For three years, UDPride has been advertisement-free and uncluttered from the sales pitches of Internet marketing, but this year we’ve decided to change our policy so we can help cover the operating costs of UDPride without detracting from the overall mission of the site. Quite frankly, it’s not a decision we took lightly, but as operating costs continue to rise — sometimes exponentially — we had little choice if we were to ensure UDPride is around for a long time.

UDPride becomes more difficult to put together every calendar year. Because we are independent and have no network backbone, all expenses incurred in this endeavor have been funded by us. In short, UDPride is very expensive.

Over the last three years, we’ve invested well over $8,000 in faster PCs, software, web hosting services, domain fees, digital cameras, programming, travel expenses, and other ancillary costs to give Flyer fans the kind of sports news we feel they deserve. These costs aside, our time and effort totaling nearly 2000 man hours over the web site’s lifespan has gone without compensation – something we feel is a signature of our product.

Unfortunately for us, costs are increasing every year and the responsibility of funding the site has become overwhelming — overwhelming to the point of it being a struggle. In lieu of this, we’ve concluded that ad banners, despite our own reservations about them, are an effective way to generate funds to help support the operating costs of UDPride. We are NOT inserting ad banners to make a profit, we are merely hoping to recover, or in the best case, break even on the expenses incurred. If we can recover operating costs, we’ll continue to provide the sweat equity for nothing more than a thank you.

Internet advertising is a non-lucrative business. More often than not, the economic model cannot fully support and generate healthy profits to make a living. Furthermore, we don’t expect visitors to help fund our retirement accounts. What we are asking however is to click on just one banner ad on each visit so we can continue to pay for the operating costs that keep this site alive and kicking.

We hope this burden is not overwhelming, but one you are glad to accommodate. UDPride is proud to be an Internet leader in independent sportswriting coverage and hopes to continue as such in the years to come. By helping each other, the relationship will continue to be a shining light on the Internet horizon.