Calling all Stock Outboard Clubs

[Raymond]

If you have not yet noticed, Stock Outboard has created a Facebook page. It also appears that they have a new graphic image to go along with it. They (I am not sure who the page administrator is) have done this to increase the online presence of the sport (I am making the assumption) so as to gain greater exposure and set the stage for future recruitment and promotional opportunities as they may arise.

Here is the link.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sto...903156?sk=wall

While I am not authorized to speak for the Stock Outboard Commission or the APBA, it is my derived opinion that this SO Facebook page has nothing to do with all the work APBA is doing with their website and social forum nor is it duplicative in nature. I believe it is complementary and not meant to conflict or compete with those other efforts. The market for attention is wide in scope and we need to cover as much of that ground as we can and these tools can help us.

Let me diverge from my main point for just a minute to help reinforce a point that many of us are saying. The next time you go out to dinner and have to wait 30 minutes to be seated, please observe all the young families with younger kids 5-7 years of age. You will see many of them patiently waiting for their table using some form of electronic devise to keep them busy. The digital revolution started back in the 1980’s and I don’t know what we will call what is going on today, but I believe in the notion that tomorrow will have much more electronic technology embedded into it.

If you are reading this online then you have everything you need to create an online presence for your (and our collective) racing efforts. If you are apprehensive about privacy issues, please call me; I will help show you how you can protect your identity and still help our grassroots efforts to expose and promote Stock Outboard Powerboat Racing. It is not burdensome to maintain; visit it whenever you want, don’t when you don’t want to.

Ok, back on point. In support of supporting each other I would like to ask that:

All the Stock Outboard clubs that have not yet crated a Facebook page, please do.

All Stock Outboard clubs that have a Facebook page go to and ‘like’ the Stock Outboard page while also creating a link to it on your page for surfers to see and use.

All Stock Outboard Clubs post your club image along with a short club bio on the Stock Outboard Facebook page. This will capture your image in their photo collection. It will not only promote your club/club page, it will drive traffic to the Stock Outboard page and I don’t see a downside to any of that.

If your a Facebook hold out club, pass you image and bio along to one of us Facebook users and we can make the posting for you.

In closing; please do on underestimate the impact your simple independent actions can have on our common interest. I am not asking you to like it; not everyone embraces this technology the same. I am just asking you to support it at a level that is win-win for all of us.

[raceright]

If you have not yet noticed, Stock Outboard has created a Facebook page. It also appears that they have a new graphic image to go along with it. They (I am not sure who the page administrator is) have done this to increase the online presence of the sport (I am making the assumption) so as to gain greater exposure and set the stage for future recruitment and promotional opportunities as they may arise.

Here is the link.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sto...903156?sk=wall

While I am not authorized to speak for the Stock Outboard Commission or the APBA, it is my derived opinion that this SO Facebook page has nothing to do with all the work APBA is doing with their website and social forum nor is it duplicative in nature. I believe it is complementary and not meant to conflict or compete with those other efforts. The market for attention is wide in scope and we need to cover as much of that ground as we can and these tools can help us.

Let me diverge from my main point for just a minute to help reinforce a point that many of us are saying. The next time you go out to dinner and have to wait 30 minutes to be seated, please observe all the young families with younger kids 5-7 years of age. You will see many of them patiently waiting for their table using some form of electronic devise to keep them busy. The digital revolution started back in the 1980’s and I don’t know what we will call what is going on today, but I believe in the notion that tomorrow will have much more electronic technology embedded into it.

If you are reading this online then you have everything you need to create an online presence for your (and our collective) racing efforts. If you are apprehensive about privacy issues, please call me; I will help show you how you can protect your identity and still help our grassroots efforts to expose and promote Stock Outboard Powerboat Racing. It is not burdensome to maintain; visit it whenever you want, don’t when you don’t want to.

Ok, back on point. In support of supporting each other I would like to ask that:

All the Stock Outboard clubs that have not yet crated a Facebook page, please do.

All Stock Outboard clubs that have a Facebook page go to and ‘like’ the Stock Outboard page while also creating a link to it on your page for surfers to see and use.

All Stock Outboard Clubs post your club image along with a short club bio on the Stock Outboard Facebook page. This will capture your image in their photo collection. It will not only promote your club/club page, it will drive traffic to the Stock Outboard page and I don’t see a downside to any of that.

If your a Facebook hold out club, pass you image and bio along to one of us Facebook users and we can make the posting for you.

In closing; please do on underestimate the impact your simple independent actions can have on our common interest. I am not asking you to like it; not everyone embraces this technology the same. I am just asking you to support it at a level that is win-win for all of us.

So tell me Raymond--What do you consider a good rating for a web site,,
There are about 280,000,000 sites world wide APBA's site is around 5,000,000th. Porn sites are around 40,000
ESPN is somewhere around 30,000 I believe I can find out a more accurate number for ESPN with a phone call but I think I got it right.

So if I asked my Question correctly can you answer it--I'm a roofer but I do have friends ( well a few)

Pat Wright

[Raymond]

Pat,

I may be reading your post wrong so let me respectfully request for clarification of what you are saying or asking.

[raceright]

Ok Ray I'll give it a shot.
280,000,000 webb sites if ya are rated #280,000,000 your site probably sucks

If you are rated #1 you site is super.

So at what # do you think a site should be for it to be GOOD.

from what I know sites are rated somewhat (not the only thing) by the number of hits it gets daily??

[Guest]

Ok Ray I'll give it a shot.
280,000,000 webb sites if ya are rated #280,000,000 your site probably sucks

If you are rated #1 you site is super.

So at what # do you think a site should be for it to be GOOD.

from what I know sites are rated somewhat (not the only thing) by the number of hits it gets daily??

I think watching Paint Dry was 4,999,999 th !

[Raymond]

Dan, (original post removed; why?)

You’re not busting my bubble; I hold no visions of grander or NASCAR levels of popularity. The efforts of those working hard at promoting boat racing are not intended to save the world but rather rally whatever life is left in this community to work together with the available resources to make it last as long as we can. Those efforts are intended to bring in enough money to offset the rising costs of operation so as to not have to pass those costs back onto ourselves in the form of inflated race fees.

Yes, the likes of Facebook and You-Tube (social networks in general) have an entertainment aspect to them but don’t discount their ability to provide a means of communication. It’s a free resource; it would be naive of us to not recognize and try to capitalize on the benefits they can provide.

Pat,

You may be missing the point. We are not trying to make these sites the most popular sites on the net. We are trying to make it easer for those that might have a dormant interest in us, to stumble across us. We are trying to make sure we can be found by those that might have an active interest. We are trying to make information regarding what we do available to those that do have an interest. We are trying (scratch that) showing our sponsors (yes we do have sponsors) that we have a product to sell them. Yes, these websites and their related traffic have been instrumental in us securing and maintaining those relationships.

To the Boat Racing Community at Large,

I don’t want this next statement to sound like an attack, it is not, so please do not read into it. Nor do I want to sound like I am up on a soapbox. It is respectful constructive conversation that needs to be said out loud; it’s the ‘elephant in the room’ so to speak.

I don’t think there is anyone in this community that will argue against the notion that competition from all the different opportunities vying for our entertainment dollar has had an / is having a diminishing affect on membership numbers. Given that, in these lean times I don’t see any benefit of buying into the doom and gloom discussions (pick your topic; rules, classes, leadership, the new website seems very popular lately) that seem to be going on so much lately. Negative outlooks do not foster positive outcomes.

Regardless of ones personal views on the state of the sport and their opinion on its future, I implore each one of us to personally do something constructive towards moving this community in a successful direction. Bring a new person to the races, buy your club a box of club business cards, seek out a new race site, replace your clubs tatters race site banner, start up a racer school in your club, crate a personal race team Facebook page and befriend all your racer friends (clubs and other organization) that have Facebook pages, haul your equipment to a boat show. This list is really much longer.

Having said all this, I will not engage in any further discussion that is in support of defending my position on trying to promote growth. I will hold my position by engaging in positive and productive efforts that support the preservation/growth of the sport.

Yes, I was a little ticked off…but I am over it.

Thanks for reading

[spunky64w]

Hey Sports Fans,

So I guess as one of the forces behind the new Facebook page I should say a few words.

The Stock Outboard Promo Committee is taking a few new angles this year as far as promoting our sport goes. The Facebook page is just one of them. We're hoping that this will increase traffic to our website and entice a few newbies into driving schools.

If you're on Facebook, I hope that you will "LIKE" Stock Outboard and if your club is hosting a race, I hope that you will post it on the Stock Outboard wall as well, or let Stock Outboard "SHARE" your event.

Thanks for all your support and enthusiasm for the sport of boat racing.


Rachel Warnock

When it's time to play, take STOCK in APBA!

[wright racing]

can you post the the links to stock out board on facebook the two links you have up their do not go to anything discussing stock outboard

[tcf284]

Just as an fyi ,my father was a racer and due to circumstances growing up we no longer raced ,i tried very hard to follow the sport and in the 80's without being some kind of member of some boatracing club or the apba it was extremely difficult to find out when/where a race was ever going to happen.As the mid to late 90's approached and the more popular access of the internet it did get easier and easier with each passing year .I am now a racer and I'm on facebook and I will update my facebook status periodically during the time I'm at a race ,my facebook has at least 40+ freinds that are racers ,but for my friends that are not racers or been around boatracing, alot of them seem to have some interest in whats going on at the races .I also have a few friends on facebook and not on facebook planning on coming to lakeland for the stock winter nat's just to come watch me ,the point is people are interested they dont have an oppourtunity to hear or know that a race is even happening .I took some time and called The Tampa Times to inform/invite them to come and cover the event and was shot down they had no interest due thier readers are in tampa and not lakeland .Thats the challenge we face I'm sure 100 + boats will be at the stocks winter nat's,alot from at least a dozen states but no one will take us that serious ,so doing a facebook page is at least one way among many we need to work on making it happen

[charlieblackwoodt47]

Tom as a kid in the 80' I remember going with my granddad putting up posters in the local stores and next towns over for the races. I remember there always being concessions stands tee shirts and stuff like that. I guess what I am trying to add is the internet is all fine and good but if you want people to come out and to build interest on the weekends your going to have to roll up your sleeves and beat the pavement. I mean if people don't even know what's on the back of our trailers or trucks how are they going to know what to look for on the Internet.

[DtwSailor]

Applauds

ray,
From someone who makes a living on the use of technology, I just wanted to applaud you for your continual efforts.
To those questions regarding website rankings and such, there is no reason for the negative reaction. You are using a forum based on web technology to hold a legitimate discussion, and plus rankings don't mean diddly.
Last year as a rookie, I never won a race, no top points, nothing. Who cares? I had the time of my life!
Plus to put it in perspective, I drive the worlds most unreliable car according to rankings, and it has spent less time in the shop than my wife's new car that was "ranked" higher!
I am also writing this from 10,000 feet on the nations highest ranked airline, and guess what, we are late arriving!
Keep up the good work all!

[ram95]

This is a good discussion. I wonder how many are reading it. So often I hear someone mention how "negative" or negative "sounding" many posts are. I feel sorry for them that feel that way. Some of them even attend the National APBA meeting. And, some of them are responsible for the knee-jerk rules and decisions which are made.

Discussions like this help get points out on the table where they can be looked at and mulled over. When you try to conduct a lengthy discussion at a national meeting it often gets derailed because everything is verbal and often interrupted. Here, the dialogue is in print. Nobody gets interrupted (insulted perhaps.. but I can deal with it).

I brag that I don't own a cell phone, don't "Like" things, don't "friend" people, don't advertise my personal business on You Tube, and generally don't give a ratzazz if someone dumps 14 railroad ties in my driveway because of something I said. But each day is different. I might change. I was a roofer too (Boundbrook NJ, 1963)...the crew I worked with all succumbed to alcohol and tobacco and gunshot wounds. I have a diminishing circle of friends. Kinda like Pat Wright (the "roofer").

Alex

[daveracerdsh]

Alex

Hey...if you loan me your best D stock wheel I will be your friend Alex. Just so you know.

[Kip69w]

WOW... Im just reading this thread today -TEN YEARS AFTER IT WAS WRITTEN!
(Isnt that cool?)
*2015 Web Presence: GREAT - - - *2015 Web Interaction: NOT SO GREAT

[runabout333]

I think what Raymond is trying to say ----- if the kids are waiting for their meal at whatever eating establishment,,, encourage them to
look at the boat racing stuff... Maybe,, just maybe,,, one will say,,,,,,,,,,," hey Dad,, look at this, it looks like fun!!!"""
Am I right or wrong???

[1hshawwpba]

Forget all this non sense, APBA wasted over 100,000 $ (known as the crown project) that proved that the only thing it did was line the pockets of the web master team(crown) and grew no new membership in APBA!
Yes everyone is tied to a mobile devise today and that is a fact! If you think going to a web site while waiting for dinner, is the answer your kidding yourself! If your club can afford to get a web site (quality site) it will cost you $$$$ and your return on investment will be less than positive for getting new members and proven over and over.
Spend you money doing "TAKE A RIDE PROGRAMS" and get kids and patents in race boats, once they see and feel the experience you will see more return on investment than any web site will provide.
Have your club go to boat shows and local events where you can display a boat or two and hand out info on how to get started in boat racing in your local area, have a sign up sheet and gather contact info to send out where your "TAKE A RIDE PROGRAM" event will take place.
There are a couple of very successful clubs doing this and growing in membership, don't try and reinvent the wheel or spend your clubs funds on web sites they maybe good to look at for current members but there are enough web sits out there already, and as proven in the membership numbers around the country (and APBA) they are not working!
Stock outboard should be offering $ to pay for helping clubs do a "TAKE ARIDE PROGRAM" FROM THER PROMO FUND! The Pro division is very supportive as they will reimburse a portion of your ambulance fees for a 1 day TAKE A RIDE PROGRAM !!!
As noted above leave the web sites to the porn industry, don't waste your clubs money, the web site is only the start of the money drain there will be maintenance monthly fees, someone will need to keep it updated and fresh info, along with provide fees and other hidden cost!
It your clubs $$$ spend it wisely !!!!!!