William Lee Adams, the founder of Wiwibloggs, detailed the behind-the-scenes management of one of the Eurovision Song Contest's biggest fan communities.
William, 41, prides himself on delivering around-the-clock content, entertainment and events throughout the year. Boasting almost 500,000 followers, Wiwibloggs solidified itself as the go-to source for any Eurovision fan and now welcomes dozens that work behind the scenes which they now call family.
Its name is a literal abbreviation of William and the online blog format with an equally humble reason for stepping onto the scene. Discussing how Wiwibloggs first came to fruition, William told the ECHO: "Basically, I was frustrated at work and I knew I wanted to pour myself into something that wasn't my work so I decided to launch a blog and low and behold Eurovision was on two weeks later.
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"I found this Romanian artist called Elena Gheorghe and I was obsessed, so I started writing about her. I launched this blog for free on WordPress and I think it got 125,000 clicks in six days."
Wiwibloggs was fortunate enough to start its lifespan at a time when there was very little competition in terms of Eurovision coverage. William added: "Back then there was esctoday.com and eurovision.tv. What I was doing was offering opinions and sort of having an attitude. A lot of people in 2008, 2009 were reading Perez Hilton and so I was like, 'Alright, let's do Perez Hilton but for Eurovision' but without the intention of being mean. It was to be free-flowing and chatty and then it just evolved.
"It felt like of like a newspaper - you have your serious stories, you have your fun stories, you have your moving stories and that's basically where it went."
Traction really took off when Wiwibloggs ventured into video content, offering behind-the-scenes interviews, conversations and reactions. The reader base was skyrocketing but the strain it took to consistently deliver high-quality content began to take its toll.
William said: "I think sometimes people on the outside don't see all the hard work that goes into it. I quit my job in 2012, I was freelancing for a bit but then it went dark. I was just doing Wiwibloggs full-time and I kind of lost my mind. Every day I was waking up and looking for stories, I went into debt, I had no money and my self-esteem started to fall. I become dependent on the blog for self-esteem between 2015-2017 and that's not a good place to be."
Stability was reinstated after he found a job at the BBC which he credits for allowing him to balance professional and personal interests. He added: "It was a psychological shift and I'm proud I got through it. I'm so proud of young kids finding the website today and they'll say, 'I've been following you since I was 10 and your website helped me see other LGBT people,' and I never thought about that. It really gets me choked up."
Wiwibloggs is in part responsible for delivering some of the biggest parties surrounding the contest including Wiwijam and the London Eurovision Party. This weekend they're expecting to host hundreds of fans from around the world in what is arguably the largest pre-party available.
In order to bring the artists together, they must maintain a good relationship. William said: "You interview people that don't necessarily make it to Eurovision and they appreciate your support and you just become friends. They come together because they love the contest and they love the fans. We're so happy to get artists that aren't necessarily widely appreciated along with the big hitters.
"Seeing is believing in a lot of cases and we even up bringing a lot back because fans love them. I want to bring people together and to humanise the artists in the eyes of the public so they realise that behind the competition is a real person who simply loves the contest and music."
Wiwibloggs is widely regarded as one of the biggest sources for Eurovision content and entertainment.
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