So I was bored and looked at my site stats and how the numbers have been doing. Well the great thing about WordPress (The site that runs what you’re looking at now) is that they link you back to wherever people came from. So if you happen to be at Hustler.com and think about me or find a link on there that leads you over here, I will see it. Well when I was perusing the links, it linked me back to a thread on CB7Tuner.com about Honda Tuning magazine and how they once featured my Accord but haven’t done another one since. Then of course, disagreements ensue and people try to state their own ideas of why there aren’t enough Accords in Honda Tuning magazine. I have nothing better to do so of course I responded. I can offer a different perspective because, well, I work in the magazine industry. I use the term “work” loosely of course….

The following is what I posted…. (Note: My views in no way reflect those of Honda Tuning magazine, Source Interlink, or anything of the sort. This is purely my opinion and my rambling….)

When I got my feature, it was out of the blue and even I wondered why I was getting a feature because my Accord at the time was nowhere near completion. What they saw was an all-around build. I covered all facets I guess you can say. Engine, suspension, wheels, body, everything was basically covered. And in a tasteful way. When people on here and at meets have asked me how to get featured before, I’ve told them the same thing. You need something that’s complete. You have to cover every end of it. Are there cars on here that are nice? Definitely. I’ve been keeping an eye on this platform even after I sold my car. Are these cars worthy of a feature? Well, yes and no. Some guys have alot of work done in one area, but they don’t do anything else. You can have a big turbo set-up with an H22 swap that makes big power. That’s good. But what about the body? Alot of the times guys on here don’t have that kind of money or attention to detail. They can make big power but the paint is old or the body has imperfections. It’s a certainly a nice car yes, but it’s not gonna look good in print. If you opened up a magazine and saw a car that was not done, you would be unhappy about it too. It doesn’t matter what platform it is. You can have a car that has all the “JDM goodies” on the outside and it looks nice, but then you look at engine bay and the engine is stock and the bay isn’t even painted the same color or is filthy. That won’t get a feature either.

The fact of the matter is if you have a nice car, Accord or not, and it’s worthy of a feature, someone will see it. And word of mouth will spread until it gets to the right people. Either that or you show up to events and you get noticed on your own. The east coast/west coast factor is kinda BS. How do I know this? Because almost half of the features that I have written for Honda Tuning are based in the east coast or outside of California. You just happen to see more west coast cars because you’ve already seen them on the internet and you recognize them when you see them in print. Of course west coast cars are more accessible to us because yes, we are based out here. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feature east coast cars. At the end of the day, a great build is a great build. It will get noticed. I don’t know if any of you have noticed but the economy is shit right now. And it reflects on the magazine industry also. In the past couple months, 3 major magazines have hit the can. And it’s not like we make that much anyways. It’s a real risk for us to go all over the country looking for cars that might not pan out, while in California, there are plenty (PLENTY) of cars that are feature worthy.

The bottom line is that if you build your car right and it’s an all around great build, it will get noticed. It’s unfortunate that the Accord/Prelude scene is a niche market. There just aren’t that many people that follow them that closely. Think of it this way. Look at Playboy magazine. They put girls in that mag that are all-around hot. Like they look good and have all facets covered, nice face, great rack, nice booty, etc. Everyone likes an all-around hot chick. You, you like asses and don’t care for the rest so you complain that the magazine doesn’t have enough girls that just have nice asses. Guess what? Not everyone is just looking at just asses. The majority like chicks that are pretty much all around hot. Just asses and nothing else is a niche market. It just wouldn’t sell as many magazines if Playboy was just asses. For every 1 guy that likes just asses, there are a ton of people who buy the magazine and want to look at hot chicks. No one is saying that just asses isn’t hot, but all around hot is what everyone wants to see. Sure you can start a magazine of just asses (SSX Magazine =P) but it wouldn’t make anywhere near as much money as Playboy. Why look at a magazine with just asses when you can look at a magazine with great face, nice rack, AND a nice ass…..get it?

Ya dig?…..