Sunday Discussion: Geek Alabama’s Top 3 For 2013 / And Plans For 2014

By Nathan Young on December 29, 2013

First Off: If you have not seen it yet, please enjoy our short Christmas / New Year video!

Geek Alabama has now become the top United States ranked media website in East Alabama / West Georgia beating the Anniston Star. The blog is also one of the top geeky/nerdy websites in the world. It only took the blog around 1 1/2 years to get to this point and without spending one cent on advertising, thank you for reading! Alexa ratings as of January 10th.

2013 has been a great year for Geek Alabama. I got to cover numerous events with amazing pictures, videos and coverage. I got to review many products, businesses, TV shows, movies, concerts, plays, geeky stuff, and more. Then I got plenty of thank you’s from the people/places I reviewed. I have done some of the best recipes, and family and friends have enjoyed the goodies from me. I have done some of the best weather coverage, high school sports coverage, and Roadscapes coverage with the best photos and videos. I have done some of the best music coverage with photos and videos. And I have done some of the best geeky / nerdy coverage, of course we do that since we are called Geek Alabama!

I wanted to highlight the three top things from Geek Alabama in 2013! I have done a lot of stuff and it was hard to break down the top three things, so here we go!

The first has to be the numerous coverage from the Alabama Phoenix Festival. I did many posts, pictures, and videos. Yep, only one person did all of this, amazing right! Many people have contacted me thanking me for the coverage. We also did our first Dragon Con coverage this year. And yes, we will be doing Dragon Con next year! And of course we will do the 3rd annual Alabama Phoenix Festival next Summer! To see all the coverage from the Alabama Phoenix Festival, click the link! http://geekalabama.com/category/alabama-phoenix-festival/

The second biggest thing has to be the Toyota campaign. I got a chance to drive a brand new 2014 Toyota Corolla for a weekend with only 50 miles on it! It’s because my social media influence is one of the highest in the southeast and the country! Yes, I have many people who share my stuff on social media. I got a gift card and had several cool events paid in advance for one amazing weekend! To see the post, click the link and enjoy the video! http://geekalabama.com/2013/10/02/the-corolla-unexpecteverything-weekend-in-atlanta-georgia/

And the third thing has to be becoming a part of the Discovery Communications media family. Since I do talk about the shows on the Discovery Networks and especially the Hub Network. The folks from the Hub Network now send me PR e-mails about some of their special events coming up. And the folks from Discovery have also noticed what we do and they sometimes share some things with me! Thank you Discovery Communications and Hub Network for letting us talking about your great shows! We will continue to talk about your special events.

I work really, I mean really hard to make Geek Alabama a great place for everyone to visit! Geek Alabama has grown since starting in April 2012 and I believe we are one of the fastest growing blogs out there. All while one person writes and covers all events! I am a person who will not take “NO” for an answer. I have had several people, especially some media people here in East Alabama, say I will go nowhere. Boy I have proved them wrong! I just want to find a way to make money from this, and I do have ways. But I just need some funding to do it! Read below to learn about our Indiegogo campaign. And take a look at my Visual Resume, over 4,000 views and counting!

Geek Alabama does things differently from other geeky/nerdy websites, not only we cover things geeks and nerds would like. We also talk about the local community and cover events. That is why we are successful! So, let’s first talk about some of the things that I want to expand that are already featured on Geek Alabama!

First, I want to expand our weekend events. And also expand event coverage during the week as well! Which is one of the top features on Geek Alabama. I take many great photos and some awesome video footage. If you are new to Geek Alabama, watch our intro video to learn everything we do!

Next, you know I want to expand our already great choice of recipes from A Guy’s Cuisine, our cooking segment on Geek Alabama. I want to continue making more recipe posts plus make some more Guy’s Cuisine cooking videos, that are doing well on YouTube. Here is one of those videos!

Next is Roadscapes, I did many Road themed posts in 2013 and even did three Roadscapes time-lapse videos that are doing very well on YouTube! Here is one of Quintard Ave. in Anniston.

Next up is our crowdsourcing posts. Kickstarter Tuesdays and Crowdsourcing Weekends are very popular on this blog! I get plenty of e-mails and social media contacts from people who are wanting me to talk about their crowdsourcing projects!

Next up is Animation Monday! Which is the most popular feature on Geek Alabama. Animation Monday does something different in the animation world each week ranging from TV shows, movies, comic books, and even political cartoons! I would like to expand and include fan art submissions this year! My top animation themed video in 2013 is the My Little Pony fandom at the Alabama Phoenix Festival.

Another popular feature is Music Thursdays! This weekly feature talks about nothing but music. We had interviews, music videos, and artist features in 2013. I want to expand this in 2014! My top concert video in 2013 has to be the Operation Ben Concert with Gary Sinise!

Geek Alabama also had numerous reviews from many sources! We enjoyed reviewing products, movies, TV shows, and more!

Geek Alabama did plenty of videos in 2013 including starting a vlog series called The Southern Geek that is growing! Here is a video where I made my 2013 Iron Bowl pick!

Weather coverage is another part of Geek Alabama. Thankfully, Alabama had a quiet year with few severe weather events. But I was out taking photos and videos of severe weather when it happened. Here is video of a severe storm in 2013.

And of course, Geek Alabama talks about some of the biggest geeky and nerdy news out there. Things in 2013 from the gaming console wars, new tech stuff, controversies, and more was talked about! Geek Alabama also has some new features coming in 2014!

So, what are some of the new segments I want to introduce in 2014? First off, we want to expand our reviews posts with some new review segments. First off, introducing Tech Reviews, App Reviews, Food Reviews, Gaming Reviews, and As Seen on TV Reviews! This will be in addition to the other reviews we already do! Blogs with reviews do very well so I am thinking this will be a good move!

Second, introducing Crowdsourcing Mornings! I am getting so many requests from people running crowdsourcing projects to talk about them, I am going to talk about one crowdsouring project every weekday morning in addition to the Kickstarter Tuesdays and Crowdsourcing Weekends we already do! Geek Alabama loves to help other people launch their dreams by running a crowdsourcing project.

And, this new segment called Pets of the Week is something that will help the community. I wanted to start a segment where we highlight some pets available from adoption at a local animal shelter. Hopefully we can launch this in 2014. I am a deep pet lover and there are pets that deserves a great home! Other things we would like to do is a weekly podcast, and much more!

Here is one thing that really excites me. As I sit here tonight writing this, Geek Alabama is currently the second highest media website in East Alabama / West Georgia! Yep, Geek Alabama is ranked higher than the Gadsden Times, Times-Georgian, Rome News-Tribune, Auburn / Opelika News, and the other smaller newspapers. Geek Alabama is quickly becoming one of the top media websites in Alabama and across the country. And this entire blog is done by one person! I am the only one who writes all the posts, covers all the events, and reviews all the stuff. And I can prove my hard work with our Alexa rankings! Ratings as of January 13th.

Yes, one website being written by one person is beating many other media websites where they have a paid staff to write stories and take pictures. That does say something! And the way things are going, soon I hope we will go past the Anniston Star in website rankings! That will mean Geek Alabama will be the highest worldwide ranked media website in East Alabama / West Georgia and our takeover will be complete! To have one website who is ran by one person and doesn’t get paid will be a testament on how not do online paywalls like the newspapers do. You know everyone can get around those paywalls without paying, do you?

As of right now, my car is broken down and my camera/computer equipment is getting way too old. Yes, I will walk several miles just to cover one event because I am that committed! I have talked with advertisers and other people who could help, but I need money to make those things happen! That is why I am running a Crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo. The Geek Alabama Fundraiser – Help Us Raise Money to Expand Geek Alabama is now live on Indiegogo! This fundraiser is to raise $20,000 in 30 days. It is a fixed campaign, so if we don’t raise the $20,000, we don’t get funded, and no rewards will be handed out.

There are some great rewards you can choose from including books, t-shirts, poster, tote bag, other items, and chances to be featured on Geek Alabama! Here is what we are offering!

We are doing a crowdsourcing campaign because it’s simple, we are extremely money poor and without extra funding, we can not expand! One, our camera equipment is now several years old and the sensors are breaking down. Two, our computer equipment is breaking down. It takes us a couple of hours to process one video because of the slow computer. Geek Alabama wants to move to a self-hosted site so we can accept advertisers. Geek Alabama is currently hosted on WordPress.com where outside advertisers are banned. Funds would also go towards getting radio equipment so we can launch a podcast! The money would also go towards fixing our transportation (car), paying the fees, and paying for the rewards. Geek Alabama has worked with many companies including these below!

Geek Alabama is also rapidly becoming well-known across Alabama, Georgia, the southeast, America, and the world! I would like to thank everyone for reading Geek Alabama, seeing pictures from Geek Alabama, and watching our Geek Alabama videos! We have plenty of exciting things coming to Geek Alabama in 2014, but if we don’t reach this goal, we might not get to do them. And the people who were counting on us for promotion and coverage will be left without, we don’t want that to happen!

Thank you for reading this post, and to wrap up, here is a new road drawing, just for you! Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year from Geek Alabama! I hope 2014 will bring us some great stuff! View our Indiegogo campaign at: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geek-alabama-fundraiser-help-us-raise-money-to-expand-geek-alabama/x/3587818#share