Help iboats design a contest

[DaleT]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

There is another site dedicated to paddle sports that offers a monthly newsletter that may be of some help with the ideas you are proposing. I won't post it here as it offers some competing and similar products to iboats.com vendors. If you are interested let me know and I will direct you to it off the forums.

They do offer contests, although I don't know if what they do is really an area that you would be willing or able to go into. They seem to be potential nightmares from a logistical standpoint.

As for the newsletter itself, being dedicated to a smaller market it is easier for them to target their desired readership. One thing they offer in it that I really enjoy is a reader submitted picture. I know from experience that when something of mine is published in any fashion I tell all my friends about it. What I am suggesting is a reader submission. This could encompass a wide array of subjects. Boat restoration journals, tales from the past, humorous events (there's always people reading the stupid human tricks) among others. Perhaps this is an area you could offer a small prize, laws allowing of course. As I said, when you publish one of us, your readers, it will be a natural instinct to send it on to our friends and family. From them you may gain more readers, boaters do tend to hang out in "schools" after all.

Best of luck.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

Many years ago I knocked around with a bloke that was in to all sorts of schemes.
He had all sorts of "patterns" (in books).
They ranged from how to set up competitions, marketing schemes, pyrimid schemes etc.....just about anything you could think of.
He also told me you could buy the layouts for particular retail stores..... for example, maybe something like say your Homebase is pretty much identical to stores operating identically under different names in other countries.

What I am suggesting BV3, maybe somewhere out there is a pattern you can buy on how run competitions....which means you select the type you want and follow the formula.......saves you re-inventing the wheel.

Havn't a clue where you would start looking tho.
Cheers
Phillip

 

[oops!]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

i keep thinking of this.....(contest)

and i keep coming back to having the members submit articals....

it would take a little time to sift thru the applications, but it would do what you want......even td on how to do a quick restoration.

we have a few search and rescue people on the site.......that would be great reading.

even a thread of the month ! have the mods pick one......every member would look to see who's it was !

best of stupid human tricks....!

 

[Yar.]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

I think that oops is on to something there, but first we need to get people to know about the Review.

Here a bit of an idea...

1. Pick and post a picture on iboats.com and have members submit their best captions to it.

2. Decide on the winning caption and publish that in the Review.

3. Make an email forward of the published pic and caption with making it very clear that it was taken from the Review.

4. Send this forward to the people on your email list as a funny/interesting thing.

I know that if I see something that is worthy, I do forward it to many people in my address book. It will also target boaters mainly if the pic and caption is boat savvy.

Once people know about iboats.com, come to the website and see that there is a contest of sorts, they will be more willing to sign up for the Review.

Maybe the contest can even be the best caption???

Just my 2 cents.

 

[bvassel3]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

Yar...great thoughts and comments. Thanks.

BV

 

[aspeck]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

I like Yar's thoughts and idea. I know many of the membership forward c&p funny posts and stories to friends, relatives, enemies, etc.

So if iboats came up with a "best of the best" type thing ... funny posts, sayings, etc. over the years, pictures with humorous captions, etc., and PERIODICALLY emailed them to members (nobody likes getting spammed to the nth degree, but I don't think anyone would mind an email every couple of weeks, or once a month) with the iboats.com logo and web address imbeded in the mail it would get distributed far and wide. I know I would send something like that to my cousin who, because he went blind during an open heart surgery, spends his waking hours sending emails to literally thousands of people. A few such emails to him and you would cover a lot of ground!

Hmmm, give me a sig line that I could use like that and easily paste in and I will do it!

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

Really like Yar's suggestion as well as Oops on the member submissions. By getting current members engaged, it will create viral marketing as well (I know I'll be sharing this with my boating friends)

I've been poking around this site for a year and just signed up last month and some of the stories told in these forums are well written and would make excellent additions to the Review. (well done by the way)

 

[Mark42]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

Any decision as to what the contest will be?

 

[chrisg]

Re: Help iboats design a contest

Adding my 2 cents: I had subscribed to a magazine once. the problem was, they adverties thing I can't afford, and did not have articals which I could relate to, so I dropped it (plus they charged for it). Now, I do read the Iboats electonic mag. and it has good stuff in it.

I like the idea, just send it out to all who are registered here.