True-Blood.net Enters The Terrible Twos!

It’s a True Blood celebration! True-Blood.net celebrates is celebrating our second birthday today! We launched this site on March 24, 2008, excited about seeing a favorite book series recreated on screen by a visionary producer. True-Blood.net was the first True Blood site of any kind; little did we know we were at the forefront of a global phenomenon! When we started the site, we hoped we’d get a few hundred, maybe even a couple thousand, like-minded fans stopping by to talk about the show. Instead, the last two years have consistently exceeded our expectations in every way. Here are a few milestones from our archives:

• Since launching in March 2008, 3.6 million people have visited True-Blood.net. The bulk of those visitors are stopping by while the show is on the air, of course, with a whopping 30,000 fans logging on the day after the season 2 finale. (NOTE: forum visits are not included in the numbers above.)
• We’ve posted more than 1,180 articles and you have posted more than 15,900 comments here.
• The most visited page on our site is the one announcing HBO’s pick up of a third season for True Blood, with more than a million pageviews to date. That page also boasts the most comments with more than 1600.
• By far our most popular interview is our chat with Alexander Skarsgard from February 2009. The transcript has been read 183,000 times and the interview has been listened to 23,000 times.
• One of the unexpected developments of True Blood‘s success and our position as the original True Blood fansite is that various reporters have asked to talk to us about the show. As of now, we’ve been featured in USA Today, Newsweek.com, E!, and NYLON.
• In July 2008, we attended Comic Con and accidentally found ourselves in line for True Blood autographs, after arriving too late for the panel itself. Mel fangirled all over Charlaine Harris, and Stephen Moyer kissed Liz’s hand. Twice.
• We launched True-Blood.net Radio on August 29, 2008, and have produced 79 shows featuring interviews, news, episode discussions, spoilers, and talks with other fans. We are one of Blog Talk Radio’s Top 50 shows, thanks to all of you who tune in every week.
• True Blood premiered in September 2008, and we were quickly joined by fans eager to talk about the show. We were particularly delighted when HBO announced a second season just 2 weeks after the series premiere!
• In November 2008 we bought a brick as part of the Brentwood Theatre fundraiser, a community theatre in Stephen Moyer’s hometown. In the end, Truebies helped raise enough money to complete the theatre’s renovations.
• One of our favorite interviews ever was our marathon discussion with Kristin Bauer in December 2008. It’s guaranteed to leave your cheeks sore from laughter.
• True Blood landed on a lot of Best of 2008 lists, culminating in Anna Paquin’s Golden Globes win for Best Actress in January 2009. Go Sookie!
• February 2009 was pretty exciting because we got to talk with not just Alexander Skarsgard, but also the brilliant Alan Ball and the very sweet Nelsan Ellis.
• In March 2009, Liz penned a fictitious letter from the Winchester brothers to Eric Northman regarding his loss in the E! Alpha Male competition. Some fans missed the joke, but it eventually led to Liz’s popular Letters to the Cast & Crew series during season 2’s run.
• In April 2009 we jetted out to Los Angeles to attend the True Blood panel at Paley Fest, which was packed with Truebies. We were also invited by HBO to visit the set, much to our delight.
• Author Charlaine Harris called in for a live chat on True-Blood.net Radio in May, promoting the latest Sookie novel while we fangirled over her again.
• True Blood season 2 debuted in June 2009, and exploded onto the national and global scene. We spent our Sunday nights watching the episodes with our extended Truebie family thanks to Twitter and our forum.
• In July 2009 we were off to Comic Con again, and this time the True Blood events were filled to capacity! We saw the cast at the panel, waved at them as they were heading in to their signing, went to a couple of parties, and met up with other fans. Good times! This month also saw the launch of Mel’s Fashion Profile series, which caught the attention of costume designer Audrey Fisher, who we interviewed in August.
• In August, with True Blood‘s ratings skyrocketing, we got to taste test the new Tru Blood beverage and Mel was invited to visit composer Nathan Barr’s house during the filming of the “Take Me Home” video, which we debuted exclusively in September.
• Since the end of season 2, we got a fab new look and we’ve been hosting weekly contests, posting news and sightings of our True Blood family, and keeping up on the latest spoilers while we wait out the loooooong hiatus until season 3 debuts on June 13.

Those are the highlights, and they really only scratch the surface of the fun we’ve had with all of you over the last two years. We’re looking forward to the next year – our “terrible twos” – and cannot wait to share it with other fans. So have a piece of virtual birthday cake, grab a Tru Blood, and celebrate with us!

All our love,

Mel & Liz