Tag Archives: small campers

Dusting Off The Small Trailer Enthusiast

For several months, I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting this website restarted after a 3 year hibernation. It’s been a great little hobby since I launched it in September of 2011. It grew to levels I never thought imaginable, and opened several doors for me.

But as time passed discouragement set in. Google algorithms did the site no favors unless you posted daily or weekly content to your site. It would get buried in Google searches, which took a hit on the site’s visits, which in turn made it difficult to stay motivated to put the time into heading to an RV dealership to gather info and photos of a new towable you all might be interested in, coupled with the actual writing of the posts on the website, which were often done in the wee hours of the morning. I could easily count on two hands the number of times I rolled into bed at 2am after posting a feature on the website! And mind you, I’ve had a regular 8:30-4:30 job outside of the RV industry the whole time.

As many of you know, I would share the posts on our Facebook page. Facebook’s algorithm was just as difficult to help the site gain traction as Google. With nearly 5000 followers on the site’s Facebook page, the metrics would show “maybe” 10% of the followers would actually see the post in their feed. And maybe 10% of those 10% would react to and/or click on the link to the website.

So it was after I wrote my last feature in early 2022 on the  Encore RŎG that I decided to just let the website sit there with the 11 years of content it had. I didn’t post and didn’t update the comprehensive Manufacturers Page, which was by far the most frequently visited part of the site. Daily visits have taken a hit without new content to the tune of 35 visits a day in 2024, down from 1,400 daily visits during the website’s peak in 2017.

But as I mentioned, a little voice in the back of my head has been talking. I finally listened to that voice this weekend when I attended the Louisville Boat, RV, and Sportshow. I found a nice display of small trailers and teardrop campers that 62 Sales of Charlestown, Indiana had on display. I’d taken a handful of pics and thought of just putting a few comments on our Facebook page, but then decided this would be the perfect spot to dust off the website with a post. It was modest as my previous posts go, but it was just enough to get those creative juices flowing again. I also started going through the links on the Manufacturers page to correct any broken links and clear out any manufacturers that have closed up.

While I may never see 1,400 daily hits on the website again, I’d be happy just to get it back over 100 and be of help to those small trailer enthusiasts researching for their first, or next, small trailer. Afterall, that was my sole intent back in 2011: To be a clearinghouse of small trailer news and resources, “for the small trailer enthusiast in you.”

If you’re an RV dealer or an RV manufacturer reading this and have a small trailer 20 feet or less that you’d like to get noticed, shoot me an email: pat@smalltrailerenthusiast.com I’m located in southern Indiana just north of Louisville, KY. I’d be happy to drop by and see what you’ve got.

Please bookmark and share the website, and join us on our Facebook page: The Small Trailer Enthusiast

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

The Impetus of The Small Trailer Enthusiast

As The Small Trailer Enthusiast approaches the completion of four months of existence, the idea came to mind to write about how this blog came to be, and with that the inspiration for it. It wasn’t until the last three years or so that I’ve become interested in small travel trailers. My wife & I had wanted a teardrop trailer for many years, but it had always been one of the many “maybe some day” dreams we all have. When we did finally pull the trigger and purchase a T@B in 2009, it seemed to instantly fuel an interest in all travel trailers small. I’m not alone in this interest, as many of the small trailer brotherhood I know also will take interest in a diminutive towable they might see at a campground.

So what gave me the idea to start The Small Trailer Enthusiast? You need go no further than a 2400 mile ribbon of asphalt and concrete known as Route 66. My interest in this fabled highway goes back some three decades. 66 has been a big part of my adult life. Before I was married, it wasn’t anything for me to hit the road on a whim and take a 3 or 4 day weekend out west on the Mother Road for either a steak dinner 1,000 miles away in Amarillo, Texas, or 4 hours away for frozen custard in St. Louis, Missouri. It was because of 66 that I met my bride of nine years. We both had an interest in 66 and eventually met through a mutual friend who also had the same love of Route 66. Would it be a surprise to anyone that we had a Route 66 themed wedding or that we took our honeymoon on Route 66? How many of you didn’t see that coming?

 

With this interest in 66, I have always stayed on top of news from my favorite two-lane. Most of my news came from various publications and online message forums, but in 2005 Route 66 News changed the face of how information from 66 got to the general public. Started by Route 66 enthusiast Ron Warnick, Route 66 News has received nearly 3,000,000 visits over the past six years. Not only is it an excellent source of up to the minute news from the road, but is also an equally good database of Route 66 business information ranging from restauarants, motels, events, and yes, even campgrounds along its 2400 mile shoulders.

This leads up to this summer when the idea came to me to come up with a news blog relating to small travel trailers, loosely modeled after Route 66 News. Being a member of a few online forums dedicated to smaller trailers of various makes, I thought putting together a news blog for this niche just might work. So far, I’ve been pleased with the gradual growth since its inception on September 3. Daily hits to the site have gone from 9 per day in September to 77 per day as of December 15. I fully expect that number to increase as content on the site increases.

The things I look for to put on the site will focus on new models as well as news relating to existing models. I also hope to continue with the “spotlight” features, where I discuss a particular company and what they have to offer. As I mentioned in the “About” section, you won’t see anything about pop-up trailers here. Nothing personal against the owners of these trailers, but I’m just not a fan of pop-ups. The closest thing to a pop-up I might ever discuss would be an A-frame, hard-sided pop-up such as an A-Liner or a Chalet. I figured I’d need a cut-off size-wise. I picked 20′ simply because it was a nice round number, but that’s not to say I might not mention something  a little larger if it fits what I’m writing about.

Hopefully as time rolls on, I’ll develop some relationships with manufacturers so I can bring some content to you on a more frequent basis. I’m making some progress in that area with some smaller, up & coming manufacturers who’ve given me a lot of good info that have generated a lot of hits on the site. And if you’re a manufacturer or representative of a manufacturer who’d like me to talk about your company or trailer, feel free to contact me at roadmaven@yahoo.com. As always, thanks for reading…

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized