Soliciting your ideas on increasing pilot awareness of PoA

[Greebo]

The PoA management is absolutely thrilled with how our first week has been going! It's hard to believe we're only in day 7 of our "public" operation with over 160 users and well over 1,300 posts (not including mine)!

But we also want to ensure that our growth continues, and that the PoA website becomes a resource easily found by internet using pilots and pilots-to-be everywhere.

To that end, we are interested in hearing your input on ways we at PoA can increase our Internet Visibility. To give you an idea of some of the idea's we've either already got in operation or are considering:

Currently In Operation

• Internet Search Engines - We've already been submitted for "crawling" to all of the major search engines as well as approximately 40 less well known ones. While it takes weeks and even months before a site shows up on sites like Google and Yahoo, we've already got links starting to appear on AOL.
• Word of Mouth - That's how you kind people help spread the word about us when talking to fellow pilots.
• Assisting in creation of "Links to Us" - HTML code you can embed in signatures to unobtrusively reference us in your emails and posts on other message boards. *Please see footnote

Ideas we're Kicking Around

• Merchandise - Possible creation of "Pilots of America" coffee cups, T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, etc, via an online merchant service such as Cafe Press. (Would also help subsidize PoA operation)
• Printable Business Cards and Signs for PoA that you can print, cut out, and place/hang at your favorite aviation hangouts. (Airport lounges, pilot shops, etc.)

That gives you the list of things we are doing or thinking of doing. What other ideas do you have to help increase PoA's visibility and continue to work towards becoming the best virtual $100 hamburger on the net?


*Please note! PoA strongly requests of its users that references to our site on other aviation related sites be as polite, unobtrusive, and non-competitive as possible! We are not trying to elbow any other sites out of operation. Accordingly, we ask you not to create messages on other sites which serve no other purpose than to advertise our existence. Inclusion of a simple link or small banner link as a signature is more than sufficient representation. Please respect all other sites restrictions regarding advertising and soliciting when referencing Pilots of America.

 

[Carol]

How aggressively do you want to market the site? Maybe it's just me but I think serious pilots looking for a good forum will find this place using what you already have in place.

"The few. The proud."

 

[Brian Austin]

How aggressively do you want to market the site? Maybe it's just me but I think serious pilots looking for a good forum will find this place using what you already have in place.

"The few. The proud."

Forums that don't have a fair amount of traffic eventually 'die off' due to lack of interest. We don't want that to happen here. We think people LOOKING for a good forum will find and like PoA but we want to also let the people know who aren't actively looking.

 

[Greebo]

How aggressively do you want to market the site? Maybe it's just me but I think serious pilots looking for a good forum will find this place using what you already have in place.

Ideally?

I'd love it if, every time you walked into an FBO you'ld never seen before, somewhere on the wall or counter was a "Pilots of America" sign.

I'd love it if, when you went to Google and typed in the word "Aviation", we came up before the FAA. (I'd settle for "we came up" at this point...)

Now, to get out of the clouds and down to earth (difficult for a pilot, I know...), realistically I'd like to see a daily active (that means posting, not just lurking) user base of somewhere between 500 and 1000 users and a registered user base over 5,000 strong in the first year. When we hit that point, we start having to look at upgrading our capabilities.

As Brian said - a forum which doesn't generate traffic doesn't survive. I certainly don't expect everyone with an interest in aviation to visit here - but I'd sure like to reach a point where everyone with an interest in aviation knows we exist.

As for aggressiveness of the marketing - I'd say, just assertively enough that we continue to grow without seeming like we're trying to take anything over or run anyone out of town, because that is NOT our objective.

 

[Tom-D]

Almost every club/ FBO has a bulletin board, have a printer friendly advertisement that every one can print and hang in the FBO's/etc's they visit.

They'll provide the thumb tacks.

That is how we did the Poker run last year to Bonners Ferry Id. got 300 aircraft to show up.

 

[MSmith]

This is a tough question for me. I'm a staff member at a "competing" site - though that site is focussed more on training.

Getting on the search sites helps most. I've found that it takes about a week for posts to appear on the search sites.

Beyond that, word of mouth is key. If you focus on producing the experience that you want to be known by (be it friendly, teaching, competitive, serious, frivolous, etc) then people will show up. "If you build it, they will come."

How did you choose where to buy your last pilot gadget? Why? Was it someplace that you'd bought before, someplace convenient, or someplace recommended by someone else? Convenience on the Internet means "ease of use" - and you've got that down with this software. The other terms mean the same - repeat visitors and word of mouth.

Last, if you push it, you can kill it. This is a tough time of year for aviation sites, since the weather is making flying difficult in many areas. The other site that I staff sees a quiet period now, which gets busier as flying gets off the back burner and the weather improves.

 

[Michael]

whatever you do. Dont do the cafepress thing. Their merchandise is soo cheesy. If you are going to have promotional merchandise, please take the time and effort to look for a reputable company to manufacture and or market.
Just my thoughts.

Michael

 

[Len Lanetti]

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The Pottstown Aircraft Owners and Pilots organization has an email group as described on their website.

www.paop.org

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1]"Join the PAOP eGroup at http://www.egroups.com/group/paop for a convenient way to connect with other PAOP members."[/size][/font]

Possibly post a message to that group, it will get the message out to a few dozen members at least.

I'd suggest the Grumman Gang email group but they have a very strict policy that all posts must be Grumman related. So, if a person was a member of that email group and could work in the PoA name somehow or possible post an email with a link as part of a signature. The URL below will take a person to the request form to become part of the email group.

http://www.grumman.net

Len

 

[Greebo]

whatever you do. Don't do the cafepress thing. Their merchandise is soo cheesy. If you are going to have promotional merchandise, please take the time and effort to look for a reputable company to manufacture and or market.

You wouldn't happen to know of one, would you? Cafepress was just mentioned because I know about them and their services. I've never actually used them or bought from them.

I do know, however, that good quality embroidered shirts don't come cheap. We happen to be looking at making a bunch of shirts for a different reason, and we're finding that the good quality shirts + embroidering will run something like $35 to $45 before shipping! (Don't recall the $ exactly). If POA were to provide logo'd merchandise of that quality, I almost think it would have to be done at near cost for promotional value only, as opposed to helping subsidize our operating costs. Much more expensive and nobody would buy anything, anyway...

 

[Brian Austin]

You wouldn't happen to know of one, would you? Cafepress was just mentioned because I know about them and their services. I've never actually used them or bought from them.

I do know, however, that good quality embroidered shirts don't come cheap. We happen to be looking at making a bunch of shirts for a different reason, and we're finding that the good quality shirts + embroidering will run something like $35 to $45 before shipping! (Don't recall the $ exactly). If POA were to provide logo'd merchandise of that quality, I almost think it would have to be done at near cost for promotional value only, as opposed to helping subsidize our operating costs. Much more expensive and nobody would buy anything, anyway...

I've got a local source that can do embroidery on ANYTHING. We can buy the shirts in bulk from some sources I've used in the past.

 

[JohnR]

I just ordered a tee shirt and a coffee mug with my website's logo, from Cafe Press. The shirt is a Haines "Heavyweight" and the image looks like an iron-on (no surprise given that the image was a jpeg I uploaded and what else would one expect?). The work looks good considering.

The mug is well done, too. Nice and large, with a big handle.

For zero capital outlay, no inventory to keep in stock, and all transactions and shipping done by others, you really can't beat Cafe Press.

 

[cherokeeflyboy]

I just ordered a tee shirt and a coffee mug with my website's logo, from Cafe Press. The shirt is a Haines "Heavyweight" and the image looks like an iron-on (no surprise given that the image was a jpeg I uploaded and what else would one expect?). The work looks good considering.

The mug is well done, too. Nice and large, with a big handle.

For zero capital outlay, no inventory to keep in stock, and all transactions and shipping done by others, you really can't beat Cafe Press.

I hope you are happy with your purchase, however in my experience, Cafe Press
is second rate. Let us know how your shirt looks after a few washings.

 

[Greebo]

I will also be very interested in hearing about how it all holds up.

 

[AirBaker]

Make up some quick posters... I'm pretty sure thats how I found my way to this board.