Many moons ago when I was trying to build up the BSO brand, I wasn’t just the owner— I was also the chief promotions operator meaning, I begged people to read the site.
One of the reasons I am well known now is I went into many forums, message boards, chat rooms, and commented on other sites as myself, Robert Littal.
I took the brunt of the criticism and snickers that this site would never be nationally recognized. I kept the faith though and kept pounding the internet pavement.
I got an email in 2008, from someone I affectionately call Miss Millions. The email was about this site called Yardbarker.com.
I had never heard of it, but it was a site that allowed athletes to have blogs and spotlighted independent sites. I was skeptical because as you know I am paranoid. But Miss Millions convinced me if I wanted to make that “next” step, this was the place to be.
She asked me to trust her and I did and it’s been one of the best decisions I have made.
So as Yardbarker moves forward, I am proud to be along for the ride. Here are the details:
Yardbarker has had a great relationship with FOX Sports that started two years ago as a low-key content-sharing partnership and evolved last year into a more formal editorial and sales collaboration. That partnership has been very successful from both parties’ perspectives, and today we’re announcing what amounts to the next step in the evolution of the relationship, as well as a major milestone for this company and for each one of the over 800 independent sports sites in our network.
We’ve determined that the best way to continue growing Yardbarker’s presence in sports media is to team up permanently with the FOX Sports team. The acquisition closed today.
The decision to sell came down to this: we saw a huge opportunity to accelerate the growth of the Yardbarker brand and to expand the influence of the sports blogosphere, and we’re convinced that FOX Sports is the best partner to help make those things happen. FOX understands that the publishers in our network are doing important work to transform this business, and through this acquisition they’re committing to lead in the development of the sports blogosphere from here on.
So, in essence I work with Jason Whitlock now. Someone pass the chicken wings.
In all seriousness, the BSO you all know and love (or hate) will stay the same except our reach and exposure should now be greater.
That should make people a little nervous.
I am officially changing my status from “Dollarnaire” to “Hundredaire”.
Going to “Make it Sprinkle” now.
