5,000,000

This humble little corner of the internet has come a long way over the course of the past five years. It doesn't seem like all that long ago we were celebrating our last milestone on the hit counter when we hit 4,000,000 hits in this site's history. That probably has to do with the fact that. . .well, it wasn't all that long ago. Right around six months, actually.

Well, at right around 20 minutes after 3 PM Central time this afternoon, we rolled past our latest milestone, as we registered the five millionth hit in the history of The Daily Norseman. We're certainly not the first SB Nation football blog to go past that milestone. . .honestly, we weren't even the first SB Nation NFC North blog to roll past it. (That honor goes to Sean Yuille and the fine folks over at Pride of Detroit.) But it's still a pretty big deal, to be honest.

You know, there might be people that don't like the fact that we celebrate these milestones when they come up. And unto those people, I will say. . .that's just too bad. As I say in some form or another every time one of these milestones is passed, I happen to be proud as hell of what this site has turned into since it became a part of the SB Nation family. As I said in the fifth birthday post a while back, this was one of the first ten NFL sites on the network, and one of the first 20% of sites on the network overall. . .a network that now covers every major professional sports team in North America, as well as a ton of colleges, mixed martial arts, soccer (both in the United States and worldwide). . .heck, there's even a professional wrestling blog on the network. (And, quite frankly, it's probably the best site of its kind on the web. If you're a fan like me, be sure to give Bix and the guys over at Cageside Seats some of your time.)

All in all, SB Nation is the place to be. That's why The Daily Norseman is a part of this network, and that's why Ted, Eric, Skol Girl, Kyle, and I are a part of it. . .because, in the words of latter-day Canadian philosopher Chris Jericho, we are the best. . .in the world. . .at what we do.

It simply boggles my mind that over the last six months. . .during a time when there was, largely, no NFL to speak of, save for courtroom drama, stadium drama, and a small break for the NFL Draft. . .that the traffic continues to pour in to this site. People that will dog this site and anybody that's a part of it look even more clueless than usual in the face of things like this, don't they? Ah, well. . .as the kids today are prone to saying, "Haters gonna hate."

This site has, indeed, come a long way. . .when it first started out, yours truly was e-mailing ticket brokers for links to go on the sidebars of the site, and that was it as far as the advertising was concerned. Now, we have a TON of major sponsors (as do the rest of the SB Nation NFL blogs), we've got representation at Training Camp, we're getting media credentials to games, we're hanging out at Winter Park, and all sorts of other awesome stuff. And don't think that the big boys don't read us. . .from the info that Ted got at this past year's draft party, they damn sure do. A lot of them. And the consensus is that. . .get this. . .they like us.

(At least one person was even said to have commented that they like the way we handle our troll problems. . .proving, once again, that Gonzo is right and his critics are wrong. It's amazing how often that happens, isn't it?)

Viking fans like us, Vikings media people like us. . .and I'm guessing that there are some players that stop by from time to time, too, that we just don't know about. What's more important than that? Nothing, that's what.

So, as I always say whenever something like this happens, thanks to each and every one of you for making this possible. This site is, always has been, and always will be, a community first, and just about everyone that has ever registered or commented or even stopped by has been a big part of this community for five years now. Now that we have football back and we are less than six weeks away from the start of the 2011 regular season. . .Game Threads are just around the corner, folks. . .I'm sure it will take even less time for us to be celebrating number 6,000,000.

10 July 2006 - Daily Norseman goes live
1 July 2009 - Daily Norseman reaches 1 million hits
26 January 2010 - Daily Norseman reaches 2 million hits
26 September 2010 (approximately) - Daily Norseman reaches 3 million hits
24 January 2011 (approximately) - Daily Norseman reaches 4 million hits
1 August 2011 - Daily Norseman reaches 5 million hits