Happy 6 Months of the918!

The918.org is six months old! It’s been a great half-year, and I am so thankful for everyone who has contributed to make the918.org a success.

by Aaron Tiger

The918.org is six months old! It’s been a great half-year, and I am so thankful for everyone who has contributed to make the918.org a success.

The918.org is “a community of contributors sharing resources about Tulsa, Life, and Faith.” As lead contributor, my favorite part has been working with the other writers and giving them a platform to share their gifts with the Tulsa area. We’ve had 25 different people write articles for us, and our site is better because of each person who has shared his or her gift with us. As with everything, there are other people working behind the scenes: we wouldn’t be as successful without our editors who make good articles great, and our publisher who makes the articles pop on the screen.

Since we started, we’ve had over 30,000 pageviews, and in just the last three months, we’ve had over 5,300 unique visitors to our site. A big “thank you” to everyone who has shared an article, joined our email list, or just told someone to check out our site.

I’d like to share some of our more popular articles with you.

Tulsa:

The fourth article we ever posted was a piece that has been shared on Facebook over 2,000 times, Bethany Proffitt’s, “Our Top 5 Tulsa Splash Pads.” Another article from our opening week, Jeff Jaynes’ “8 Things You Need to Know about the Tulsa Race Riots,” was our next most popular article. Recently, Kyle Westfall’s “6 Things My Wife Promised Me When I Moved to Oklahoma” and Joli Beasley’s “9 to 18 Favorite Date Night Locations in Tulsa” have been very popular.

Life:

Aaron Leatherbarrow wrote about his experience with and love of Tulsa’s Pokemon community, and his article has spread across the global Pokemon community. Courtney Westfall shared her Hulk Muffins recipe, and many interested in healthy food for kids picked it up and shared it.

Faith:

Dr. Wade Paschal’s “Suffering and Faith” has been our most popular faith article, followed by Dr. Arden Autry’s “The Plumb Line: Do Recent Events Mean the End Times are Near?” Other popular faith articles include my article on race relations, “The Big Difference between Better and Good,” and Laura Araujo’s “What Sofia the First Reminded Me about Being a Christian.”

One contributor shared with me how she was most interested in the articles about people’s stories, especially Carol Sokolosky’s “My Journey: Through Grief.” That was the beginning of the My Journey series, which have become our most read articles. Hilary Hunt’s “My Journey: Speaking of Miscarriage,” Joli Beasley’s “My Journey: Dropping My Oldest Son off at College,” and Bethany Profitt’s “My Journey: Through a Layoff” have been particularly helpful for people. Do you have a journey to share? We would love to hear it.

Another new feature is our Instagram feed, @myviewofthe918, where each week, a new contributor shares his or her perspective of the Tulsa area. It’s been great to see so many different views of our city. If you’re interested in showing us Tulsa through your eyes, email us at myviewofthe918@gmail.com.

So what’s next for the918.org? We have some great posts coming up, including some tremendous My Journey articles that you’ll want to read. We’ll continue with acclaimed author Joshua Danker-Dake’s series, The Sustainable Struggle, discussing ways to improve your health that won’t drive you crazy. We are also looking into doing a Tulsa-oriented podcast that would be perfect for your daily commute.

We are always looking for new contributors, including authors and editors. Email aarontiger@fumctulsa.org if you’re interested.  We are also looking for photographers to do photo essays of various places in Tulsa. We would love to showcase your beautiful work of this great city.

The918.org would not exist if not for you, the faithful people who read what we share. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to speak into your life, and thank you for being part of this community.