GearTrends.com launches redesign, welcomes new editor

GearTrends.com has recently undergone a major facelift with numerous new features and trade resources to make the site easier-to-use and more valuable than ever. If you haven’t visited, take a look at what you’ve been missing — www.geartrends.com.

Thanks to your requests (or should we call it, harassing), SNEWS® subscribers can now just click-and-go to GearTrends.com — no more additional log-ins required, as long as you are beginning your surfing from SNEWS. That means once you’ve logged into SNEWS®, you will have one-click access to view all the trade resources at GearTrends.com the rest of that day and until you log off again — and you won’t have to remember another stinkin’ password. (That assumes your computer is cookie-enabled, and that doesn’t mean chocolate chip crumbs on the keyboard.)

>> Want to download articles or entire back-issues from our GearTrends® magazines? Click on “The Magazines” link and take your pick. We’ve even added links from within each advertisement in the pages of our magazines that will take you to the home page of any advertiser you wish to learn more about.

>> Wondering what new products companies will be debuting at upcoming tradeshows? Head to the “2005 New Product Information” link accessed from either the “Trade Only” or “Information Center” sections. We’re loading up new product information daily from our more than 100 GearTrends® member companies, so the section will become the most comprehensive presentation of 2005 new product information in one place — perfect for media researching stories or buyers wondering what’s new.

>> Head to the “Resource Center” if you are searching for a photographer, lawyer, PR firm, marketing agency, business software company, or more. Want to see your business listed here too? No problem. Listing your company in here is free as long as you are a registered GearTrends® member — sorry, but we do require a separate registration even for SNEWS subscribers if you actually want to post information on GearTrends. But heck, registration is easy, and once we approve you — and yes, we do check and qualify all industry applicants to screen out the riff-raff — you are free to list your service in the “Resource Directory” for any industry member to see, and perhaps contact you about.

>> Are you a retailer looking to make sure consumers know you exist? We have a similar directory benefit for retailers in the “Store Directory.” GearTrends.com enjoys an average of 18,000 unique visitors each month — two-thirds of them consumers — and many of them are seeking product information and places to purchase that product — which would account for the well over 100,000 page views our site registers monthly too. We personally answer emails — and sometimes phone calls — from consumers who are seeking information and, yes, we do mean by a real human being. Many of them go on to utilize our Store Directory. If you aren’t in there, you should be. It’s free. Just go to www.geartrends.com/cgi-bin/geartrends/member_registration_retail.html.

We’ll be adding additional features, including valuable links to small business resources online, links to non-profit and affiliated partner sites we believe might be useful, and a lot more over the next few months. If there’s anything you’d like to see, let us know and we’ll consider it too.

New assistant editor Keri Modrall
And as if the GearTrends® redesign news doesn’t make us giddy enough, the SNEWS® and GearTrends® team is thrilled to announce we have added yet another talent to our already loaded roster. Keri Modrall spent much of her free time as a child playing around on the trails in the Sierra Nevada Mountains … and writing. She escaped her small-town hometown to the big city for college and graduated from San Francisco State with a degree in journalism. But she still realized the beauty of the mountains and came home as many weekends as she could to hike near or kayak on the American River – wow, she was already speaking the GearTrends® language of enjoying the outdoors and staying fit too. She spent her first year out of college working for the AAA travel publication VIA magazine as a writer and assistant to the editor-in-chief, but her adventurous soul (and love of the French language) prompted her to take a year in France to teach English to elementary school French kids. Ask her about it. Kids. France. Attitude. Get the picture? Mon dieu! She’s back in her mountain hometown now, still running around on trails, still writing, speaking French when anyone will listen, and now working with us as an assistant editor. Modrall can be reached by email at keri@geartrends.com. In August, she’ll be at both the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market and the Health & Fitness Business Expo. Say “bienvenue!”