Today, this blog turns eight years old! Over the years I've made 2345 posts which received 5,747,840 views, almost a million of which came in the last year alone. Unfortunately, changes to the Blogger stats tab don't let me compare my visitors directly with last year's results, but according to Google Analytics most of my readers by far are still from the United States, with the UK a distant second and Germany third. However, over the past year Canada has overtaken Germany for third place, although they still have ways to go before getting into the top 3 for all time readers.
Of course, Tank Archives is no longer just a blog and there were plenty of achievements in other areas over the last year.
2020 was a challenging year for many, and this includes the book industry. With most brick and mortar stores closed, Morton's made the decision to postpone the launch of my second book, Sherman Tanks of the Red Army, to the spring of 2021. As I type this post, the draft layout is already finished and my revisions are being put in. The provisional release date right now is April 14th, 2021. You can preorder it here.
There are also news regarding my first book, Designing the T-34. In addition to the paper version, it's now available as an eBook on the Kindle, Google Play, Kobo, and PocketMags platforms. If you're looking for a preview, the Google Play offers the longest sample.
In other online deeds, I started recording new videos for my YouTube channel. Instead of just videos of reenactments, I recorded a few lectures and Q&As. This year I also stared a Facebook page with daily content, primarily photos from both historical archives and museums I have visited. This is completely different content than what I post on my Twitter, so sign up to both if you don't want to miss anything. Speaking of Twitter, earlier this year I passed the 10,000 follower milestone and am now approaching 11,000 followers.
As many of you know, I don't only write for Tank Archives, but also for other publications, for instance Warspot.net. Over the year I wrote 14 articles for that website. They are doing quite well: the #1 article in the Tanks section, two our of the top 3, and four out of the top 10 are mine.
Thank you to all of my readers, and stay tuned for more exciting announcements!