Today marks the fifth anniversary of Boosterrific.com opening its doors in the digital wasteland. Since construction started on this website, Booster Gold has gone from a dead supporting character in 52 to "The Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of" to the leader of the United Nations' Justice League team. Booster's rise to greatness and the creation of this website cannot be a coincidence. You're welcome, Booster.

Google tells me that Boosterrific.com has been reached by over 40,000 unique computers around the world in the last two-and-a-half years alone. (Site visitor tracking was turned over to Google Analytics on Jan 24, 2010.) That's about how many Booster Gold comics sell each month. Could that mean that everyone who reads Booster Gold comics monthly has already dropped by this site?

The most hits Boosterrific.com has yet recorded in a single day was 301 on April 22, 2011. That's the day that Booster Gold made his appearance on Smallville. If a one-shot guest appearance on a television show can invigorate fans like that, bring on Booster Gold: The Television Series!

Since adding the blog, Boosterrific.com now has also added an RSS feed, a forum, and regularly updated Facebook and Twitter accounts. However, that's all just advertising for the heart of this site, the Boosterrific annotated archives. The archives now contain well over 2,500 pages of information about Booster Gold's adventures, artists, and associates, with new content still added at least every month. I proudly maintain that this site ensures that Booster Gold is the best documented character in the history of comic books. That's exactly how Booster would want it.

Something else Booster would want is revenue. Limited advertising was added to the site in January 2010. As mentioned in the blog shortly thereafter, it was estimated that advertising would generate its first windfall in May 20128. I'm glad to report that thanks to the interest of site visitors, the site advertising is now on pace to pay out just in time for Christmas 2014, so long as traffic doesn't decrease too significantly.

But speaking of a decrease in traffic, it appears that interest in Boosterrific.com is declining. So far in 2012, despite the fact that comic book sales have been surging, the site has averaged 121 hits per day. Over the same period just one year ago, the site averaged 153 hits per day. The data doesn't lie: I've experienced a 20% decrease in visitors since DC destroyed their old universe. The daily hits continue a slow but steady decline begun when the "New 52" debuted in September 2012. No doubt the cancellation of Justice League International doesn't help the situaton.

Whatever the future holds, Boosterrific.com wouldn't be anything without you, the Booster Gold fans. A hearty thank you to everyone who has dropped by in the past 5 years. I've enjoyed meeting, informing, and entertaining you. I hope to see you again in the future.

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Some of you may have noticed that the site went down for most of Sunday. That Sunday was April Fool's Day was a mere coincidence. The server administrators decided to take this action on Saturday, or I would have warned about it last week. If you are reading this, Boosterrific.com is now back on line!

And if you're not reading this, please be patient. The site will be back as soon as possible.

There's nothing to worry about; the server simply had to come down temporarily to clean up some old data that was taking up too much room. (You can only sweep the old dirt under the rug for so long, it turns out.) As always, we apologize for any inconvenience.

UPDATE 04/02/12: I'm sure that the server is up and strong now. So as my way of making up for the content-light post above, let me suggest that instead of wasting time here, you check out the preview of Justice League International #8 hosted by Maxim.com. (Maxim has more scantily clad girls than Boosterrific.com, if that's your thing.)

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Honestly, I expected the opinion pieces to be among the least favorite blog topics. Boy, was I wrong. (And who would have guessed that "25th-century erotica" would receive more votes than non-Booster comics news?) I guess I shouldn't be shy about giving you a piece of my mind.

Last week's poll question: What type of content would you most like to see more of on the Boosterrific.com blog? (38 votes)

Death. It happens to all of us sooner or later. In real life, it always marks "The End" of our personal stories. In comics, that's not necessarily the case.

Comic book characters suffer death much like real humans suffer the common cold. It's an inconvenience, but it will pass. This condition jades audiences, and the resulting difficulty to maintain suspension of disbelief then requires something unusual or spectacular to make an audience pay attention, as recent events in Justice League International #7 and DC Universe Online Legends #24 highlight.

Counting alternate realities, Booster Gold has now "died" at least four times, but as expected he keeps getting better. That makes you wonder: what would it really take to kill off Metropolis' greatest hero?

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The adult drinks finish in distant second to the soda! We're all just a bunch of big kids here at Boosterrific.

Last week's poll question: Which Booster Gold endorsed beverage would you reach for to quench your thirst? (39 votes)

Okay. I got the message that you want to keep the blog around. Now tell me what you would like to read about. (This space has to be filled with something!)

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Thank you to everyone who voiced an opinion regarding the Boosterrific Blog. I was surprised by how many comments I received. It remains possible that in the future I may cut back the number of posts per week, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. One thing's for certain: the world needs a blog devoted to Booster Gold, now more than ever.

Last week's poll question: How often would you say that you visit Boosterrific.com? (45 votes)

On to lighter fare. Since earlier this week we took a look at some of Booster's endorsements, it's only natural that we do some market research to determine the consumer base for the Booster Gold brand. After all, Dirk Davis needs to know what Booster's fans want before BGI can approach the National Dairy Council about having Booster Gold appear in a "Got Milk?" ad.

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