An interview with the Snackman

Quartersnacks.com has been the first site I check of the day for the past five years. The content is quite regular and never lacks in creativity. I've been skateboarding with the creator of Quartersnacks Kosta since I was fourteen years old. When Kosta first started Quartersnacks my friends and I used it as a way to have someone film our skating. We would go out every weekend and on breaks from school, filming skate clips that Kosta would cleverly edit to commercial rap and occasional soul songs. Kosta's way of approaching editing and distributing content was far different than anything else at the time. There were other NYC skate websites at the time that around anymore like Bigapplenyc.com and Flipmodenyc.com, but the way they edited their footage wasn't as stylized as a Quartersnacks clip. Fast forward five years and Kosta has done projects for esteemed clients like Nike and the Queens Museum of Art, and has advertising banners bringing in revenue. All of us who grew up skating with Kosta are very proud of how far he has come. Hopefully this interview can shed some light on what Quartersnacks is about. It has changed from a locally made organic skate website to a highly respected website in the skate world.

When did you start Quartersnacks and how long have you been doing it for?

September of 2005. Been doing it for a little over five years.

What made you start a skateboarding website?

Strictly to have a hobby, I never considered making any money or connections with people off of it when I started it.

Were there many other skateboard related websites at the time you started Quartersnacks?

Yes, but there weren't many New York or Northeast based ones. And the few that were more locally based around those areas were not updated regularly.

If you had to describe your website to someone who knew nothing about it and the culture of the it content revolves around how would you describe it to them?

It's a New York website that is bound together by a common interest/love for skateboarding. Not that it isn't a skateboard website, but the location plays a large role in the direction of the content. There are tons of inside jokes and weird little references that resonate a lot more to people around here than people on the outside looking in.

How has the website changed over the course of the years?

I used to update it whenever I was in the mood to do so, which sometimes wouldn't be for whole weeks at a time. Over the past year, I have began to actually work updates into a schedule. Having a reputation for updating regularly is the way you build your visitors, so I kind of figured if I kept my old routine of only updating 5 or 6 times a month, the amount of visitors would remain stagnant. I've also tried to make the content a bit broader to attract a wider range of visitors, not just people able to understand the content within a hundred mile radius.

How do you go about getting content for the site aside from the skate clips you make and articles you write?

Just general ideas floating around the internet, conversations with friends, etc. Skateboarding is so big now that there is always something going on. It's just a matter of navigating through everything and finding things you can actually write an insightful 300-500 words about.

How many hits do you average per day?

4000-5000.

Have you been approached to do any projects because of Quartersnacks? If so who where they for and what did they involve?

I did a project with Nike that basically involved skating around New York with their sponsored riders to spots that frequently appear in the videos on the website, and then writing daily wrap-up entries with photos and a video of the day to accompany them. That eventually turned into having a colorway of a Nike shoe inspired by the website. I did a project with the Queens Museum of Art that involved consulting a curator on major skate spots throughout New York so she could map them out on Robert Moses' 1964 World's Fair scale model of New York City for a special exhibit. Several smaller magazines have also approached me to do New York centric writing for certain articles as well. Plus, being able to make a website is a good skill in 2011, and a lot of friends have referred me to their friends to make a website since they are impressed with the work I have done with mine.

How do you approach advertising?

I mostly haven't had to do any of the approaching myself. When I first started running banner ads, I talked to a few friends with smaller companies and offered them free ad space since I liked what their companies were doing and knew they could use some help in spreading the word. Once larger companies saw that I had began running ads, they approached me themselves.

Where do you see the website in five years?

I have no clue. I haven't been working full-time or going to school for eight months, so I've had the time to work on the website. If I begin working 40 hours a week, it's going to be tough to keep the same sort of consistency I had, so I'll have to use my time as it pertains to the website more wisely. I also want to expand the content so it appeals to a wider range of people, without really letting it lose it's local feel, so that's the main thing I wish to accomplish in the next year or so.