you are right that as readers we are at a disadvantage/ignorant of your traffic patterns. since you state that your political references are few and far between, when it occurs, it is shocking. why, because politics as well as religion are usually verboten in workplaces, bars, etc because they are hot-button topics. these topics usually break down into arguing and diminished capacity of reasoning, even amongst friends and family. a reasonable assumption as to why it occured was made by a few posters.

anyways, just trying to explain why i would state what i did. thanks for your time.

movving on.

@lurker – A political analogy buried in a football post clearly is not an attempt to drive views. Joe doesn’t get how you and others think it was/is? How exactly would new readers be drawn to read a supposedly hot-button line? It is a very wild leap to think that a political reference is an attempt to driver readers or interest. In fact, Joe would suspect a large majority of readers would be shocked by the traffic patters here, and what’s popular and what’s not. Now if there was political commentary in the headline or a picture of a political figure, then sure, that would an attempt to drive traffic.

thanks for the history lesson.
also, I wasn’t talking about bucs’ content per se, but hot-button content in general, political content particularly.. it is not a wild leap to see what drives more views/hits/whatever on the site and use it more often.. just as in the past when starting the site when you saw bucs’ content got more views.

anyways, good job on the site and on the radio this evening/morning, or to the other joe if it was.

@lurker – Joe NEVER wrote or implied that Joe doesn’t try to increase readership or value in JoeBucsFan.com. Not sure how you concocted that.

Clearly, Joe markets his website via cross-promotional partnerships with Clear Channel Radio, Ch. 10 and USA Today Digital Media, for example. Joe also promotes via social media and in other ways. Obviously, Joe markets his business and cares about traffic. What Joe explained was that Joe doesn’t make Bucs content decisions with business and revenue in mind.

Again, you’ve made that wild leap on your own.

As for the history of JoeBucsFan.com, you are correct. Joe saw the hunger for Bucs news in TBO.com data as a staff member of the Tribune, and over time Joe crafted his unique plan out of the spirit of a defunct site called JoeNetsFan.com.

Regarding which Joe is writing what, if Joe was trying to promote himself personally, then his names would be all over the site. Celebrity is not the goal around here. One day there will be more Joes, or new Joes.

you are running a site with no intent to increase readership or value in said site? hard to believe. my understanding is that one/both saw an opportunity from working at the trib that there was an increase in interest in buccaneers’ articles versus others. so the idea was birthed and partly taken from a defunt “joe” website from the northeast. perhaps i am wrong on the intention or the history.

perhaps one or both could tell the history of joebucsfan. i am interested. i cannot find a search or archive to be able to look if this has been covered or not.

ps i do think it matters which “joe” has certain feelings on certain subsects, such as politics. especially, since one brought it up into the equation here and in other articles.

thanks

@Piratic – Joe knows it’s hard to believe, but Joe doesn’t sit around plotting and planning stories to drive traffic to satisfy advertisers. Frankly, Joe’s advertising is so far below market value when compared to traditional media sites, that Joe could lose half his traffic and all the advertisers here would still be happy.

Sure, Joe “self-censors.” Joe keeps a PG-rated site. Joe doesn’t run with 99 percent of rumors. Joe doesn’t play TMZ (and Joe’s got a pile of fantastic TMZ-type stuff to work with.) Joe largely sticks to AP style, and Joe has a code of ethics he adheres to, etc. But when it comes to the content, Joe really doesn’t sit around concerned about offending anyone, or pissing off readers.

If Joe was concerned about p!ssing people off, he wouldn’t have launched this site four years ago. Joe now has 90,000+ pairs of eyeballs coming to this site every month, the size of a small newspaper.

Joe thinks the greatest appeal he has is to say what he thinks; from the heart.

Thanks for your loyalty, man.

“…if Joe feels like making a political reference a few times a year, Joe’s not going to censor himself. If there are negative consequences, so be it. –Joe”

If you continue to make those comments few and far between, there won’t BE any true negative consequences, and I believe you know that.

“So you’re saying if Joe is writing something and a political analogy flows from his brain to his fingers, Joe should censor it to be politically correct?”

No, Steve, you should know as well as anyone that being politically correct is one of the most absurd things to have happened in the last quarter-century. You should “censor” yourself because politics is bad for (this) business. End of story.

Joe says:

“…understand that Joe isn’t worried about offending anyone.”

If everyone left, you would most certainly worry about it. This site has become, obvious to some of us, a money-maker. If you were no longer able to impress potential clients with impressive traffic numbers, they would’t find the opportunity to do business with you as attractive, which would affect your pocketbook.

Please understand, I LOVE JBF!! I’m here almost every day. (As you likely already know.) JBF has become one of THE sites to bookmark if you’re a Bucs fan. (Or, seemingly, a Bucs hater, as well.) But please don’t expect me to believe that you don’t “self-censor” every day. It’s what successful adults and successful business-people do.

At a football game, you buy beer. About $9? Great deal! That’s your premium. You buy one each quarter, maybe more if your thirsty. You pay $9,$9,$9,$9,$9,$9,$9,$9,$9,$9. Then, in 4th quarter, when you’re really hot and thirsty and never needed a beer more in your life, the concession stand tells you that there is NO MORE BEER for you. Too bad. Just hurry up and leave the stadium (or die, whatever is more convenient for you Mr. customer).

Don’t let the government get involed with the footballs, next thang ya’s know, they gonna take away yours guns before you get into all them purty stadiums that the true ‘merican heros, the job creators done did built for us all.

Are you really JOE the Buc Fan or Joe the Plumber? I’ve been wondering what happened to him.