It was the afternoon of January 26, 2010 (4:56 PM ET) when I launched the ND GO IRISH BLOG -- and, it was a little more than an hour later when I had my first Notre Dame fan visit the site -- my wife...
I've been asked many times since; "why did you decide to do this?" My reason for doing so was simply this: I wanted to prove to myself (at a dinosaur's age, in this thing called social media) that I could "tell a story" that would generate and sustain a following.
Little did I know (I didn't dream this BIG) that nearly four years later -- at 3:01 PM ET on Friday, January 16, 2014 -- a Notre Dame fan from Ramone, CA would become UNIQUE FOLLOWER #1,000,000 for my "little blog that did."
Here's some quick "fun facts" about the first four years of the ND GO IRISH BLOG:
- The site is now 1,451 days old.
- In this time period -- there have been only 19 days when I haven't posted a story about Notre Dame. Seven (7) of those days were an intentional shut down of the ND GO IRISH BLOG
while our family mourned the loss of my MOM--JOAN SMALL (2012) and my
GRANDMA--BARBARA DOYLE (2011) -- two people who taught me (and our
family) to love Notre Dame. On eleven (11) other days I was out of town / country with limited to no access to the internet and one (1) day I simply forgot!!!
- And, as of this very moment -- I've posted 6,489 "positive" stories on the ND GO IRISH BLOG about the University of Notre Dame, its students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and fans. That's an average of 4.47 stories each day over the last four years.
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU so much for making the ND GO IRISH BLOG one of your daily, weekly or monthly stops on the worldwide web for "positive" Notre Dame stories.
THANK YOU for the kind letters, tweets, emails, conversations and calls over these past four years. I'm truly humbled that so many of you have taken the time to let me know how much you enjoy the ND GO IRISH BLOG. THANK YOU!
And, I need to thank my wife Susan for putting up with this "daily obsession" of mine -- she thinks I'm crazy and she's right...
IT'S BEEN FUN! -- ONWARD TO THE NEXT MILLION!
GO IRISH!
Jim Small
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