Reviews, news, and how-to's about smoking pipe tobacco

Update October 1

Great response to the survey! Based on the results so far I am determined to go ahead and redesign the site redesigned the site. More on this later. I've also heard the feedback about keeping the content fresh and the ideas for content in the future. This feedback is greatly appreciated.

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Now that I have some breathing room in my life again I intend to use some of that room to breath some new life into the site. There will either be more of the same, some new directions, or all of the above. Stay tuned.

Also: I happened to take a look at the site the other day from a web browser with a fairly common type of plugin and noticed that breaks the layout of the site.

Who knows what else is going haywire that I don’t know about. This has led me to think about redesigning the site as part of my effort to breath some new life into Smoking Pipe Tobacco. I have began working on a possible redesign that would look something like this - much simpler, much less cluttered, hopefully easier to navigate.

SPT maybe getting a new look

Please take the survey and let me know if there is anything else you think I should consider in my ongoing effort to improve the site. I am closing the survey. Use the regular contact form to report any problems you find.

I sent the following to SPT subscribers:

Greetings everyone and I hope you are having a pleasant week. I have a few things to report about SmokingPipeTobacco.com.

First I want to apologize to the Daily subscribers to this email update who received at least three emails yesterday from me at about the same time. All but one of them were old. They had been jammed up in the works somehow and when I noticed another problem and fixed it that cut those old emails loose and they ended up in your inbox.

It is not my intention to clutter anyone’s email inbox. Junk mail is something I despise and would not inflict it on anyone.

That said I also have apologies to make on the other side of the spectrum. For almost the last year fresh content has been rather dry. My videos, the Tamp and Puff Forums, and SmokingPipeTobacco.com are large endeavors. About a year ago I took a rather intensive but thankfully temporary management job. The job was a blast, I loved it, but it took away from this. For the lack of new content at SPT I apologize.

Many of you have signed up since then and wondered why you never get anything. Others are receiving this note and don’t remember signing up in the first place.

My plan is to get things moving along regularly and with some improvements as well.

That brings me to another topic. I have created a survey. Please take a few minutes to complete it. There are only a few easy questions. I feel it is time to make some design improvements (and possibly repairs?) to SPT and want to ensure that my readers agree with me and more importantly find out what I can do to make SPT better for you.

You will find the survey at:

http://smokingpipetobacco.com/take-the-survey/

As always, this email update I send out is a two way street. I use my real email address not a “no-reply” system. You can simply reply to this email and tell me what is on your mind if you don’t want to fill out the survey.

I want to thank you again for subscribing and helping out make SPT better. Looking forward to hearing from you.

One of the questions I receive most lately, whether it is from viewers of my YouTube videos or this site is

"Where is a good place to buy pipes and pipe tobacco?"

I have to hesitate when I answer this. I have done business with quite a few online tobacconists, and I treasure all of them. I believe they are every bit as important to support as the B&Ms. When I recommend one, I omit others. If I recommend three or five, I still omit others I've had great service from and that bothers me.

So that's the first reason - I can't name them all.

Another reason is the variety of what they offer and the much greater variety of what you are looking for. Are low prices your priority? Selection? Finding those rare blends? Looking for a pipe?

What I have done lately is tell people where I placed my last order. I tell them why I choose to do business there.

One quick tip for choosing any online retailer: Before doing business with them contact them. Ask a question. Make sure you can contact a human being who speaks your language in a timely manner. Ensure they know something about what they sell.

For the comment section:

Name some retailers you've ordered from and been happy with.

I have some videos up on YouTube that are especially popular. Between the 40,000 or more views, a good chunk of those are the Pipe Smoking 101 Series.

To make them easier to find and link to I arranged each video on a separate page. See the navigation section above.

The videos cover a pretty wide range of topics - how to fill your pipe, how to light it, how to take care of a pipe, pipe tobacco choices for a new pipe smoker, and what you need to get started. They are great for someone new to pipe smoking and hopefully some of the seasoned pipe smokers will enjoy them and pass them on too.

If you have watched them, let me know what you think - also include any ideas for other videos in the comments below.

There are now two ways to subscribe to the email updates. You only need to subscribe to one, there is no need to subscribe to both.

Weekly

These are the same as they have been. If you've been subscribed and receiving my summary (about) every week, and that's exactly how you like it, you don't need to change a thing.

These go out once a week (or when I get time to put them together) and usually include some extra stuff that I do not post anywhere else. Think of it as a "newsletter."

Daily

These aren't necessarily sent every day and they may be sent more than once a day. They are sent any time I post something new to this site which is, on average, a few times a week. The thing is, you'll know exactly when something is posted.

In addition, daily subscribers will also receive the same email each week the weekly subscribers do. You won't miss a thing by subscribing to the daily updates.

Important!

If you want to switch from the weekly to the daily, just sign up for the Daily and you will automatically be unsubscribed from the weekly. This will prevent you from seeing duplicate emails in your box. Don't worry, all the content on the weekly is also sent to the daily list.