This season with Caps Outsider, I decided to hire a bunch of folks to help out with that site. I recruited Taylor Lewis, a University of Maryland journalism student; Alena Schwarz, a Towsen journalism student; Nicole Weissman, who writes for Box Seats on washingtonpost.com; Jeffrey Kleiman, a New York-based Caps fan living in Islander territory; M. Richter, who I work with at the Gardens Ice House and blogs for a few other sites; Samantha Bass, also a student; and Mike Xtremist aka Caps Tattoo Guy, one of the most passionate Capitals fans you’ll ever meet. Along with Phil Van Der Vossen from Gunaxin.com, we’ve got a great staff ready to take on some of the most offbeat Capitals content we can find. We also have an army of loyal readers who pitch us nuggets of info and oddball things that wind up on the site.
For instance, I learned about these new Plush Dolls coming out from Bleacher Creatures from a reader. So I posted that an Alex Ovechkin one is coming out. Yahoo’s Puck Daddy got wind of it from my site and wrote a post of his own (going out to a MUCH larger audience, of course). I’m pretty certain that this marketing is what Bleacher Creatures will need to get sales. Sure, it could’ve happened despite my reader tipping me off to them, but I got it before other sites did. If other sites already had it, particularly with a photo of the Alex Ovechkin doll, there would’ve been no point to me posting that.
And that’s the way things work in the blogosphere.
Some people collect stamps. Some people play with model airplanes. I run a site that focuses on offbeat Capitals news. That’s my hobby and it’s utterly thrilling that the world works in such a way now that I’m able to do this type of thing for fun. It’s going to be a great season.