January Aces (and a word from our sponsor)
My weekly entry for The Tennis Recruiting Network is a monthly version of the weekly SMASH online column I did in 2006, but with more photos and less words. I'm very happy to have signed on for a regular Thursday article for tennisrecruiting.net, and have much to thank them for, including my recent affiliation with Tennis Warehouse.
When I started this blog over two years and 829 posts ago, I didn't know where it would lead. Zootennis started as a place to explore issues in junior tennis that interested me, and a space where I could regularly report on the accomplishments of young players. The more I did those things, the more I enjoyed them, and what started as a hobby quickly turned into a second career. I am writing regularly for SMASH and The Tennis Recruiting Network, occasionally for Tennis Magazine and doing a weekly podcast, Inside Junior Tennis. Those things help support the travel I do, but one of the main questions I get when talking to parents and coaches at tournaments is "how do you make money on your website?"
The answer has always been a straightforward "I don't." (Quite a few people think I'm employed or somehow compensated by the USTA). But this Christmas, my Amazon store experiment turned out more profitably than I could have hoped, encouraging me to explore an affiliation with a partner that would have an interest in my visitors. That partner, Tennis Warehouse, is not an advertiser. Rather, like Amazon, I will benefit if sales are made through the link on my site.
As far as traffic goes, I'm never going to approach the numbers of tennis.com or si.com, but I'm happy as long as I have readers and commenters who care about junior tennis and junior tennis players. Juniortennis.com has now gone to a paid subscription for anyone but junior players. I'm not going to adopt that model--I want the site to be as widely read as possible--but I would like to see ZooTennis contribute to the travel fund.
That's a long way of saying please use the link at the top, but I did want you to understand the background on its sudden appearance.
3 comments:
As a parent of a kid who plays tennis, I have enjoyed reading your website. I hope you will be successful with the ad.
Ah, it's great to see that you have slowly built up this website. Independent reporting of Tennis issues are much needed right now.
Big Business just has too much influence over this country right now.
Thanks so much for continuing your passion for Tennis!
I post regularly to the forums section of TW and I often link to your blog as a good source of information.
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