You may remember back in August of 2024 when I surveyed site readers hinting at some potential big changes I was contemplating. You might have also noticed I didn't report the findings and there have been no changes.
So let's start with that survey. Many thousands of votes—I closed the survey fairly quickly when it produced more than enough data to contemplate—said that 60% of you wanted me to keep the sites/books/workshops as is, while a quarter of you would opt for a US$5/month subscription. That was pretty much verification of what I had already concluded. Moreover, I had already planned changes that would likely keep most of that 85% happy (and no, it wasn't a subscription per se I was planning). Indeed, during August and September I was mostly working on the New byThom I had hoped to announce today. I'm not going to make that announcement, though.
What I had started to put together was a huge expansion of my work and offerings, and that requires investment, time, extensive travel, expanded office/studio, better real-time broadcasting abilities, and hiring some help to make it all work right. You might have gotten a hint at what some of that might entail if you were in LA on Black Friday, but what you saw there was the tip of the New byThom projected iceberg.
The US Presidential election results, and the chaos that has ensued as our new President announced the contestants for Celebrity Cabinet Season 2—who'll eventually all resign or be fired; you know the format of this show—put me off making that investment and any of the planned changes. I won't go into detail about why that is, as it involves both a political and economic discussion that is far outside my sites' coverage. I'd like to stick to teaching and explaining what's happening in photography, thank you. However, I will say that I'm not alone in my hesitation of business expansion in the current highly unpredictable market. Populists don’t have a track record of creating a reliable and predictable business environment.
So instead of greatly expanding my offerings, I'm going to take my foot off the gas pedal and coast. I'll spend less time on byThom and use that time to do some other things I've put off.
Curiously, back in September I received another offer to buy my Web sites, well into the six figures. If it were about money, I would have taken the Path of the Greenback a long time ago. Over the years I've done almost nothing to increase the return from my work; no marketing, no concerted SEO (search engine optimization), no promotions, no sales, a reduction in affiliate links, no piling on of ads, no nothing. I must say I was tempted to sell, as it would solve a problem my eventual executor will have.
The most interesting thing about my August 2024 survey was the enormous number of emails I received related to it, most quite lengthy and detailed. Thank you to those who took the time to explain your thoughts or make suggestions. I didn't have the capacity to respond to all your responses, but I did read every one very carefully and pondered what it meant in the grand scheme of things.
So where are we, and where are we going?
I am making some changes to my sites starting today. Let's start with the easier ones:
- dslrbodies.com is effectively beginning discontinuation. Because it's likely that we'll not see any new DSLRs in the future and I never fully built out the Canon side, I've simplified the existing site into a remembrance of all things Nikon DSLR. Other than the Canon bits, nothing has been removed, it's just been organized into a simpler structure that's easier to navigate. The real issue is that it's not likely to get much added in the future (though there are new posts there today ;~).
- sansmirror.com is in torpor. Even with the decrease in the number of new cameras being introduced each year, there's simply no way I can do justice to reviewing the entire mirrorless camera and lens field on my own. I will continue to cover major news drops, update the databases, plus a bit more, but given my change in plans don't expect sansmirror to be a constantly updating site that goes deep on new reviews. As with dslrbodies, I'll be simplifying the sansmirror site structure and do some minor reorganization. I have some more to do in that respect, though.
The more complicated bits have to do with my most visited and updated sites:
- zsystemuser.com will eventually be redesigned. Originally I was going to hire help on this, but I've decided instead to tackle the job myself, which will take some time, and take me away from other things I had planned. In the meantime, it's business as usual on that site. It's where I'll likely devote most of my effort in the near future. I actually had much more planned for this site than you currently see. As long as I'm going solo and not putting more investment in, zsystemuser will simply grow slower and more organically.
- bythom.com is in flux. Nothing is really happening here for the time being. I've done a bit of simplification/reorganization, but only a bit. This site will sort of go on as it has for the time being, though with much of my personal time being directed elsewhere the frequency of news/views posts will likely go down. Most of the substantial additions I was planning would have appeared on this site (and an adjacent extension, wink, wink), but now are in limbo. We do have a new logo, though ;~).
- Books are getting some attention. I had hoped to have a consolidated book site done with completely new payment and download capabilities, but this is taking longer than I had anticipated, as I'm now doing the work myself. Suffice it to say, I want to make the book-buying/downloading/reading experience even better than it has been, and there's a bunch of small things that need to be done to make that possible. As part of this, I may bring a few older books back into availability, so stand by.
So for the 60% of you who indicated that you wanted no changes, you sort of got what you wanted, though with simplification and lower frequency. But as you adjust to the above changes, I'll bet that near status quo is not actually what you wanted. The demand for me to do more is constant, but instead it will now appear I'm doing less. It is what it is. Until I'm convinced that I can do what I originally intended to do without being disrupted by other factors, the above is what you'll get.
