However, you have to love statistics. I think John knows that if you start off with 1 visit today, and then have 1000 by next month . . . then this is 1000% percent growth. But as Alec Baldwin says in his famous GlenGarry Glen Ross speech, “Let’s talk about something important . . . Put that coffee down — Coffee is for closers only.”

What John is describing is actually a bubble – nothing more, nothing less. Meteoric expansion cannot be maintained in perpetuity. Frankly, nobody cares (outside of advertisers desperate for eyeballs) how much you grow over year 1 – it’s sustainability that matters. It’s easy to get to the top . . . but staying there is where the real challenge begins. It’s how you handle the plateau; it’s how you handle that bubble before you realize that today’s new will eventually be tomorrow’s old.

John is, in essence, popping the bubble of his very own argument when he states, “you’d be tempted to predict that we’ll overtake the industry leaders by this time next year.” Why? Because of the simple “we’ll”. It indicates a bias that stands high probability to skew the numbers (no pun intended). Some might also say that the statement itself sounds of elitism moreso than competitiveness (at least Shakespeare would . . . and much more eloquently than I.) At the same time, I like John’s desire to win – that’s what it takes. Like John, I also know that 2nd prize is good for nothing more than a set of steak knives.

Now, despite John’s statistically biased analysis, the following is where I’ll give the Big Dog, Jason Davis some serious credit:

Virality is possible through user-generated content, and I’m not talking a discussion board. Part of the lure of RBC is that you don’t have to be grandfathered in with the same groups of people writing the same articles about the same old topics. JD knows that he can build a Sistine Chapel by offering everyone that swings by RBC their very own paintbrush. And if you’re a great painter, others will find you and embrace you on their own accord . . . which is way different than other sites that force-feed the same writers and the same topics in a continuous rotation like the radio.

Traditional Media isn’t dying – it’s dead. Create a nation of iReporters and you’ll grow like a weed on Gatorade.

“I’m here from downtown . . . I’m here from Mitch & Murray . . . and I’m on a mission of mercy.”