BTSC Year End Review and News

Well, the year 2019 is coming to an end, and so has the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season. For the second straight year the Steelers have failed to make the playoffs, making New Year have a double meaning for the black-and-gold faithful.

With that said, I wanted to take the time to give a year end review of sorts regarding the site and what might be on the horizon this offseason...good Lord it’s going to be another long offseason.

This season the site reached new limits when it comes to traffic and page views, but what really showed growth are unique visits. Those would be people who haven’t visited the site, but have found it one way or another. Analytics like these are tremendous, but just like what I say regarding all statistics, they can’t be the whole story.

As painful as it was, the numbers this year were helped by the drama surrounding Antonio Brown’s disgusting departure from the team, the injury to Ben Roethlisberger, trading away a first round draft pick for Minkah Fitzpatrick the next week, Mason Rudolph winning some football games, Duck Mania taking over and then the eventual collapse.

I’ve said it a million times, this year was one of intrigue. It wasn’t always pretty and fun, but there was intrigue around every corner. And while in-season traffic does correlate to the success of the team, you still have to cover the team and have writers who are doing a great job providing content which you don’t just want to read, but are drawing people back.

Those writers would be:

Dave Schofield
Tony Defeo
Bryan Anthony Davis
Flip Fisher
Cliff Harris Is Still A Punk
Shannon White
Geoffrey Benedict

This group of writers, along with a few volunteer writers, are who I want to thank for helping this site be the very best Steelers site on the internet. The film reviews, commentary and features are what keep people coming back for more.

Thank you gents for all your hard work!

I will take the time now to also give a shoutout to our moderators, particularly SNW, for the thankless job of trying to keep the masses in line, without having people like they can’t speak their mind. I don’t often read every comment, but when I do the community seems to be thriving.

Thank you for your dedication!

While the growth the site experienced was tremendous, there was no growth like our podcast platforms. This was the first year I decided I wanted to provide daily podcasting content to the fans, and if I’m being honest, I wondered just how it would be received. Would it be too much? The numbers say there is no such thing.

When the season started, and SB Nation started their podcast platform, meaning every site had to have at least one podcast, I remember talking to Lance Williams about how we should target 1k downloads a day.

Fast forward to the month of December, and we averaged 4.5k downloads a day! The platform continues to grow, and when I say platforms I am also referring to our YouTube channel (find us on YouTube by searching BTSC Steelers Radio). We started the YouTube channel simply to use a different platform for improved sound quality, and we just eclipsed 5k subscribers.

The podcasters who should be thanked are:

Lance Williams (The Hater)
Tony Defeo
Bryan Anthony Davis (Mr. 2am)
Dave Schofield (The Oracle)
Big Bro Scho

I say this not to gloat, but for the fact of letting fans know we couldn’t, and can’t, do it without you. This goes for both the website and the podcast platform!

So, what lies ahead? Anything new?

In the new year we will continue providing you with the absolute best written content we can provide, but are always up for ideas to make the site better. As for me, I am going to try and do more features like my Think Tank articles, and open threads, to encourage community participation and discussion. After all, it is what makes this site great!

From a podcast perspective we will be doubling down on our content a few days a week to continue offering you the best Steelers podcasts all year long!

2020 is almost here, and I hope you all are ready!!

HERE WE GO STEELERS!