You could be our 1/2 millionth reader

We're about to pass an important milestone here at RoundSeventeen Headquarters located in the heart of formerly dumpy Culver City.

We're about to welcome our 500,000th visitor.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be crossing this monumental, inspiring, critical and joyful threshold. By the way, the use of multiple adjectives is a good indication that my tongue is pressed firmly against my cheek.

I don't take this blog seriously and nor should you, (more on that later.)

I remember when I first started this blog and talked to my good friend, freelance art director and veteran blogger Laura Sweet. She reached the 1/2 million mark in her first week. Then again people have an inherent interest in all things style and fashion and couldn't care less about the ramblings of an underachieving 44 year old freelance copywriter.

"It'll start slow at first, but keep at it and soon you'll be averaging 1,000 hits a day and fighting off offers from clients who want to advertise on your blog."

Laura was right about the slow start and the need for persistence. But her calculations were a tad off and now after 8 years of plugging away, I'm seeing about 500 visitors a day. And last month we had an all time high in traffic, with more than 15,000 visits.

If I am to be completely honest, those first few years I was floundering and still trying to find the right voice. I cringe every time I look at some of the early posts. Did I really spend an entire week coming up with euphemisms for "dropping the kids off at the Pool?" Oy.

Hell, I cringe over the posts I wrote last week.

And apparently I'm not the only one.

Recently one anonymous reader has taken me to task for my insidious rants about ad agency Planning.

In anonymous comments that I no longer feel the need to publish, he or she (and by the way the sex of this reader does not matter) suggests I have been hateful and misogynistic.

He or she suggests I've caused he or she personal and professional doubt and depression.

Really? You're letting a non-accredited journalist, a frustrated copywriter with a Dropbox filled with non-strategic, un-produced campaign ideas, an insignificant blogger in a world full of insignificant bloggers, cause you to question your self worth?

He or she, claims I have been constant in my confrontation and relentless with my rhetoric. The fact is, I have shown restraint and for the sake of my 13 regular readers who enjoy a broad range of topics and who have visited here 1/2 million times, and limited myself to one Planning post a month.

So I can only deduce that he or she has been following this blog for a considerable length of time.

In which case he or she is probably reading these very words.

Let me be the first to offer you some simple advice. And by the way this didn't require months of research or Big Data analysis. Or any charts. Diagrams. Or Powerpoint decks.

If what I'm writing disturbs you, causes you undue harm or in your words "makes you feel like a total shit", then and here's the big reveal...

Stop reading.