Jan. 28, 2015, 4:39 a.m. -  Bagheera

#!markdown There's a point in what the guy from "VitalMTB" says, and then again, there isn't. If you (and of course, your advertisers) judge success only by the number of views/retweets/likes, then yes, a big crash or spyshot will be more "successful". But what about the impact a carefully written piece has? There are a few articles I have saved on my computer that I still read occasionally, some of them almost ten years old. Others are still quoted (sometimes without remembering the exact source) or remembered fondly during some bike ride or other. As I still quote Steve Peat in "Seasons" and Tony Rominger from some long forgotten interview (plus something from an nsmb article, I think) everytime I ride in the rain and/or cold. All of those pieces were neither about the latest greatest gear nor about huge gaps, but usually just about "Getting out there" and/or people liviing/riding in a way I could relate to. Recovery from injuries, in-depth pro interviews, all in all just well-told stories. Also, what brings me back to nsmb (apart from the forum) are not news (you often lag behind a little) or tales about the latest carbon wheels, but well-crafted pieces. There seemed to be a decline, but they seem to be appearing more frequently in recent times. Long story short, Impact and/or success can't be measured in clicks, retweets or likes. Hell, there's a ghost story that has haunted me for more than twenty years, and I can't find anything about that author, no other books, nada. So he wasn't successful. But his story was important to me, and as an author, I'd want to have an impact, not just sell (yeah, I know one has to live).