Iron Way: Six Years of the Filipino Historian

Iron Way: Sixth Anniversary of Bringing History

"Zensokuryoku de yukou yo sekaijuu wo makikonde donna chiisai ippo mo ashita ni tsunagaru yo."

(from Best Day, Best Way)

Iron Way, or "Daang Bakal"
Photo courtesy of Philippine Star

This emerging history website, the Filipino Historian (#FilipinoHistorian) commemorates its anniversary every 15th of December. Founded on the eve of the "end of the world" (according to the Mayan calendar) by an unknown author writing somewhere in the Philippine archipelago, there has been historically low expectations for it. Low profile is exemplified at its finest when this blog began in 2012, and the expectations were not without basis. Blogging was a relatively new trend in the Philippines then, and not much deal with an unpopular discipline. In the first two years of this blog, it registered only a little more than 1,000 reads. So much about writing for free and for public consumption. It has become the laughingstock of "professional" and "amateur" historians alike. Then again, had this single author given up, there is no way the Filipino Historian would forge on. As was the annual tradition, let this be taken as an opportunity to witness how much we have accomplished.

From Silky Road to Iron Way
In popular culture, iron is one of the trademark items for remembering what has reached six years, and it is quite apt for the occasion. In 2016, this website has been compared to walking on a silky road. Similar to silk, anything the Filipino Historian has built can easily be shredded by most people. At that time, the vision dubbed as "one million miracles" has been publicly declared: 100,000 views and one million people reached by 2018. As this deadline has come to a close, it is time to evaluate if it was just empty boasting or a testament to a nation's growing support for the discipline.

By the end of 2016, the blog exceeded 50,000 views. This was almost tripled when the blog recorded more than 130,000 views at the end of 2017. For 2018, this figure was almost tripled again. Reads registered by website exceeded 365,000. For more accomplished bloggers who earn massive incomes monthly, and even those cool vloggers (video bloggers) with their armies of fans, this does not bring much to the table. However, for an author that has been through historic lows, this is a boost like no other. This is affirmed by the Filipino Historian being the only history blog ranked in Feedspot's Top 100 Philippine Blogs, a position it has retained since December 2017.

This phenomenon has been aided by the Filipino Historian's continued presence in social media. Entering Facebook in 2014 and Twitter in 2015 in hopes of reaching more people, it has yet to see a large sea of followers which thousands of bloggers and influencers enjoy to this day. From 800 Facebook followers and 5 Twitter followers in 2016, this history website has grown to more than 3,700 Facebook followers and 23 Twitter followers as of 2018. While this can qualify as remarkable growth in a way, this can also be seen as the passing point for future record breaking milestones.

More significant among social media metrics currently being observed is the number of people reached. As envisioned by the revised "million miracles" goal, the Filipino Historian's social media outlets must be able to reach two million people by the end of 2018. Not only was this achieved, it was even exceeded. As of December 31, 2018, this history website has reached more than 2,262,650 people. This unprecedented development has led the author to create yet another vision for the greater good of history to the Philippines and the world. As the Filipino Historian goes through 2019 and eventually enters a new decade in 2020, it is aimed to record 500,000 views and reach five (5) million people. Similar to the original "one million miracles" vision in 2016, this can be considered a long shot. Not only does the single author have no resources for advertisement, promotion, and even to buy a personalized domain name for better search engine optimization, article production has slowed down in recent months. Then again, even at the time, achieving the million miracles is not expected as well. It may have been difficult, and bashers are everywhere, but it may not be outright impossible.

Social media has contributed greatly towards increasing traffic for this history website. Readers from Facebook amounted to a 32% share for all audience sources in 2018. Twitter appeared to be the breakthrough audience source for this blog in 2018 with its 6% share, up from 0.1% a year prior. Direct searches also contributed to web traffic as the Filipino Historian ranked high among various search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, Bing, Naver) in selected topics. Google alone had an audience share of 4.7%, down from 8.8% in 2017, but fairly comparable to its 2016 share of 5.5%.

Speaking of audiences, the Filipino Historian has been read in more than 90 nations worldwide besides his homeland, the Philippines. The installation of its translating feature is just about half the battle. Continually churning out interesting articles and stories for greater and more diverse readership is no small feat. Outside the Philippines (67.1%), most of the views can be traced from the United States (13.9%), Canada (1.9%), United Arab Emirates (0.9%), Australia (0.9%), and Saudi Arabia (0.8%). Nations formerly in the top, including Russia and Germany, follow them closely. There are also rising audiences from other countries, such as Singapore, Korea, France, and Spain.

The single author writing somewhere in the archipelago has also embarked in speaking engagements and media appearances. Since at least 2014, he has been invited by local, national, and international media outlets to discuss history and related disciplines (mainly in the social sciences). This has enabled him to reach millions of people in the Philippines and the world through radio, television, and even internet videos. While people in the media has given him the unofficial title "youngest historian" for being featured by them at a relatively young age, this has earned him ire and doubts among academics and non-academics alike. While it needs further verification, it appears that the author has been seen on your screens even as a teen, which led them to say so. There is no need for criticism on a person who just got a moniker granted by others. Of course, the author believes it to be too presumptuous and undeserving to be called a "historian" because a historian is also a scholar, and usually requires graduate studies. However, there appears to be no alternative term to apply for disciples of history at this moment. For the author, it is a humbling experience as he keeps a low profile to this day. Besides, as time progresses, he would no longer be qualified as "young," and it may be asked how long would he be a faithful disciple of this discipline. Ultimately, only God knows when his record would be broken as many more people become appreciative of his art and works.

A Walk To Remember
Within a few years, a relatively obscure blog has become the leading Filipino history blog. It has distinguished itself as an innovating take in developing local and national historical consciousness, albeit it is not something that could swell heads of some who seek tomi (wealth), meisei (fame), chikara (power). For this author, it has never been the case ever since this history website began. In achieving all of these, it is not the sole work of this single author writing somewhere in the archipelago. More than sheer individual will, this goal of bringing history to the Philippines and the world has been driven by the thousands, if not millions, of readers and visitors who collectively made it possible. With some statistics at hand, we can ascertain that our demographic has developed as follows. In terms of gender, 69% were male and 31% were female. In terms of age, 2.9% are below 18 years old, 62.1% are 18 to 34 years old, 18.1% are 35 to 44 years old, 8.6% are 45 to 54 years old, 4.2% are 55 to 64 years old, and 3.4% are 65 years old above. Compared to the past two years, there has been slight increases among women and young readers. It is with utmost thanks for each and every one of you that we have reached this far. I pray for your continuing support for the Filipino Historian. Let us continue this walk to remember the best way on the best day, to infinity and beyond.

Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?

(Ecclesiastes 8:7)