Boat Name Gear at the Boat Shows

Had a great time and, more importantly, some success, at the Hartford Boat Show last weekend.  Fortunately, Connecticut's wintriest winter ever took a break from the snow for long enough to allow boating enthusiasts from across southern New England to attend the show.

Of all the Nautical Sites properties, I have been exhibiting as Boat Name Gear at the shows to offer personalized products to boaters. I did the 2011 Hartford show for the 2nd year in a row in order to get the web store's brand out to local boating families, and we were very well received. The show organizers claim 11,000 people came through the door and that Sunday saw bigger crowds than usual. Everybody I know was home shoveling snow off their roof in preparation of the next big storm. That may have kept the crowds at bay on Saturday... it's hard to know for sure.

I was pleased to have met several existing Boat Name Gear customers and I even saw a few folks that I remembered from the 2010 show. A few people also came by the booth after seeing my offer on the Daily Boater to "mention 'FirstBoat' and get a free hat or t-shirt".

Me in front of my booth. Photo by Randy Kessler of Barnum Financial Group

Obviously the boats were not as big in Hartford as they were at the New York Boat Show (review, pics) a couple of weeks ago, but there were some nice Sea Rays on display from Bassett Marine, as well as a large assortment of cruisers, cuddy cabins, bow riders and deck boats, fishing boats and the like from marinas and dealers who were mostly from CT, with a few from RI and Mass.

Here are a few more photos from the show, and there are dozens more on the FirstBoat page on Facebook.

The largest (and smallest) watercraft at the show.

There was sort of a boat show within the boat show.

Rock and Roll... Book a fishing trip at rockandrollcharters.com

Some fish boats and an affordable Larson bowrider from LouisMarine.com

One more of my booth - with some people around it this time.

I have a LOT more photos from the show - mostly taken Sunday morning before the doors opened - on the FirstBoat page on Facebook. You don't have to log-in or have a Facebook account to check them out, but if you do, please click "Like" on the page.

Next up for Boat Name Gear in February and March: The Northeast Fishing (and hunting) Expo in Hartford, and the big New England Boat Show in Boston. Hope to see you there!

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.

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.