Starting this week, I have decided to start selling my own sponsorships. Google Ads are ugly. I respect paywalls, but I want this blog to be free to read. This is my solution to control what readers see and not burden you with another subscription.

I started this blog in February 2023 and began writing daily in April 2023. With all the time and effort that goes into each post that I write and share every day, if I could write about football and get paid, that would be incredible.

I don’t want the reader to be responsible for making that dream a reality. You should not feel obligated to support me with money; you should just read, share, and enjoy what I have to say.

I was angry after seeing this post pop up on my timeline the other day. Perfectly fine, working football nets chained together in a public park in Wheeling, Illinois. Unfortunately, it is a somewhat common phenomenon in the United States to only allow paying customers at local clubs to use the goals.

Football should be free and accessible to all. The nets should not be chained. Anyone should be allowed to come, kick the ball into the net, and practice. That is the purpose of the net. If anything, people will just kick the ball at the closed side of the net to find a way to use it as a goal. To get around the lock.

The same should be true online, but I understand it is a business. There are different ways of going about monetizing writing. Google Ads are everywhere; they come with privacy concerns; they’re not nice to look at; pop-ups everywhere; drop-down menus you have to close. I support websites with paywalls, but I don’t personally want to compete with them. There’s a lot of them.

I’d rather have someone or an organization that I believe in share something with you that I think you’d be interested in. And you can support me by engaging and trying the things they share.

Who Can Become a Sponsor?

This is not something I’m only offering to companies or organizations to pitch their product or service. This is for anyone.

Just started a blog but want more visitors? Have a new YouTube channel or video you want to promote? Want to get people to sign up to read your newsletter? Did you just start a podcast? Want to share a teaching course? Have an event that you want to promote? Did you create a new social media account and want to get more followers?

This is something that can help you get the word out to other likeminded football fans, coaches, analysts, scouts, and professionals.

Ground Rules

• Just one ad per page, at the top of every page.
• There is only one sponsorship slot available per week.
• I will only accept sponsorships from people or products that I believe will be of interest to Tactics Journal readers and that are worth their attention.
• Ads should be 210 characters or less.
• Starting price: $105 per week.
• If you’re interested, contact me at sponsors@tacticsjournal.com.

The price of the sponsorship can increase or decrease at any time, depending on demand. No takers; I’ll lower the price. There are a lot of takers; I’ll raise the price.

What the Sponsor Gets

• Each week-long sponsorship is exclusive, one per week. You get 100% of the reader’s attention.
• You will get a display ad at the top of every page of the site, all week long.
• You can place your logo next to the text explaining what you’re sharing.
• You can place a link within the text to send the reader somewhere else. This will be a direct link; readers should trust what they’re clicking on.
• A post from the sponsor will appear at the start of the week on all social media channels. You, the sponsor, get to address the Tactics Journal’s most dedicated readers directly.

The ad banner won’t blink, pop out at you when you scroll, or spin. It’ll sit at the top of the page.

Analytics

I am not someone driven by analytics. I do not care about likes, retweets, reposts, shares, or views. I’ve always ignored the statistics because I think they can influence how you write or what you talk about. I’ll write about what interests me, and if it interests someone else, they’ll share it with ten of their friends, and then those friends will share it with ten of their friends.

But here are the recent stats, because I’m sure you are interested in knowing how many people you can reach:

• Typical weekday web page views: 1,500–3,000
• Estimated monthly web page views: 5,000–10,000
• Combined followers on the @TacticsJournal Twitter, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, and WhatsApp accounts: over 35,000

I’m doing well for someone who started in 2023. I recently surpassed 137,000 views! A milestone I only realized I reached because I was collecting numbers for this post. If a post helps one person, then I’m happy. I got to share my idea with one person.

How to Become a Sponsor

If you are interested, simply send me an email at sponsors@tacticsjournal.com.

This idea of sponsorships is not unique; it was heavily inspired by a tech blogger I have followed for many years, John Gruber of Daring Fireball. He tried a similar thing many years ago, and it has been working for him. I have a much smaller audience, but they are equally as dedicated. I thought I’d give it a try.