3rd Annual Holiday Gift Guide for Boaters

This week, for the third year in a row, I published a holiday gift guide on the Daily Boater. Just like the previous two years, the 2012 edition includes a mix of fun, unique and practical gift ideas that any boater or nautically minded loved one would enjoy seeing under the tree on Christmas morning.

Once again, the gift guide includes products from trusted partners, such as a little cookbook filled with 800 (count 'em!) practical recipes: The Boat Galley Cookbook. Our favorite 'dream big' MegaYacht Wall Calendar is back for the 3rd year in a row, as well as several other products that I personally put to the test.

Of course, no self respecting boating gift guide is complete without personalized boating gift suggestions, and since I also own BoatNameGear.com, it was easy to come up with a few ideas. You'll find some neat gift items - mostly related to eating and drinking - in the Personalized Nautical Gifts section of the Gift Guide, and you'll find a mix of personalized and non-personalized boat-wear ideas in the Boating Apparel area.

Enjoy the 2012 Holiday Gift Guide for Boaters at DailyBoater.com.

If you have a unique product you'd like to include in next year's guide, or perhaps in our Father's Day gift guide, please contact me.

Batting 1,000

Last week, Nautical Sites Media hit another milestone when I posted the thousandth article on the Daily Boater.

One thousand.

As I mentioned in my last post here, I couldn't do it alone. In fact, number 1,000 turned out to be a guest post by Carolyn Shearlock.  But whoa - 1,000 seems like a whole lot of articles about boating for what I still consider to be a young publication.

I hope people are enjoying the content and keep coming back for more.

Speaking of the Daily Boater, advertisers have started signing up for a new program called the weekly Marine Product Review. This is a program I started in partnership with Mark Sutton of MarineProductReviews.com in which we review a nautical product each Wednesday, and make sure that the product being reviewed gets as much publicity as we can muster across our mutual sites and social media accounts. This is the only paid, advertorial content on the Daily Boater, and to keep the quality high we reserve the right to turn away advertisers whose products we don't want to review.

More information for potential advertisers can be found here, and the first few reviews we've done so far can be found here.

Captain's Quarterly...

Has this turned into a quarterly post? I've got to get here more often!

It's been busy, but I had to tell you about some numbers. They look good on all fronts, but there is one shining star that I want to highlight.

The Daily Boater.

Yes, traffic was up in 2011 over 2010 - I've been writing more, adding more guest bloggers, and getting the word out to more readers. But what really caught my attention is the growth the site has experienced, especially this month.

January 2012 traffic is up on the Daily Boater by 134% over January of 2011, and unique visitors have increased for the same period by a whopping 167%. 

Admittedly, the gross traffic numbers are not huge, but they have been increasing each year since I started the Daily Boater with my first post on the 4th of July, 2006. In fact, 2011 as a whole saw a 119% increase in unique visitors over 2010, and unique visitors increased by 140% for the year. 2010 numbers were higher than 2009, and so on.

Keep in mind that these numbers do not include the thousands of people that read Daily Boater articles in newsletters that come to their email, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  Or the people that read the Daily Boater articles that are syndicated on FirstBoat.com, TakeMeFishing.org or so many other sites that grab our RSS feed and republish with (and sometimes without) our permission.

Bottom line, if you have products or services to promote to the boating community, you need to be advertising on the Daily Boater. Contact me if you want to get involved.

Hello November

I'm just coming out of 4 full days without power, and my back-up office (Panera Bread on the Berlin Tpke) was shoulder to shoulder with a mix of families and business people getting warm and charging their phones.

Power has now been restored to both home and office, so back to a higher rate of productivity... and on that front, there is news.

BoatNameGear
BoatU.S. has once again selected BoatNameGear products as their contest-giveaway for all their members for the month of November and (hopefully) beyond. You can see the BNG logo at the bottom of this page: http://my.boatus.com

Also in BoatNameGear news, the transition of e-commerce platforms away from Yahoo and over to Volusion is nearly complete. The new back-end will make an easier store for customers to shop in, and should make managing it easier for me. It will also be less expensive, allowing me to pass more savings on to customers.
* If you'd like to spend 5 minutes and help me test a couple of things on the new site, please send me an email (andrew@nauticalsites.com). No technical expertise is required.

Daily Boater
In other news, the Nautical Sites network continues to add advertisers. Daily Boater (my boating news site) is excited to welcome EdgeWater Power Boats on board. Check their site if you want to help support my business (Just looking at it will help!)

DailyBoater also is now the proud owner of its own facebook page. Please give it a 'like' when you get a chance - http://www.facebook.com/DailyBoater

Okay, enough with the requests and updates... there's a lot of work to be done! Thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support!

Industry Stuff

Went to my first CT Marine Trades Expo yesterday and saw some great presentations. The folks from the Connecticut Marine Trades Association did a good job pulling the day together. Some folks from an Internet services company spent a couple of hours convincing the local marine businesses in the room that they should have a website, and that they should use it to increase their sales. I stuck around for a presentation after lunch which included a panel of boat salespeople from around the state sharing some ideas on how to sell boats in these tough economic times. All four of the panelists described ways in which they really went outside the box to get their boats in front of people, including showing their boats in local parades, at malls and airports, and even at non-nautical fairs such as an apple harvest festival!

The group also stated that they have significantly reduced or completely done away with print advertising; instead they are getting involved in community initiatives, and marketing on the web - placing ads on boating websites such as those in my nautical sites network. Would this be a good place for a shameless plug? You bet! Contact me directly if you'd like to advertise on my boating websites. You'll get a tremendous value for your money, and you'll reach the recreational boaters that are most likely to be interested in products and services like yours.

Readership of the Daily Boater has continued to grow, and I've been trying to give more back to our readers. As such I have engaged a new guest author to write a weekly column for the site. Whether you are a novice sailor or have years of experience, you'll enjoy the insights of John Jamieson. Captain John teaches sailing skippers the no-nonsense cruising skills they need for safer sailing worldwide, and now he shares that experience on DailyBoater.com. Of course, if you want all-Captain-John all the time, sign up for his FREE sailing tips newsletter at http://skippertips.com. You can also become a paying member for instant access to 425+ articles, video tutorials, newsletters, and free eBooks.  The articles that Captain John has contributed to the Daily Boater are available for free at the following link: http://www.dailyboater.com/search/label/Captain%20John

On a national note, I have been continuing to try to collaborate with the NMMA, and just this week they placed a link to BoatNameGear.com on their Grow Boating resources site - the website for the organization charged with the task of increasing participation in boating. Here's the link - scroll down to the bottom to see the t-shirt picture and link to BoatNameGear: http://www.growboating.org/toolkit/promotionalmaterials.aspx

I also exhibited for the first time at the Newport Boat Show last month with a booth for BoatNameGear. The weather was beautiful, which helped the crowds come out in pre-recession numbers. I am pleased to report that we put a lot of personalized gear into the hands of folks from the northeast, and met a lot of nice people from not only Rhode Island, but also CT, NY, Mass, New Hampshire and New Jersey. People came from everywhere for this show. I was able to snap a few photos from the Newport show which you can check out here.

I opted not to do the local Norwalk Boat Show the following weekend, and that turned out to be a blessing as the show was practically rained out. Next up: probably Hartford and Boston in 2012.

Hopefully I'll have some updates before then!

We're Hiring

If you follow this blog, you are probably aware that Nautical Sites Media is a growing network of boating websites.

In this network are a few content websites... FirstBoat.com, DailyBoater.com, BoatNameBlog and BoatlinX are the bigger ones. More are being launched in 2011. These content websites get a lot of traffic, all of the visitors are boaters, and the sites have advertising space that needs to be sold. That's where you come in.

By the way, I mentioned those are "content websites" as opposed to e-commerce websites. Our other sites BoatNameGear.com and CustomBoatNames.com are e-commerce websites which are designed to sell products, and do not normally display advertisements.

Anyway, I am building a team of sales reps around the United States to sell ads on the content sites in our network. This is a great opportunity, as there is no network of boating sites like ours. Advertisers have the chance to reach a broad spectrum of boating enthusiasts, many of whom just bought a boat (and need new stuff!) or are planning to buy a boat within the next 12 months.

Advertisers are starting to promote their products and services again, and they need to know that placing their ads on our network is a smart way to bring their businesses back to where they once were... and beyond. Speaking of beyond, organizations that advertise with Nautical Sites Media don't just get banner ads thrown around our sties... they also get a partner in us that can help them get their message out across Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets that they don't have the time or knowledge to do themselves.

As a Nautical Sites sales representative, you would be an independent agent - working for yourself, making your own hours, working from your home office (or your local Starbucks) and traveling to marine-focused businesses and boat shows. The gig is commission-only, but you will be paid a generous percentage of your sale plus bonuses. You will also have the chance to be in on the ground floor of a fast-growing company in the fun and exciting boating industry. If you already sell ads independently for another publication, consider adding Nautical Sites Media to the options you offer your clients.

If you are interested, please send your resume to jobs (at) nauticalsites.com.

Everybody Loves NY

I stopped by the New York National Boat Show on Thursday to check out the boats, as well as to scout out story ideas, advertising leads and the competition. There are more pics on the FirstBoat Facebook page, but I included a few below, and also a write-up on the Daily Boater.

Love the classic look of Silverton Yachts

This seems like bad business. Shouldn't they have at least shown up and talked about their product?

Deadliest Catch in the house. These guys were a riot.

Chaparrals always look sharp.

By Way of Norwalk

Stopped by another boat show this past week, this time in Norwalk, Connecticut. The Norwalk show is the only big show in Connecticut with boats in the water this year, and as such draws a pretty good crowd of boating enthusiasts from across the state. It takes place on Connecticut's gold coast, one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, and is just a stone's throw from New York City. Add in the fact that the show is located both geographically and chronologically near big shows in Newport, Annapolis and Boston, it's no wonder the show is a great place to see a large selection of yachts, boats and boat products.

Similar to my trip to Newport the previous week, I rushed in and out of the Norwalk boat show in two to three hours - I again spent less time at the show than on the road. But it was still enough time to see all of the land vendors, and walk all of the docks and even board a couple of the bigger boats. I got to speak with some interesting folks I know including the president of the Conn. Marine Trades Association, the editor-in-chief of WindCheck Magazine, and the guy who sells Nantucket Baggs at every boat show I've been to in the past year. Also met a bunch of new exhibitors (new to me, but most of them seasoned exhibitors, actually), many of them based right here in Connecticut and New York - some of them offering services nationwide, and some of them just trying to reach northeast boaters.


Anyway, got some good photos and story leads and had a few good, albeit short, conversations, and was impressed with the crowd for lunchtime on a Thursday. The parking wasn't bad, but would have been rough for someone to just pop-in during a lunch break from the office, so I suspect the crowd got even bigger as the day and weekend wore on.

Next up for me is the Boston Fall Boat Show, and instead of just a few hours I'll be on-site all weekend, exhibiting as BoatNameGear. I'll also have our new northeast sales rep on-hand if anyone wants to discuss advertising on our nautical sites network .


Here are a few photos from the Norwalk show - you can see more on flickr.

Remind me to used this on DailyBoater.com next July 4th.

I call this a "Billy Joel" boat, because it reminds me of the style he cruises in around Long Island.

An electric boat

Geico: The bigger, faster, brighter the better.

A view from the docks

The Lagoon 400 - this catamaran looked as wide as it did long.

see more on flickr

New Advertisers

Just taking a second to welcome some of the recent advertisers who came on board our network of Nautical Sites. Please click through and check them out so they keep coming back :-D

Secure Fingerprint Start - this company offers a security product that uses a unique fingerprint technology

Atlantic Maritime Academy - boat safety and training from a District Captain in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

Speaking of Yachting

We are pleased to have Yachting.com onboard the network for a long-term advertising engagement. We were talking even before the press from Haute Living, so perhaps companies are starting to realize that a person's first boat is not necessarily a small boat.

If you'd like to join them and promote your business to hundreds of thousands of recreational boaters across our web and social media network, please let me know.

Now, I'm off to deliver a shipment of hats to Castle Marina in Chester, CT. Yes, I know it would be faster and cheaper to not do this myself, but that would take all the fun out of it!

A Few Props

Yes, I realize the term "props" has a different meaning for a lot of powerboaters than it does for Gen-X'ers trying to thank or give respect to people, and this post falls into the latter category - this is a shout out.

Anyway, thank you to Boating.com for becoming the newest advertiser on our network. When I started FirstBoat.com in 1999, Boating.com was one of the big dogs. They had been off the radar for a while and I hadn't given the site much thought until they contacted me about advertising recently. And they look like they are back in full force with a comprehensive classifieds database already stocked with thousands of boats for sale. I think you'll be seeing a lot of Boating.com once again.

Thanks also to BoatInsurance.org for mentioning two of our blogs, the Daily Boater and the Boat Name Blog - on their list of "48 Beginners Boating Sites and Tips Pages". Not sure if there is any reasoning behind their ranking, but it's cool that the Daily Boater is #2 on the list. The only thing that surprises me is that they didn't include FirstBoat.com, which we sort of built as THE site for new boaters.

Surprised and honored to be mentioned by Bruce Dillahunty on his Craft a Craft site, which he has used for several years as an outlet to help his own and other's boat-building dreams along the path a little farther. Whether or not you ever plan on taking on the challenge of building your own boat, Craft a Craft is worth checking out for their more-than-daily nautical nuggets.

Last but not least (for now), we wouldn't have had such a big month at our personalized gear store, BoatNameGear, if it weren't for our fantastic customers, as well as all the Facebook and Twitter friends and other websites that recommended us.

Among those I'd like to recognize include SilvertonForums.com, a very active community of owners of Silverton Yachts. With their nudging, we now proudly offer personalized Silverton branded products at BoatNameGear.

Also, thanks to Ericka Watson, the Powerboating Guide on About.com for suggesting that personalized products from BoatNamegear would make a great Father's Day gift.

GreenBoatingUSA has also supported us by running our BoatNameGear ads on their site, and displaying our products at their eco-friendly National Marina Day event in Tennessee. Our boat name welcome mats are made from 100% recycled materials, so they were a great fit for the occasion.

This is getting long, so forgive me if you were expecting a mention here and didn't see it... I'll get you next post!

Welcome to CA World WiFi

Glad to have CA World WiFi on board as a new advertiser at WiFiMarine.org.

It's really a great fit - CA World WiFi, based in Florida, provides WiFi equipment for all environments, and specializes in providing solutions that are tailored for harsh outdoor environments. They know what saltwater, wind and rain can do to sensitive electronics and build products accordingly.

With WiFiMarine.org's position in Google for keywords related to Wi-Fi and marinas, CA World couldn't have picked a better site to sponsor!

If you run a marina - or any outdoor establishment - and want a better solution to offer Internet to your patrons, please visit CA World WiFi or call them at 561-245-7823.