This post may contain affiliate links, which help to keep Discerning Cyclist rolling. Learn more.
I believe that cycling can transform people and places.
That’s why, since 2012, I’ve been running Discerning Cyclist with the aim of helping existing cyclists ride in style and encouraging more people to get back in the saddle.
We do this by creating content.
We try to help you find a great bike and nice gear to ride in, provide useful tips and share inspiring stories.
The Discerning Cyclist team is small: myself (Pete 👋), Herman (our content manager) and a team of freelance writers, editors and assistants who are passionate about pedalling.
In order to devote ourselves to this project and keep growing it, we need to make some money (don’t we all).
Traditionally, we’ve done this through 3 means:
- display advertising (i.e. the advertising banners you see on the site);
- affiliate commissions (i.e. we sometimes get a small commission if someone buys products we recommend);
- partnerships with brands
The first one (display advertising) is our biggest source of income. It pays the bills.
But I HATE it.
It doesn’t improve your experience on the site. In fact, it ruins it. The content is disrupted, there’s an annoying pop-up you have to click. Urgh.
Unfortunately, I can’t just switch off the ads (as I’ll go bust within a month).
So… I’ve been putting my thinking cap on: How can we better monetize the site so that the user experience isn’t tarnished by messy ads but we can afford to keep going funding our mission?
I debated created a paid membership with additional content, finding website sponsors, but then I realised the answer was looking at me all along.
What if we could turn our lovely illustrations into how we fund Discerning Cyclist?
By selling illustrations as lovely printed artwork, as well as some other beautiful bike-related merch, we could continue to pedal our cycling celebration and make our site look even more beautiful in the process.
Just like this…
What’s more, YOU can also BECOME THE ART!
Wait… what?
So as well as selling prints of our most popular designs, we can even create a custom illustration of you with your bicycle.
Send us your favourite photo with your bike and our in-house illustrator will transform it into a beautiful illustration which will be sent to you within 7 days as a digital file, making it perfect to use as a profile picture online. Plus, we can also help you get it turned into a beautiful poster or print too, if you like.
Limited Edition Collection
AND… merch! Each month we’ll be dropping a limited collection of merch.
Our first collection is the Feel Good Cycling range, which features one of most popular designs transformed into a mug, thermal flask, phone case, tote bag, print and t-shirt.
The Feel Good Cycling range will ONLY be available in March 2024, though. It won’t be available to buy again.
Support Discerning Cyclist
We want to help more everyday people cycle in style every day. So if you want to help us on our mission (and help us get rid of ads on Discerning Cyclist), please visit the Discenring Cyclist shop and see if there is a piece of cycling merch that you’d love in your life.
