This week is the fifth anniversary of Craig Woolheater’s and Eric Reed’s creation of Cryptomundo, the world’s most successful, most widely read, and most prolific blog on cryptozoology.
In the beginning, the bloggers were Craig, John Kirk, Rick Noll, and me, Loren Coleman. Initial design components from Duncan Hopkins were greatly appreciated too.
A few writers have come and gone since then, but mostly Craig and I have remained the core bloggers.
Guest blogger Brent Swancer has contributed the longest continuing series, one on Japanese cryptids. Others have shared interesting insights on a variety of topics. Everyone’s writings have been most welcome.
The first post on Cryptomundo appeared on September 29, 2005, and was authored by Craig. My first posting, after I joined the team, was on October 13, 2005.
Needless to say, I have utilized Cryptomundo to communicate to the world the news of cryptozoology for five years, extensively, and the majority of the blog entries have been mine. This has caused some in the media to incorrectly report that this is “my blog,” when I have been clear it has been Craig’s creation, from the beginning. Today, Craig is the sole owner of Cryptomundo. It has, however, been the platform for my writings, of which I have appreciated.
Many features on Cryptomundo have been picked up by others in the cryptozoological and online world, copied, repeated, and shared. Additionally, obituaries, discoveries, speculations, skeptical answers, and new sightings have been spread through mainstream journalism from Cryptomundo. Our annual “best of” lists have been duplicated, cited, copied and quoted by our online peers and commercial media.
Cryptomundo has been unique in that it has been open-minded, skeptical, humorous, contemporary, historical, scientific, newsworthy, and topical.
The pages of Cryptomundo have carried breaking news, popular cultural tidbits, and our radical cutting edge views in mainstream cryptozoology that few others have published.
Communicating the news of cryptozoology through the pages of Cryptomundo has been a wonderful venture, except in the area of a fiscal supportive base of operations. An early myth developed that every time anyone read an entry on Cryptomundo, the owners of Cryptomundo made money. The reality is that nothing like that happens, although it would be great if such a fantasy money-producing software existed for the support of the multiple servers and space that has to be purchased to keep Cryptomundo going. The small revenue from the few ads, and minimal donations to CM are hardly enough to keep the blog going. Indeed, as you saw over the summer, CM almost closed down. Craig constantly takes money from his other business to keep CM afloat.
Still, we exist, five years into this blog.
How about some statistics reflecting the success of Cryptomundo?
Over 5400 postings have been published, and over 63,000 comments have appeared.
As of today, there are more than 17,200 registered members, which only reflects those who have signed up to leave comments. Registration is free, and reading Cryptomundo remains free.
The average number of page views per month is over 3,000,000. The per day number of visitors varies, of course.
But the highest number ever recorded was during the week that Cryptomundo was exposing (and first published) the photo of the costume used by the Georgia hoaxers in August 2008. This turned into 1.9 million hits on Cryptomundo in one three-day period, an all-time high.
What will five more years of Cryptomundo adventures bring?
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