Paintball Journal

PBNation has recently taken it upon itself to sponsor everything under the sun. Not that I think this is a bad thing, it’s about time that PBNation starts giving back to the physical paintball community, seeing how much they have done for PBNation.

First off, we have the fact that PBNation is a Gold Sponsor of PSP for the 2008 season. I don’t find that particularly surprising, especially following the NPPL - PBNation spat that occurred last year. If you want evidence of that, look no further than the fact that they have yet to reinstate the NPPL sub-forum.

It’s a great move for PBNation, first of all to finally start supporting one of the major paintball leagues, as even if it places them in a partisan light, it’s way better than nothing. Second it seems an almost charitable act by PBNation, as anyone attending one of PSP’s events is likely to already know and visit PBNation with alarming regularity.

I am stoked about a PBNation booth to go along with the Skydeck. They’ll probably be one of the cooler stands for sure, even though I have no idea what they’ll be selling. I foresee many, many people making fools of themselves at that booth for random stuff.

So, following that big, expensive news for PBNation, is the news that they’re also sponsoring a huge scenario game at CPX Sports in Joliet, IL on April 5-6, 2008 called Living Legends of Paintball.

The theme is to get people excited about meeting the movers and shakers in the industry, namely the players who have brought it so far, so fast.

Pre-registration admission is $40 and includes 1 complimentary unlimited air-fill pass. Pre-registered players can pre-purchase cases of event paint for $75, day-of cost is $80. Pre-registration deadline ends March 24th. CPX will have free camping available beginning Friday, April 4th. CPX Sports is a 143-acre, $6.5M paintball park located in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, IL and is widely regarded as one of the nation’s premier facilities. The field is conveniently located less than 1-hour from both O’Hare and Midway airports. Smart Parts Inc., is a leading developer and manufacturer of equipment and accessories for the sport of paintball. For more information about the Living Legends event, please visit www.cpxsports.com or call (815) 726-2800.

So, PBNation is feeling rather philanthropic. But did you ever wonder how they could afford something like a Skydeck, a gold PSP sponsorship, and a scenario game?

Well wonder no more as I show you the inner works of PBN!

First source of income: Supporting Members. I estimate the average rate of supporting membership is something like 1.5% of all registered members on PBNation. If that is true, then they are all paying $30 a year for that privilege.

PBNation has 388,000 members. That’s nearly 6,000 supporting members if my rate is close. That is…

$175,000 per year from supporting memberships.

That’s chump change compared to what they pull in from ads, though. I did a quick tally of their ads this month, and emailed them about their rates for advertisements. At the current rates, they’re raking in over $30,000 a month from the number of ads that I saw when I counted.

Assuming that the number of ads stays relatively the same throughout the year, I feel safe in saying…

$360,000 per year from advertisements.

That’s $535,000 per year total. Now, THAT is why I feel it’s a damn good thing that they’ve finally found it in their hearts to give back to the paintball community that’s made them what they are. Even with server costs and paying people to run the business side of things, it’s still an incredibly lucrative business, much more than anyone would suspect.

Anywhere, so there you have it: how PBNation makes its money and where it’s going these days. Too bad Paintball Journal doesn’t quite pull in those figures…

NXe JRNY

You saw it in the preview, and you saw it on my birthday / Christmas wish list. Now you get to see it with your own eyes as NXe’s webcasts bring it into your home. Not… literally. I wish…

Anyway, down to business. Here’s a not-so-brief overview of what we have in the videos…

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First off, I blog for Xtreme Paintball, in case you didn’t know. That’s where I get a lot of my information and tips, so it’s worth checking that blog out as well as this one. I’ve always got a link in my blogroll, so it’s good to check it out. I update that blog three times a week, so typically a little less than this one.

The main thing I wanted to show you lot is the brand new web design that’s swept the site. It looks much better than the old design and I’ve got to hand it to my man Stephen for that, he’s the Webmaster and Minister of Propaganda for Xtreme Paintball. He also gave me my job there. I make millions. It’s great.

Anyway!

First off, the NXe JRNY preview, which I commented on earlier tonight on this blog, was posted first by Stephen Estep on the blog over yonder, ensuring that there wouldn’t be any squabbles between exclusive writing for 451 Press / Xtreme. Boring stuff, I know, but one of them might threaten to cut my pay into the hundreds of thousands and that would just be tragic.

Stuff actually written by me includes this review of the latest RealPlayer which I do tie to you as a paintballer. It’s really detailed so if you’re debating dropping the $30 or whatever the ridiculous price is on the player then you’d better read that. Heck, if your a fanboy of one of the other players, you might want to check it out anyway, just to gloat.

The biggest thing that I’ve got up on Xtreme is the Proto SLG preview that I will not be doing on Paintball Journal.

The day of reckoning is here! PSP World Cup, arguably the best event of the year, started today and will run through this Sunday. Drawing over 35,000 spectators and players, this is the largest and most important event to a blogger like me. Things like gun releases, next year’s clothes, and the largest paintball trade show in the world all happen annually at PSP World Cup.

But that’s not all!

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Everyone who paintballs knows that there is a ridiculous amount of information and stuff to do floating around the internet that is paintball related. I, as a blogger, have to be all over this stuff, so here’s what I’ve been up to recently.

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Perhaps you want a gun to depict your favorite characters from a movie, or just to look so scary that the opposition wets itself before even stepping onto the field. What ever your purpose, ODD Paintball has the anno for you.

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About.com is a good source for everyday information on everything from sports to cooking. Now, I hope you see where this is going, because if you don’t then perhaps you don’t realize that you are on a paintball blog.

Yes, they do have an author for their paintball section that knows what he’s talking about, for the most part. In my extensive browsing I found very little that could be disputed except for where things came down to opinion such as in the equipment reviews. That is to be expected, and even respected. I like someone who’s not afraid to put their opinions out there.

The site does err towards a woodsball mentality, which is fine, as most casual internet browsers won’t be more than rec-ballers. Serious tourney players probably won’t find much of interest here, however. Overall, a decent About.com page, but certainly nothing better than what you’d find here. (Which I say with utmost humility…) Bahaha.

Worth checking out if you’ve got some spare time. They’ve put a decent amount of work into this, and it really is interesting if you’re a fan of the teams, or just want a tiny bit of insight into what an event is like for these guys.

Rob “Tyger” Rubin has crafted one heckuva superior blog. “Views From A Paintball Cynic” is excessively well written, and brings up many great opinions that I disagree with.

Apparently it’s been around since 2005, but no one told me anything about it! That’s okay though. I forgive you.

Here is what Tyger has to say about his blog:

So what can you expect from this blog? Views from someone who’s been burned by the best, ripped off by the worst, and tired of towing the party line when it comes to dealing with these people. Paintball has problems, and instead of dealing with them the entire industry would rather pretend they didn’t exist at best, or cash in on them at worst.

It’s pretty delicious and refreshing for me, a paintballer who thinks about things in a more positive light than this gentleman (who I simply must refer Evan to, seeing as how Evan is such a cynic himself.) I think paintball is in the crapper, but I think I’m a bit more hopeful than Tyger.

Anyway, Views From A Paintball Cynic is totally worth a read. Five thumbs up and all that.

Well, having seen some of the crappy footage of DDay 07, I was more than elated to hear that One4One is making a documentary covering the big parts, with awesome interviews and great footage.

I pretty much really want to see the second half of it. Though, that bit in the middle for BT was rather annoying. Ah well, can’t have free videos without some money flowing from somewhere!

Sweet! Even though the score editing looks a little shabby, I am assured the TV version is edited correctly to show Penn State instead of Purdue. I like the camera angles and the commentary. Best TV paintball I’ve seen yet.

Oo la la! Finally, JT has a new website up and running. All I can say is, it’s about time! That old website was uhm… slightly outdated. Three years ago.

Anyway, this new site is certainly ambitious. They have an events calendar, which they claim they’ll put up any event information on, no matter how big or how small. Pretty rad, but I doubt anyone will use it.

The team section looks like a more useful tool, sorting out the sponsorship details and such with JT. Ditto with the dealer section. With reasonably constant updates, these will be very useful.

The part that I am most excited about is the new stuff section, all about the gear and news that JT is pumping out. It’s all very shiny and flashy and such, great cure for my constant web multitasking. Very cool graphics and such. A sucker for good advertising like me is pretty much screwed.

The photos section is awesome, of course. Like JT would post anything but the best in there. Great stuff to look through.

That’s about it, overall a great new look for a (mostly) great company. (I’m looking right at you, Tac-5).

True to their name, I had never even heard of UKS until today. I was shuffling through PBNation’s video thread, when I saw a thread with over 12 pages of posts. Figuring that it was either a really crappy video or a really great one, I clicked on the link and well…

If you watched that, then you’ll be more than excited by this:

Good luck for the rest of the season, UKS! I know it’s pretty much impossible to reach your goal now, but keep it up and I bet you could at least place 1st in an event. So far they’ve been placing in the 20’s, with a 22nd place finish for Boston.

DerDer Revamps Site

Complete with songs, flashy buttons, and new news! It’s good to see DerDer keeping up with the times.

07 Ego/ Etek Laser Eyes / Zick Kit Now For Sale

You can now get these bad boys direct from Planet Eclipse. Laser eyes kind of seem like a dumb accessory to me, but if you have enough money for an 07 Ego or Etek, then I’m sure you’ve got enough for one more sweet looking addendum to your already kick-ass gat.

A Zick Kit looks like a good addition. Many people have mentioned the Ego7’s undesirable kick (which was way less than the 06’s but still noticeable (barely)). The Zick Kit will take care of that, for a mere $40.

Paintball Makes Headlines

Usually I wouldn’t mention it, but today it’s something different. The New York Times actually did an incredibly interesting article about scenario paintball that’s well worth the read. If you go to the New York Times site
and sign up for free, you can read the article.

New E-Vents Colors

Interesting colors, but don’t think they’ll find many fans with the speedball crowd. I hope they don’t overcharge for them (they will…).

New Electronic Boards from Warboards

* Boards include a complete set of firing modes which include PSP, NXL, Millennium, 3-shot, and OMG. The board come with a dipswitch for tournament lock; which restricts setup access and caps the ROF.

* All Boards come loaded with the new MakerTalk software. This connects your marker to the computer and allows you to do everything from changing settings in your gun, to increasing your trigger skills trough the trainer or analyzing your shot information.

* Super-smooth trigger operation.

* Enhanced power management resulting in increases battery life. This includes a real time battery guage.

* Every board kit comes complete with a USB Cable, marker board, User’s Guide and a PC based CD-ROM containing the MarkerTalk applications.

And that’s all the news I’ve got for now!

I think it’s important for you, the reader, to understand how Evan and I handle some of the ethical issues surrounding blogging about different products, companies, and websites.

First of all, we don’t accept payment for blogging about anything, except the payment that we get as 451 Press bloggers. This keeps us honest, and adds a little integrity to our blog. If someone asks us to review something, then we’ll look at it, but we make no promises that it will end up in the blog.

As for products, we accept what a company sends us, but will either give it away or keep it to use ourselves. We don’t profit from anything that’s sent to us. Heck, if we start getting enough products, we’d be more than glad to host a little bit of a contest on the blog to give away to a lucky reader.

We have been offered a lot of these things. A lot of this might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at what a lot of bloggers will accept. To keep the standards of professional blogging right where you want them, try asking your favorite bloggers about what they have to say about the ethics of blogging.