It started with a van and a tape recorder
In 2007 we were making the drive from Buffalo to Trumansburg every chance we got. GrassRoots Festival in the summer, local shows in between, long weekends exploring the Finger Lakes. Back home it was Thursday at the Square and the Buffalo music scene.
We were taping shows, shooting photos, and writing reviews. We needed somewhere to put it all. So we taught ourselves to build a website and launched BandsThatJam.com.
It was not a business plan. It was a passion project with a domain name.
The first real clients
GrassRoots Festival gave us our first photo passes. That was the first time someone said “your work is good enough to let you in for free.” Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad gave us our first real client work, building their web presence from scratch.
Word spread. Not through marketing or advertising, but through handshakes and referrals. A law firm in Buffalo. An event planner. A few small businesses that needed more than a Facebook page.
In 2011, Go To The Mill came along. A full e-commerce store for handcrafted wood pipes and accessories. That was our first full-stack project: website, hosting, store management, ongoing maintenance. They are still a client today, fourteen years later.
Ithaca pulled us in
We had been visiting the Finger Lakes region for years before we made the move in 2018. Ithaca was already home in every way that mattered. We connected with the GrassRoots Festival team, helped bring Ithaca Reggae Fest online, and built the website for Shakori Hills GrassRoots down in North Carolina.
The community that inspired us to start building websites became the community we serve every day.
What eighteen years teaches you
Platforms come and go. MySpace, Flash, WordPress themes that looked cutting-edge in 2012. The one constant: businesses need someone who understands the full picture. Not just how to make a site look good, but how to make it rank, how to keep it secure, how to make it grow.
That is what Brooks New Media does now. We build websites as platforms. We host them on our own server. We write the content, run the SEO, and pick up the phone when you call. One person, start to finish.
It started with a tape recorder and a festival. It grew into something we are proud of.
Learn more about our services or read our story on the homepage.