Guess what?

Football is back!

While we love the rest of the sports that we have covered here at Sporfolio over the past six months – anyone who follows my Twitter feed knows how I feel about my beloved sport of baseball – the start of a new football season will always coincide with memories of the start of this website. It was, after all, football picks that sparked its creation.

It is now one year since we launched – Happy Birthday to us! – and, in that time, we have covered two new sports in addition to football – hockey and baseball – developed a baseball spreadsheet that has been producing winning picks since its final tweak at the end of June, and I even wrote and published a book about fantasy baseball. All of this was possible because so many of you followed my work from other places – mainly, XNSports and AOL.com – into this new endeavor. As always, I want you to know how truly grateful I am for that.

Too many times for my liking, I have written about the unfortunate struggles of last football season, but I have also shared how inspired and excited I am for this new one. It’s not an act, and it’s not some marketing ploy to give false confidence. I am truly looking forward to this upcoming year because last year was an aberration. Not an abomination. An aberration. An outlier. An unsustainable streak where the general masses thoroughly outperformed the industry. This never lasts.

I digress. You’ve read these words from me in the past, and you will certainly hear them again until the tide has shifted back to normal. But, that is what the offseason provides in the form of a ‘reset period.’

The other oddity unique to last season was that Sporfolio was still receiving its finishing touches as Opening Day was rapidly approaching. While the website will always be considered a ‘work-in-progress,’ it’s refreshing to contact everyone in early-to-mid-August and know that content – at least, in the form of baseball and some preseason football articles – is available. Unlike last year, you don’t need to wait for the first week of the season – and the picks article it will bring – in order to gain some insight from our website. It’s all here for you. As am I.

So much of what we have changed or addressed over the past year came from suggestion through email. Please keep doing this. It is a massive help and, even if we cannot respond to all of them, we read them and we can always gauge the general tone.

Finally, let’s close with the obvious key to this post. Effective immediately, we are doing away with the six-month package and making it a full annual subscription. Don’t worry, there will be no price increase with this. The former price of $99 for the six-month package will now be the price for the full year, so if you already planned to purchase one, you are essentially getting six additional months for free. The monthly and weekly plans will remain the same prices of $24.99 and $7.99, respectively and, just so there is no confusion, all of the plans automatically renew at the end of their terms – including the annual ones.

These numbers are, of course, before discounts. And I promised returning subscribers discounts at the end of last year, so discounts you will get.

For any returning subscriber – it doesn’t matter which plan you had in the past – you will receive a 20 percent discount off your first payment. All you need to do is pick a plan and use your email address or username as the promo code. Within the three days of your free trial, we will check the system to see if you were, indeed, a subscriber in 2016 and apply the discount before the first payment hits. It won’t show the discount immediately, but it will process.

If you are a returning six-month subscriber and did not cancel your subscription this past spring, your discount – as promised in this post – will bump up to 25 percent and the $9.99 you previously paid will be applied to this next annual subscription. You don’t need to do anything for this to take hold. As soon as your last six-month period ends, you will be charged $64.26 – $99 less 25% discount less $9.99 previously paid – for this upcoming year. You might still be listed as a six-month subscriber, but it will just process another six months for free at the end of this period – making it a full year from when you renew.

If you are a completely new subscriber and stumbled onto this post – and read this much – here’s an “Early Bird” coupon for you. Use promo code EARLY17 for 10 percent off your first payment. It can’t be combined with any other offer so, returning subscribers, stick with the bigger discount mentioned above.

For returning people who need to sign up again, try to sign in once more to the member homepage and, if you get in, navigate to the bottom of the page and click “Manage” under Membership Account. Use the subscription tab and “Sign Up” for whichever plan you want now. There won’t be an area to add a promo code, but I will process the discount at the time of payment – within three days after signing up.

If this method doesn’t work or if you prefer to just start a new account, go to the general pricing page and start the process there. That goes for anyone new. Use this pricing page to sign up.

As always, I remain truly amazed at how great this group of readers has been over the years. I’m excited, not only to get back to breaking down football games, but to interact with all of you through Twitter and email over the next six months. Don’t be a stranger. We’re in this together.

– Mario

P.S. Unrelated and a bit outdated in terms of the current season advice, but I wrote a book about fantasy baseball prior to this MLB season. I made the Kindle eBook version free for any Sporfolio member so, if you’re interested, check it out here: Free eBook for Sporfolio Members – Diamond Dividends.