We're always looking for new ways to grow the business, asking for ideas, researching trends ... all while ignoring the one right in front of us.
For years, you've been asking for swag. Even Ramon Foster's been asking. And from time to time, I'd reluctantly oblige with small runs of locally printed hoodies or T-shirts. And I’ll confess now why that is: I blew it back in 2015.
I started one of those on-demand online stores. The logos were embroidered on a few items I selected online. Some of you ordered stuff, and I know I did a bunch. But every item I got was disappointing in quality. The place wasn't local, so I couldn’t select the items in person, and it just wasn’t good … at all. I wasn’t marking up anything, and I still felt they were overpriced. So I got discouraged and shut it down.
Any time after that, I printed the items locally and shipped them myself from our living room, so I could touch every one of them to make sure the quality was good. And that is why it happened so rarely. I am not a fan of shipping stuff. Every time Dejan would bring up 'swag,' all I heard was 'shipping, shipping, shipping!'
Today, there are many options, and it's time. I'm going with a local printer that also does fulfillment, but the printing is not on-demand, so I need to print in bulk to stock up the store, and they'll ship it to you (yeah, baby!) as it sells. And that's why I need your help today. After hand-picking the items to ensure a balance between quality and affordability, I narrowed it down to the options in the photos below:
I would really appreciate if you took the survey up there to give me an idea of what you like best, and what you would consider purchasing for yourself or as gifts. Once I have the survey results, I'll use your selections to help me buy inventory for the store and then, finally, you can get swag online any time you want -- starting in mid-November -- because we will have a store! And this time it'll be one I'm happy with!
PENN STATE 108, PITT 100
Our drive to achieve 1,000 total free subscriptions for Pitt and Penn State students still has the Nittany Lions in the lead, 108-100. We've reached the stage of distributing those free subs since we'd promised to do that for the first school to reach 100. So, if you know of a student who'd be interested, tell them to keep an eye on our Twitter account: @DKPghSports
If you'd like to contribute to the drive, email me directly -- DK@DKPittsburghSports.com -- and, after you hear my thanks, Dali will reach out with the rest. The cost of either one is $20 each. You can contribute as many as you'd like. Every contribution counts, large and small, and they're all appreciated. -- Dejan
MILITARY DRIVE: 683
This one's becoming a bummer.
Our concurrent campaign to match 2,000 military veterans to free one-year subscriptions saw 2 purchased this week for a total of 683.
We're hoping the pace picks up soon to have a shot at the target by year's end. We hit it last year on Veterans Day, fittingly enough, and that's coming up Nov. 11.
If you'd like to contribute, just like the college drive, email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com. The cost of these also is $20 each. -- Dejan
WEEKLY APP TIPS
Ways to make the app experience even better:
• Here's a tip courtesy of Taylor Haase: If you ever want to check the newest comments on a thread and have that include the newest replies, tap the SORT button atop the thread and choose (Newest Incl. Replies.) I didn't remember that we had this. Really useful.
• A reader messaged us a couple days ago saying she loves the app, loves the site ... except that the type size was too small for her. That reminded us that we haven't mentioned here in too long that we have an easy remedy on the app: At the top right corner of every article, you'll see the standard sharing icon and, just to the left of it, a couple of capital As. Tap the latter until you have the type size you prefer.
• This'll sound obvious, but ... use our menu! And yes, we do have a menu! It's those three stacked lines in the top right corner of both the app and site and, when it's tapped, it unfurls a super-organized collection of everything we offer. And I share this mostly because I'll occasionally hear from readers who ask how to find this or that from the home page itself, and it's way, way easier to just open the menu and go through there. -- Dejan
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 693,078, up 9.2% from a week ago. Our most-read original piece was Cory Giger's Penn State column on Iowa fans' behavior, at 39,445. In fact, Cory had our top two pieces for the week, the other also on Penn State. And this in a week where we had major events for the Steelers and Penguins. Broken down by team, articles on the Penguins brought 24% of our traffic, the Steelers 16.9%, Penn State 11.9%, the Pirates 6.2%, and Pitt 3.2%.
• Our new subscribers for the past week were at 52, up 29 from a week ago.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were 164,728, up 2% from a week ago.
• Our YouTube video views for the past week were 77,037, up 8.3% from a week ago.
• We're at 42,448 (-1) followers on Twitter, we're at 37,120 (-20) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,525 (-7) followers on Instagram, and we're at 8,326 (+114) followers on YouTube. These figures are just for our official company accounts on each of those platforms, not including any of our individual accounts.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Random trivia fun, to be read in an Alex Trebek voice: This country seldom appears in our top eight for app users -- U.S., Canada, U.K., Mexico, Germany, Japan, Australia, China -- but it's now a solid No. 3 for our podcasts.
