Looking back on the Style4men ride
Thinking back to 2016 and launching STYLE4MEN.ca, it was a big thing. Magazines were still around but on their last breath. Social Media was already big, but not the Megalodon it now is. And men’s grooming was really just emerging.
At the time I was mostly just looking for a web site project where I could learn WordPress and other similar tools, but the site had to be about something… All of sudden the light turned on! – Why not make it about hair pomade?! Which was a passion that had started a few years earlier. I was so impressed with pomade that I would preach about it to anyone who would listen, so it kind of made sense to launch a site as an outlet. At the time, there was next to nothing out there for men’s grooming so STYLE4MEN found a following. I remember being dumbfounded when looking at the site metrics and seeing that 500 people had visited in the month. This would eventually be over 5000 / month.
The site just kept growing until early 2018. At this point, the social media thing was just too big to ignore. I initially tried out Pinterest, but lost interest rather quickly. Then by April (2018) I looked into Instagram and it was like a whole new door opened up. I am not saying that it was instant success, but I was impressed with the platform, the simplicity of posting and to my great surprise, the folks that were following my site were there along with many others.
At first I tried to keep posting on the site and on Instagram only to realize that the formats and expectations were different. After about a year of trying to do both, I gradually stopped posting here at the same interval. If anything I added a tool for the site to be updated with my Instagram posts.
A lot of things changed for Style4men at this point. With many other bloggers covering similar things, I had to up my game, improve my photography, improve my videography, learn the mechanics of the platform, adapt my writing style to fit 2200 characters / post, to name but the obvious. I also faced with the relevancy of continuing.
Another thing that changed, was the amount of time it took to post as well as what could be posted. On the site, a proper review took me about an hour without counting the photography work. On Instagram, the posting took in-between 10-35 minutes. I could get more out at a faster rate.
Then reels became a thing and the game changed again. At this point most of what I post is in video format. Sadly, this can’t be posted here because of the overall size of video content.
In the search for the perfect outlet, format and audience, I hosted a presence on the following platforms: Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
TikTok started out as a proof of concept as a result of a Barber convincing me to give it a try. He had been very successful and everything suggested that things would be the same for Style4men. I did and it worked. Then the Software Tester in me started looking deeper into the permissions of the TikTok app on Android and it freaked me out. Then I learned that TikTok is a Chinese company with government involvement. I uninstalled and haven’t looked back.
YouTube was a more complicated process. I wanted to do video reviews which couldn’t be hosted on my site and Instagram wasn’t there yet. So off to YouTube I went. But this turned out to be a bigger learning curve than I expected. Although I grasped all of the concepts and technology, the legal boundaries especially with supporting music pretty much killed it for me because I wasn’t ready to do spoken reviews or put myself in front of the camera for that matter. I did have a few successful posts, but most of them weren’t getting any traction and I stopped.
This is until late 2023 when I revived my YouTube account to post some of my Record Player and vinyl record features.
As of late, I have found myself thinking more about actual content again as opposed to number of views/likes. I love the creative freedom and ease of delivering on Instagram, but at the same time, anything over 10 seconds is too much for most people to take in. The speed at which we go through stuff is literally insane. I count myself in that as well. My attention span has shrunk and I need to force myself to commit to read or watch something all the way.
And that brings me back to the site which I have been neglecting for the last few years. I resisted the urge to close it down multiple times, knowing full well that the only real value of Style4men is tied back directly to this page. I am but a user of Instagram and YouTube and my page or the platform could be turned off without notice. Where would STYLE4MEN be then?! The STYLE4MEN.CA domain is a proper destination and this is what has value both to me and to you who drop in to get a review on a razor, barbershop, pomade or fragrance.
More than just keeping it going, I am making a pledge to post here more frequently and also to give the place a bit of a facelift. The first page that I will be revisiting as part of this is the Discount code page. If there as ever been a time when a deal was needed this is it.
Thank you for reading this far and for sticking with me. It certainly has been a ride.
Stay slick!
