15 Years Online -- Thank YOU!

15 Years!

Circa 2000.

Wow May 2012 will mark 15 years of putting reviews and commentaries online for yours truly. The beginning of the Common Guy’s Film Reviews featured yours truly writing in a world that didn’t have a million websites. (maybe just half a million).

 See the website circa 2000 (yes I used to program my own HTML code) and the little icon that drove traffic to my site -- PLUS details on a great contest and more -- after the jump.

When my site was listed by Yahoo! – Yes the dominant search engine of the time and the little (NEW) icon was next to it…I received more hits in a week than I did in many moons. But of course…at that point…if you searched in Yahoo! Under film reviews I was on top of the list.

I started on a whim. After many years of telling folks my opinion on movies working at Blockbuster Video and the independent Double Feature Video along with a gas station that rented movies (Benco), I felt it was time to take those opinions to the masses…hello WWW.

In the beginning there was no commonguy.com – just http://www.ticon.net/~bugzy. (The site no longer exists…so no need to click there).

The site in 2000 as show on the WayBack Machine.

My reviews were picked up by http://www.rottentomatoes.com and I was off and running. Never to imagine where I am today. Over the next month I will share pieces of that journey...for those of you who have been around my site for a while, you may remember them...others...will be in for some surprises.

To celebrate during the entire month (May 2012 in case you are reading this in 2015 or something), I will be reminiscing about a number of things that have happened along the way. But that’s not all.

To celebrate 15 years – I’ll give away a $15 ITunes gift card and 15 other assorted goodies that I’ve picked up through the years…I’ve got old movie shirts (don’t worry…they were never worn), a couple of unopened DVDs and maybe I’ll round up some more goodies from some of my studio friends throughout the month.

My commitment to you during May.

-       a new post daily (sometimes it will be a review – sometimes it will be a normal column…sometimes some pieces on years gone by.

-       Constantly updated Facebook and Twitter pages – have you “liked” http://facebook.com/CommonGuyFilmReviewsyet? Why not…do it now.

-       Follow me on Twitter for a number of quick and new comments throughout the month. Have you followed me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/commonguymoviesyet? Always fun and quick quips there.

-       Plus I’m announcing that I am beginning work on the first outlines of a book about life as a film critic (that doesn’t have a big name). I’ll have stories of my experiences throughout the years that many have heard, but now they’ll all be in one place.

Follow all month! Tell your friends. There are great giveaways coming! I’d love to double the Facebook and Twitter “likes and Followers” before the month is out, and with your help – that will be possible.

Thanks all – see you tomorrow!