Digital Trends

Dan Gaul, Co-founder and CTO

Portland, Oregon
Digital Trends Digital Trends
Digital Trends
A resource for gadget fanatics

Dan Gaul and Ian Bell's shared fascination over an off-market mobile phone led them to launch Digital Trends in 2004, a blog where they could house reviews and information on the latest and greatest technology products.

"We strive to distill technology down so it's easy to understand and allows our readers to make smart purchasing decisions," Dan explains. "We have a duty to provide them with the highest quality reviews." Digital Trends helps readers learn about any gadget or technology quickly. Since the team's first article in 2004, Digital Trends Media Group has grown into an award-winning company encompassing several brands including Digital Trends and Digital Trends en Español, and men's lifestyle publication The Manual. It now reaches 200 million people per month and posts over 15 organic articles everyday on everything from product reviews to buying guides and news in the fast-paced world of technology.

“Every year we are grateful to be in a position where we can give back to the community and Google helps us to achieve this goal.”
Growing their business with Google

Since its inception, keeping content free using an ads-based business model has remained the driving ethos of Digital Trends. "Accessibility is important and we thrive on human-to-human connection," Dan says.

The financial support from ads has enabled Digital Trends to thrive. Headquartered in Portland, the site now has offices in multiple cities and employs writers around the world. The trusted readership they've created through easy to consume reviews that empower tech buyers to make informed purchasing decisions has consistently kept the doors open.

Google Ad Manager isn't the only tool that Dan has used to optimize Digital Trends - Google Analytics, Drive and Data Studio are also core to business operations.

"Google Ad Manager and tools like NCI are extremely helpful to us. Having access to these types of tools is a source of pride," he says.

Digital Trends
Striving for excellence

Today, Digital Trends' mission is to "build the planet's most essential digital media company." Dan hopes that Digital Trends can continue to be a place where readers navigate their daily lives across their particular technology needs, challenges, and interests.

For the last four consecutive years, they've won distinctions from The Communicator Awards, an annual competition that honors the best in marketing, advertising and communications.

Their most recent "Award for Excellence" was for showcasing a multi-platform curated advent calendar that aimed to support shoppers through their holiday shopping journey.

The hits have kept coming - they recently celebrated reaching 1 million subscribers on YouTube and a 30% growth in traffic in 2022.

In recent years, Digital Trends has also created a DEI Advertising Awards program as part of their $3M commitment to supporting marginalized groups through no-cost advertising. This year's winners were documentary filmmaker Jia Wertz and DASHDOK, a magnetic cardholder aimed to alleviate stress and tension between law enforcement and drivers at traffic stops. Last year's recipients included EffinFunny Productions, which received award recognition for their Twitch fundraiser to support prison inmate rehabilitation through technology education.

"Every year we are grateful to be in a position where we can give back to the community and Google helps us to achieve this goal," Dan says.

About the Publisher

Dan Gaul is the co-founder and CTO of Digital Trends Media Group, the award-winning consumer-oriented publishing portfolio. The media conglomerate encompasses multiple titles, including the largest independent technology publisher, Digital Trends, men's lifestyle brand, The Manual, pet-parent news source, PawTracks, and more. A sought after speaker and industry thought leader, Gaul has been featured in Forbes, Vox, and Digiday, and is a Pacific Northwest native.
Digital Trends