Just a bit over a year ago nearly to the day, I started this blog in the wake of Michigan losing the National Championship to Villanova as a way to write about a couple of my passions: college basketball and soccer. Now, here we are, in the wake of the first full season covered by me for this passion project of a blog. To say things have been a blast would be an understatement. It has always been a labor of love as I consistently try to provide great coverage. While I have certainly fallen off covering Liverpool, I believe most of you are happy with my college basketball coverage and how I talk about Liverpool and soccer whenever is suitable.
The answer to 'how much can change over a year?' is, evidently, 'a lot.' Jordan Poole's father posted my player profile of Jordan on his Facebook over the summer, which was my first blog post where I actually said 'oh, people are ACTUALLY willing to read this.' After I started covering AFC Ann Arbor, things also picked up as, again, I quickly learned that if you write about things people are interested in, especially when there is limited availability of that content in a multitude of sources, people will read it. I was linked to by MGoBlog here which, resulted in the greatest spike of readership I have seen on this site. As ridiculous as it may sound, it's humbling that, whether it's 20 or 200 people, more or less, or anywhere in-between, there are people who enjoy reading what I write.
What's next? Well, in case you don't know, I am pleased to be officially a member of the AFC Ann Arbor staff. If you've missed my writing about AFC Ann Arbor, I have a whole list of everything I have written places that are not here, including for ISN and MichSoccerNow. I also host Welcome to Tree Town, the official podcast of AFC Ann Arbor, and love doing that. New episodes are uploaded every Thursday and you can listen here or watch a full playlist of them here. I will continue to be working for them throughout the season, and anything written about AFCAA in particular will be featured there.
I really, truly, enjoy what I'm doing with written content right now. Looking at the future, I would love to expand into more podcasting. I post on SoundCloud if there is a podcast, but am going to look into alternatives in hosting audio content as well. I want to continue to write about college basketball and professional/semi-professional soccer with a slant interested in the tactics and players, not just results.
In terms of the immediate short-term 'what's next'...I don't really know. At the moment, I'm pondering just a brief hiatus from long-form writing for a week or two, just to shift gears from in-season mode to out-of-season for basketball, meaning a year in review, player profiles, and draft talk is set to come, and back into the swing of things for a title hunt for Liverpool. With AFCAA season coming up as well, I am looking forward to that and hoping to be a wonderfully, productively, busy with that as well. Finals are on the way and on the horizon, but that is no surprise. For the time being, things are going to be a bit more laid back in terms of writing as the season has finally come to a close.
Well if I'm not writing 3,500 words a week, that what will I do sports related? Good question! You can continue to follow me on Twitter -- @RMAB_Ryan -- because I tweet a ton about a whole variety of things. I want to continue creating content that you cannot find elsewhere -- that includes team breakdowns like I did for Ajax or Leeds. I want to break down the promoted teams and relegated teams once this season ends. I would LOVE doing a deep dive of players, whether basketball or professional football, that people enjoy. Tell me what you want to read from me! My DMs are open for anyone to share.
It's been a fantastic year. This, funny enough, coincides with my 200th post on this blog. I think that says something about my productivity for life outside of sports, but I am having a lovely time. Thank you for your continued readership!
As always, follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
The answer to 'how much can change over a year?' is, evidently, 'a lot.' Jordan Poole's father posted my player profile of Jordan on his Facebook over the summer, which was my first blog post where I actually said 'oh, people are ACTUALLY willing to read this.' After I started covering AFC Ann Arbor, things also picked up as, again, I quickly learned that if you write about things people are interested in, especially when there is limited availability of that content in a multitude of sources, people will read it. I was linked to by MGoBlog here which, resulted in the greatest spike of readership I have seen on this site. As ridiculous as it may sound, it's humbling that, whether it's 20 or 200 people, more or less, or anywhere in-between, there are people who enjoy reading what I write.
What's next? Well, in case you don't know, I am pleased to be officially a member of the AFC Ann Arbor staff. If you've missed my writing about AFC Ann Arbor, I have a whole list of everything I have written places that are not here, including for ISN and MichSoccerNow. I also host Welcome to Tree Town, the official podcast of AFC Ann Arbor, and love doing that. New episodes are uploaded every Thursday and you can listen here or watch a full playlist of them here. I will continue to be working for them throughout the season, and anything written about AFCAA in particular will be featured there.
I really, truly, enjoy what I'm doing with written content right now. Looking at the future, I would love to expand into more podcasting. I post on SoundCloud if there is a podcast, but am going to look into alternatives in hosting audio content as well. I want to continue to write about college basketball and professional/semi-professional soccer with a slant interested in the tactics and players, not just results.
In terms of the immediate short-term 'what's next'...I don't really know. At the moment, I'm pondering just a brief hiatus from long-form writing for a week or two, just to shift gears from in-season mode to out-of-season for basketball, meaning a year in review, player profiles, and draft talk is set to come, and back into the swing of things for a title hunt for Liverpool. With AFCAA season coming up as well, I am looking forward to that and hoping to be a wonderfully, productively, busy with that as well. Finals are on the way and on the horizon, but that is no surprise. For the time being, things are going to be a bit more laid back in terms of writing as the season has finally come to a close.
Well if I'm not writing 3,500 words a week, that what will I do sports related? Good question! You can continue to follow me on Twitter -- @RMAB_Ryan -- because I tweet a ton about a whole variety of things. I want to continue creating content that you cannot find elsewhere -- that includes team breakdowns like I did for Ajax or Leeds. I want to break down the promoted teams and relegated teams once this season ends. I would LOVE doing a deep dive of players, whether basketball or professional football, that people enjoy. Tell me what you want to read from me! My DMs are open for anyone to share.
It's been a fantastic year. This, funny enough, coincides with my 200th post on this blog. I think that says something about my productivity for life outside of sports, but I am having a lovely time. Thank you for your continued readership!
As always, follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
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