Dogs Ahoy

I am excited to announce a new online store which I launched in partnership with someone I worked with a long time ago at Outpost.com.

Cyberian Outpost, which later changed its name to Outpost.com, was one of the pioneering e-commerce sites when we worked there before and during the company's IPO in the late 1990's. Jim Sullivan and I also worked together at PCFlowers.com over a dozen years ago until that company was sold to a large department store chain. It's awesome to be working once again with a true innovator and someone who shares my passion for online marketing, and doing the right thing.  A portion of all profits from our new online store, DogsAhoy.com, are going to be donated to causes that promote the humane care of animals. Here's the press release that's been going around the web announcing the new site...

DogsAhoy.com offers a mix of personalized and fun products for dogs and dog lovers

DogsAhoy.com, a new e-commerce venture for dog lovers, has opened for business. The online retail store offers a unique selection of items that canine-inclined families are sure to enjoy, including many that can be personalized with the name of their furry friends, as well as products and prints featuring the work of renowned artist Stephen Huneck.

According to the American Pet Products Association, the pet supply market is expected to reach $13 billion in sales in 2013, and approximately 46.3 million households currently include one or more dogs living in the home. With its distinctive product offerings and exceptional customer service, DogsAhoy plans to become the first choice of dog families and their friends when it comes to unique products and gifts. The store's initial product list includes dog-inspired artwork, personalized fleece throw blankets, doggy life jackets, front-leading harnesses, leashes, and a large selection of fun and durable toys. Every item is hand-picked with fun and safety in mind.

After this summer's initial launch, the DogsAhoy team is planning on expanding its product line and adding new items throughout the year, including many that cannot be found anywhere else. DogsAhoy accepts all major credit cards and currently ships to dog friendly families throughout the United States. Visit DogsAhoy online at www.dogsahoy.com 

About DogsAhoy.com
DogsAhoy.com is the premier online source for fun and safe products for dog lovers. To learn more about DogsAhoy, visit www.DogsAhoy.com or call 978-751-DOGS (3647).

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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Soft Launch, BETA, In-Progress...

My latest nautical site, NortheastBoater.com, is live on the inter-webs. You can google it. You can see the site and click around, subscribe to the news feed, etc. You can get to it by the aforementioned long URL, or the abbreviated NEBoater.com, which has nothing to do with Nebraska and everything to do with getting a shorter domain name.

And, after I heard a friend actually say "N E Boater" out loud a couple of times, I also bought the domain "Any Boater .com", which could make a good name for an entirely different type of website in the future, but for now, just helps people find my new site if I give out the abbreviated version of the name and they get confused.

Northeast Boater was intended to be just like the Daily Boater... sharing news, tips and commentary with boaters, but with a laser-like local focus. However, I have expanded the plans for the site to include online charts of the coastal states, safety resources for each state, and an online events calendar - components that were never needed on Daily Boater because they already existed on FirstBoat.com. So, in essence, NortheastBoater is essentially a 'regional' version of both the Daily Boater and First Boat combined.

NortheastBoater is currently focused on the waters of New England and New York. I had originally planned to also include other states, such as NJ and Penn, but will expand to cover a larger area of the Northeastern United States as resources allow. For now, seven states is proving to be keeping me busy.

So, in summary, NortheastBoater is live, but not nearly complete - there are entire state pages without content yet. After I fill in most of the gaps over the next couple of weeks, look for an announcement that the site is live (you'll see it here, first!)

In the meantime, please 'like' the new site's facebook page and follow it/me on twitter:
http://facebook.com/NEBoater
http://twitter.com/NEBoater

Thanks, and stay tuned!

Thanks for the Mentions

Last week, we announced the most popular boat names of the year via a press release from FirstBoat, and we were pleased to see the top ten list get so much press from other publications around the web.  Here are a few of the first that we'd like to thank:

Messing About in Boats

Boater Life Online

Boating Industry Magazine

Boat Safe

North American Sailor

RIBCRAFT USA

If you're planning mentioning FirstBoat or the top ten boat names in an upcoming article, or if you did and I missed it, please email me.

It also did not go unnoticed that several of our FaceBook and Twitter friends shared our list. There were too many to mention all of them, but here are a few folks you should follow if you tweet:

@‎marineproducts

@Perri_Marine 

@Take_Me_Fishing

@LouMintzer

@caughtinthewild

Top Notch Marine and RV

Our Most Popular Boat Names of 2011

(The following press release went out this morning. It was a lot of fun to sift through the thousands and thousands of boat names in coming up with this list. Hope you have as much fun reading it as we did writing it... Enjoy!)

Most Popular Boat Names of 2011
The top ten most popular boat names of 2011 confirm that boaters are seeking serenity

Newington, CT - April 19, 2011 – FirstBoat.com, the premier boating information site for new and experienced boaters, today announced the most popular boat names of 2011. A trend seems to have emerged from this year’s list that demonstrates how boaters enjoy their time on the water. “Boat names like Serenity, Happy Ours, Family Time and Just Chillin dominated this year’s top ten,” stated FirstBoat publisher Andrew Canepari. “It is clear from these names, perhaps now more than ever, that boating really provides people with a way to relax and make the most of their time with family and friends,” Canepari added.

The list is compiled annually by FirstBoat in collaboration with www.CustomBoatNames.com - where boaters design their own boat name lettering online, and www.BoatNameGear.com - the leading retailer of personalized gear and gifts for boaters. FirstBoat is also the home of the original Boat Name Machine, featuring over 100,000 randomly generated boat names. The Boat Name Machine and other boat naming resources are available online at www.FirstBoat.com.

Following are the top ten most popular boat names for 2011:

1. Serenity (In addition to “Serenity” we saw variations such as “Serenity Now!” of Seinfeld fame, as well as clever misspellings including “Sea-Renity”)
2. Happy Ours (Time was a common theme in boat names this year. Variations on this boat name included “Happy Hours” and “Happy Hour”)
3. Feelin' Nauti (This one surprised us when it rose to the top five, as there are so many other popular boat names that include “Nauti” in the name)
4. Family Time (Another variation of the Time theme that we saw again and again. There were many other boat names that referenced Time that came close to the top ten.)
5. Liberty (Always a favorite, we also saw variations such as Miss Liberty, Lady Liberty, and Liberty Belle)
6. Black Pearl (Every boater feels like a pirate sometimes. Just plain “Pearl” was popular as well, but it didn’t crack our top ten)
7. Andiamo (Let’s Go! A quick internet search will show you that this is not only a popular name for boats, but also for Italian restaurants in America)
8. Knot On Call (Several boat names used the word “Knot” cleverly, but only this one made the top ten)
9. High Maintenance (Yes, this describes most boats very accurately)
10. Just Chillin (Looks like relaxing is on the mind of even the younger generation of boaters)

About FirstBoat.com
FirstBoat.com is the flagship site of Nautical Sites Media, which publishes a network of websites that provide information and resources to recreational boaters. To learn more about FirstBoat and other properties in the Nautical Sites network, visit www.NauticalSites.com or call 800-306-8708.

###

Media Contact: Andrew Canepari, (860) 249-1166, andrew@firstboat.com

On Take Me Fishing

I was excited to open the email I got this morning from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) when I saw the subject line:


TakeMeFishing.org Adds Live News Feed, Expands Coverage of Boating and Fishing

Excited over an email? Very. I knew my conversations with the RBFF over the past few months were panning out and that my Daily Boater blog was among the first few news sources the RBFF had selected for a content partner in their new boating and fishing news section of their site. I knew the Daily Boater feed was already live and sending stories to the TakeMeFishing.org website. Now they were sending out a press release to promote their new news area, and probably mentioning their partners in said press release.

I was, of course, a little disappointed that they didn't mention the Daily Boater by name in the press release. I guess they couldn't list everybody, and mentioning partners like ESPN and Field and Stream were probably the safe choice. And actually, listing those household brands will bring more people to the article and more people to the news feed, and thus more people to DailyBoater.com. So it's still a big win.

And of course, I'm very excited to be part of the launch of this service on TakeMeFishing.org, and hoping that syndication deals like this continue to spread the word about my growing network of nautical sites.

By the way, the RBFF's press release failed to include the link to the actual news feed page they were announcing, and I had trouble finding it from the TakeMeFishing.org website, so here it is in one click: http://www.takemefishing.org/community/news/home

I wonder if ESPN and Field and Stream are mentioning this news on any of their sites.

Welcome 2011

It's hard to believe that BoatNameGear just celebrated its 4th Christmas in business (the site's first online order came at the end of November 2007), and the site has seen a pretty good increase in sales each Christmas over the previous year. Flat would have been good given the economy, so north of 150% was especially sweet. Thank you to everyone who helped give BoatNameGear a big boost this holiday season and into the New Year. It was great to see so many familiar names of customers (and their boats - love those boat names!) come through the site's order system this November and December... and of course it was nice to see so many new customers come on board as well.

If you shopped at BoatNameGear for the first time this year, how did you find us? Most customers I asked on the phone said something along the lines of "the internet" or "I did a search". Uh huh. We were featured in several online and print publications for the holiday season, and we can't thank those folks enough for mentioning us. Let me know if you saw BoatNameGear mentioned in any of these places or by any of these authors, or somewhere else:

Christy Johnson, in the Florida Keys Fishing Examiner

Ericka Watson, the About.com Powerboat Guide

Tom Richardson, the co-director and host of BoatingLocal

Marine Product Reviews

WindCheck Magazine

Boaterlifeonline

A special thanks to our first affiliate across the pond, New Freebooters.

And last but not least, although I'm probably forgetting some, the folks we mentioned in our first Daily Boater Gift Guide, who reciprocated with tweets, facebook posts and newsletter mentions, including SeaSquared Charters, MegaYachtNews, Autotether, and Caron's Beach House.

Please follow BoatNameGear on Facebook to get new product announcements, special offers, contests, and to find out which boat shows we'll be at in 2011!

Press Release: Holiday Gift Guide for Boaters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Daily Boater Releases its First Holiday Shopping Guide for Boaters

Unique nautical gift ideas specially selected for boating and fishing enthusiasts

Newington, CT - November 24, 2010 - In an effort to facilitate holiday shopping for people who have boaters and anglers on their list, the Daily Boater today announced their first annual Holiday Gift Guide for Boating Enthusiasts. The editors of the Daily Boater handpicked items that will be sure to please anybody with a passion for the boating lifestyle. The guide includes unique nautical drinkware, fishing trips, life-saving boating gadgets, products personalized with a boat name or a nautical chart, and more.

The products and services selected to participate in the guide were chosen from small businesses across the United States, including Autotether, BoatNameGear.com, Caron’s Beach House, SeaSquared Charters, MaraMAPS and MegaYacht News. Andrew Canepari, publisher of the Daily Boater, stated, “If you have someone on your shopping list who enjoys boating, this guide will certainly make your life a lot easier. We chose products we like from small businesses that we trust to provide excellent service, especially during the busy holiday season.”

Many of the featured products include personalization and should be purchased early to accommodate production and shipping time for the holidays. Shoppers should check with each individual store for their delivery policies. The Daily Boater Holiday Gift Guide is available online at:

http://www.firstboat.com/gift-guide

or

http://www.dailyboater.com/2010/11/gifts-for-boaters-our-holiday-gift.html

The Daily Boater, the official blog and newsletter of FirstBoat.com, delivers boating news and information daily. The publication’s goal is to help people have fun and boat safely. The site’s community of boaters interacts under the well-known FirstBoat brand on LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter, and directly on www.FirstBoat.com and www.DailyBoater.com as well as through several syndicated publications.

Contact

Andrew Canepari, Nautical Sites Media

andrew@nauticalsites.com

Direct: (860) 249-1166

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Interview with About.com

I was interviewed by Ericka Watson a couple of weeks ago. Ericka is the About.com Powerboating Guide - she asked me a bunch of questions about boat names. Some of them made me think; some of them made me wish I had answered them differently. After not hearing from her for a couple of weeks, she let me know today that this article was appearing on her site.

Needless to say the interview seems to have gone pretty well. Not only did she get my company names and website links correct, she pretty much quoted me accurately throughout the article. Most importantly, she actually pulled some good advice out of me for naming a boat - when I re-read her article, I realized that I shared many tips that I have never mentioned in my own How to Choose a Boat Name article or on the Boat Name Blog.

In addition to the interview, Ericka also created a forum for people to share stories about how they named their boat. You can share your own boat name story on About.com here. And here's the link to the interview: Naming a Boat - Suggestions From an Expert (Guess who the "boat name expert" is! :-D)

Haute Yachts

Very flattered, honored and excited that when Haute Living - a leading network of luxury lifestyle publications - wanted to do a story about boat names, they turned to me.

Thank you to Diane Byrne for thinking of me and mentioning a few of our Nautical Sites in this article: Haute Yachts: Patriotic Boat Names

Stay tuned for more news soon, hopefully.

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!

Boating Times Long Island

It's always nice to see your store or products published in print magazines, even if that particular type of media is less relevant than it was as recently as ten years ago. It's not just because of the "free advertising" aspect, which is nice, but also because I personally think it adds a sort of legitimacy or validation to stores that are purely online such as BoatNameGear.com.

That's why I was pleased to see us get a mention in Boating Times Long Island (www.boatingtimesli.com). It looks like they did a "gifts for boaters" page in their winter issue and listed our Boat Name Gear store near the top. Better still, all the stores they included were contributed by their readers, so thank you to both the magazine and to the readers of the Boating Times Long Island for thinking of us!

BTW, I am happy to provide better product images or even samples to the press for future stories. Just email me at andrew (at) boatnamegear (dot com) if you're interested.

Feeling the love

I'm writing this post to thank all the media outlets that recommended BoatNameGear.com as a source for holiday gifts for boaters over the past several weeks.

The love started pouring in way back in October when Alan Sorum included BoatNameGear in his article, Unique Christmas Gifts for Boaters, which was posted in Alan's Boating & Sailing blog on Suite101, as well as in a print boating publication in Long Island.

Being featured in the Florida Keys Fishing Examiner warmed our hearts so that we felt like we were actually in the Florida Keys! Thanks to author Christy Johnson for chumming the waters on Black Friday with our special offers of the day.

The love continued with a story by Ericka Watson, the About.com Powerboating guide, who wrote, "By personalizing an item for the boater in your life, you are meeting a practical need with a personal touch." Ericka then went on to discuss BoatNameGear and the products we offer.

The most unexpected endorsement came from the printed Lake Wylie Pilot (Lake Wylie, S.C.), where the author included BoatNameGear's products among those "that as a boater myself I would love to have." A similar story appeared in a blog that included BoatNameGear in their "Top 10 Christmas Gift Ideas for Carolina Boaters."

If we missed someone, please post it here. And thanks to all the writers, bloggers, twitterers (tweeters?) and facebookers who helped get the word out about what great holiday gifts can be found at BoatNameGear.

We're doing our best to live up to all of your recommendations.

I only hope that the high expectations of some of our recent customers are a result of great service that they've received from us in the past. I further hope that we meet or exceed those expectations - in quick service and quality, personalized products. It's too late to get any more personalized gear from our store, but you can still get a gift certificate with all the thoughtfulness of our gear and the flexibility to buy and receive the gift right up through Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays everybody!

Thanks to NBOA Marine Insurance

When new boaters realize that boats need insurance, they usually turn to the National Boat Owner’s Association (NBOA), Marine Insurance Agency, on the web at NBOAT.com

NBOA gets it, because they do more than just sell boat insurance. First of all, they specialize - they only insure boats, so they probably already know what YOU need and can be trusted to guide you to get the right coverage for your new boat.

Second, they don't just give quotes and play the numbers game. Instead, they provide useful, free information, such as this primer on boat insurance.

Third, it may sound obvious, but believe it or not this is not true of all insurance agencies - NBOA offers low rates AND only provides top-rated insurance to their customers.

Best of all, they understand the value of a good story and had the good sense to publish our list of top ten boat names on their website in their marine industry news page.

For that, and for providing great service to boaters, we say "thank you" to NBOA.

Top boat names picking up steam

Thanks to Alan Sorum for writing about the top boat names on his blog at Suite101, and also to the Hartford Courant and The Des Moines Register for posting the list in their fine publications.

Seems like even though there is too much snow and ice to boat in many parts of the country, boat show season and people's affinity for lists is keeping this story topical.

If you'd like to discuss a strategy to get publicity for your organization, or if you are an editor or blogger and would like to carry a story about the top boat names in your publication, please contact us via our online contact form or email (andrew [at] nauticalsites.com).

Thanks to Ask The Boater and Motor Boats Monthly

Excited to see our top boat names list picked up by UK magazine Motor Boats Monthly, published by YBW, as well as New York-based AsktheBoater.

Here are the links to articles:

Motor Boats Monthly - http://www.mbmclub.com/auto/newsdesk/20090020175325mbmnews.html

AsktheBoater - http://www.asktheboater.com/popular-boat-names-announced/

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.