Your donations? My typing fingers? A match that equals that moment when a feisty banana meets a box of cinnamon-flavored awesomeness.
As business plans go, it’s a humdinger.
I call it the “smash your head against a wall over and over again and wonder why you’re no closer to that indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall in the middle” than I was when I adopted said plan.
When I started writing this blog, publishing my first story Aug. 15, 2012, I was mad and sad — ticked that the previously independent Coupeville Examiner had been sold to the Dark Overlords of Black Press up in Canada.
Over time, Coupeville Sports morphed into something else.
Together (with me doing most of the work and you, the reader, providing key financial support), we’ve accomplished a lot.
There’s a Wall of Fame in the Coupeville High School gym now, documenting decades of accomplishments in a public way that current athletes can see and use as inspiration.
We’ve held 101- and 50-year anniversaries for the CHS boys’ and girls’ basketball programs, respectively, bringing back numerous former Wolves for one more night in the spotlight.
We saved the athletic trainer position at the school, after it was foolishly slashed as part of budget cuts — funding one of the most important employees any district can employ.
For six days shy of 12 years, we have joined together to provide Cow Town with a unique service.
I have yet to find another blogger in Washington state doing what I am doing, at least at the depth I am doing it.
I write almost every single day, even during the slow months of the summer.
At one point I published for 303 consecutive days, then got busy working for my sister on her property in Freeland, and let an afternoon slip by. The landlord’s cat will never let me hear the end of that one…
Coupeville Sports covers high school athletics, varsity and JV. It covers middle school and elementary school and community activities and events, as well.
It goes well beyond sports at times, which pleases some folks and pisses off others.
Good thing it’s a free blog then, and each person can choose whether to read it or not.
And that “no pay wall” philosophy has been there every step of the way and will remain ever so, from day one to whatever day turns out to be the last.
That’s 11,396 articles and counting.
As we near the start of another school year, I am faced again with the eternal quandary.
Even with my very limited bills, can I make it through nine more months?
That “business plan” I mentioned earlier certainly makes it trickier.
The ads you see on the blog were sold for the life of the site, so some folks have gotten a month or two out of them, and some have gotten 12 years.
If nothing else, it means when a random South Whidbey School Board member or two try to harass my advertisers and call for a boycott, they’ve already lost before they’ve begun — the money is long gone, just like those board members spines.
And anyway, like the “no pay wall,” I’m not reneging on the “you don’t have to renew your ads if you don’t feel like it” part of the “business plan.”
The first advertisers had no clue if the blog would last two articles (like my long-forgotten rival South Whidbey Sports) or 11,396 articles — they took a huge chance on me and should be rewarded for their willingness to possibly light their money on fire back in 2012.
At this point, 12 years in, if you were going to advertise, you likely already have.
Someone out there may surprise me, and if so, awesome. If not, well it’s all part of the “plan.”
I’ll get by (or I won’t) thanks to readers who choose to donate to the cause.
If you’re interested in going that route, there’s PayPal:
https://paypal.me/DavidSvien?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
There’s Venmo, where you can find me at David-Svien.
There’s snail mail at 165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA, 98239.
Or there’s in person, Mafia handshake style.
From those who have donated publicly to those who have donated privately, I thank you.
Who knew this thing would make it to Year 12, and possibly beyond?
Coupeville Sports 