Celebrating One Year of Founders - A 1st Anniversary Letter From Founder of the Day

A 1st Anniversary Letter to Founders Fans

Wow, its been an entire year since the launch of Founder Of The Day.

It is hard to believe it was on this day in 2018 that I first published a biography of Henry Laurens (looking back, it’s unbelievably short).

In celebration, I decided to take a day off from the Founders to discuss something very important…my appreciation to anyone and everyone who reads these articles.

THANK YOU!

To any person who has read one of my articles…thank you.

The idea that other people also take the time out of their day to learn just a bit about these obscure Patriots is comforting.

You know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I’m sure our Founders would offer their gratitude in kind.

Writing Founder of the Day

With that being said, I’d like to use this opportunity to discuss the current state of Founder of the Day: how far it has come and where we might see it go.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount over the course of this year about several things. On top of expanding my personal knowledge of the Founding Period (which, selfishly, is a gigantic reason I started this site), I’ve also grown to understand how much work it really takes to run a web-page.

Additionally, I now realize why most other blogs, history or otherwise, only publish once or twice a week.

In the last 365 days I have written and published 365 articles.

Personally, I can’t believe it. Since most articles average 400 words, I’ve written about 150,000 words. That’s almost two books!

Time Consumption

I bring up the frequency of my posts because, due to writing and publishing every day, there are some articles that have been…well...imperfect.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely proud of about 98% of the stories I’ve put out there. And furthermore, I am confident in their factual correctness.

However, some Founders I research and research and research and just can’t find an angle to attack them from.

But, if you’ll remember, I publish once a day. Generally, I spend one to two hours per article doing research before I begin about half an hour writing.

Therefore, if I spend three hours reading about a Founder…I need to write that article. Even if their lives don’t have anything interesting that happened.

And, to be honest, boring Founders are still Founders and deserve our attention.

So, if you read an article and think it was less than ideal, you’re probably right. Sorry about that. I will always try and follow a boring Founder with an exciting one.

Rewrite Wednesdays

Speaking of exciting Founders, I wrote about several of them already.

I feel guilty that many of you were not aware of my site when I did so (both because you missed them and because those Founders did not receive the attention they deserve).

To remedy this, I will begin ‘Rewrite Wednesdays’ during which we’ll hear a second story about a Founder which was already covered. Don’t worry, I won’t just tell the same story. We’ll have something new to talk about for each person, with a link to the original article.

Federalist Fridays

I’ve been producing Federalist Fridays the past twenty weeks.

Only sixty-five more weeks to go.

I’ve noticed the audience for the Federalist Papers reviews are significantly smaller than my normal articles. (My wife, Emily, described them as ‘tough’ due to the heavy theoretical politics involved.)

Therefore, I’ve changed the writing style a bit.

Instead of trying to get the point of each paper across, I have begun writing more directly from my point of view. This is similar to how I create the biographies and should make the Federalists a bit more digestible.

Speaking of Emily

You should know that Founder of the Day is a family business.

Emily Mandresh is the last person to read these articles before they are published.

After doing countless little things to help me find time for Founder of the Day, she will give each article a proofreading before bed.

This despite no particular interest in the Founders. Just because she believes in what I’m trying to do, and who I’m trying to reach.

We all owe her a debt of gratitude.

Patreon

Quickly, I’d like to discuss the ‘business’ of Founder of the Day.

So far, the only means of generating revenue I’ve used has been the book recommendations at the end of each article. To be honest, Amazon only gives me about 15 cents per book.

I put those on there more as a reference for you than for income.

That being said, today I am launching my Patreon page.

If you are unaware, Patreon is a membership organization which gives readers a means to support websites like Founder of the Day. As a Patron, you choose an amount you’d like to contribute to Founder of the Day each month.

If everyone who reads this article donated $1 a month, I’d estimate Founder of the Day would receive between $30 and $65 per month.

It won’t put my kid through college, but it most certainly will pay for Web Hosting expenses. It would also contribute to the little bit of advertising I do, which to this point has all come out of my pocket.

Generally, Patreon recommends people in my position give ‘a little something’ to paying members. I have every intention of increasing what I offer in the future, but for now you will get a personalized thank you from me and a monthly article updating you on all things Founder of the Day.

The content will be similar to what you are reading now.

That may not be a whole lot, but I’ll remind you about the hours I spend creating these articles.

I’ve also been a bit distracted with…

A Game!

So, I said to myself, ‘what product could I create that Founders Fans might want to buy?’

Then it struck me…a game.

Personally, I like to have fun.

One of my favorite pastimes is playing board and card games.

Recently, I’ve developed a card game which has a unique style of play. I am extremely proud of it and flatter myself to assume many card game enthusiasts will enjoy it too.

But I’m an American Revolution nerd with an American Revolution website.

So…I’ve given the game an American Revolution theme.

Here’s the catch…you don’t need to know a thing about the American Revolution to play and enjoy the game.

‘But why,’ you ask, ‘why wouldn’t you need to know about the Founders for and American Revolution game?’

Great question.

The problem I’ve run into with American Revolution games is that no one ever wants to play them with me. The assumption is, if you need to know anything about the Founders, Jason’s gonna win.

Therefore, I made a game anyone can play, but, for those of us who love the Revolutionary War, its just a little bit more special.

Now, the game is only in the prototype stage. I’ve spent several sleepless nights recently turning index cards into makeshift playing cards.

Currently, I am trying to write the rules (to copyright the idea) so I am not ready to release too much information. But I’ll let you in on the fun part…there will be at least 160 cards, each with a DIFFERENT FOUNDER!

I recommend you follow me on Instagram where I will begin posting frequent updates on the progress.

Well, that’s the Recap

In celebration of one year, I am going to be publishing some fun articles over the next three days. After that, back to Founders as usual.

Thank you again to anyone who reads Founder of the Day frequently.

And an even bigger thank you if you’ve read this whole article. It’s about 3x longer than my usual posts and not about the American Revolution at all.

Please consider becoming a member of my Patreon team, I will find a way to make it worth your while.

And please subscribe to my Instagram page for updates on the progress of my game.

I am, dear Reader, your most humble and obedient Servant,

Jason Mandresh

Founder of Founder of the Day