By Josh:
So a little background. I started 9 Inning Know It All to not only talk about baseball, but to also showcase my talent and knowledge to hopefully increase my chance of getting a job in baseball. After years of trying that goal never panned out so I focused on the hobby side of 9 Inning Know It All.
The site has become a fun place full of lots of great stories centered around the game of baseball and softball, as well as a place where I have been able to share thousands of photos with players, teams and families each year.
For the most part this will remain the same. One big change is that photos I post will have watermarks on them to protect from individuals downloading them and claiming credit for the photos (happened a few times in 2019). Photos with watermarks will be free to download and non-watermarked photos will be available from each game I attend for purchase on my 9 Inning SmugMug Site.
There are going to be a few changes that I’m going to make personally when it comes to articles. I still want to write fun and positive articles but I’m not going to avoid articles just because they may not be as positive in nature as what normally goes up.
I’ve really tried to limit negative articles (I’ve written more than a few that I ended up not posting) and when I do write something negative I try to make sure I write counter articles to go along with negative ones. However, this year I’m giving myself more freedom to write what I want when I feel I should write it.
There have been a lot of times I’ve tried to avoid topics or deleted articles I wrote before I posted them because they didn’t match the original theme of the site and a part of me felt like the site was being limited. I don’t plan to go crazy with negative articles but being limited for fear I might lose some readers isn’t an approach I am going to follow anymore.
Another change I’m making myself is on the site I’m going to probably talk less about things involving MLB and talk more about the Minor Leagues, College and other summer baseball. I honestly have so much more fun covering these levels and interacting with the players and staff. Plus the fact that I haven’t gone to an MLB game in over two years and that won’t change this year is a part of the reason as well. Now Twitter and Facebook will still have lots of content that is MLB focused like it has been the past few years.
Because of the changes I am making, emphasizing the selling of photos as well as the potential for more controversial/negative type of articles, I felt it important to not put current Patreon supporters in a position of having to decide if they still felt right to be a financial supporter. I stopped the previous Patreon page and started a brand new one so that those who choose to support 9 Inning Know It All do so knowing about the changes I’m making.
Patreon support helps cover the cost of keeping the site going, grants me the freedom to make it to locations and even attend games that I may not be able to sell photos at. Also the more supporters I have on Patreon the more registration scholarships and team I plan to sponsor.
Click here to become a Patreon Supporter.
The last thing I hope to accomplish in 2020 is to create videos about baseball. These might only be a few minutes long and probably not real great quality as I have almost no experience with video editing and video creation, but I want to at least try. A few videos I’m already working on is Baseball in the Northwest, JUCO baseball and a few other fun ones.
I hope to really grow what is done on the site, as well as grow the business side of things but the success really comes down to all of you. Thank you for being a part of the 9 Inning Know It All Empire.