Nedved's Notes Turns Half!

Yesterday marked six months of existence for this blog. Considering how many blogs there are that fail to live past the initial excitement of the first few posts, I've decided to celebrate. Well, not exactly celebrate, but at least mark the occasion. So, today instead of telling you about life as a American football supporter living in England, I am going to tell you about life as a blogger writing about being an American football supporter living in England. Vive le difference! I say.

So here are some raw facts: since beginning this blog on 19 July 2009 there have been:

95 Posts (including this one), 7,457 hits, and 11,383 page views.

The most viewed pages (other than the main page) have been: In Praise of Fish and Cleethorpes - 363 hits, City Till I Die (Possibly from Exposure)! - 352 hits, The Nedved Interview: Sido Jombarti & Florin Pelecaci - 314 hits, and An Introduction to Bath City FC - 279 hits.

There have been visitors to the blog from eighty-one countries. About 80% of readers are from the UK, 10% from America, and 10% the rest of the world. You might be surprised to learn that after the UK and the US the most common countries are Brazil, the Netherlands, and Belarus. I'm big in Minsk.

I find all of these stats very exciting, although in the world of serious football blogging it is still pretty minor league (or maybe non-league?).

I would like to thank the many people who have helped me with this work in progress. Mostly I need to thank Mrs Nedved, who all things considered, has been very accommodating with my obsession. Also the two Nedved Juniors need special mention for providing with so much material to write about.

Perhaps the biggest help has been from the Bath City webmaster, known as Yuffie. Without his excellent photographs this would be a rather bare blog. He not only produces very high quality work, but gives it away for free to anyone who wants to use it. This is very generous, especially considering that newspapers and magazines borrow work from his Flikr feed about as frequently as I do. He also gave this blog a big readership boost by putting a link on the main page of his website.

I've also received some much needed help from Bath City programme editor Mark Stillman, and the City stalwarts known as Lord Bear and WSP. The Atlanta Beat front office has been very accommodating with the posts I've done about thier project. I am especially grateful for the encouraging comment I received from Beat General Manager Shawn McGee on Twitter.

How did this blog begin? Almost accidentally, to be honest. I thought it might be fun to write about British sports for my friends home in America to read. This turns out to have been a very minor part of what the blog has grown into over the months. I didn't really intend for the blog to take on the semi-journalistic role it has slid into over time (although that has ended up being some of the most enjoyable work of all).

The most exciting experience so far was interviewing Sido and Florin. I had no idea what I was doing, and I became really aware of this about five minutes in. The article would have been a miserable failure if the two of them had not been so nice and understanding. A special thanks has to go out to the Gibbons family for lending me a pen when the one I had brought to the interview mysteriously disappeared.

There have been a few low lights as well. I find writing about Newport County fairly unpleasant. I find the comments this generates from Newport County fans even more so. I have also, so far, failed miserably on one of the key projects of this blog. City manager Adie Britton was kind enough to give up some of his valuable time to let me interview him, but despite a lot of effort I have not been able to knock my material into anything readable yet. This is solely due to my inexperience writing up interviews, and not with the information Adie gave me. I am still hoping to get this published soon.

What can you expect from Nedved's Notes in the next six months? Well, hopefully I'm still writing. If you had asked me back in July if this would last into 2010 I'm not sure I could have honestly said I expected it to. There are two more interviews in the pipeline (including the one of Adie Britton). There is also a lot more coming about the Atlanta Beat, whose season very conveniently begins just about the time that Bath City's is finishing.

And now, a contest: I've written an article of some sort on every single match City have played so far this season except one. Which one was it? [In actual fact the article is half-written but never published] I'm not sure what you'll get if you win. Perhaps a mention in the one-year-anniversary post I write next July.

Okay, I'm going to end this rather self-indulgent post now. Thanks to everyone who has been reading (I still find it somewhat surreal that people do actually read this thing!). Feel free to contact me anytime with comments or suggestions at nedvedsnotes(at)googlemail(dot)com

Normal service resumes tomorrow!