Now you have the English version of this blog at Shoegazing.com, instead of as before at Shoegazing.se/english, a definite gain I feel. At the same time, I have now launched a Patreon site where anyone who can and wants to have the opportunity to support Shoegazing and be involved in enabling continued high-level content.
Ever since I started Shoegazing, I’ve wanted to continue developing the blog and everything around it. The latest step in this is to finally get a hold of of the domain Shoegazing.com. For several years I have paid for monitoring the domain that was not for sale, but which didn’t have an active site, which was a bit frustrating. About six months ago it finally came out for sale, but at a high price point. I have tried to bid it down to a more reasonable cost, but finally managed to solve it all with an installment plan. Now, Shoegazing.com is finally mine, and now home to this international version of the blog. I have also moved both the .com and the .se pages to a new, significantly better server provider than I had before, which should mean that you will experience the site as clearly faster and also more secure, with ssl certificates.
From a visit to the Crockett & Jones factory in Northampton, for large report here on the blog.
As I’ve written about before, I now work 20%, one day a week, with Shoegazing, which has meant a big lift for me privately. From being down on my knees with a regular full-time job (which often was at least 120%) and having run the blog, events, competitions, etc. plus family and everything else in life, I still have a packed but considerably more manageable life, where I don’t have to work half the nights in the same way as before. However, having to take a salary out of the proprietorship company I have for Shoegazing has meant that I now have less resources to travel and do other things that, in many ways, can enable good content on the blog.
Today the main revenue for Shoegazing is banner ads, I never have any paid content. The only thing I receive is review pairs of shoes if I think it’s something that is worth reviewing (I say no thanks to most things here, since I only review things that are not already well established). But, for example, the bespoke shoes I order, on the contrary to what many seem to believe, are basically always paid full price (after all, most are Japanese bespoke, and those who know Japanese culture know that there you always pay full prices). Everything to keep the blog as objective as possible. And when I now have my regular employment at Skolyx, it’s important to be very clear about this, so you readers know and can judge what I write about our products from there. Being a journalist from the beginning, this bit is important to me. The events I organise do not generate too much income, it has been more important to create good events than make money, and for example the sponsorship money for the World Championships in Shoemaking goes directly to prize money for the competitors (it’s even paid directly from the partners to the top trio).
This year’s world champion shoe by Daniel Wegan. Shoes like this one, last year’s winning shoe by Patrick Frei, and other masterpieces from the competitions, we probably wouldn’t have seen without the world championship contest I started.
What I’m going to test now is to enable financial support from you readers through Patreon. It is a well-established platform for creators of various kinds, to receive funding from their readers/followers, where you choose a sum to contribute per month. From only $3 a month in my case, and you can cancel at any time. It’s used by many around the world, in the menswear field, for example, Parisian Gentleman has a Patreon page for its YouTube channel.
However, I will do it a bit differently to how it’s usually done. The purpose of my Patreon page is not to offer exclusive things to those who can pay the most – I will always keep the blog and all my content, competitions and events open to everyone – but rather it’s a channel where those who can and want to support my work with Shoegazing has the opportunity to do that, and with this, it allows me to provide better content. What I want to use potential revenue from here is to be able to meet more people from the shoe world, visit more workshops and factories, to be able to do more articles for the blog and record new podcast interviews. All revenue will go directly to content production for Shoegazing. Oh, and one benefit will go out to those who becomes patreons, you will be given the opportunity to be part of the decision on which travels/interviews/reports the money is spent on.
If you appreciate the blog, podcast, Instagram, events and contests that Shoegazing is behind, and feel that you have the possibility to support it, your contribution would be much, much appreciated! Here you find the Patreon page.
