Publisher Spotlight: Trek Life
As a small business in Boulder, we enjoy supporting others in the same space. Trek Light Gear is just one such company. It’s a wonderful hammock operation started by outdoor enthusiast Seth Haber. Now, just a few short years after he launched Trek Light Gear, Seth can boast of global sales and a very popular kiosk on the Pearl Street Mall.
As a small business in Boulder, we also appreciate the work-life balance that Trek Light Gear espouses. Trek Light Gear sells not just hammocks, but also loudly evangelizes the hammock lifestyle and the frequent use of said hammocks. (I’ll give you a minute to envision yourself laying in a hammock somewhere beautiful and relaxing.)
Now that you’re feeling groovy, read on to see what Seth has to say about Trek Light Gear’s company blog, Trek Life, and where he likes to hang his hammock.
How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
I started the Trek Life blog back in 2006. Even though blogging had been on my radar and I recognized it as a good idea for the business, I really just needed the inspiration to get it off the ground. Right around that time, I had a good friend named Bret who pitched the idea of taking a ‘Trek Light Road Trip’ around the US. The idea was to put the Trek Light name and logo on a big, blue van and drive it around to various campsites and National Parks, spreading the word about Trek Light while also doing some festivals and expos along the way to make some sales and fund the trip. Bret even managed to build a hammock stand that came directly off the top of the van so he could literally stop anywhere and have a hammock booth with inventory to sell! So right then and there I knew it was time to get a blog going so I could share the story and the pictures with our fans. Unfortunately, the van didn’t hold up as well as we had hoped so the trip wasn’t as long or as vast as we intended, but we got some great blog material and that got the ball rolling. On a side note, if anyone has the makings of a Trek Light mobile and ever wants to recreate the Trek Light Road Trip and pick up where Bret left off, let me know!
How does blogging fit in with your business plan and marketing strategy?
Without sound too cliched, I’ve always believed that Trek Light Gear is as much about lifestyle as it is about the products. When I hand you a hammock, I know that it’s going to have a positive impact on your life. Maybe it makes you spend more time outside, it may reduce your stress and help you to relax, or maybe it gives you the chance to spend more quality time with your friends or family.
Our Eco Totes also have a strong lifestyle attached to them. When you buy a reusable bag you’re saying, “I choose to do something that I know is better for the planet.” I never try to attract just one type of person to Trek Light Gear, because while our products may be great for an ultralight backpacker, a rock climber or even a hunter, they also appeal just as much to someone living in Manhattan who wants to live a greener lifestyle or just hang a hammock on their balcony.
The two biggest media exposures we’ve had so far have been Martha Stewart’s Body + Soul magazine and Penthouse, so that just goes to show how broad of an audience we’re appealing to with just a few products. Blogging is such a great extension of all of that because it gives me a chance to talk about anything and everything that might appeal to that broad audience and bring them all together. I certainly wish I blogged more and I wish people got engaged and commented more, but the community is growing and I know the Trek Life blog will continue to be an important part of my connection with everyone out there who lives the Trek Light lifestyle.
Where is your favorite place to hang a hammock? And why?
That’s a tough question so I’m going to have to give two answers. First, there’s an amazing feeling that comes when you setup a hammock in places that you’d never have expected to before owning a hammock that you can take anywhere with you. Whether it’s hanging between two cars and tailgating at a sporting event or music festival or sitting next to a waterfall on the side of a mountain, you get this feeling of bliss that’s hard to beat. You just know that you’re doing a good job at life when you’re chilling in a hammock somewhere you never would have expected. I’ve had plenty of people tell me that once they owned the hammock it was like seeing the world through a different set of eyes, everywhere they looked they’d find two points and know where they could hang a hammock!
All that being said, my other favorite place to hang a hammock is right at home. I’ve got a hammock setup on my balcony right now and it’s truly hard to beat that spot. I work from home so I can literally just walk out there anytime and grab five minutes in the hammock and I’ll come back in feeling like a million bucks. I waited until now to tell you, but I’m answering every one of these questions while laying in my hammock. WiFi and hammocks are a match made in heaven.
How has Lijit helped you to become a better blogger?
When I describe Lijit to people, I usually begin by saying that Lijit is awesome because it’s something that’s equally beneficial to me and to my readers at the same time. It’s a search tool that gives my audience access to the information they’re looking for but it’s also an analytics powerhouse that helps me be a better blogger. On my end, I’m able to quickly see what’s bringing people to my blog and then on top of that, what they’re searching for when they get there.
I wrote a post about cat hammocks over the summer and all of a sudden, I discovered that lots of people were coming to my blog because of the cat hammocks post. I never expected that and while I don’t plan on ever doing a blog series on cat hammocks, it was a clear indicator that writing very specific content can be a big traffic draw. While many of those visitors read just that one post and left, I had several people that explored my entire site and were clearly intrigued by what they saw.
But as I said, Lijit isn’t just about me, and that’s where the search feature comes in. The ability for my readers to search within my network’s content is huge. Well beyond my blog or my website, people are able to discover our content on Flickr, YouTube, etc. and getting people to discover your content is clearly why we blog and post content online. Lijit rocks and I know that the more I blog and the more I expand my online network, the more valuable of a tool it’s going to become.
Seth, we think you rock too and encourage everyone to give Trek Light Gear a look. The holidays are right around the corner, and if even just for yourself, hammocks are guaranteed to make killer gifts. You can read more about the hammock lifestyle on the Trek Life blog (if interested, you can see a guest post written by a certain someone, ahem), follow them on Twitter and be sure to make time in your busy end-of-year schedule for some crucial hammock time.
