I'm excited. Pico's Cycling was born on a bit of a whim with the December 2013 issue and ran until July 2015. Even though we haven't been publishing new material in quite a long time, we still get regular views online. We're averaging better than two hundred per month. I learned a great deal creating and publishing this webzine and have learned a lot more since. It's high time it's given another go.
The vision that we started with was to promote long-distance touring and family cycling. Along the way our view that cycling is good for nearly everyone and should be for everyone shone through as well. I don't see any reason to change that.
Our next issue will be published when we have five appropriate articles ready. If I have to write them all, that could take awhile. I have a little bit of material to work with right away and through my own cycling will come up with more as the year progresses. We will continue to publish new issues when we are able to have them ready. How often that will be? I don't know.
As of now, I'm on the lookout for material for articles and for writers willing to submit articles. I will be spending some time haunting cycling forums to find interesting people to interview and cycling sites to review. If you are reading this and you have something that you think might interest me in that regard, by all means, contact me through picoscycling@gmail.com . This email is for article leads only. If I get email there trying to sell me anything, I won't look at before deleting it.
For riders cycling across Canada, I'm in a terrific location for live interviews. To complete your transcontinental tour you will likely pass through either Sackville, New Brunswick or Shemogue, New Brunswick. I live roughly half way between those two points. They are both within cycling range for me. Better yet, I do have a car. Setting up a meeting shouldn't be difficult.
Back in 2013, we started with no budget. We did work with some affiliate advertisers but have never reached payout with any of them at this point. To date we have not seen any income. That could change though. We are adding a Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_YFZ5fIzBs_lSQPsUKaYA . We have also added a Paypal donate button on our website. You could make a direct donation there. We are considering opening a Patreon account. There are quite a number of websites online that rely on donations for support and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't do the same.
Why do we need an income anyway? I'm glad you asked. If we started bringing in an income of just fifty dollars per month, we could offer article writers ten dollars per article. That isn't a great rate but it is more than we can offer at the current time. An income could also allow us to purchase better equipment for producing the webzine. I'd love to be able to provide the needed cash myself but I don't have it. For me, producing Pico's Cycling – Tales of the Road was never about making money and any money made would go first and foremost to improving the quality of this webzine. Being compensated for the time I put into this would be nice but I'm content to work with what I have.
What do I see for the future? I can see this getting back to the point where we are able to publish a new issue every month for a growing readership. I also think that we can produce an interesting Youtube channel to run alongside the magazine. If time and resources permit, we are hoping to make a weekly cycling news segment as well. I think the future is bright.
Take this as an invitation to join us. Take the time to browse the material already on the site here. Please like and subscribe to our new Youtube channel and tell us what you think. Follow our website via email or just put us in your favourites. We look forward to providing all our readers with quality content. In the meantime, keep on pedalling!
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