About Noob Norm – Who We Are, And Our Goals

Noob Norm was founded in 2017 by David McSweeney and Grant Draper, as they wanted to share their experience and expertise across a wide range of activities from sports to tech, and help “Noobs” take up new hobbies and activities.

The company was acquired in 2022, however, much of the content written by David and Grant remains in place.

What we do

The hardest thing is often just getting started, and that’s what we’re here to help with. We’re truly passionate about helping you on your journey: whether you want to take up golf, get started in motocross, or become a better photographer.

We create detailed beginner guides that cover the foundations you’ll need, and we put together deeply researched product guides to help you choose the right gear. Where possible we’ll test the gear ourselves (I literally have a shed full of golf training aids), but when we don’t have the products to hand we’ll put in hours of research so you don’t have to.

And when we don’t feel we have the expertise to cover a particular sport or activity, we’ll bring other experts on board. For example, our beginner’s guide to hockey was written by double Olympian, and former England Internationalist Nick Catlin.

How we’re funded / Editorial promise

It’s not free to run this site. As well as hosting and web costs, we have to pay for products to review, designers to create custom graphics, and data for our studies (like this one on Tiger Woods).

Also, we write all our guides (and do all the associated research) ourselves, so Grant and myself both spend the equivalent of a full time job in hours each month working on the site.

We don’t run ads on Noob Norm, as like you we find them super annoying, but we do earn a commission (generally around 5%) when you buy a product through one of our links.

Note that we’ll only get that commission if you’re happy with the product. If you choose to return it, we get nothing.

So it’s in our interests to make sure that we truly select the best products available in our guides. And it’s for that reason that we’ll never accept direct payment from a supplier for recommending one of their products.

Every time we recommend a product it’s because we truly believe it is the best. That’s our promise to you.

Where we’ve been featured

As web geeks, we love playing with data and creating cool tools.

Our PGA tour research has been featured in the likes of Golf Digest, USA Today, and Yahoo News, and our “World Cup Survival Quote Generator” was featured by Scott Mills on the Radio 1 Breakfast show.

We’re particularly proud of our “Tiger My Wage” tool, which will calculate how many shots it would take Tiger Woods to earn your wage. Spoiler: it’s not many!

You can see a full list of our press features here.

Our founders

Noob Norm was founded by David McSweeney and Grant Draper, two sports, tech, and outdoor enthusiasts with a background in running successful websites.

David McSweeney

david hiking

  • Golf
  • Fitness
  • Hiking
  • Photography
  • Football
  • Music
  • Tech
Grant Draper

grant draper hiking

  • Motocross/Motorbikes
  • Hiking
  • Winter Sports
  • Running
  • Adventure Sports
  • Skateboarding
  • Tech

The site was acquired in 2022, and is now owned and operated by Harshad Joshi.

How you can support our site

If you like what we’re doing here at Noob Norm, you can help us by:

Using our links: if you click a product link in one of our reviews (generally to Amazon) we will earn a commission between 3 and 7% of the value of the product. This helps to fund our site, buys us the odd coffee, and helps us add more great content!

Share our site: like what you read? Share our guides and reviews on your social media, Reddit, or forums you are a member of.

Connect with us: hit us up on your favourite social media platform. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Say hi: you can give us feedback on the site by leaving a comment on a post, or dropping us an email.

Where Should You Start?

Pick a category and browse through our posts. When you find a new hobby you’re interested in taking up, then read the associated ‘How To Take Up X’ guide.

Learning a new skill, or taking up a new hobby is an AWESOME thing to do. It satisfies our desire as humans to constantly better ourselves.

So what are you waiting for?

Your next obsession starts here.

NoobNorm.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon(.com, .co.uk, .ca etc) and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program.