As you can see, the main page has been completely overhauled.  After over a year of struggling to create custom designs myself, I finally did something I should have done in the first place – hire a designer.
Ali of EverybodyGoTo.com was my guy for this one.  Props to Ali for getting the design pretty close to how I envisioned it.  He’s been working on it for the past week or two, and did a great job.
What was amazing to me in this whole process is that I hired, paid, and …

Usually I’m interested in seeing what kind of traffic stats that other sites make, so I figured I’d start releasing these for BPN, as well.
April 2007:

4,023 visits
14,631 page views
$12.48 earned through advertisements (above my goal of $10!  Woo!)

March 2007:

2,489 visits
10,217 page views
$7.41 earned through advertisements

February 2007:

1,562 visits
6,304 page views
$5.22 earned through ads

As you can see, we’re seeing some exciting, steady growth.  Here are my goals for May:

5,000+ visits
16,000+ page views
$14.00 in revenue

My home state of Wisconsin is guaranteeing a spot in its public universities to any eighth-grade who delivers on a promise to average a B or better. The program, also available in states like North Carolina, is generally targeted to “lower-income students.”
Not bad, right? Well, here’s a reason to be suspicious: Jim Doyle originally proposed this program.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to raise standards in your education – but, again, keep the government out of it. I don’t know how many times I have to say …