and paying for developer add-ons like the map based store listing. You may therefore see some more affiliate adverts and I will be continuing to work on site partners and other avenues of monitisation to make the site self sufficient.
And to end I would like to say a heartfelt thanks to those who have already stepped in and supported the site through 2017. Our good friends at Kapow Toys have been supporting us for 6-months now as a site parter. Toys in the Attic linked up with us at the start of 2017 and have also supported our Halloween Spectacular and given us our first exclusive reader discount code. And to Darths Hutt who acts as my sounding board quite often on Facebook.
This has been a long post, but hopefully this sets us up a good strategy for 2018 and you will all stay with us on the next step of the journey. Can I thank everyone for their support and wish you and your families a Happy New Year and a fantastic 2018.