Friday, July 21, 2006

I haven't forgotten …

I've got many suggestions for names and taglines for the Canadian TV website, so stay tuned. I'll either make a decision myself in the next couple of weeks or set up a poll if my decision impairment kicks in.

Here's the proposed names so far. They won't all make my list of possibilities—when you read them, you'll see why—but I figured I'd post them all for posterity and to say thanks for playing. As a bonus, some are pretty funny, including some snarkily suggested in jest (hi Steve). I don't think anyone really expects me to go with "American TV: It sucks, but at least it's better than Canadian TV," do they? I don't want my name in the title, either, because sometimes, much as I hate to admit it, things aren't all about me.
  • Canuck in the Box
  • Northern Underexposure
  • Nightly Sights in Canada
  • TV, eh?
  • Northern HighLights: What's on Canadian TV
  • Northern Exposure: Canadian TV News & Reviews
  • Due North: Giving Canadian TV Its Due
  • CAN-TV: Canadian TV
  • Canadian TV Rocks
  • TelevisionCanada
  • TV From Above
  • Hoservision
  • Toquetube
  • Welcome to Canadian TV: What's On In Canada (or What's On Up North)
  • State of the Art: Canadian TV Today
  • The View North: Current Canadian TV
  • Content: A Canadian TV Commentary
  • Compiling Content: Canadian TV
  • The View North: Current Canadian TV
  • Canucks and the Tube: A Daily Update
  • A Canadian's Takes on Canadian TV
  • Diane's Updates on Canadian TV
  • Defrosterpiece Theatre *
  • Diane's Icebox *
  • TV-DK
  • Tundra TV *
  • TundraTelevision *
  • Canadian TV: Number 16 in Argentina!
  • American TV: It sucks, but at least it's better than Canadian TV
  • Canadian TV: Actors you've never heard of in stories you don't care about
* Hello Americans. No, we do NOT all luge to work up here. It's 35 degrees today and supposed to be getting hotter tomorrow (35 C = really quite hot F).

I plan to "launch" the site in the fall (no, I don't know what that means yet), but meanwhile, content's building slowly, with some networks and publicists mercifully sending me info. I'm fiddling with format, but now that the structure's basically in place, it doesn't take long to update. So I'm not too scared of what I've gotten myself into. Yet.

It's tantalizing to think how much better it could be if it were an actual customized, database-driven site, but that's beyond my capabilities. This is the free, grassroots version—I would not cry if, say, the industry stepped up to do something more robust.

Anyway, the traffic is increasing steadily without much effort, partly through the kindness of links, but mostly, it seems, because there aren't many other Google results for much of the content.

Yesterday, it was the 61st most popular site on Wordpress, which is far less impressive when you realize that it was the day after the winner of Canada's Next Top Model was announced, which accounted for a huge percentage of the traffic. And maybe there are only 61 sites on Wordpress. The Whistler people even linked to the site's CTV category on their blog, so that's my new favourite show I haven't actually seen yet.

Most searched terms right now, besides Canada's Next Top Model? Whistler CTV, Northern Town, Canadian Idol, Naked Josh, This is Emily Leung, Plucked, Ruby Gloom, and The Far Out Adventures of Team Galaxy. Other drama series have been up there other days. Good to see the interest isn't just reality shows.

Anyway, I guess I'm no longer thinking of this as an experiment, but more like a beta testing phase. And some of you are my guinea pigs. Bwa ha ha!