Taking a break myself while I sort some stuff out about what I want to do here moving forward (if I do). Read any of the boatload of Nats blogs listed to the right —>
Resume Baseball Activities (Nyjer)
First off, many thanks to CSNwashington for holding their first blogger bash last night at RFD in DC! I had a great ...
Bandwagonner!
I was just slower posting! (part of my problem!)
Barry, Chris and you…I’m depressed. Please come back.
I think it’s obvious that they (along with Basil) are forming a Barbershop quartet.
Seriously!? — You can’t quit too!
Oh c’mon, even I know when I suck! I’m not quitting – just taking a hiatus to figure out some direction here rather than yapping into the ethos with nothing significant to contribute.
Nothing significant to contribute? ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!?!? Wanting to take a break (or slow down awhile) because you’ve got a lot going on with work, family, lighthouse and book – sure, that would make sense – but nothing significant to contribute???
Miss C., if you’re taking pictures of the team and commenting on them, that is an angle NO ONE ELSE has EVEN BEGUN to explore. (And didn’t you just get a brand new camera?)
Okay, I’ll turn the caps lock off, but I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit…
What do you mean, nothing significant to contribute? You have interesting and unique photographs. You get into places (e.g. the Gala) that nobody else reports on. You’ve got a unique perspective on things.
Triple amen to that. Count me among your fans. You are more than just a Nats fan to us ;-) !
A barbershop quartet… hmm… that could be fun! Can they sing? ;-) As you can see, I’ve been primping here, so obviously I’ll be back soon! I’m not sure I’m enamored with that header graphic….
It is a little, um… busy, but the blinking ads and the sort-of-right-center navigation might be the part that’s pushing it over the top. The hierarchy appears to be lost. When everything is important, nothing is important.
Hmmm… yeah, the whole redo was because of advertising – I was trying to find a place for it where it would be out of the way (but still prevalent enough to earn me money to pay back some from the camera equip purchase!). Back to the drawing board, I guess.
I think the ads can stay prominent but not overwhelming if the rest of the navigation is really clear, but right now they are fighting with each other. If the ads are on the right, I would suggest having both the top nav and the side nav on the left side (or you could do it the other way around). That switch might solve everything pretty quickly.
Similarly, with ads at the top, you have to figure the ads will be busy, which sort of mandates that you to have a less busy header (otherwise it sort of looks like 2 ads).
Better? I’m not sure I can move one of the sidebars to the other side. I’ll play on my laptop and see. I’m rebranding! Without losing RSS/URL stuff :-) I think I’m going to focus on the photography/vodcast aspect.
Hey Cathy, I don’t know how much traffic your site gets, but I am guessing that the CPM advertising revenue isn’t a lot to write home about.
It occured to me that if you are going to display banner ads, then you might do well to try advertising Nats-specific stuff as an affiliate. If you join Commission Junction (cj.com), you can then display links to Nationals merchandise pages at sites like mlb.com, fansedge.com, Fathead, Lids, Stubhub, and even CafePress (letteddywin.com). Then tell your readers to buy their Nats stuff through you to support the site.
Thanks, LTWTPR. YardBarker network is targeted too. I’ll keep that in mind!