Website: www.cobrabrigade.com

Interview With: Jack Cobra

When did you start Cobra Brigade?

I believe May 12, 2006 was our ‘official launch date’.

What made you start it?

I used to write at another site but left because of a disagreement. I asked a few of my friends (Buck Rampage, Cpt. Morgan and Bruce Paine) who know about certain sports than I do, to come along and help me out. They obliged and we were off and running.

I first started blogging because I would send out these mass emails to friends about the way the Cubs, Bulls and Indiana University were playing…..after awhile, and some good feedback, I figured I had enough to give my opinion to the masses.

The other guys on the site probably started writing because they were tired of me asking them to help out. They are full of information and we’re lucky they take the time out from their busy lives to write.

What is your background?

Um…I’ve always liked to read and write. Other than that, I don’t have any writing experience. Buck (engineer) and I (logistician) are government (civilian) employees. Cpt. Morgan is a Podiatrist in Rhode Island and ran the sports website at the college we attended. Bruce Paine is a stone mason with a History Degree from IU.

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career? What is your goal with this blog?

We blog for fun. The goal of our blog is to make our readers think and keep them entertained. We don’t have any aspirations to do anything but that.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map?

I had a lot of readers come over from where I used to write, so that was helpful. I think the post that ‘put us on the map’ at Cobra Brigade was probably Paine’s eloquent posts on the IU football program and former IU Football Coach Terry Hoeppner. We provide quality content and that helps out just as much as one post ‘putting us on the map’. We’ve been lucky enough to have been ‘linked to’ by Deadspin enough that new and old readers know what we’re about at this point.

How does the Blog By Fans partnership work? If someone wanted to be apart of the network, what would they have to do?

Um…we all do ‘what we do’. There really aren’t any stipulations other than writing about sports and writing quality posts. If you want to be part of the network you can contact Brian at tryouts@blogsbyfans.com

What type of blogging software do you use?

Movable Type

What ad network(s) do you use?

You’d have to ask Brian, he takes care of all of that.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not that much. Since we are all friends we’ve just ‘pooled’ the money and opened up an investing account. I’m not sure what we plan on doing with the small sum later, but maybe we’ll try to help out those less fortunate than us….or just spend it on beer.

If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

I think if we could get an outside consultant to look at our writing and let us know what should be improved, that would be best.

What are some of your favorite sports blogs?

Favorites: Storming the Floor, YAYSports, Moderately Cerebral Bias, StopMikeLupica, Deadspin, The Sports Hernia, The Serious Tip, Epic Carnival and all of the BlogsByFans sites.

Any bold predictions for the future of sports on the internet?

Drug testing of all bloggers…..

STN’s Take:

We really like Jack’s passion for blogging. You can tell he enjoys the interaction and writing and that’s really all he needs in return. The Blog By Fans Network has attracted some great writers and they have a nice thing going there.

We see that he did a redesign from the time that we interviewed him and now and it looks great. This template could possibly start a new blogging trend at some point. We like that you can click on the different latest stories and the page doesn’t have to refresh. It is just as easy as scrolling down the page but looks better. We would like to see some better design then just the solid black background and the template could look even better.