Climbing Narcissist » Climbing Websites

How to Start a Climbing Website in 3 Easy Steps

Narc — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:13:05 +0000

The following is a guest post by Matt Paden, one of the co-founders of Cruxn.com. Cruxn.com is a new community for climbing bloggers because “like climbing, blogging is more fun when done with friends”.

Step 1: Get Injured

If you really want to make a quality climbing website, you’re going to have to commit yourself 100% to getting good and injured first. This will ensure that you have plenty of time to work without any pesky distractions like training or obsessing over projects. Here at Cruxn.com, we’re very fortunate to have two injured founders, myself and Matt de Camara. Our third founder, Zach Lesch-Huie, has had the misfortune to stay uninjured, but me and Matt make a real effort to conceal our pity for him as he heads out climbing on the weekends while we stay inside.

Yes, the enviable position of the climbing website maker is to create an online space to showcase all of the amazing things that other people can do. I personally recommend shoulder injuries (in both shoulders is best if you can swing it), while Matt seems to thrive creatively from a finger injury. We also hear that elbow tendonitis and knee problems are great website-inducing maladies.

Step 2: Use a Performance Enhancing Drug

In the Hindu religion, there are separate gods for Creation (Brahma) and Destruction (Vishnu). In my world, coffee performs both of these services very nicely, and in one convenient package. I usually have remarkable moments of clarity for a few hours after drinking coffee before the heart palpitations and sweating kick in. I had been thinking about the idea behind Cruxn.com for about 6 months before I drank a particularly strong cup of coffee one snowy Boone morning in January and shakily fired off an email to Matt and Zach about the idea. I had sat on the concept long enough–it was time to act! And thanks to coffee, I finally had the liquid courage to do so. If the website was going to be pulled off, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it alone. Both Matt and Zach thought it was a good concept (poor suckers), so we started working on it that week. It took about a month of solid effort to get the site to a “beta testing” stage by late February.

So the point of Step 2 is to rely on stimulants (of the legal variety, of course) to help turn your hair brain ideas into an actionable plan.

So what’s the idea behind Cruxn.com? Simply put, it’s a community of climbing bloggers where we can create more traffic, conversation, and psych together than we ever could alone on our individual blogs. Climbers who write for Cruxn.com don’t stop writing for their own blogs, they just use Cruxn as a way to get their posts in front of a larger audience. We currently have 20 bloggers on the site, and anyone who has a climbing-based blog or photo site is invited to join. Just check out our About page for more info.

Step 3: Shamelessly Self Promote (AKA Give Away Awesome Free Stuff)

After going to great lengths to get yourself injured and spending months in front of a computer screen, you want to do all that you can to get the word out about your shiny new website. And what better way to do that than give stuff away for free? Even if people don’t like your site, they will pretend to love it in order to win some free gear. And that’s okay.

We’ve teamed up with Misty Mountain and the Triple Crown Bouldering comp to give away some great prizes for our official launch party. The prizes are a $250 shopping spree to MistyMountain.com and 3 single-event Triple Crown passes. Entering is free, and all you have to do is check out our contest page on Cruxn.com.

Finishing the Project

After you have completed steps 1 through 3 and created a sweet climbing website, you can just sit back and wait for the cash money to start rolling in. As everyone knows, climbing media is the fastest way to get rich quick. So if you follow this guide to the letter, perhaps you too can soon be living the dream, camping out of a 1994 Astro van parked down by the river and taking showers at your mom’s house.

Good luck!

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Time For Sendage?

Narc — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:05:32 +0000

Despite my occasional gentle ribbing of the site’s “eccentric” owner I’ve been a fan of 8a.nu since it started over 10 years ago. The ability to track my climbs and somewhat voyeuristically follow the sends of friends and strangers from around the world is something I’ve really enjoyed over the years. That said, I don’t think there is any debate that the design and functionality of 8a.nu is badly outdated.

Other websites like MountainProject, Rockclimbing.com and more recently 27Crags have implemented a sort of “log book” feature to allow users to track their climbs. However none have really caught on here in the U.S. when compared to the popularity of 8a.nu. As they like to frequently boast, 8a.nu has almost 35,000 members and nearly 1,700,000 registered ascents (not to mention the world record levels of traffic they enjoy). This all begs the question in my mind if it is even possible for a site to catch on in the log book space given the head start that 8a.nu enjoys.

One site that is hoping to test that question, or at least carve out a niche of their own, is Sendage. Sendage is sort of what you would imagine 8a.nu looking like if it had been designed any time this century for the Web 2.0 world. Using a slick, responsive interface, Sendage allows you to create “sendlists” to use for setting goals and lets you track all the resulting “sendage” as well. To help you get started you can even import your 8a.nu scorecard right into Sendage.

Here’s how site creator Jamie Chong describes his vision for Sendage on his blog:

The most significant use for sendage.com is to create a ticklist of climbs. Lists are great for everything. When you tick something off a list, there’s a sense of accomplishment. It’s satisfying. So why not make a list just so you can tick it off and be rewarded with good feelings. Think about how often you do this when you climb. A list is pretty much mandatory on a road trip. Whenever you travel to a climbing destination it’s likely you’re prepared with at least a handful of climbs that you want to try. The excitement and anticipation of a long awaited climbing vacation can easily be built up through a simple list of 5-star climbs that everybody says you should do.

When there’s sendage, there’s everything that happens afterward. There are friends who want to congratulate you; there are others who want to know your beta; there are people back home who want to know if you just sent your dream project; some want to know how good the climb is; and some just want to talk to you about the experience. Friends get friends psyched on climbing and most definitely after a send there’s a lot of psych going around. Spirits are high and everyone wants to share the good vibes. Let’s face it, even though climbing is a very individual and self centered sport, there is no doubt that climbing is also very much social. People thrive on others’ success. So when you send, you’ve not only accomplished something great, but you’ve provided motivation for someone else to do the same.

The site relies heavily on Facebook integration, using your Facebook account as your Sendage login and allowing you to share your sends and comments straight to Facebook if you so desire. The site is still in development so other features, like badges for certain achievements, are forthcoming.

Sendage is running a few promotions for free schwag from Arc’teryx and La Sportiva as a way of enticing new users to give it a try. Since you can import your 8a.nu scorecard right into Sendage why not give it a shot??

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New Daniel Woods Blogsite

Narc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:34:51 +0000

Via B3Bouldering comes news that Daniel Woods has started a new website with a blog, pictures, video, etc. Check it out here. New Daniel Woods Blogsite from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Daniel Woods Video Interview Daniel Woods Arkansas Update In His Own Words New V14 In Austria By [...]

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Paul Robinson’s New Website

Narc — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:11:37 +0000

Paul Robinson just launched a new website P-Rob.com. Check it out for more background on Paul’s life as a painter and a professional climber. Paul Robinson’s New Website from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Paul Robinson Shares His Favorite Bouldering Spots With Outside Blog Urban Climber Website Gets Redesigned…Sort [...]

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New Online Squamish Climbing Magazine Launched

Narc — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:31:09 +0000

This week a new online magazine was launched called Squamish Climbing Magazine. Featuring interviews with local British Columbia climbers, beta on bouldering circuits and other interesting content, the magazine should appeal to a fairly large audience despite the local focus. Best of all, it’s FREE.

Download Issue 1 Of Squamish Climbing Magazine

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New Black Diamond Website

Narc — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:23:00 +0000

Black Diamond has a redesigned website that includes a neat journal section featuring stories and reports from BD athletes. New Black Diamond Website from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Strong First Quarter For Black Diamond, Inc. Industry News: New Athletes Signed By Patagonia, Black Diamond Black Diamond Equipment & [...]

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New Northern Colorado Climbers Coalition Website

Narc — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:08:00 +0000

The Northern Colorado Climbers Coalition recently launched their new website. Check it out for access news and free topos to areas like Poudre Canyon. New Northern Colorado Climbers Coalition Website from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Help The Southeastern Climbers Coalition Win A $250,000 Grant The Southeastern Climbers Coalition [...]

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Dream In Vertical Rope Review

Narc — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:42:14 +0000

Dream In Vertical has an excellent post recapping the pros and cons of several ropes they have used. Dream In Vertical Rope Review from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Review: 70m Petzl Nomad 9.8mm Rope Maxim Rope Recall Video: How A Climbing Rope Is Made News & Notes – [...]

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A Couple Of New Blogs To Check Out: Jamie Chong & Sean McColl

Narc — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:10:52 +0000

Here are a couple of new blogs that piqued my interest that you might want to check out.

The first is not actually that new, but I just came across it through Sonnie Trotter’s site. It is the personal blog (RSS Feed) of Canadian Jamie Chong. Chong is currently in Hueco with his brand new Nikon D40 so high quality pictures abound. I also found his Beta page to be a very interesting and well done implementation of move by move picture beta for several problems in Squamish. Hopefully he will be able to expand this for other areas he has visited.

The second blog just got started, but it has the potential to be interesting for those that like to follow what is going on with top-end climber types. It is Sean McColl’s new blog (RSS Feed). McColl is famous for (among other things) flashing a 5.14b at the Red River Gorge and winning the Youth World Championships several years in a row.

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ClimbingVibe.com

Narc — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:50:00 +0000

As someone who spends a good chunk of his time perusing the internet for climbing news and information, I can attest to the fact that it is incredibly difficult to follow everything that is going on. It is hard enough keeping tabs on all the blogs I follow in my RSS reader, let alone the plethora of sites that don’t deliver updates directly to me. I often try to compile lists of interesting news that is going on and share it with you, but I always end up missing several good stories. I’ve always wished there was one centralized location to read climbing news from all over the internet.

In many other niches besides climbing, there have been social media sites like Digg, Stumble Upon or del.icio.us that helped to fill the void for those niches. These are sites where users can submit stories of interest, and other users can vote that story up or down depending on how much it interests them. This has the benefit of giving one centralized location for finding stories to read online on a certain topic, and it helps in promoting good content. A site called Peakr tried to fill this void for the climbing niche briefly, but ultimately never caught on.

When Tom from AllClimbing mentioned to me a while back that he was going to be launching a climbing social media type site of his own, I was pretty excited. After a brief beta testing period, ClimbingVibe.com went live last week. Here is a portion of the launch announcement from AllClimbing:

ClimbingVibe quickly lets you find the most relevant and interesting climbing content. When I started blogging on All Climbing, there were surprisingly few climbing blogs. Now there are hundreds and it’s tough to read them all (and believe me, I am trying). And that doesn’t include the various other climbing sites, portals, forums, and online magazines.

The main goals of ClimbingVibe are to make it easier for climbers to find quality posts and to promote the best climbing writing on the internet. I’ve been posting interesting climbing links and news in short “Quick Sends” posts, but there is simply too much good stuff to always get them in these. ClimbingVibe will hopefully fill this need.

Here is what the site looks like:

At ClimbingVibe, you can submit stories of your own as well as vote on other stories you like best. It remains to be seen if this idea will catch on in the online climbing world, but it is my hope that it does. I encourage everyone to check it out…and of course to submit stories from ClimbingNarc.com!

You can visit ClimbingVibe.com directly or add the RSS feed to your reader to have all the submitted stories delivered directly to you.

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