We thought we’d take a look back at some of our high points of 2019 and give you a look at what we have in store for 2020. In 2019, we hit some pretty high high-water marks that we’re really proud of. First, let me point out that during the holiday season we did a nice little wrap up of the year’s best posts and this article (Rolling Boxcar’s Best of 2019) also highlights some of those high-water marks.

During the spring of 2019, we welcomed Daniel Stack as our newest regular blog contributor and team member. During his short time with us, Dan’s articles cover a wide array of topics above and beyond just reviews. Dan likes to look at trending community issues, even if they are touchy subjects. Nonetheless, he always approaches each article with tactful candor that is refreshing.

Late in the fall, we had surpassed all visitor/view projections for 2019. In fact, we surpassed 2017’s totals, which was our best year to date. This obviously sets a new bar for us to aim for and I think we can have an even better 2020!

As an aside to surpassing our projections, part of that success is attributed to the fact that we established a regular publication schedule in January of 2019. That regularity allowed us to read and write far more reviews and articles than we had in previous years; bringing you even more content!

We saw the rise of new social media platforms as a result of the closure of G+. While not a high point in any way, as we all loved G+, it did challenge us to think differently in how we promote Rolling Boxcars and to an even greater extent, what we write about was affected by this change in the social media space.

So, what does 2020 look like for Rolling Boxcars? First and foremost, we are going to stick with our regular publishing schedule. We have received feedback from readers that the current schedule is good and predictable (Tues, Thurs one week and then Mon, Wed the following week).

We’re going to try to add more articles throughout the month as we scale back ever-so-slightly our reviews. We’re still trying to dial in the perfect ratio of articles to reviews. We are always open to feedback when it comes to this ratio or recommendations about topics you’d like us to cover.

In 2020 we are hoping to expand our publisher partnerships to be able to bring you more industry news on a more reliable and timely basis.

The last focus area is pretty wide and has potentially big implications. We are going to focus a little more heavily on our Patreon supporters this year. If you’re new to Rolling Boxcars, Patreon is a way for fans to help financial support Rolling Boxcars. When we reach certain funding goals, we’ll introduce new and exciting new content (video interview series, podcasting, etc) to our humble little blog. In return for their small monthly contribution, patrons get a variety of perks. One of which is voting to determine our featured review is each month. Those that support at higher tiers get invites to games that we run online through our Discord. Occasionally, there are other perks exclusive to supporters. I say all of that to say, we would love to see some growth at Patreon in 2020. You can learn more about our Patreon here.

To help with the above goal, we will be doing a Patreon supporter drive in the spring. More details on that once we finish ironing them out, but in the meantime, consider becoming a patron before then. All existing patrons will get some perks during the supporter drive; still to be determined.

~ The Rolling Boxcars Team

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