The (sustainable) future of SlopeFillers is here.
Gregg Blanchard /
I love SlopeFillers.
I’ve started a lot of projects in my day, but this is the one I’m most proud of.
Over 2,100 posts across nearly 16 years. I can count on one hand the number of weeks I’ve missed posting something new. The result has been millions of pageviews and dozens of countless friendships and incredibly humbling opportunities.
The original plan was to get a marketing job at a resort. Instead, I ended up staying on the software side helping Ryan Solutions and Inntopia market their platforms. This was actually great for SlopeFillers and only strengthened the need to stay on top of trends and study the market, but as the site grew it also widened the divide between who I was – a software marketer – and who readers of this site thought of me as – a resort marketer.
Across all those years as more and more people were thinking of me as a ski resort marketing guy, I was spending 95% of my time as a software marketing guy. It’s what I was studying and practicing, day in and day out. I even built and grew my own software platform on the side. I was getting really good at it, much better than I am a resort marketing.
The problem?
Nobody had any idea.
In marketing terms, I had a branding problem. A problem that I could see biting me in the ol’ rear end down the road if I needed a new job.
Days from Death
I’ve been staring at these two, seemingly opposing ideas for a while, weighing what to do.
During the super busy months after the Outside / Inntopia acquisition, I was literally days away from pulling the plug on SlopeFillers on at least three occasions to make time to better hone my software skills. But even then I had so many people tell me they want SlopeFillers to keep going and, honestly, I did too. I still love and appreciate it as much as ever, but I also felt the need to put more time on this other part of my career.
I went around and around like that for much of 2025.
The, about six months ago, I started to see a way forward. A plan that would allow me to do both, not as separate, siloed ideas, but as part of the same whole, and pave a path for SlopeFillers to continue sustainably.
A Sustainable Future
Here’s the rough idea.
1. Return to the Roots
SlopeFillers started as a blog, but over the years I’ve added value by building other tools and resources. Those are fun, but take a ton of time. Step 1 is returning to my roots and focusing on the content. You’ll see that focus reflected in a simpler nav, better categories, etc. And speaking of content…
2. One Post / Week
Compared to the early days of SlopeFillers, one post feels “less than.” But it’s a better pace for both the busy resort marketers who read my articles and the guy who writes them. So, I’m embracing it. SlopeFillers is now “officially” a weekly dose of resort marketing inspiration.
3. Share Resources
You may notice the same design on my personal website where I’m taking the first steps to elevate my software side. Using the same template across my projects means as I put more time on software-adjactent stuff, my work there will make it back here to keep SlopeFillers up-to-date.
4. Different Parts of One Thing
This one is still a work in progress, but I’m hoping to better weave all of my projects into one story instead of them feeling separate and siloed. The new footer at the bottom of the page is a good example of how I’m trying to tie everything together as different parts of my one story.
5. Embrace It
More than anything, I just want to better embrace who I am. I love resort marketing, I know a boatload about resort marketing, I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words about resort marketing, but I’m not a resort marketer. That’s you. I’m a software marketer and I’ve been one for a long time, but that doesn’t change my commitment to sharing all the amazing work you resort marketers do.
Onward (and Thank You)
I hate pulling time away from resort marketing ideas and inspiration, but I felt like this was a good moment to provide a quick update as I roll out these changes.
I’m more excited about SlopeFillers than I’ve been in a while, I feel more clarity about my career and personal brand than I’ve felt in a decade, and I’m excited to better align these two parts of who I am in a way that is more sustainable and aligned to the direction I want and need to go.
Thanks to all of you who have stuck around for so many years. It means more than I can say.
Here’s to many more.
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P.S. – One indisputable fact that SlopeFillers has taught me is this:
You can get really good at something by consistently studying it and writing about it.
So, I’m doing the same for software marketing with a category on my personal site called Smaller SaaS. Interestingly, a few of the posts I have drafted pull lessons from resort marketing. Turns out, good marketing ideas are pretty flexible. If SaaS marketing is at all intriguing to you, feel free to follow along there as well.