Retailer database complete: now, let us rank and comment

Triathlon Forum
1

this morning i sent out my last of many pestering emails to retailers who ought to be on our database, yet who are not. i must say, if your LBS is not on our db now, maybe he shouldn’t be. why? because if, after every opportunity, and many emails, your shop chooses not to be listed on this db, i must assume that’s the sort of attention to service and detail you can expect from him. so, even if he is the local cervelo dealer, and even if he is the big kahuna in town, i can’t imagine myself going to that shop. i have 600 retailers on my db. these are the 600 likely candidates and, of them, 300 are on our db. trust me, if your LBS ought to be listed, it’s very unlikely he’s not been getting my emails. nevertheless, if you still think he should be listed, i’m done trying to get his attention. now it’s up to you.

okay, so…

now it’s time for you to exercise your right to express your views. let your fellow slowtwitchers know what’s good about the shops in your town, and what’s not good about them. you can rate them across ten or so categories, and you can write text about them.

we’re within a couple of weeks of launching a new db just for fitters and coaches. so if your local guy isn’t on our list, maybe it’s because he’s not a stocking bike shop. if this is the case, we’ll have his db up very soon and you’ll find him there.

2

Running Away Multisport in Chicago is not a bike shop, just FYI.

3

i must say, if your LBS is not on our db now, maybe he shouldn’t be

The audacity indeed of those LBSs. How dare they not comply!

Wow what a parochial attitude. They say triathletes are self-absorbed. I guess that extends to triathlon webmasters too. For you to assume their attention to detail is lacking because they don’t want to play in your pet project is quite a leap.

4

“Wow what a parochial attitude. They say triathletes are self-absorbed. I guess that extends to triathlon webmasters too. For you to assume their attention to detail is lacking because they don’t want to play in your pet project is quite a leap.”

i suspected i would get this response from at least one reader (i’d have been shocked if i didn’t). i considered your interpretation before i wrote what i did. as harry callahan put it, “a man’s got to know his limitations.” is it just self-aggrandizement to assume every shop invested in triathlon ought to list on this database? am i not understanding my limitations when i say the answer is yes?

the filter i applied to this, before i wrote it, is how i responded when i was given the same opportunities. when i was a race promoter, if i had a chance to list my race, for free, on the one place everybody is most likely to go to find a triathlon, you bet i did so. and the second most likely place, and the third, fouth and fifth. those RDs who chose not to do so had underperforming, or failed, races.

yes, it’s my pet project. slowtwitch is my pet project. what does that mean? everything in which you personally take value, from your local tri club to books, newspapers, magazines and websites you read, to the television stations you watch, to the country you live in, was somebody’s pet project. on this pet project is the one database of retailers a triathlete may browse. it’s been on slowtwitch, in one form or another, for upwards of a decade. no shop has ever asked to be taken off if it. the difference is, in this new database, shops have to take the affirmative act of listing themselves, instead of me doing it for them.

and when they choose not to list themselves, i think it’s fair to ask why that is. it’s not that i’m saying they’re bad shops if they don’t list themselves on this db. it’s that after upwards of a year, and many emails, and phone calls, and promptings from their customers, if they still choose not to, then maybe triathlon is just not a market for them. failing that, maybe it’s evidence of a management problem. either way, there’s only so much hand holding i’m going to do. the other 300 shops did take the affirmative act. is your LBS one of those 300 shops? if not, why? the point of the database is not to help these retailers, it’s to help our readers find suitable retailers. if your LBS chooses, out of stubbornness or apathy, not to list his shop on a tri-dedicated site serving 6 million monthly pages to 200,000 unique visitors, i think it’s fair for our readers to wonder why.

5

it’s not that i’m saying they’re bad shops if they don’t list themselves on this db.

Yes you are. You said

if, after every opportunity, and many emails, your shop chooses not to be listed on this db, i must assume that’s the sort of attention to service and detail you can expect from him.

The db is a good thing. But realize your egocentricity, embarrassingly ill-considered at that, when you write so dismissively of non-participating LBSs.

6

You seriously get 200,000 unique readers each month?? Thats amazing. To me. Do you have any idea how many unique posters you get in a month??

7

“You seriously get 200,000 unique readers each month?? Thats amazing. To me. Do you have any idea how many unique posters you get in a month??”

we host about 2000 posts a day, and, at today’s current rate, we get about a thousand new registrants on the forum each month. but i’ll guess 500 of those new registrants are for forum posting, and the other 500 are to take advantage of listing a race on the calendar, or using the training log, or establishing a profile on the retailer database. about 65 to 70 percent of slowtwitch’s traffic, in terms of pages served, is on the forum.

the 200,000 uniques are according to google analytics stats. some of those uniques are the same person coming to see us from different computers. but about 10 to 15 percent of our readers aren’t counted at all, because they have cookies turned off or clear their cookies one month to the next. quite a few of the 200,000 uniques is search engine driven, and visit is once and not again. about 120,000 of our uniques have visited us a fair number of times since the establishment of the cookie in their browsers. really, though, there are only between 20,000 and 30,000 regular, fairly hard core, forum readers. that’s my best guess. there are another 100,000 that read our news from time to time, or look in at the forum from time to time, but are not what you’d call avid, everyday readers.

to answer you question directly, i don’t know how many unique posters i get in a month. we have a lot of utilities that have been built over the past year – our calendar and retailer db, our reader poll, the training log, a fresh architecture to present the news and articles, utilities that show most recent comments to articles and most frequently read articles, and a lot of forum enhancements – but we haven’t entirely caught up with the admin requirements that attend all this. how many unique monthly posters is something i will know sometime in 2009, but not at the moment.

8

“But realize your egocentricity, embarrassingly ill-considered at that, when you write so dismissively of non-participating LBSs”

i think it’s entirely fair for you to hold this opinion. nevertheless, if your LBS has taken the affirmative act to not take an affirmative act, and decides to not list his store on this db, if i’m a slowtwitch reader i’m wondering why that is.

in the case of your LBS, i believe i know what store that is, and if so that shop is listed. the owner of that shop is a very talented businessman, and his shop needs and deserves to be on this db. but i also think he would agree with your assessment of me completely. in any case, the shop is listed. if you’re going to have a database, half a database isn’t helpful. how do you get from half, to two-thirds, to seven-eights, to ten-tenths? the point is to end up with a robust, helpful database, or else it’s pointless to start.

if you think i’m egocentric, and my actions ill-considered, i’m just warming up. manufacturers are going to get the same treatment later this month. we’re converting our stack and reach database to an interactive one, where tri bike makers will have to keep up their own stack and reach metrics. those who don’t measure their bikes according to our own private wet dream metrics, and list them on our stack/reach db, are going to get called out as well. you’ll want to stick around for that thread :wink:

9

Running Away Multisport in Chicago is not a bike shop, just FYI.

That’s a good point. Many would define a "Tri-Shop as needing to sell bikes. However, their is an emergent shop in this niche that does not sell bikes, but sells many other things gear and apparel that Triathletes need. They may even identify themselves in their title as being a Tri Shop. Some started out as Run shops and now more closely aline themselves with the sport of triathlon than running. Running Away Multi-Sport in Chicago is one. Another great one is The Endurance House in Madison, as well as Tri-It in Calgary, AB, as well Tri-Running & Walking in Rochester.

How about this - if a place sells wetsuits, then it’s in the Tri business at some level.

10

I agree, but my only point was that the original post and the retailers section of ST make refer to LBS and bike shops, FIST, etc. Running Away is a great tri shop, no doubt.

11

I agree, but my only point was that the original post and the retailers section of ST make refer to LBS and bike shops, FIST, etc. Running Away is a great tri shop, no doubt.

I have mentioned this before in similar threads - does a “Tri-Shop” have to sell bikes? There are some on the list that don’t but there are shops that cater to a lot of triathletes who don’t sell bikes who are not on the list.

12

“I have mentioned this before in similar threads - does a “Tri-Shop” have to sell bikes?”

by the middle of this year you’ll see several of these databases, to help you find a bike store, running store, fitter or coach, tri club, and a master’s swim team, that suits your personal needs.

yes, we’re going to seem, at times, real dickheads during this process, in an effort to help sort the wheat from the chaff. i’m looking for a good gastroenterologist right now for my camera up the back door; and a good orthopedic surgeon for several problems that beset a 50-something broken down endurance enthusiast. where are these cut-the-bullspit lists? where can i find the GI doc whose colonoscopies really do result in mathematically fewer colon cancers? if there is such a list, the fellow who compiled it “took it in the shorts,” pardon the pun, by a lot of those who’re on the “ass end” of a list like that.

these are the only kinds of databases i’m interested in hosting here, and, yes, we will soon get to the running/soft goods tri-friendly shops, for better or worse.

13

“You seriously get 200,000 unique readers each month?? Thats amazing. To me. Do you have any idea how many unique posters you get in a month??”

we host about 2000 posts a day, and, at today’s current rate, we get about a thousand new registrants on the forum each month. but i’ll guess 500 of those new registrants are for forum posting, and the other 500 are to take advantage of listing a race on the calendar, or using the training log, or establishing a profile on the retailer database. about 65 to 70 percent of slowtwitch’s traffic, in terms of pages served, is on the forum.

the 200,000 uniques are according to google analytics stats. some of those uniques are the same person coming to see us from different computers. but about 10 to 15 percent of our readers aren’t counted at all, because they have cookies turned off or clear their cookies one month to the next. quite a few of the 200,000 uniques is search engine driven, and visit is once and not again. about 120,000 of our uniques have visited us a fair number of times since the establishment of the cookie in their browsers. really, though, there are only between 20,000 and 30,000 regular, fairly hard core, forum readers. that’s my best guess. there are another 100,000 that read our news from time to time, or look in at the forum from time to time, but are not what you’d call avid, everyday readers.

to answer you question directly, i don’t know how many unique posters i get in a month. we have a lot of utilities that have been built over the past year – our calendar and retailer db, our reader poll, the training log, a fresh architecture to present the news and articles, utilities that show most recent comments to articles and most frequently read articles, and a lot of forum enhancements – but we haven’t entirely caught up with the admin requirements that attend all this. how many unique monthly posters is something i will know sometime in 2009, but not at the moment.

I find these numbers interesting and I find them hard to reconcile with my own evaluation of traffic here. Now I don’t have the numbers you have to analyze this site but something seems amiss.

The threads I pay the most attention to, trafficwise, are the PowerCranks threads. Over the years I would guess that the average PowerCranks thread gets between 100-200 unique viewers. Maybe some of those that have gone on for 500-600 posts get up to 1000 but it seems to me that 150 is pretty average. Here is a recent post that has nothing to do with PowerCranks that, perhaps, has 150 unique viewers tops even though it would seemingly have a wide interest base.

How can there be numbers like that being reconciled with your estimate of 20-30,000 regular, hard core forum users and 200,000 unique visitors each month. What kind of behaviour by these 200,000 uniques can possibly explain the kind of traffic individual threads seem to generate?

I don’t doubt this is one of the most visited sites out there but I simply don’t understand where they are going if that many show up at this forum.

14

I’m curious … is there a reason a LBS or Tri-store would not want to be listed? Are they spammed or solicited as a result? Is this a Slowman plot to take over the world?

I ask because I notice that none of the Okanagan valley stores, including Bike Barn - which employs regular ST posters, are listed.

15

Since when is Kentucky a Great Lakes state? :stuck_out_tongue:

16

I mentioned to my LBS that they’re not on this database (despite even having a FIST fitter). They kind of just shrugged their shoulders and didn’t seem to care. They do great business as it is now, so I guess that advertising, even free, on a niche site like ST falls low on their priority list.

17

yes, we’re going to seem, at times, real dickheads during this process, in an effort to help sort the wheat from the chaff. i’m looking for a good gastroenterologist right now for my camera up the back door; and a good orthopedic surgeon for several problems that beset a 50-something broken down endurance enthusiast. where are these cut-the-bullspit lists? where can i find the GI doc whose colonoscopies really do result in mathematically fewer colon cancers? if there is such a list, the fellow who compiled it “took it in the shorts,” pardon the pun, by a lot of those who’re on the “ass end” of a list like that.

Dan,

Only you could have such an answer for my simple question of what is a Tri-Shop - and we get this . . . . it somehow morphing into a dissertation on your search for a good gastroenterologist and an orthopod. Not sure how you made the linkage, but you did well my friend. Sorry I can’t help you out on the health front!

18

I mentioned to my LBS that they’re not on this database (despite even having a FIST fitter). They kind of just shrugged their shoulders and didn’t seem to care. They do great business as it is now, so I guess that advertising, even free, on a niche site like ST falls low on their priority list.

I would not read too much into this . . . although I admit it’s easy to do. Many of us have no idea of all the balls that have to be kept in the air when running a small business such as a bike shop when you are the owner and having to do just about everything. I have worked in shops, and owners are bombarded every day with all manner of requests, offers and proposals for a vareity of services and marketing opportunities - everything from carpet cleaning to enhanced yellow page listings and many many other things. The Slowtwitch listing, as good as it may be is just another thing in a long list of things, that has to get dealt with.

19

I think I will start a database, oh I don’t know maybe dealing with Comic Book Stores, and then tell people that if you do not list your store with my data base, well you must be either crazy or hiding something…:slight_smile:
.

20

If I was in the business of selling comic books, I’m pretty sure I’d list my store. Why wouldn’t I? That’s the big question. Why would you not take the time, all five minutes of it, to list your business?