Boys on the Block is celebrating its first birthday on May 1, 2015. In celebration, I decided to write why I started this site. 🙂
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Since 1999, I’ve had various websites. My Confession was obviously the main one.
During college, I had a very popular NASCAR blog that I actually earned money on, but stupidly enough, I closed it when I graduated because I thought I wouldn’t have time for it in the real world after getting my first real newspaper job.
How wrong I was and that was one of my biggest website mistakes.
And even though I had a fan fiction site, there was always a little piece of me that wanted to do a real Backstreet Boys website, along with my love of New Kids on the Block which had been around since the mid 80’s (yes, I was a kid). I had tried it a few times in the early days, but it never stood the test of time. MC always ruled my attention.
And because of my pop culture writing at work, I was told I should start a website for my niche by one of my bosses.
And let’s be honest, my niche is Nick Carter, but why would I try to start a website about Nick Carter? Kaos Online is an amazing site and the site’s owner does an amazing job and has for years. So what niche was missing? Backstreet.net has long been dead and let’s face it, the official site updates are far and between (hire us, Wonderful Union!).
I’ve always tried to be creative and original. That’s why I used to try and do different things on My Confession that the normal fan fiction site wouldn’t do, like post opinions, reviews, news, etc. But really, that type of stuff shouldn’t be on a fan fiction site. Fan fiction should be on a fan fiction site. It took some time, but I realized that.
I came up with several site names, but everybody that responded to my post on Facebook, including my bosses and former colleagues, agreed that Boys On The Block, was the perfect name… like NKOTBSB fit perfectly… Backstreet Boys on the Block… Backstreet and New Kids. Hey, even Nick said the site name was “dope.” And yes, while the site will always be mostly about those two groups, we love all boy bands and have been about all boy bands from the beginning.
From our love of O-Town to Boyz II Men and even N Sync and One Direction, they find their way somewhere in our hearts.
We’re not trying to be the CNN of boy bands. Or BBN (oooh, that’s another site name!). We post our opinions on matters that are important to us (such as Hannah’s letter to In Touch Weekly plastering Nick’s face all over the Lou Pearlman article or Lisa’s letter to One Direction), fun and light-
hearted things like what we did with all of the “I Heart Nick Carter” stuff, and exclusive things like original photos and videos from events or interviews with certain people. My original goal was to be the Buzzfeed for boy bands. And I think it’s working.
And that’s why I created Boys on the Block and almost 11 months later, it’s running strong and it’s exactly what I wanted it to me.
We are all girls who have real lives outside of the fandom world. We are professional journalist, designers, sales representatives, teachers, fitness instructors, college students, mothers, aunts, sisters and best friends.
We’re not trying to be something we aren’t. We’re just kind of being what we are – boy band fans.
And this site is for all boy band fans, young and old. We all range in age. We all come from different walks of life. But one thing is still the same, we love boy bands and we want it that way.
If you are interested in joining BOTB, email me us at [email protected] or tweet us at @_BoysOnTheBlock.