As everyone knows, it takes money to make the world
go round! The reviews have gotten so big that not only do they take up a lot of my
time, but they take up a lot of my own money too. Currently, about $100-$200 of my
own money each month goes into doing the reviews. That money is spent on postage
sending tapes to our various reviewers so you get more reviews than just one guy
can provide each month. And even with me pouring 3hrs + a day into this, and spending
my own money, I'm still not doing as good of a job for you guys as I'd like too.
Our review process has been so successful that since January we've received 137 new
videos to review, and more are on their way as I write this, ALOT MORE! January 1st
we had a backlog of about 30-40 tapes to review. Since January we've done 71 reviews.
That averages out to a review almost every other day!
Still, we're not getting
reviews done as quickly as we'd like too for the companies that are sending us tapes.
Tapes keep pouring in faster than we can crank out reviews! In the meantime, companies
sometimes get a little anxious and impatient about they status of their reviews,
and reasonably so, since they sent us tapes at no charge. Well, for the reviews
to keep going smoothly, not only do we need to keep the fans of our reviews happy,
but the tape companies too, or all this will become a huge mess. Keeping both sides
happy (companies and fans) is actually one hell of a balancing act that many of you
have no idea how hard it is to maintain, REALLY!
Anyway, the $100-$200 I'm
spending out of my pocket each month, sending tapes to our 4 reviewers, isn't getting
the job done quick enough for many of these companies. For those reasons, and a couple
others, we're presently looking at doubling the size of our review team from 4 reviewers
to 8. If we'd been able to forsee the abundance of tapes we were going to receive
this year, we might have been able to "gear up" for all this, although
I somewhat doubt it. Our biggest problem had we forseen things, would've still been
dollars. That $100-$200 a month I'm spending on postage sending tapes to 4 reviewers
could grow to $300-$400 a month if we grow to 8 reviewers. Even though 8 reviewers
might help us get caught up, we still won't be on track with providing everyone reviews
of new tapes that keep being introduced to the marketplace every couple of months.
Some months it seems there are more new tapes introduced, than there are reviews
we do. And that basically means for every step forward we take, we take a step back,
leaving us in the same place. I want to get you guys EVERY POSSIBLE REVIEW WE CAN,
especially on tapes that certain companies seem unwilling to send us.
Those
that have read our website, know there are still many companies that have yet to
send us tapes. Well guess what? If some uncooperative companies won't send us tapes,
I guess we'll just have to add more reviewers, start a "tape acquistion fund",
buy their stuff, review it, and continue listing those companies as "uncooperative".
After 18 months of doing this, buying some titles seems to be the only way we'll
be able to get reviews done on supposed HOT NEW TITLES as they come out. But this
is going to take money to pull off! More money than what I'm already spending each
month. However I've got a plan! We're going to start allowing advertising at our
website, as one of several revenue sources we're looking at so we can add more reviewers,
grow the number of reviews we're presently averaging each month, and keep tape companies
and consumers happy about our ability to continue delivering reviews in a timely
manner. By doing a couple of different things we hope to generate some revenue so
we can bring you reviews of new titles like "WALLID", or other stuff when
it comes out.
I'm sure many are wondering how this will effect our reviews?
Don't worry. I'm going to state this right now for all to hear, "This won't
influence the grade we give ANYONE'S tapes, one bit". If an advertiser gets
pissed about that, or a bad grade they get, TOO BAD, we'll find another advertiser
whose not upset about it, or look at other revenue sources! Hopefully these companies
can understand our need for money so we can stay on track, and our wish to remain
unbiased and impartial for the sake of consumers. There are tons of magazines out
there that review things (Car & Driver, Guns & Ammo, etc), and they do impartial
reviews, while allowing advertising from the same people. Unlike many of the martial
arts magazines, publications from other industries have been able to grade and review
things however they want, why can't we?
There you have it. Now I'm sure some
readers of the reviews may still be scratching their heads about all this. Well don't
be, and here's why. We've been advertising other companies websites and products
for quite some time now, and surprisingly not only has no one noticed, but they haven't
complained either. And for those who are going, "Huh?", just look at the
bottom of each review, and on many of our other webpages. You'll see the "Martial
Arts Hyper-Banner", which advertises thousands of different websites, some that
even sell tapes! So, this really isn't something new we're doing. It's just something
we previously allowed and weren't getting paid for!
To our fans I say: "Have
faith in us." We will continue providing you the quality reviews you seek. At
the same time we will be working on growing the website so you get ALOT more reviews,
alot quicker than before!
If you're a video company and would like to know
more about our advertising rates, please email us at: erik.mann@att.net
http://ntfa-dallas.home.att.net
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