Commentary: Speedonthewater.com Publishes 2,000th Article

With today’s “Cat Can Do Wins Top Prize at Lake Race in Missouri” news story by Jason Johnson, speedonthewater.com reached a major milestone. The story, which went live less than 24 hours after the event on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks was finished, is No. 2,000 for this site.

With his story on last weekend’s Lake Race, Jason Johnson produced story No. 2,000 for speedonthewater.com. Photo coutesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

While we know that not every story published on speedonthewater.com in the past 4-1/2 years—that’s how old the site is—is a homerun, we like to believe that most of them are “solid singles,” and in the world of daily news reporting that’s a worthy goal. We know we can and must continue to improve, but we’re also proud that we have created a rich online database of information about the world of high-performance powerboating, one we actually use in our own ongoing research for new stories.

Speedonthewater.com actually has become a resource for—speedonthewater.com.

We hope it is the same for the 50,000-plus people who visit the site each month. That number continues to rise, and for that we are deeply grateful. For that we say: Thank you. Without readers, there is no speedonthewater.com.

Without advertisers there also is no speedonthewater.com, and to all of our advertisers we extend our heartfelt thanks. Speedonthewater.com is a labor of love, but it’s also a business. No matter how much you love what you do for a living, getting compensated for it (at least when it comes to paying the bills) is a must.

The truth is that there are probably four to six hours in any given weekday when either Jason Johnson or I aren’t working. Johnson is a night owl, and with little ones at home that works for him. I am a wee-hours-of-the-morning type, and with one kid away at college and another in high school that works for me. The net, or nut if you will, is that with the exception of the hours between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. we are constantly in content production during the week. Excusing ourselves for an hour or two to write a last-minute story on a weekend evening is standard practice for us because news never stops. As you can guess, we have very understanding families, who also deserve our thanks.

That’s how you get to 2,000 stories in 4-1/2 years. And now it’s time to get back to work.

Related story: Number One Thousand: A Trulio Milestone