BallOfSpray is 3 Years Old

[Horton]

BallOfSpray was born Dec 12, 2008. In the last three years, BallOfSpray has grown to become the website for tournament water skiing. I want to thank my wife, Gallagher, for understanding and for editing. I want to thank Krista Rogers for her many contributions and thank Matt Page for the BallOfScores iPhone app. Most of all I want to thank the Ballers for making the site what it is today.

Below is Google Analytics data showing the growth of the site:

http://www.ballofspray.com/images/stories/3yrdata.png

 

[MattP]

Thanks @Horton for all that you have done with this site! It is an amazing platform for us crazed, addicted skiers to talk to others who understand! As well as a great news source for the sport! Also not to mention for all the support for that little idea I ran by you a few years ago about some sort of iPhone app and how you, @krista and myself turned it into a great product. Hey not to mention the new one I have coming out here in a few weeks!

 

Thanks again for your support and this great site!

Matt Page

[Chef23]

Very cool thank you John for this great site. Even when I was hurt this season and couldn't ski I came here for a fix. I might be more productive at work without BOS but I would definitely miss it.

[Chuck_Dickey]

Congrats John and thanks for BOS.

[waterskicorey]

Thanks John for doing a great job with the web site, it is the best site out there.

[Than_Bogan]

AWESOME! Looks like you are definitely filling a niche here.

 

Obviously the increases in views are directly attributable to my phenomenally interesting posts... :-)

 

Oh wait, I meant "in spite of"...

 

Btw, who wouldda thought there's 100,000 people who are interested enough in hard-core slalom skiing? I'm not surprised that almost everyone who *is* interested comes here, but that's a good chunk of people and for the moment the growth still seems to be accelerating!

[Horton]

Make money? It is a business but if it was really about the money I would be doing something else.

 

I believe it is the best ad value in the sport. I doubled my ad rates for 2012 and still think I am

dirt cheap.

 

More important to me is to be a resource for the sport. Currently water ski news and media is splintered. I see BallOfSpray becoming a unifying site.

[disland]

I think the biggest opportunity for expansion is international. The IWWF website is a joke. Ranking lists every 6 months and they are late and wrong.

[Horton]

@disland I am not going to beat on any of the official associations. Yes they could use some help.

 

On one hand I think the sport does a certifiably terrible job of media and promotion. On the other hand I cannot guarantee that done right it would make a difference. My plan is to continue to try to promote the sport in any way I can. I could now go into my standard rant but I will spare you.

( http://www.ballofspray.com/horton/749-water-ski-marketing )

 

As for the ranking lists, I think they always seem late is because the events and data are certified by the organizations. That is something I cannot do.

 

What I can do is strive to publish current and interesting news as often as possible. I will also continue to implore news makers and prominent skiers to use BallOfSpray to get their message to the skiing public. Besides that all I can do is keep this forum friendly and have a little fun.

[disland]

John, Awesome love the site. Glad to help any way I can.

[Marco]

John- Did you re-start the site in '08? I remember (I think) joiing in May of '07, and thats what my profile has said for as long as I can remember.

 

Regardless, congrats for the success of BoS, and thank you for helping to feed the addiction of all of us addicts!

[Horton]

@Marco

I made that change Dec 08. BOS went from another funky homemade forum site to what it is now. 60K Page views in 2008 and we will pass 3 Million for 2011 in the next hour.

[Marco]

Awesome. I'm almost afraid to know how many of the 3 million views are from me!!!

[Horton]

No but it happened around 9:30 this morning. Pretty cool.

[Horton]

Well I can't until I pass 3MM minus your views :- )

[east tx skier]

Thanks, Horton. You run a great site. Full of information and fun without the flame wars that had become inevitable elsewhere. Way to run a tight ship without any of us realizing it.

[lpskier]

Good job, John. We all appreciate all your efforts. It's fun to keep my head in the game even when it's snowing.

[Horton]

3,080,101 page views for the year as of right now...

 

Thanks guys

[Bulldog]

Fantastic site John!! Makes winter go quicker. Thanks for all of your hard work.