A Thursday Evening Quickie

Check back tomorrow morning, as I'll probably do another live-blog summary of tonight's Predators-Canucks game, which starts especially late this evening. For some previews, check out Canucks Hockey Blog and Waiting for Stanley. This is a battle of the NHL's worst road team visiting the NHL's worst home team; just imagine the possibilities!

In other news, mega-congratulations go out to hockey blogger supreme Eric McErlain, who will lend his talents to the Sporting News twice a week. When I work out at the local Y, the Sporting News is the only sports rag available, and they could certainly use a boost in their NHL coverage. Well done, Eric!

UPDATE: Thanks to Mirtle for informing us of Spector's good news; he'll be writing for the Hockey News website weekly as well. Spector's been churning out great hockey writing and rumor vetting since Ye Olden Days of Ye Internet, i.e. the 20th century, and should be a great credit to the Hockey News.

Also, a recent feature over at Joe Pelletier's Legends of Hockey called "Taking a Stand" focuses on players who made huge differences due to special courage and determination. His latest example of that is Slava Fetisov. I've only got one personalized NHL jersey, and it's a #2 Fetisov jersey from his time in Detroit. Check Joe's profile out, it's always a good read over at Legends of Hockey.

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...

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.

New directions for OTF

While my writings about the Nashville Predators are being posted over at OnTheForecheck.com, rather than this old site, I thought it might be worth touching base here every now and again to touch on "meta" issues, related to blogging in general. In particular, these days I'm very much interested in how I can turn this time-consuming hobby into a bit of a revenue generator. Since I receive a small stipend from SB Nation to run OTF, I declared that income on my taxes last year, and realized that I should also be recording my expenses (for example, parking fees downtown when I go to cover a practice or press conference, mileage, etc.). It was a bit of a reality slap to see exactly how much I was spending on this endeavor, and with 3 kids heading off to college in 9-10 years, there's a bit of a financial imperative to turn the tables there. So here's a few ideas I'm considering/pursuing: A website devoted to hockey gear and accessories, HockeyGearHQ.com . The idea...

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