Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Social Media

Is social media right for your marine business? FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and the rest are no longer just for kids. If harnessed appropriately, social media may be able to help you generate more business.

With the launch last week of Fishington - a social media site for boating and fishing enthusiasts run by the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) - now is a good time to review other places that boaters "socialize" online.

By the way, Fishington has already has about 2400 members as of this post.

Here are some other popular or up-and-coming social media sites for boaters:

SailMonster is run by a friendly couple who sincerely welcome you when you join - this site has potential and is worth checking out.

Bluemapia.com took a while to open and differentiates itself as a "mobile" social network. Cool mapping technology let's you track where you've been or where you're headed.

TheBoaters.com seems to have a large following, possibly drawn to the network by their facebook ads as well as their frequent podcasts, originally hosted by Julie Perry.

activeboating.com - maybe 200 members at most; hard to 'make friends' because it's hard to find friends to make. If you only have time to visit a couple of sites, perhaps hold off on this one.

DockWalk.com, the social media site for crewmembers and other yachting professionals. The site's 5500 members include deckhands, chefs, yacht owners and more. Looks like a nice community.

Zooors.com - Launched in Feb '08, this social networking site is aimed at yacht owners. Still looks like a work in progress, but big beautiful photos and video screenshots make it pleasing to the eye. Not sure, but the site just may be a tool for promoting yacht charters based on the multiple text links at the bottom of the pages. Boater beware - if you join this site, you might get pitched to charter a yacht... Not that there's anything wrong with that.

BoatingPassions.com - find a date who likes to boat. I had this idea 5 or 6 years ago and added a section to a forum I ran, but the only posts were from porn spammers.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/canepari and http://twitter.com/FirstBoat

Sunday, October 12, 2008

BoatNameZ.com Launched

boat namesWe just started this blog last week, but it's not too late to announce the launch of our latest Nautical Site, BoatNameZ.com, which launched last month.

We refer to BoatNameZ.com as BoatNamez with a "Z" so that people don't get it confused with "boatnames.com" (without a z, and currently a spam site).

Our new site, BoatNameZ.com, is sort of a hub for all of our other boat name sites, which include BoatNameGear.com, CustomBoatNames.com, the Blog about Boat Names, and our general site which includes an extensive section on boat names, FirstBoat.com.

Friday, October 10, 2008

A Nautical Site in the News

A few weeks after it was printed, I came across an article on the web that mentioned one of the Nautical Sites in our network. It was a welcome bit of free press, especially since we had not updated the site in some time.

Here's what the Business Courier of Cincinnati had to say about our WiFiMarine.org
A Web site called wifimarine.org promotes and tracks the progress of wireless Internet solutions in the boating community and allows slip owners to request access at their home marinas.

I'm glad to have received the free press, just wished I seen it when it first came out. From now on, I'm going to track WiFiMarine.org using Google Alerts like I do with most of my other sites.

Not sure how to track your sites for free using Google Alerts? Ask me how.

Worst Over for Industry?

This news came on the same day that the stock market fell by nearly 700 points:

Brunswick cutting 1400 jobs, closing 4 more plants

So, can it get any worse? We'll probably see some more rough seas before it gets better, but Brunswick and other companies have been cutting all year. There's not much left to cut, is there?

Monday, October 6, 2008

Nautical Sites Network Blog

As the proprietor of the Nautical Sites Network and a publisher of several blogs, I finally decided to start blogging here - and keep you abreast of how business is going across the Nautical Sites Network.

When we launch new sites, get picked up in the press, or have a successful engagement with a marine industry client, we can let you know right here on our own blog.

By the way, I recognize this blog should have happened sooner, and I still probably wouldn't have thought of it if I had not come across SFO Media while doing some research for one of my business plans.