A note of appreciation for Seven Cycles who are sponsoring the blog. The US framebuilder is here for a month with their ad on the top right of the page. They offer a range of custom built carbon, titanium and steel frames and to find out more, click on the ad to visit their site and learn more.
I try to keep the advertising to a minimum with one space only as I get easily distracted by too many flashing ads. The Seven ad cycles three times and then stops, handy if you want to visit for a long read.
The sponsorship is great for me… and hopefully brings advantages for you. The blog is two years old now and the financial support allows for more content. Money motivates… but it also allows for investment, the blog now has a deal with a pro photographer and I’ve got a couple of other ideas in planning. Nothing revolutionary, we’re talking more detail and extra coverage but with some costs.
Finally a belated note of thanks to Competitive Cyclist for their support since late 2011, the retailer has been a long-term supporter of the blog and I’ve been very grateful for their backing.
Good for you! And for the rest of us in (or on the fringes) of the biz, do you have a rate card for this sort of advertising you’d care to share? Somehow you’ve managed to keep this blog not only interesting and well-written but seem to attract a diverse but interesting following – far different than any other cycling-related blog that I’ve seen, especially when you consider the quality of the comments – almost always well thought out and presented in a civilized and courteous way. You deserve success!
Well if adverts increase the life expectancy of this excellent blog — yes, that’s a good reason. But’s let be lucid about what it does. Relationships with advertisers are never neutral and always have ramifications big or small, intended or not, which impact content.
I think we can at least agree that advertisers are influenced by the content. This can be unintentional. But lets see: a massively popular entry on how many big name and fancy carbon brands are made mostly in the same factory leads to (1) the ending of the sponsorship of a seller of many of the brands mentioned — I was going to say unmasked! — in the blog entry (I know it’s a coincidence) and perhaps more importantly, (2) the arrival of a new sponsor who happens to make upper level, expensive bikes for rich folks — definitely not made in Taiwan (at least I hope not). That last occurrence — the arrival of sept — is perhaps not another coincidence.
So yes, content influences advertisers (it can repel or attract), of course. And that in turn can influence content. Let’s at least have our eyes open about this.
Larry T: thanks. if you want to talk business send me an email, happy to explain more.
Oliver: convincing arguments! But no conspiracy here. Hard to prove a negative… short of showing you the email inbox with messages + timings but I’m confident I’d win an expedited hearing at the CAS.
The CAS you say? Well, I guess Scotland’ll be independent by the time the matter’s resolved 😉
Business? Email me – larry@cycleitalia.com
I’d bought things from Comp Cyclist via your site but I can’t stretch to a frame. Nice of them to support you.
On behalf of Seven, I will just say we are glad to be here. The thoughtfulness of both the writing and the subsequent comments is what drew our interest. It is really, for us, about integrity. We try to associate with people and businesses who share our commitment to honesty and quality. That goes beyond any particular article or series of articles that might appear here or anywhere else. It’s a way of doing business. That is all. Thanks for reading.
Jared Gruber’s Passo Giau print is hanging in my living room courtesy of this blog.
John Lewis, as a regular reader of this blog, thanks for supporting it. The thoughtfulness of the the writing is certainly the reason I read it and I thank you for contributing so as to allow it to continue and to grow.