Who didn't see this coming?

Not to mix my metaphors here, but Bob Goodenow has pulled off an admirable double-play: as captain, he went down with the NHLPA's ship, and now is walking the plank as well. Will he go down in history as the labor exec who oversaw the most disastrous negotiation in sports history?

Let's tick off the recent accomplishments:

Despite several years of available time, failed to reach an agreement with the owners, leading to a lockout,

stubbornly persisted in a losing battle, scratching the 2004-5 NHL season,

finally agreed to a deal with a 24% pay cut, a salary cap, and few, if any, significant gains for the players, and

made Gary Bettman look like a smooth operator.

That's an amazing list, but apparently that's all for now. Goodenow is out, Ted Saskin is in, and hopefully, this is the last we'll hear about NHLPA executives for a very, very long time.

My goals for 2011: Make sports blogging pay off

In my never-ending quest to figure out a model for making what is currently my hobby & passion into something bringing in at least a side income, I've decided to set a couple goals for myself to complete during the rest of 2011. Simply put, I plan to publish two products over the next few months, which I hope will provide real value to hockey fans, and that they'll be willing to pay for. Will it succeed? Will it fail? The only way to know is to put my nose to the grindstone and get these two things done (I'll keep the details under my hat for now). The important thing to note is that these efforts are in addition to anything I'm doing over at OTF . Taking away what we're doing over there and asking people to pay for it is a surefire lose-lose all the way around, because if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, it's that people love to read about sports, but only for free. I'm also optimistic about Hockey Gea...

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.

Celebrating a milestone month

I've been remiss in providing regular updates on my quest to turn this whole sports-blogging hobby into at least something of a significant side income, if not a career, but good news has a way of prompting action. That, and I've been heads-down busy working on a few different fronts to push things forward...

OTF Classic

Search This Blog