Yep, you read that right… starting today, I’m quitting daily snowboard blogging.
First, don’t panic. Snomie is not going anywhere, but I’m making some huge changes to how I do things and how this blog is run.
Why change Snomie?
Well Snomie is successful and it brings in a full time white collar income for me, not to mention our traffic is constantly rising each year. However, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect and it doesn’t mean that we’re doing things in a way that benefits the most people.
I started doing daily snowboard tips 2 and a half years ago and just kind of kept doing it because it was working. Our subscribers grew and traffic grew so I kept doing it.
However, if I could do it all over again, I think there are ways to improve on the format to make it more useful and make the quality of the blog better for other snowboarders while still getting the benefit of growth and subscribers.
I’m in a unique situation now where after working on Snomie for 2+ years, I have the time, money, skill and influence to make a difference and to have a positive impact on the snowboard community with what I create and do.
So why not make the best impact I can and help the most snowboarders possible with the most high quality content possible.
Now that said, I do know that a lot of you guys enjoy coming here daily/weekly to read a bunch of short, mini snowboard blogs, but I think our current method has a few issues.
The problems:
Problem 1) I’m repeating too much content
The problem with daily blogs of me answering snowboard questions is that the same questions get asked over and over and I’ve basically briefly covered every snowboard topic possible at some point in the past 2+ years.
It seems kind of silly to keep repeating the same topics without adding anything new and while our newer followers benefit from the topics, I’m sure my older readers get a little bored of reading the same answer over and over.
I don’t want to blog for the sake of blogging if I’ve already covered a topic 500 times already.
Problem 2) It’s hard to be detailed in short blogs
One huge issue I have with doing daily blogs is I don’t get the time required to make them epic and make them detailed tips on each subject.
Having to have the blog done within 1 day means I have to start and finish the blog within a few hours, otherwise I run out of time to get it posted and otherwise I don’t have time to get the other tasks at Snomie handled (such as answering snowboard questions via email, recording/editing trick tip videos etc).
And a huge side effect of that is sometimes short blogs end up being very generic snowboard guides that don’t offer as much value and teaching to other snowboarders as I’d like.
The last thing I want to do is become like ‘Snowboard Pro Camp’ or some other blogs/sites who I’ve seen pump out a lot of generic, low quality snowboard content just to get website hits/video views. It may work for views and traffic, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.
So here’s what’s changing:
Change 1) Less frequent, but more epic snowboard tutorials and guides
Instead of daily mini blogs, I’m going to make snowboard posts less frequently (maybe once every week or fortnight or less), but when I do make a post/update, it’ll be something epic that will be highly worth reading and learning.
This means if I write a tutorial on choosing snowboard boots, it’s going to be the most detailed guide to choosing snowboard boots that you’ll ever find and it’ll have video, illustrations and more.
Or if I choose to explain a snowboard technique, it’ll have step-by-step analysis and video break down of everything.
Basically instead of skimming over the daily Snomie blog and seeing if it’s something useful, I want you to see a new blog on Snomie and immediately think, “Awesome the new Snomie blog is out, I HAVE to read this because it’s going to be an epic guide that teaches me something big.”
I’m going to spend a lot of time carefully crafting, researching and breaking down each snowboard topic so that the final result is some of the most epic snowboard blogs, guides and tutorials that you’ve ever read.
Change 2) Real life mini vlogs
I’ll still do the occasional vlog and mini post, but they’ll become random and fun mini looks into what I’m up to and the adventures I’m having.
So for instance I might do a vlog when I’m eating snake flavoured ice cream in Japan or when I’m back in Whistler hiking for powder or even just mini showcases of the random places I’m staying (like I did with my Korean apartment tour).
Think of it like mini glimpses into my real life while I travel, snowboard and run an online snowboard company. It’ll be my way of staying connected and still being able to say hi once in awhile since I won’t be doing the daily snowboard blogs.
There won’t be any schedule for doing these vlogs, they’ll just kind of happen when I’m doing something interesting.
What’s not changing:
I’ll still answer your emails and snowboard questions, so don’t feel like I won’t be here to answer your questions because I still intend to keep that up.
You can still come say hi and I’ll still respond and still be part of the community. The difference will be that I may not make a public blog with the answer I give you, but you’ll still get my answer and help in private 🙂
So yeah.. big changes, but I think it’s for the better if I want to take Snomie to the next level and really focus on making the best quality content I can create.
– Jed