OK, here is my endorsement for The Victory Bell - I signed up about a year ago, and recently had to update my credit card information so my subscription renews for a year. I am typically reluctant to spend money on subscriptions or recurring fees of any kind. However, the work that Paul Oren does is excellent in covering all things VU sports - his writing is excellent, and I am glad to support local journalism. Paul, thank you and keep up the good work!
To those of you who have been thinking about joining, I highly recommend it. The stories are high quality, and I have enjoyed them even more than I thought I would.
You can join here: https://www.thevictorybell.com/
Just got a subscription this year. I'd also like to give a shoutout to The State of Basketball Podcast on twitter, Spotify, and YT. Paul went on their show earlier this year. They cover all D1 basketball teams in the state of Indiana.
Have been a subscriber to the Victory Bell for about a year or two myself. Started out with the recurring $5 charge monthly because even though it's $5 a month from my bank account, it's PO seeing that people support it well, and it might be that extra $5 a month he needed for bills or other things. Then, he pushed it to $5.99 a month, and I didn't even blink. The added 99 cents continues to show him that even at about a $1 raise in price, it's supporting quality news that doesn't have the "Make it bleed" media need to sell for the corporate world. I love having the insider stories about things happening in the programs around campus, and getting to know fellow Valpo athletics members. I'm probably like valpotx, and like hearing about how Valpo sports continues to focus on growth, even as we're both almost 20 years out. Plus, getting to see some guest writers from the athletes to someone learning the biz with working for The Torch, it's worth it.
I noticed, when I logged in this morning to comment on his SB coach resignation article, that TVB now has 1,000 subscribers. That is SUPER!
TVB and this forum are the go-to sources for following VU sports. And in the case of TVB, we get on-the-spot reporting and commentary. I'm a happy subscriber. It's well worth the cost.
I noticed, when I logged in this morning to comment on his SB coach resignation article, that TVB now has 1,000 subscribers. That is SUPER!
I appreciate the support from everyone. The 1,000 subscribers is a bit of a misnomer. I do have more than 1,000 subscribers and of that, 429 are paid subscribers. I have 622 subscribers that are "free" meaning they get a preview of each article, generally the first sentence, in their inbox. Generally what happens is I publish an article and someone signs up and then realizes there is a paywall. I need to figure out a way to get the free subscribers to convert to paid. If I could get just 15 percent of them to convert, that would be a nice boost of revenue. At the same time, I don't want to punish current paid subscribers by offering enticements to the people that aren't paying if that makes sense. I feel like that would be a slap in the face to those who have been with me from the jump.
The one thing I'll say is TVB has been an amazing trial-and-error experience and it's the most professionally rewarding thing I've done. It's stories like today's golf feature that drive me. I had a blast with that one.
@thevictorybell I would toy around with the "Exclusive Content" Sector. Keep major university headlines on a free side, and pieces like the golf piece to a paid service? Either that or you go the ad vs ad free route but I am not familiar with how sub stack manages these tools. Ultimately more subscribers will most likely come as more success is seen from the university, whether it be athletics or academics.
As a paid subscriber, and interested in the ongoing success of TVB, I am not opposed to an ad banner being added (as long as it is not like the totally irritating ad banners used by MVCFans 🤬). Perhaps check with Valpo04 on how he does it with the Valpo Fan Forum.
I noticed, when I logged in this morning to comment on his SB coach resignation article, that TVB now has 1,000 subscribers. That is SUPER!
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I am sure that many of you have family members that are VU alums. Gifting a subscription to someone is an easy thing to do. My Brother-in-law was surprised by the content and we regularly talk about TVB stories. It is a great conversation starter!
Yeah, I'm not sure there's a huge expectation for the Valpo athletics Sneaker Phone, Football Phone, or even Basketball Phone.
I noticed, when I logged in this morning to comment on his SB coach resignation article, that TVB now has 1,000 subscribers. That is SUPER!
I appreciate the support from everyone. The 1,000 subscribers is a bit of a misnomer. I do have more than 1,000 subscribers and of that, 429 are paid subscribers. I have 622 subscribers that are "free" meaning they get a preview of each article, generally the first sentence, in their inbox. Generally what happens is I publish an article and someone signs up and then realizes there is a paywall. I need to figure out a way to get the free subscribers to convert to paid. If I could get just 15 percent of them to convert, that would be a nice boost of revenue. At the same time, I don't want to punish current paid subscribers by offering enticements to the people that aren't paying if that makes sense. I feel like that would be a slap in the face to those who have been with me from the jump.
The one thing I'll say is TVB has been an amazing trial-and-error experience and it's the most professionally rewarding thing I've done. It's stories like today's golf feature that drive me. I had a blast with that one.
Paul, I'm just catching up with this thread. I can say that as an early subscriber, I would not be ticked off in the least if you offered a discounted subscription for first-timers. As we know, that's standard practice for most magazines and newspapers.
Your base subscription fees are completely compatible with other Substack subscriptions, and you continually deliver content far and above what the local newspapers provided. For anyone who follows VU sports, this is a great deal.
On the eve of the new school year starting, were you to offer, say, a limited-time, 1/2 price subscription for the first year, I wonder how many of the 600+ would give it a try?
