So the other day I posted my first SB.com review online; I didn’t announce it on Facebook or anything like that as I would normally do because it was more about me just dipping my toes into the back end to figure out how I want to attack what I want to do.
The first thing you need to know is that I haven’t left TweakTown.com, Cameron and I are as good a mates as we have ever been and to be honest I’m doing more work for the site than ever. For the past few years my focus has been Video Cards and Memory, over the past few months though as TweakTown has grown I’m now doing Displays (Monitors, Projectors and TVs) and recently I’ve received my first GPS samples. The latest subjects are all to do with helping offer another level of information to our readers, and I use the word our readers because while I have no financial stake in the site, working at TweakTown for 7 years means that the people that read and appreciate my reviews are like my extended family.
Like most young 25 year olds though I have goals and ambitions, I’ve seen a hole in Australia when it comes to getting information out there and I intend to help plug it.
When I started my blog I had no intension on doing reviews, let me give you the tip, in 5 months and 14 days I’ve done 80 yes eight zero reviews for TweakTown. I’m one of very few global full time writers for a tech website and one of even fewer when it comes to Australia. Since I went full time for TweakTown in 2008 I’ve done 339 reviews. It’s not hard to do the maths, I’m a reviewing machine lol.
In 7 years though I’ve talked to everyone from Marketing Executives, Wholesale and Retail Store Owners to End Users. I’ve learnt a lot about the Australian market and figure that I’ve got a good enough understanding off it to really offer something better then what the current magazines in Australia do.
I’m at a level in my work life that my productivity is through the roof, multiple test beds, stream lined procedures and templates that have taken me years to perfect mean that I can just power through reviews these days. Its these reasons why I can offer the companies I deal with such fast turnaround times on TweakTown reviews.
Over the past few years I’ve been writing for some local magazines, here I’ve been doing Video Card reviews and RAM along with a few other things. What I was able to offer companies was better exposure for their samples, I was able to offer them the review on TweakTown they would always get and then some Video Cards and memory would also get reviewed in some of Australia’s biggest magazines.
So the question is what do I want to review? Well anything and everything. I’d review a fridge if you want to send it to me, my drinks do need to be cold you know. In all seriousness though the aim is to focus on the normal computer goodies for now. By covering things like motherboards, hard drives and CPUs items that are covered by other writers at TweakTown I’m able to expand my knowledge on the areas that interest me with firsthand experience. I really pride myself on my knowledge of Video Cards and Memory because of firsthand experience.
So there’s a few things that people who want to send samples too me need to know, if you send me Video Cards and Memory a review will always go on TweakTown before anything else, much the same way a product was dealt with when I was writing for the magazines, instead of being limited to only 2 video card reviews a month though there is no limit for SB.com; one of the biggest factors I’m pushing when compared to Australian magazines.
So other things, motherboards, SSD and more. If you send me a motherboard you’re sending Shane of sb.com a motherboard not Shane of TweakTown.com. Chris at TweakTown offers 12 page reviews covering loads off information about hard drives, Sean offers the same sized reviews for TweakTown on motherboards. I want to offer reviews here at about 4x the size of a magazine which equates to around 1000 – 1200 words. They’ll be a single page and are aimed to offer significantly more information than a 300 word magazine review; at the same time in a much quicker lead time.
The information in my reviews will be more generalised, in much the same way I can be at my local game store and check IGN on my iPhone to see if a game looks good you’ll be able to quickly fire up SB.com, fire through a review on a product and hopefully be able to make a decision.
This brings me to my advertising plan; my main focus is about offering Wholesalers and Retailers in Australia a chance for someone to go straight from the review to a retailers website and buy the product. Its designed so if someone wants to buy from their local computer store and they don’t sell the product they can say it can be bought at X Wholesaler. What I hope is that retailers will be able to expand their line up with new products and Wholesalers will hopefully be able to pick up some new customers.
” Where to Buy (Wholesalers): Do you sell the HD 5970 TOXIC in Australia? Email us for Ad opportunities.
Where to Buy (Retailers): Do you sell the HD 5970 TOXIC in Australia? Email us for Ad opportunities”
Then the retailers who advertise will be able to hopefully pick up some new customers. The aim is to cap retailers to around 10, the idea is that if I reviewed a Gigabyte Motherboard which is something most computer stores in Australia offer , when it comes to showing where the product can be bought I’m not showing 100 retailers making the whole process very counterproductive, instead I’m aiming for 1 WA, 1 SA, 3 VIC, 3 NSW, 1 or 2 QLD and 1 TAS. Wholesalers are a different story though since few wholesalers cross sell the same brands there’s no cap, worst case a Gigabyte product is reviewed only two or three wholesalers are listed.
I hope that helps cover some of the plans and helps clear some confusion. Not only am I not leaving TweakTown, I’m not aiming to compete with it (it does 3x the traffic of all Australian Tech Magazines combined, it would be near impossible for anyone to start a website today and compete with those numbers) I’m not planning to compete with any tech site really, instead my aim is to offer something between a magazine and a typical tech website. It might not be anything new on a global scale but it should be something new for the Australian market and something the Australian market is missing because while it’s a small market it’s an important one.