Singletracks Bizness: Trail Tuesdays, MTB Rentals, and More

Just wanted to share a few things that are going on here at Singletracks this month. Trail Tuesdays Every Tuesday we’ll post a trail-related article on the blog (in fact we started this a couple Tuesdays ago). Articles will include trail reports, featured destinations, and mountain bike trail news. Mountain bike rentals A couple weeks …

Just wanted to share a few things that are going on here at Singletracks this month.

Trail Tuesdays

Every Tuesday we’ll post a trail-related article on the blog (in fact we started this a couple Tuesdays ago). Articles will include trail reports, featured destinations, and mountain bike trail news.

Mountain bike rentals

A couple weeks ago we added a field to our bike shop database to note whether shops rent mountain bikes. It’s a question we constantly hear (and ask ourselves whenever we travel!) so help us out by updating rental info for your local bike shop. Look for the “Does this shop rent bikes?” link on the right side of the page and let us know either way.

Unbiased product reviews

We’re in the process of removing affiliate sales links from the singletracks gear review pages in an effort to keep our mountain bike product reviews as unbiased as possible. We’ve always shied away from placing affiliate links in product review articles (“pro reviews”) to keep things honest and now we’re extending that thinking to user-generated product review pages. So whether you’re reading a full blown product review on the blog or checking out the list of “best MTB products,” know that we aren’t trying to make a buck for ourselves by promoting certain products or brands over others.

And unlike some other MTB blogs and websites, our ad sales and editorial teams are completely separate. That means we don’t charge manufacturers for product reviews (advertorials) and our writers aren’t influenced by ad contracts. This is a pretty standard arrangement for print publications but as far as we know it’s still rare in the online world.

Faster page load times

We’ve been tweaking pages and scripts on singletracks and the upshot is you should notice much faster page load times throughout the site. Just like in mountain biking, faster is always better!

New snow sports site launch: THIS IS AN AD

Ok, shameless plug time. Last week we launched a snow sports website (skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, etc.) called SnowToIt.com and we’re running a contribution contest through the new year. The site works like singletracks (user reviews, photos, videos, etc.) and if you add your content right now you have a pretty good chance of winning one of 9 weekly prizes like a $50 Backcountry.com gift card. So if you’re off the bike and on the snow already, SnowToIt.com is a great place to find resorts and backcountry trails!