Train is leaving the Station! Cya

[Admin]

I have made a new commitment for 2009 to my staff, and to my wife and kids.

I will no longer wait for the marine industry to come to us.

We are not going to sit back and watch people fail in a bad economy. Buyers are everywhere but sadly so many have no idea how to get them. We will stop at nothing to give the CONSUMERS of the fishing industry what they deserve and that is the ultimate fishing resource. But we will do it with the companies that work with us.

We have a goal and that goal is not changing. Bring the very best to the consumers, but also bring a place that the companies can make good return on investment.

Jer announced a week ago a great deal for people. Yes, sorry some of you are pissed that you will need to kick in. We have tested our traffic over and over and you can convert sales with just about anything on this site. The exposure is also incredible as the demographics are incredible.

For those of you that got involved with Jer on the ad special make sure you tweak your ads! Find the conversions.

2009 is about being Blunt!

We have always been believers in not having to ask. Usually online people understand if you make money off a site you should just kick in to help build a better place. We do not like to take the route of saying you have to but sadly since this industry thrives on claiming even when things are good that they make no money sadly we are not left with much of a choice.
We have proven now for years that we invest in this website. Every dime brought in is put right back into building more for you all and bringing in more consumers.
But after 5 years and limited action on the support side the time has come to work only with those who work with us.

Jer is going to raise up the price of ads by double this week. So if you want in cheap do it now and stay at that price.
Those that do not get in and decide later will be paying the new price.
Our goal is only to pool this money to invest the staffs time and energy into helping those who get behind us make more money during a shit economy.


Marine electronics?
I can no longer wait on this industry to find us.
We have http://www.boemarine.com/
on here as a sponsor, and fact is we will ask the guys who are going to run our new section to make sure Jim is well taken care of if he wants to continue on.
But sadly we have to grow, and sportfishermen.com is now a marine electronics dealer. Sad to say and this is honest but once we do this we will also receive ad dollars.
Yep that's right, we have to basically become a dealer to get the ad dollars. Sorta gay if you ask me and really is not what we want to do but facts are facts: if we don't we throw away the opportunity to provide the consumers with way more content and build this place better for the consumer.

For those of you that I piss off I can only say it one time and that is I'm sorry.

We have tried so hard now for years to get support from this industry but our calls have gone unheard.

Jer has built a great ad system for you all. I suggest getting on the train with us as we will stop at nothing to make sure you all learn how to make sales and learn more about web marketing this year.

Something I want you all to understand our numbers blow away a lot of other advertising mediums.
A lot of these mediums charge over $3,000 for one ad. That is also on the low end. Could you imagine if just a couple companies gave us that kind of budget what we would be able to do with this plac?. Hell we could film a internet tv show for you all to enjoy and the video would be seen 24/7 for life.
The marine industry spends un goddly money on all kinds of crazy shit but when it comes to the web they are blind.

I speak to most of the other fishing site owners out there and I may be the only one speaking out but when it all boils down to it the marine industry has turned cheek on just about all sites.

I'm sure some will say other wise but truth be told even the co op dollars for the web that manufactures put out go un used for the most part, sadly because people are not educated enough to spend them. It is a scary world if you do not understand it but our guys have been here and will be here even more to help you all get a better understanding of how to track sales and convert better.




Oh by the way

walt@sportfishermen.com if you are looking for big time exposure
Jer@sportfishermen.com if you want to get involved with the message board ads.

Admin@sportfishermen.com I am not available much any more for the day to day stuff. But will attempt to help those who are behind Walt and Jer.


Peace out, train is leaving the station.

Welcome aboard to some of you..

My name is Capt John Eppehimer, I care about this project more than anyone would ever know. But fact is I am tired of trying to be understood.

So I am gonna take a year and go fishing, cover tournaments, develop content, do consulting and build some new projects. I also will no doubt work with those who are supporting the site. Converting the web into money has always been easy for me, I always hoped this project could work like all our others do. Small guys post, big guys buy exposure. Its always been a simple formula but sadly it is not grasped by the marine industry.

2009 will no doubt be the most interesting year ever for the marine industry and I wish each and everyone of you luck.
Just remember, almost every other industry in the world is moving to web sales fast. We get more boat leads than we know what to do with and sadly unless they are for a Jersey Cape we have no one to send them to. That is just really fucked up. Sorry for dropping the F bomb but sadly the word just sums that up.


See some of you in the canyon this year as that is where I plan on spending as much of my time as I can.

Signed
Tired and confused.

[Admin]

For those of you that think the ad price JER is giving you is to high Please remember the guys who spend over 1k a month to advertise here track sales. And they have been here for well over a year.
So when a major lure guy says he can not pay 50$ a month I just pray our squid guy does not start making your product.
You have to learn to quantify your sales and contacts. Websites have multiple effects on a buisness.
1. a sale via a shopping cart.
2. A new dealer for your product.
3. A guy see's your product tells a friend
4. You hold a event and people show up
5. New contact via the website and you do biz at some point
6. Branding/ Name Recognition

I had mention in one of my videos about people doing well at trade shows because of people knowing them from the web. I sat at the canyon runner show Sat with Offshore Innovations. Something very cool was said to me by Kevin.
"John its nuts how many people have come up and said they could not wait to buy my new lure I posted on your site"
I asked Kevin how many sites did you post on? He said just sportfishermen.com, I do believe Kevin sold out.

Its amazing how many readers we have here. Its also amazing how many read and do not post. But that right there told me tons of people made it to the show via this site and also bought Kevins new lure that they saw here.

That right there is results and made me feel like a million dollars as Kevin has been behind us since day one and always been a straight up dude.
So congrates to kev, and you all who have not seen his new rig need to check it out as it is a Tuna killer.

Next time you buy your **** membership, smokes, dip, beer, a happy ending massage, just remember that money could have made you money.. But hell sometimes pleasure is better than success..

Blunt? Hell ya remember its a bad economy lol hahahha

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

Does this mean you will be fishing again?

[Admin]

No doubt bro Letting the great staff we have run with this project and do what needs to be done.

Was gonna post up the new truck im looking at and offer companies the opt to buy spots on the boat and truck but just tired of hearing the bs.

So I think Ill sponsor the tournament coverage boat with my own name and heck maybe chuck http://cd.com on it
Will have the boat wrapped this year, and docked at http://hinchmarina.com again.

[yachtjim]

So you are going to sell electronics? You asked me to stay on here and help with your marine electronics forum. I assume you are not going to want a company like mine active here if we are now a competitor. Just a few months ago we discussed all this, I was happy to keep sending you money and volunteer my time, and now it looks like you are actually signaling out Marine Electronics companies as your biggest offenders of those that don't get it. What did I miss?

[Admin]

Jer will square you away, I posted above that I have spoken to the group and they have no problem pushing sales to you. Truth is going this way brings in the ad dollars via co op. When it really boils down to it we do not want to be involed in selling anything other then as space. But when it boils down to it way to much money is sitting around not being used for what it should be used for. I will no doubt spend every dime of it right back on developing educational content for the consumers and more marine electronics traffic.
Time to step this game up about 8000 notches.
We have been working none stop for months now to build out 1400 more search engine sites. I do not want you Jim to feel singled out but marine electronics and boats are the 2 biggest industries missing around here. I truelly want to hire some writers that are well known and willing to write here full time but this sadly is the only way for us to get the money to deliver that content to the consumer.

Our staff will no doubt work to make sure you get more then you have ever gotten from us and I have always believed that working together is a better road at the end of the day.

[Deep C]

Huhhhh?

You're speaking in hyroglyphics John... Hell I havn't got anything or any service to sell right now but I'm gonna get one of those side ads just because you and the site deserve support in return for all you guys did for me when I was selling... Fifty is a couple tanks full of gas to get Mini back and forth to school or a dinner with the Missus.

Tell us what it is your new venture is? Starting a marine elctronics central hub is a great idea... Maybe you'll be able to source some of the harder items to find...

You've built a hell of a community... If you're gonna get out of the helm seat why not sit back relax and join the rest of us in the pit and let us get to know John Eppenheimer?

You know full well I like you to the point I often worry about you. Damn bro, you kill yourself for us and I for one am here for you to lean back on... Let me know what I can do to help?

[Admin]

So you are going to sell electronics? You asked me to stay on here and help with your marine electronics forum. I assume you are not going to want a company like mine active here if we are now a competitor. Just a few months ago we discussed all this, I was happy to keep sending you money and volunteer my time, and now it looks like you are actually signaling out Marine Electronics companies as your biggest offenders of those that don't get it. What did I miss?

Nothing personal on you man, but think about it you are the only guy here for electronics.
Sadly no one else in your field gets it. Im sure that is great for you. What has been offered to us is something that can not be passed up.

Im sure the guys would be more then happy to put your name up on the product pages as a trusted site to buy the products from. As in reality they all just feel that putting the money into the project is good for the consumers to get more info and the ad dollars from the manufactures is pretty darn good. So could work out to be a win win for you.

[Admin]

Huhhhh?

You're speaking in hyroglyphics John... Hell I havn't got anything or any service to sell right now but I'm gonna get one of those side ads just because you and the site deserve support in return for all you guys did for me when I was selling...

Tell us what it is your new venture is? Starting a marine elctronics central hub is a great idea... Maybe you'll be able to source some of the harder items to find...

You've built a hell of a community... If you're gonna get out of the helm seat why not sit back relax and join the rest of us in the pit and let us get to know John Eppenheimer?

You know full well I like you to the point I often worry about you. Damn bro, you kill yourself for us and I for one am here for you to lean back on... Let me know what I can do to help?

Deep who the hell said I was speaking to you? Did I title this thread deepc? Deep I like marketing, usually i'm sitting laughing my ass off at the dumb ass shit I put up. I have fun seeing what wakes some of you up.

Dude you do what you need to do as most people always do.

Im going fishing and gonna continue to invest in the best content for the consumers.

Thats pretty much the deal.

[Deep C]

Deep who the hell said I was speaking to you? Did I title this thread deepc?

Dude you do what you need to do as most people always do.

Im going fishing and gonna continue to invest in the best content for the consumers.

Thats pretty much the deal.

??? You pretty well addressed the masses... I'm just one of the mass and a big fan of not only SFC but of what I consider to be my friend, John E. I'm all for what ever it is that you're doing I'd love nothing more than to see you rejoin the world and have a good time. I was asking what's on your mind as it really isn't clear...Nothing more or less...
You going on vacation, chasing other ventures, fishing? Remember my offer? Its still standing...