If COSFBA fell in the woods would it make a sound.
The above attempts at humor adequately sum up my personal reasonings behind walking away from this blog I held so near and dear to my heart. I was simply tired of working so hard to have my work seen by "the masses" and yet knowing the reality of the situation was only a small core of very loyal friends and followers were truly the ones coming back on a regular basis.
Constantly being told how great my content was by respected peers but not seeing the readership grow was a hard pill to swallow. And I'm not going to lie about something else that made it hard to keep doing what I was doing as COSFBA...I knew I was better than so many others with dramatically larger followings simply because they had words like "fantasy", "baseball" or "expert" in there site's name or an army of writers simply chugging out "content" for content's sake.
I'll take ownership of two "fails" with my blog. The first being the shortsightedness when it came to naming this blog. I never thought it would become anything bigger than a personal journal of my own rants and raves about the game I grew up loving (baseball) and the obsession I have for playing fantasy baseball.
The second "fail" is directly related to why I shut down COSFBA. In my desperate attempt to grow readership, I reached out to as many writers as possible who were willing to bring their voice to COSFBA in a last-ditch effort to save what I felt was a failing venture. Some of the invitations I handed out turned out to truly be positive but the majority weren't. And that was a learning experience I am soon not to forget. I know this comes off as bitter, maybe even childish, but I hold myself to a high standard especially when my name is attached to the overall identity of this site.
Okay. Enough about the past. This article was supposed to be about the future of COSFBA and me as a player in the fantasy baseball writing realm. Those of you who have taken the time to get to know me personally may recall that 2012 will be the year baby number four comes into the world in the Aubain household. As I started to toss around ideas in my head for the next generation of a baseball/fantasy baseball site, I kept coming back to the fact that I have no idea what kind of time I'm going to have to dedicate to all the great and truly aggressive ideas I was putting down on paper.
So, after some serious soul-searching, I've come to the realization that 2012 is probably not the best year for me to jump into the new venture of trying to build something again from scratch that I'd be proud of. With "time" being an unknown, I know I'd wind up being one of those bloggers who constantly post updates and apologies about lack of content because life simply got in the way of a hobby. That's unacceptable to me.
Now comes the fun part. I'm looking for an opportunity, the right opportunity, to join an established baseball and/or fantasy baseball site with a loyal following of readers who would be interested in what I have to say. What would I bring to the table? This entire site is my résumé. Even the articles not authored by me were ideas I had in my head but no time to write them all down myself.
Is your site or one you know of going through a major redesign this offseason and would benefit from additional content from an established writer? Are you a baseball-centric site looking to branch out and attract a fantasy baseball crowd? Is there a specific thing I did well on COSFBA that you'd love for me to bring with me to a new venture?
If you answered yes to any of these questions or have ideas of your own on how I could fit in on your site or others you know are looking for additional contributors, please contact me via email at COSFBA@gmail.com. I'm willing to consider any opportunity offered to me which makes sense to both parties.
Thanks again for making 2011 an incredible season and hopefully the information and advice I gave out on COSFBA kept you entertained while helping you succeed in your fantasy baseball leagues. I'm truly excited to see what 2012 has in store for me.
Sincerely,
Daniel J. Aubain @COSFBA
Owner, Founder, Editor, Lead Writer and Mastermind behind all things COSFBA
You're analysis isn't as strong as other sites. It takes a tremendous amount of time to do the esearch taht goes into a lot of the other venues that guys like you & I don't seem to have. Check out the status of Fantasy Baseball Recon. I've looked at different angles and ventures as well, but I keep coming to the conclusion that if I want to write about Fantasy, I have to spend the time doing the research. I just don't have it.
ReplyDeleteThe only answer is to develop a concept not as heavy on the statisitcal research side of baseball as fantasy is, and examine things as more of fan opinion. Use personality over statisitcs. I miss the sites as well, I'll just never have the time to really make it work.
Best of luck and let me know where you end up.
Ed Haas
Fantasy Baseball Recon
Ed,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
Best to you and the Recon site.
Daniel
Good luck with baby number four and I hope your talent finds a home. It's understandable if you can't afford the time for this site, but to silence your "voice" would be sad.
ReplyDeleteI have found my aspirations for success have at times been a hindrance. Ed speaks some truth for sure, there are plenty of statistics websites out there, personality makes some more readable than others. I also can't imagine trying to compete with the teams of professional analysts out there. However, everyone starts somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI second the motion, good luck with your fourth baby and also with your career, in whatever direction that turns.
I think maybe you're looking at it the wrong way... the internet doesn't need another "expert blog." The terms "expert" and "blogger" probably don't even belong in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that there are two types of baseball centric personal blogs out there: The kind that churns out material just for the sake of having something new, and the kind that produces unique, well researched topics at a slower pace. I think the baseball blogosphere needs more of the latter and I think you'd have a more enjoyable time doing it.