One year of Pacific History Guide!
- Tony Boccia
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Greetings PHG fans! This week we are celebrating one year since the launch of Pacific History Guide. On March 30, 2025, after two and a half months of building and editing, I published the website for the first time online. We started off small; I didn't have a large online following and so we kicked off with social media posts on the newly created PHG Facebook and Bluesky accounts. Sharing with family and friends helped spread the word, and we were off to the races, moving slowly but deliberately toward the goal of improving the project every day.
Our first few months were...not great. We had some turnout, but were well below the target I was aiming for, which was of 250 users per month. Thanks to some help from some really smart people, including Yuki Hayashi Bibb and Dr. Saya Kiba, I was able to improve the homepage, clean up the interface for mobile users, and increase the quality of the location pages. Making the website look more interesting while also keeping to simple asthetic was a challenge.
A PHG subreddit was the logical next step to increasing our reach. Joining Reddit opened a gateway to large subreddits where we could share posts and gain some more viewers. While some subs are more restrictive than others, most of the mods on Reddit are happy to share historical insights into their corner of the world. This paid off with posts like this one, on maritime museums and heritage sites in Brisbane, Australia. While only gaining 16 upvotes, it did receive more than 4,000 views, helping direct folks to the website, where they could explore further.
Our other blog posts began taking off as well, such as This piece on the sinking of the Tsushima Maru, posted in April, the first PHG blog post to go over more than 100 views. Since then, we've hit more than 100 views a further four times, with this post on the overthrown of the Hawaiian Monarchy garnering nearly 400 clicks. Not every post does well, and I've not found that secret formula for building engagement online. That being said, I'm not at all bothered by that, and pretty happy with the direction this website is headed in.
At the end of the day, this is a one-man show; a passion project rather than a money-making enterprise. I won't ever prioritize PHG over my family or career, and so I'm only able to put maybe ten hours a week into website updates, the blog, and social media posts. We're not present on every social media platform, and I refuse to use AI in any capacity when it comes to teaching or creating. All of this means our growth is understandably slower than other projects online projects, and that's okay.
I'm very excited to see where Pacific History Guide is headed in the coming year. There's some exciting things happening in my life, and there will inevitably be changes to my battle rhythm and the time I'm able to dedicate to this space. Despite all this, the mission of this website remains unchanged: we aim to connect military members, veterans, and their families with historical insights into their duty stations, TAD locations, and ports of call throughout the Pacific. We're here for you, and here to stay.
Thanks for all of the support!
Tony
