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22 June 2007

How About an Organization? - Outdoor Bloggers Association?

Posted by Darrell under: Rantings Of An Outdoorsman; Blogging About The Outdoors .

I’ve been following the posts discussing a potential Outdoor Bloggers Summitt. I think the Summitt, convention, conference (whatever you want to call it) is a GREAT idea. In my line of secular work, I attend conferences regularly. Most conferences, though, are put on by industry organizations. So, it started me thinking (and when thinking starts dangerous stuff usually happens).

Why not just form an Organization, Association (whatever you want to call it?). I’m just spouting here, so take this with a grain of salt, but…. couldn’t an organized association help quality outdoor bloggers get their message out, and possibly get them some well deserved recognition by the industries that make their money off the subjects we all blog about?

An ‘Association’  could help in lots of ways. It would give us all a voice. One voice is sometimes hard to hear. Lots of voices - easier to hear! The mission could be something simple like “promoting awareness of our great outdoors” and it could have some basic goals, like:

1. Public: Promote Conservation and educate the public about our sports/activities
2. Our Community (outdoorsmen): Promote safety and responsibility and sharing
3. Association Members: Promote the exchange of information and provide tools for enhancing our blogging skills
4. Outdoor Industries: Be a resource for allowing product companies (and other related companies) to interact and communicate directly with the outdoor blogging community 
5. The Media: Help get Outdoor Bloggers recognition within the media - including providing an interface with the big Internet companies & possibly help members better monetize their sites

I am not suggesting a giant PAC (political action committee) or organization to regulate or standardize what we blog about or to enforce specific opinions within the Association. The Association itself would be PRO outdoors, and more specifically PRO outdoors bloggers. It would encourage different opinions and perspectives.

Someone asked the question “Any ideas on how to get the search engine companies to participate in the bloggers summitt?”. I don’t yet. But, it would be a lot easier if we were asking as an organization! Can you imagine the difference it would make when you contact the media relations department of some big manufacturer (or Internet Company) and said “We’d like you to ________ at the annual convention of the OBA (whatever) - where every serious outdoor blogger will be. Collectively we reach an audience of 1,000,000 readers EVERY day! ” Anyway, you see the point. We could even have associate memberships for companies that wanted to support the association.

Companies could release news, press releases, and products direct to members (maybe in advance of general release) of the association. Who knows? My blog isn’t big enough to do a direct advertising deal with say Cabellas (not that I neccessarily would). But, the association could put together a direct deal with large companies for advertising space and then let members opt in or out of the program.  Two hundred participating blogs with 250 unique visitors today all of a sudden turns into enough traffic to catch the attention of a big advertiser. I mention this because I’ve noticed that lots of bloggers are attempting to monetize their sites. They have an incredibly targeted (and captive) audience, yet most aren’t big enough to do direct deals where ‘real’ money exists. Its kind of a shame.

Just an idea. Anyone have any comments? I have thick skin, so you won’t offend me!

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