Spannerhead Dot Com

Since most automotive journalists are likely hunkered down in their beds, visions of F10 BMW M5s and 2013 GT500s dancing in their heads, it’s been an exceptionally slow news day. What better time, then, to pen a little self-serving look back at the six months I’ve been blogging?

It’s been an adjustment, to say the least. Depending on a number of factors—how excited I am about a particular subject, how familiar I am with said subject, how much time I spend conjuring a topic, how quickly I’m able to find and format images, etc—writing a post can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, and shoehorning that time into often-hectic family life can be difficult. Fortunately, I’ve been able to generate a steady stream of content beyond the initial pent-up backlog of automotive opinions built up over the years prior to the blog. The various series I’ve started help, as does the odd good news day here and there. It may be 10:30 in the evening, and I may have had no clue what to write about up until then, but somehow, inspiration comes, even if I just phone it in for that day (and you all have been privy to many of those posts).

I’m incredibly grateful for my readership, as limited as it is. I have to admit the bulk of the site’s hits come from search engine results, and so much hit-and-run browsing makes me thankful for the returning visits the site records. Suffice it to say that so far, you’re, um, an exclusive club. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a forum, but without a compelling “angle” that would differentiate it from the hordes of automotive forums out there, I don’t want to put in the time to set that up, as much traffic as that would have the potential to generate.

Preemptively, and because I would like to focus on automotive topics through the next holiday, I do have a few goals for Spannerhead for the new year:

• Complete my “About” page. The site feels a bit bare without it.
• Finish stocking my merchandise site. Soon you’ll be able to buy a Spannerhead t-shirt (among other things), but I need a few more designs before that goes live.
• Add a “like” or “share” button to each post to enable more specific networking.
• Integrate some kind of navigation into the header to make it easier for people to browse the site by topic. As the number of articles grows, I’d like folks to be able to see, for instance, a whole series at a glance.

That should keep me busy for quite a while. Again, thanks to all my faithful readers, and a very merry Christmas to all. May your daily commutes be safe, your heel-and-toe downshifts seamless, and the bases of each of your trees festooned with wonderful car-related gifts.