2014, here we come! - 01/11/14 05:45 PM
Blogging....
What are your New Year's Resolutions? Lose weight? Check. Be a better pondmeister? Of course! I don't know about your list, but mine isn't very long...because those resolution thingy's really don't mean much unless you truly are convicted to change some things and you have the ability to do it.
Well, one of mine is to blog more, which should be easy. Yes, I've got all those excuses...too much other stuff to write (which is true), produce Pond Boss magazine, write client reports, stories for other publications, the next book...we know the drill. But, I can take fifteen minutes every once in a while to write and keep our Pond Boss faithful forum folks in the loop of what's going on around our lives.
Funny story, when we first started the forum, JP Greeson, the forum guru who helped us start this thing, made me an administrator and immediately said, "Don't touch anything in the control panel!"
I've been obedient to that order for 14 years now, 12 of those with this software.
Well, that's changing. Yours truly is learning his way around the backside of the forum, especially since we're seeing some changes around the way the forum is being used. Plus, it's time this thing paid its own way...so we have a need.
Your team of moderators does an outstanding job of keeping this site clean, void of spammers and family friendly. I'm continually amazed at their efforts. They're volunteers, too! Some of them keep weird hours, like I do, and there's not many times during the course of the day that at least one of them isn't on the forum. That's dedication and passion! But, several of them have told me the rewards of belonging to a group like this far outweighs the effort it takes to keep it flowing well.
Our Pond Boss world headquarters team had a meeting last week with JP at LL,2 (For newcomers, LL,2 stands for "Lusk Lodge, 2" the affectionate name we call our house). JP owns several fishing forums, including the highly successful "Texas Fishing Forum". His forum dwarfs ours in terms of number of members, number of posts, etc. But, his members aren't necessarily the type of 'family' that we have here at Pond Boss.
Part of that meeting was to encourage us to try to bring in more revenue to the website so we can actually have a budget and improve this thing. We get enough donations (see the tab at the upper right?) to cover the hosting fees for about three months out of the year and almost enough from banner ads at the top to cover another part of the year. JP's suggestion is to use part of the left side of the forum space for another banner ad and work with Google to place ads there. We've applied for that... We're learning, and giving you a heads-up.
We can choose who we don't want to advertise on that left side, so we're choosing to block those companies who compete with our loyal and faithful advertisers in the magazine and here on this forum. Be prepared to see advertisements that have nothing to do with Pond Boss. At the same time, we'll be paid based on the success of those ads. Advertisers will bid for the space.
There's lots more to tell you, and I'll get to it. But, on this Saturday, I've got stories to edit and stories to write in preparing the March-April issue of Pond Boss magazine. If you haven't subscribed to the magazine yet, please do so. It's the economy that drives the entire machine! Plus, it's a great read. I've not met a reader yet who doesn't admit they get at least "one good nugget each issue."
Fish on!
What are your New Year's Resolutions? Lose weight? Check. Be a better pondmeister? Of course! I don't know about your list, but mine isn't very long...because those resolution thingy's really don't mean much unless you truly are convicted to change some things and you have the ability to do it.
Well, one of mine is to blog more, which should be easy. Yes, I've got all those excuses...too much other stuff to write (which is true), produce Pond Boss magazine, write client reports, stories for other publications, the next book...we know the drill. But, I can take fifteen minutes every once in a while to write and keep our Pond Boss faithful forum folks in the loop of what's going on around our lives.
Funny story, when we first started the forum, JP Greeson, the forum guru who helped us start this thing, made me an administrator and immediately said, "Don't touch anything in the control panel!"
I've been obedient to that order for 14 years now, 12 of those with this software.
Well, that's changing. Yours truly is learning his way around the backside of the forum, especially since we're seeing some changes around the way the forum is being used. Plus, it's time this thing paid its own way...so we have a need.
Your team of moderators does an outstanding job of keeping this site clean, void of spammers and family friendly. I'm continually amazed at their efforts. They're volunteers, too! Some of them keep weird hours, like I do, and there's not many times during the course of the day that at least one of them isn't on the forum. That's dedication and passion! But, several of them have told me the rewards of belonging to a group like this far outweighs the effort it takes to keep it flowing well.
Our Pond Boss world headquarters team had a meeting last week with JP at LL,2 (For newcomers, LL,2 stands for "Lusk Lodge, 2" the affectionate name we call our house). JP owns several fishing forums, including the highly successful "Texas Fishing Forum". His forum dwarfs ours in terms of number of members, number of posts, etc. But, his members aren't necessarily the type of 'family' that we have here at Pond Boss.
Part of that meeting was to encourage us to try to bring in more revenue to the website so we can actually have a budget and improve this thing. We get enough donations (see the tab at the upper right?) to cover the hosting fees for about three months out of the year and almost enough from banner ads at the top to cover another part of the year. JP's suggestion is to use part of the left side of the forum space for another banner ad and work with Google to place ads there. We've applied for that... We're learning, and giving you a heads-up.
We can choose who we don't want to advertise on that left side, so we're choosing to block those companies who compete with our loyal and faithful advertisers in the magazine and here on this forum. Be prepared to see advertisements that have nothing to do with Pond Boss. At the same time, we'll be paid based on the success of those ads. Advertisers will bid for the space.
There's lots more to tell you, and I'll get to it. But, on this Saturday, I've got stories to edit and stories to write in preparing the March-April issue of Pond Boss magazine. If you haven't subscribed to the magazine yet, please do so. It's the economy that drives the entire machine! Plus, it's a great read. I've not met a reader yet who doesn't admit they get at least "one good nugget each issue."
Fish on!