so clearly I haven't made a secret of my relationship with SBNation - in fact, this morning's article lays it out pretty plainly
Then a chance encounter led to a small but rapidly growing company named SBNation purchasing the rights to the blog. I no longer had to worry about the costs or the ads or the server or anything else that was secondary to running the site the best way I knew how. (I don't feel comfortable discussing the details of the deal but suffice to say I'm still working a day job but got a very fair price for the blog.) In short, I got to "sell out" without getting out. I finally realized my entrepreneurial dream.
That's the cliff notes version. The details are personal and as PO and others have noted, are really nobodies business but mine. And by the way, if you sense a little edginess, in PO's "voice" it is because he loves me and he's probably feeling a bit protective of me. For that (and 1,000 other reasons) I love him too.
Anyway, somewhere in the middle is where I feel comfortable sharing so here goes.
My personal gain from this partnership is mostly money. Solid, reliable money (as opposed to the fluctuating and fickle ad market). I would do a lot of this for free, but not all of it. And don't tell my bosses that.
That's about all you have to know about that.
Of course, I'm more than financially invested in this blog. It is my baby. So whatever benefits the blog makes me happy.
The blog itself benefits by having an ideal tech team working behind the scenes. They are ideal because they not only are extremely advanced in their platforms and their solutions, but they just flat out know blogging. It is all they do.
It also benefits by having a solid, stable environment on the server side. You can refute that if you like - there have been crashes and hicups in the last year - but when you consider the traffic this blog consumes, it is amazing how well that's been handled and how quickly it has been resolved. In short, there's zero chance that a 3rd party vendor could maintain this traffic without it bankrupting me in fees.
Traffic by the way has increased on average of 30% a year. In short, wow.
In addition, they let me run my blog like I want to. There are some certain structural limitations (for example, in an ideal world I would prefer one log-in for the forums and the main site - but that's a really hard thing to do and probably not worth investing the time/money to accomplish). There are some small behind the scenes things like that that I've asked for that they simply couldn't do for me because it would mean changing 300 other blogs too - not my place to do that.
On the flipside, wherever possible they've bent over backwards making exceptions for this blog. We are one of very few blogs that supports a forum. I don't know any others that have a chat room. They love CelticsBlog and they've been amazing to me at every step.
As for this latest upgrade, to be honest I've been feeling like the blog format was getting stale for a year or two. I'll say it again. I love the new changes. They take getting used to, and it isn't for everyone, but I think it is a huge step forward.
I hope that answers the relevant and intended questions. I hope that I'm doing a good enough job running this site to earn a little bit of grace for anything that you are unhappy with. But remember, SBNation is not "Big Corporation X" - at least I don't picture them that way.
They communicate continually with their blog managers and they work closely with us to refine our art and grow our communities. As a company, SBNation has grown up much like CelticsBlog and I have. One day at a time yet bold enough to break new ground when the time is right.
In short, I love SBNaiton, and if you like me and this blog then you can thank them for helping me to make it possible.
cheers