Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Those who ignore the future are doomed to repeat it

I received an intriguing e-mail yesterday from a fellow named Victor Chi. He had this to say:
Congratulations to you and your colleagues at "Raising Matt Cain" on producing a terrific site. We thought you might be interested in having it be a part of the SportsFanLive network.
SportsFanLive.com is a sort of Facebook for sports fans. It hosts blogs, aggregates news, assembles links, et cetera, all with the goal of attracting sports junkies. It has ads, of course, which I imagine is how it generates income. It has been around for about three years. Here's the Giants page. Lots of blogs are part of larger networks and run ads--just click on several on the blogrolls here and you'll see. I'll admit that kind of stuff is often annoying, but at the same time the content--the writing and unique perspective--doesn't suffer. According to Mr. Chi, RMC would still maintain full control over content. They (SFL) would be responsible for ads and the network linkages. It would generate some very modest income (of which SFL would take 50% "plus expenses").

At this point in my life, I don't need the income. Not that I don't like money. I do. It's just that I have a full-time job. RMC is an amateur passion. I've always hoped that it could generate a readership that could ultimately act as a springboard to "bigger and better things" for yours truly. I want to write full-time when I retire (not that far away), and RMC gives me a creative outlet and a great audience.

I wanted to share this information with all of you--fellow contributors, friends, commenters, guests, lurkers, casual observers, followers, and fans--because you've made the site what it is. I love to write about the Giants, and the fact that so many more people are reading these days is very, very gratifying. I suppose I just talked myself out of this "partnership" with SportsFanLive, only because I never imagined such an invitation would come along so soon! I started RMC on the 25th of September, 2007, so we have not even covered three full seasons yet. I still feel like a bumbling newbie most of the time. I expect the on-line world of blogging and news websites and ads and all that will continue to change and evolve and many new and exciting things will emerge from the vast virtual flea market we all like to be a part of. And one day something will come along and I'll bite. Then again, I may bite on this one, too. It's 0733 and I'll be late for work if I don't leave RIGHT NOW!

--M.C.


p.s. I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments by folks who have experience being a part of one of these blog networks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

SIR says I was surprised by how nice the blog group site actually looked. The ads are not as annoying as some can be.

Ron said...

I say 'no way' to this thing. What happens when 'sportsfanlive.com' is purchased by Fox Sports, or something like that? Suddenly, there will be restrictions about content & other annoying rules. They are obviously also ultra-conservative about trademark usage & the like. To me, it seems both unnecessary & a wee bit creepy. That's my 2 cents.

M.C. O'Connor said...

This is not really like that. More like they use my blog for ads, and I'm linked at their main site. Kind of like Facebook, but for sports. I will know more after my e-mail, and I'll keep you up-to-date.

Mostly, I wanted your feedback, so thanks. Ads wouldn't be too bad, would they?

Richard said...

Absolutely! You've got a nice blog and generate some great content. If it gives you a chance to broaden your fan base and even make a little pocket change, I say "go for it!"

M.C. O'Connor said...

Thanks for the thoughts, Richard. At this point, it looks like a pretty small impact. I keep the blog domain and etc. I am not subject to editorial control or anything. They put a badge and ads on my site, but I can decide how big of a footprint. If you go to McCovey Chronicles or El Lefty Malo, they are part of networks and run ads, yet those are outstanding sites and the annoyance factor is pretty low.