I’ve become inspired to try out a new Pay-Per-Click strategy. And I’m posting my notes and thoughts right here on our blog for all of you to read or more likely ignore right after thinking something like “there goes Josh rambling on again”. Actually, I’m posting them here because I was going to write these thoughts as notes to myself anyway and being that we’re in the share-all-age of the social web, I figured I might as well post them where I might get some feedback. That and I’m less likely to loose my notes as well as write them more clearly if they are published.

Melanie Lipton Testing an Urbana Current E-Bike in Slippers - This Photo Has Nothing to do with PPC Marketing

I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the last five years jumping in and out of focus on various Pay-Per-Click strategies. I like to classify this relatively new method of marketing as outreach. PPC is a strong way to reach out and bring people into a business. But at the end of the day, from the direction of making the Bike Shop Hub into the leading online bicycle accessory experts, I’ve always felt that content is king. I’ve aspired to create the very best quality content organizing it well and presenting it with great layouts and photography. That’s what I believe in for the continued growth and success of this business and what I hope our websites demonstrates now and continues to improve upon moving forward.

Bike Shop Hub is up three blocks and to the right from this spot on South San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff. Notice Mount Elden on the upper right which is still topless from a burn that set it ablaze about 25 years ago.

Last weekend my wife and I took a road trip up to Bryce Canyon. On our second day there, we took an excursion up route 12 to Boulder, Utah.

Our drive took us through some amazing country as we passed the Escalante National Monument. We took a detour onto Hell’s Backbone Road, a road built in the 1930′s by the CCC as access to the remote town of Boulder, Utah. It was an amazing drive that first took us to Posey Lake, a high country lake that literally felt like we were in the middle of a nature movie with trout jumping all over the lake and a large variety of ducks performing mating ritual. The road meandered up and up until we came out to some spectacular views of deep canyon gorges. While the road is easily passable by passenger car in good weather, it is not for the faint of heart with nearly sheer drops and no guard rail. At one point, the road crosses a bridge, aptly named Hell’s Backbone Bridge where you are literally staring out in both directions at amazing canyon views. The bridge is propped up across two rock outcroppings and seems like it is at the crux of the backbone.

Employee Parking at Hell's Backbone Grill

The road winds down and rejoins Route 12 in Boulder Utah. We drove into town for our dinner at Hell’s Backbone Grill. I would say this is truly one of the best restaurants in the Southwest with traditional and southwest dishes made from locally produced foods. It was good to see that most of the staff commutes by bike, as evidenced by the full bike rack out front.

On the drive back to Bryce, we stayed on Route 12. This road has almost equally impressive views and also offers up the backbone experience of riding on the high point of a ridge with tremendous views in either direction. This is all around amazing country and would be incredible for bike touring. Being as remote as it is, the roads are smooth and the traffic is light, perfect for a bike touring adventure.

Last weekend Flagstaff had its 2nd annual Hullabalo. Bike Shop Hub made our 2nd appearance, this year bringing out the big guns and offering Free Bike Shop Hub T-Shirts for signing up for our newsletter. While last year we dragged a ton of gear out to show off what we are all about. This year, we simplified thing a bit, focusing on the T-Shirts and just bringing a small sampling of stuff from each of our 3 specialty shops.

We also brought out a couple of models from our electric bike lineup, the Hebb Electroglide 500 (retails for $2199) and a A2B Velociti (also for $2199). These were a big hit and we got to spend quite a bit of time answering questions like does pedaling it charge the battery? (In most cases it doesn’t and if it does this is effectively slowing the bike down, something you generally don’t want to do).

Our Programmer Frank Showing off his "Digging" Muscles

Lining up for the Free T-Shirt

We’ve had a windy and wet Bike-To-Work week here in Flagstaff. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the warm weather comes back as predicted this weekend for our showroom Grand Opening.

The Showroom Grand Opening starts at Noon at our Downtown location at 120 E. Phoenix Ave.

We’re featuring our lineup of Electric Bikes by A2B, Hebb, Ohm, Kalkhoff and Urbana. Our showroom displaying all the good stuff at BikeTrailerShop.com, BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com is all setup. We’ll have Fratelli’s Pizza, the obligatory Grand Opening sheet cake, music, free t-shirts to the first 50 arrivals, good music and good times.

So come on out at noon on Saturday!

Stu and Josh with the Bike Shop Hub Logo (to be installed with the full sign tomorrow)