The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010

Happy New Year!

What a year!  2009 was a very fun and busy year with the snowboard blog, I’m very lucky to be able to write everything, snowboard as much as I can and share my snowboarding life with you.  I have the most amazing readers who help support this site and I want to thank you for making my 2009 so much better!  Lets hope that 2010 brings out more fun, good times and snowboarding so we all stay happy in life!

[singlepic id=7243 w=400 h=267 float=]

So just to give an idea of what 2009 was like for the blog:

• In terms of site traffic, 2009 doubled what 2008 was for site traffic and I surpassed a total of 1 million visitors since I began the blog. In 2009 shayboarder.com received 760,742 page loads, 416,223 unique visitors, and 118,467 returning visitors.

• My blog has reached 144 countries around the world.

• I made a total of 559 posts in 2009. That’s about 1.5 posts per day.

• The most popular content was the 2009-2010 snowboard reviews, products and industry interviews.

• Shayboarder.com pays for itself thanks to advertisements.  This means that you won’t see companies that I don’t agree or support ever featured on this blog, I control what is shown.  It means that stickers and the costs of running this site including SIA (my costs like hotel room) are all paid for and it’s not coming directly out of my pocket anymore.

• Finally I launched a new version of the site over the summer and what you are looking at is the new shayboarder.com that has everything I want in a snowboard blog.  I’m really happy at how it turned out and a huge thanks to Mike Heath for helping me with the behind the scenes of the blog.

In terms of content for the site, it remained a busy year with 559 posts and I found myself being able to write about opportunities to share them with you. Here are some of my personal favorite posts from this season.

• Company Visits:
  • BOA Technologies including how to replace a BOA lace Video.
  • Mervin Manufacturing (GNU, Lib Tech, Roxy)
  • Never Summer Snowboards
  • Bonfire Outerwear
  • Holden Outerwear
  • Yobeat
  • Transworld
  • Snowboarder Magazine
  • Flow Snowboards
  • Dragon Alliance
  • Signal Snowboards
  • 686
  • Arbor Snowboards
  • O-matic Snowboards

• FUN Opportunities
  • Board Insiders Reviews and Videos
  • Riding with SOS Kids and sharing the experience.
  • Riding with Monument Snowboards.
  • Behind the Transworld Good Wood Test.
  • Utah Shred-tacular and Zac’s film from 3 days in Utah.
  • Woodwarding it up with Dragon
  • Windell’s Adult Camp in August
  • YES BBQ and Absinthe Video Premiere
  • GORE-TEX Blogger Summit
• Interviews
  • Industry Profiles
  • Willie McMillon
  • Pat Bridges
  • John Cavan
  • Trent Bush
  • Snurfing Video
• Contests
  • Holy Oly
  • USASA Nationals
  • Grenade Games/Telus Festival
  • Backyard Bang
  • Grand Prix
  • Dew Tour
• Personal Experiences
  • Looking back at the 08-09 season.
• Blog Applause
  • Article on ESPN about Shayboarder.com
  • Snowboarder Magazine Guestbook

What is coming up in 2010:

• SIA in Denver is rapidly approaching which means checking out 2010-2011 products and writing about them on the blog.

• Finishing up the 09-10 reviews and getting them posted (there’s still a good amount that need to be posted up) and starting on riding 10-11 products for reviews.

• Continuing with writing about snowboarding, interviews, fun times, company visits and experiences along the way.

• Summer 2010…Industry Profiles are coming back. I’m putting together some ideas for people and will start getting the ball rolling on the 30 individuals that will be interviewed this summer. Also if you have anyone in mind or someone you know who would be up for it, let me know by emailing me, shayboarder@gmail.com

• Meeting more of my readers, handing out stickers and getting stoked on riding every day!

• Traveling to Holy Oly/Seattle in February, Vermont/US Open in March, hopefully Whistler/Telus Festival in April and plenty of other small trips in between.

• Finally 2010 is the start of some changes in store with myself and where I would would like to be at in life.  I’ll be updating the blog when I can and looking forward to new opportunities.

I wish 2010 to be a great year for everyone and I’m looking forward to what it brings for myself and shayboarder.com…it’s been an amazing journey so far!