Getting Noodlist back on track.
I started Noodlist in January to try my hand at affiliate marketing. I am not good at affiliate marketing. But I did have fun making the little cooking videos of each of the ramen that I posted on youtube. The whole aspect of the video is that it shows you how to prepare the noodles based exactly on the instructions on the cup/packet. But I also don't do this in the house, I do it outside.
Well, then summer happened and it got way too hot to be cooking jack shit outside at all. It dipped under 100 degrees before I was able to cook that steak the other day and it was in the evening. Still, too hot to use my other stuff. The Trangia is aluminum. Aluminum conducts heat in the most rapid and efficient way possible. Even if I can manage to stand next to the table while the water boils and the gas burner is on, my phone can not. The videos take ten to fifteen minutes per noodle but in that time, while filming, my phone will overheat and shut off.
Can't do videos if the phone overheats. Can't do videos if all my stuff is too hot to touch. Can't do videos in 105F in the shade. Womp womp.
But! It is now under 100 degrees during the mornings which means I can now start making these again. The kids are in school which gives me more time as well.
Nobody actually uses the review site. I've tried to get friends to use it, I've tried to get strangers to use it. Nobody cares about that, they just like watching the two minute videos. I won't be scrapping that aspect of the site for now but I am going to focus on the reach the videos give for now instead of trying to funnel traffic to the site.
Also, Yuki needs a redesign. My little mascot I made uses my old sports logo style (done in Adobe Illustrator) I learned when working in the athletic print shop. I could print/embroider that little guy on anything. But, it's not really a great aesthetic for food. He looks like a sports mascot and not a Japanese noodle soup mascot. Needs more Hello Kitty and less 8u Travel Ball. I might do some sketches later in various styles to see what direction to take with him, it's early enough to update him without issue.
But the cooking outside part is what I like. I don't talk in the videos so they don't need subtitles or translations or anything. I do have a new mic coming in to connect to my phone to get better sound. I love LOVE the ambient sound I get while the soup is cooking. Because I'm in the back yard there are birds and leaves and all that kinda thing going on plus the water bubbling going on. Everyone so far says that's one of their favorite parts of it so I'm going to lean into that.
Right now I'm using a mini boom mic from an ALL-CAPS brand of Amazon that cost me like, $20. It was good enough but I went down the rabbit hole of field recorders and grabbed a $50 Zoom H1n off eBay. I can connect it to my phone the same way and because the H1n has manual adjustments I can dial it in better. Apparently the newer models have dynamic auto leveling or something and folks reported random drops/spikes in volume because of it.
Here's to better sound and an upgrade.