Multiple Mentions Of Nautical Sites

It's been a good week when it comes to PR for Nautical Sites.

Monterey Boats put out a blog post yesterday that mentioned several of my websites, and included links, in an article about boat names: The Name Game

And on Monday, BoatUS announced their BoatUS Angler “Catch of the Month” photo contest, which has four major sponsors - one of which is BoatNameGear.com!

The latter news has already been mentioned in a few publications across the country - including the Paramus Post, the Bladen Journal,  and Captain Ken Kreisler’s Boat and Yacht Report (THANKS TO ALL FOR INCLUDING THE BOATNAMEGEAR LINK) - and I suspect more will follow.

Here's the full release from BoatUS...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: D. Scott Croft, 703-461-2864, SCroft@BoatUS.com

Take Your Camera on Your Next Fishing Trip and You Could Win Big

BoatUS: Contestant Callie Shumway of Bellefonte, PA

There’s a lot to pack before you head out for the spring fishing season. Just don’t forget the camera to take shots of your catch to submit to the BoatUS Angler “Catch of the Month” photo contest at www.BoatUS.com/angler/contest, which kicked off this week and runs monthly through October 31.

Monthly winners, one freshwater and one saltwater, will receive a one-year BoatUS Angler membership with basic on-water towing and roadside assistance, a $50 Visa gift card and a “prize pack” filled with fishing and BoatUS Angler gear. In addition, winning photos will appear in BoatUS Angler Magazine and Tacklebox monthly fishing e-newsletter. 

Monthly winners will be automatically entered to win the grand prize in November: an upgrade to unlimited on-water and on-road towing assistance, a high-quality fish replica from The Fish Mount Store, and a $50 gift certificate from BoatNameGear.

BoatUS Angler’s roadside assistance “club” for boat trailers and tow vehicles and its on-the-water towing service helps anglers spend more time fishing and less time worrying about breakdowns. Visit www.BoatUSAngler.com for more. Anglers can also check out all of the photos submitted at:
 www.BoatUS.com/angler/contest

About the sponsors:

BoatNameGear offers a unique, hand-picked selection of high-quality personalized gifts, clothing and gear. BoatUS members enjoy a 10% discount on all products plus free shipping on all orders of $99 or more. 

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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!

One Crazy Summer

I haven't posted anything in a while because it truly has been one crazy summer.

Just this morning the Daily Boater was featured in a British boating newsletter, with a nice write-up about our boating news site: Boats On TV Newsletter.

But what really kept me busy this summer was all the exposure that Boat Name Gear has received. The timing couldn't be better, as Boat Name Gear will be exhibiting at the Newport (RI) International Boat Show next month for the first time (if you are going to the show, please let me know via the Boat Name Gear facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=235880156440536).

What exposure? The best kind - inexpensive and widespread. One of our endeavors has even helped encourage people to boat! Over the past few months, Boat Name Gear has been one of a handful of top-brand sponsors of a contest being administered by the NMMA. We are in good company with likes of Sperry Top-Siders and BoatU.S. - all offering prizes to encourage people to invite their friends out boating (Welcome to the Water Contest). We gave away dozens of t-shirts with the "Welcome to the Water" logo across the back, and each of the winner's boat name embroidered on the front-left chest. Also, Boat Name Gear has been in the Sun Sentinal, the Baltimore Sun, and in an editorial article in the Miami Herald.

On top of this, we've been adding a bunch of new products - including environmentally-friendly premium polo shirts, fleece blankets, and sailcloth boat bags.

The other sites in the Nautical Sites network, including FirstBoat.com, Daily Boater, BoatlinX and the Boat Name Blog,  have been adding advertisers such as Empire Covers.

All that, and we survived Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene - only one of our websites was down (FirstBoat.com for a few hours, and yes, we're finding a new web host company), and none of our Internet orders were lost or even delayed. For some pictures of some boats and marinas that were not so lucky, check out our collection on the Daily Boater.

There's more, but there are not many more boating days left this year in the northeast. We'll see you soon in Newport!

BoatU.S. Contest Again

I'm pretty proud that BoatU.S. has decided to give away $200 worth of personalized apparel from our store, BoatNameGear, in their September contest.

BoatU.S. has a new contest each month - Members are entered to win a prize just for signing into the members-only website (My.BoatUS.com).

This marks the 2nd time within four months that BoatU.S. has called upon BoatNameGear to provide the prize (previous contest was June 2009.)

Perhaps they chose BoatNameGear again because we helped BoatU.S. drive new or existing members to their site? I don't know. Or perhaps they received feedback similar to what we heard from the winner of the June contest. Here's an excerpt:

Recieved my order yesterday and am very happy with the merchandise. I am extremely pleased with the mat.
You must be very pleased with the quality of your work, it is a very high quality.
Thank you so much.

John
A satisfied customer

So, if you want to try to win $200 worth of stuff with your boat name on it for free, sign up to be a BoatUS member by September 30th, or visit My.BoatUS.com.

By the way, we're currently offering a 10% discount to BoatU.S. members on all orders at BoatNameGear. This is exclusive to BoatU.S. members only through this link to BoatNameGear. (Fine print: Not valid on past or existing orders or in conjunction with other offers; may end at any time.)