Tag: site news

How can you support the blog?

(image via gfycat)

This was originally posted on June 23, 2018.

One thing that has crossed my mind is asking for your support, which can come in many ways. So if you don’t mind, please indulge me as I discuss some ways you can help Touch the Banner become more successful.

FIRST OF ALL, WHY SUPPORT THE BLOG?

Here are a few reasons to support TTB in one way or another:

• Running a business costs money. First and foremost, what I do isn’t free. Servers cost money, tech support costs money, and then there are the plain old costs of domain fees, taxes, licenses, etc.
• I have my eye set on site improvements. I’m not 100% satisfied with the blog design and would like to make some tweaks. Tweaks take time and money, but I want to improve the user experience, especially when it comes to discussion and the message board.
• This is the best free site for Michigan football and recruiting information. Maybe I’m living in my own little world, but a lot of Michigan sites have come and gone, while TTB keeps chugging along. There are generally at least two posts per day, almost all of which are centered around Michigan football and recruiting. There’s no other site – free or not – that literally covers every single Michigan offer and tracks all 250-300 offers in every recruiting cycle, right up to or beyond National Signing Day. There are offer boards for every cycle and individual profile pages with highlights, measurements, notes, etc. That’s not to say every post here is superior to every post on the other sites, but you get more of it, and it’s often in more depth. Not only that, but I do my best to respond to readers’ individual questions and requests.

So here’s how you can make it happen:

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A Note on Content

I’ve had several requests over the past couple days for content regarding last weekend’s game against Minnesota.

And I have bad news.

I haven’t watched the Minnesota game yet. I was busy all day and night on Saturday, and there was more to come on Sunday. I can’t stress enough that yours truly is a football coach. This is my busiest time of the year, and somehow I still manage to write content and get stuff out there most days. I can almost guarantee you that no other blog out there is run by someone who works a full-time job, coaches high school football, and still finds time to put out content every day. I write on my lunch hour, before the crack of dawn, and after most people are in bed.

Believe me when I say that if I can write, I will write. If something doesn’t get posted, it’s not because I’ve forgotten or let it go by the wayside due to laziness. I’m sorry for not posting a game recap and such, but altogether, that’s probably about 4-5 hours of work that I simply don’t have time for this week.

Traffic and Income Report: April 2017

Many of you visit regularly, click on ads, buy things on Amazon, contribute via Paypal, etc. Here’s how that turns up on my end.

The following data comes from April of 2017:

Page views: 371,241.
This is a jump of about 116,000 page views. The reason is twofold, I believe: 1. I brought on some additional contributors, including Mike Knapp and umbig11. 2) My Google ranking stopped being affected so negatively by my stupid, crappy server.

Google AdSense revenue: $476.43

Amazon Affiliates revenue: $33.26

Sovrn revenue: $134.02
I mentioned last month that Sovrn had been screwy and I had to work out some kinks, so this represents almost a 400% increase in revenue from them.

Paypal donations: $0.00
Paypal is still not productive unless I’m specifically asking for donations, which is fine.

TOTAL INCOME: $643.71

Site News: Summer is Coming

The summer months are coming, which means there’s a little more free time to work on the site. So now is always a good time to get a feel for the direction of the site.

What about the site needs to be added, improved, fixed, etc.? If you have experience in site design, think about widgets, plug-ins, layout, etc. If you’re a fan, think about information, content, etc.

A few things to think about:

• Does the site need a Twitter feed on the sidebar?
• Do you want to see more pictures and videos of recruits? Do you prefer clicking on links to highlight videos?
• What types of posts do you prefer to see linked on the nightly posts – coaching posts, Michigan news, national college football news, other?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Traffic and Income Report: February 2017

I mentioned not long ago that I wanted to start sharing traffic and income reports for the site. As readers and contributors, I think it’s fair to want some insight into the “inner workings” of the blog. Many of you visit regularly, click on ads, buy things on Amazon, contribute via Paypal, etc. Hopefully this can become a regular report.

The following data comes from February of 2017:

Page views: 229,640.
This was a down month for traffic, despite the expected uptick in traffic from National Signing Day. Why was it so low? Well, my previous hosting service couldn’t handle the traffic – despite promises that it could – so there was a lot of down time. There were a couple days, as well as intermittent other spots, where nobody could view the site at all, including me.

Google AdSense revenue: $281.40

Amazon Affiliates revenue: $53.95

Paypal donations: $1,109.40.
I don’t get Paypal donations during most months, but this was the month when I requested (and received) funding for a new server. (See above: Page views.) Over a span of twelve days, readers ponied up over $1,100 to help for the new server, which has been working well.

TOTAL INCOME: $1,444.75