Site Bidness

Nation,

A couple of quick points.

1) We've added Ballhype and Yardbarker buttons on the site at the end of every post. If you like what you're reading, click on either button, and go Hype or Bark it up to the readers at those fine sports blogger aggregator sites.

By doing this, you'll be alerting other people who read sports blogs that something worth their time is happening here. We've been steadily rising on the Ballhype site for a while, mostly on the force of our work with Epic Carnival.

If you'll permit us a moment of seriousness, having more people view the site is very important to us. It's why I've been moonlighting at Epic Carnival, badgering new writers to join and contribute, and firing up 20 posts a week on average.

It's a lot easier to update the site if we know that it's getting read and/or appreciated. Everyone who writes here has lives and jobs and kids and responsibilities; having eyeballs keeps us going, and keeps us sharp. By joining Ballhype and/or Yardbarker and sending some love our way, you're helping us not only get an audience, but motivate us to work for the one we already have.

But Shooter, you ask, what's in it for me to help FTT? Good point. And here it is...

2) It's been threatened for a long time, but we're actually moving on it this month: FTT T-Shirts are in the works. Emblazoned with the FTT logo that you've come to know and love, they will be available for sale in the near future, but I'm going to go one better.

I'll be picking a Top Tool Friend each month -- and that person's getting a free shirt. Hell, we'll even pay postage.

My decision making on this will be completely arbitrary. Maybe it will go to an outstanding commenter. Or a sports blogger who gives us a big traffic link. It could also go to some FTT reader that hypes or barks us up a lot. They're our shirts: we'll do this how we want.

How are we going to pay for the shirts and postage? Simple.

3) After a lot of time and consideration -- and 375 posts and seven months -- we're going to start taking some ads. When and where and how hasn't been completely decided yet; we're still weighing our options.

But when we look at blogs that we feel are comparable to this one, they've all got ads. I've actually made my living writing web ads for nearly a decade now. We've pretty much always knew that if FTT was a success, it was going to have to make a buck or two. There's just too much of a time investment for it not to be that way.

Thanks for reading, hyping, barking, and welcoming our future advertising overlords. Now, back to the regularly scheduled nonsense.