“Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.”

image credit: borman818

As nine students of Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA program said, “Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution”.

This is very true. It’s fun to sit down and brainstorm ideas.

Some ideas will be junk, but that’s expected…even encouraged.

But the process of brainstorming brings about the opportunity for great ideas.

Some people never share their ideas with their employer, family, friends, co-workers, etc. simply because they’re afraid.

I encourage you to always brainstorm, always share ideas, and to follow through on ideas you truly believe have potential to fulfill the needs of the future as you foresee your customers seeing it. (I’m not sure if that last phrase made sense…)

Anyway, here are 3 ideas I had tonight for hunting outfitters, affiliates, and stores. You are welcome to take these ideas and use them for your own success. You’re welcome to comment on them (good or bad).

I’ll even include some pros and cons that might arise in the execution.

Hopefully this exercise spurs some creative thought and shows that sharing is beneficial for everyone.

3 Ideas for Hunting Businesses

Outfitters

1) Share Your Property Layout

If you’re an outfitter, why not share the layout of your property on a Website or blog?

I’m thinking this would work in a hybrid forum setting on a Website where Website visitors are allowed to comment, give advice, and share insight on how to effectively hunt the outfitting property.

I’m thinking about the images (computer created) that Field & Stream (or is it Outdoor Life?) and other hunting magazines show of property where they show wind direction, food sources, bedding, travel routes, etc. and then describe and show the best way to hunt the terrain.

Outfitters could share their property outline in drawings and allow their community of visitors to plot hunts.

The outfitters could also have versions for each year they hunt including where deer (or other game) were harvested.

Cory (Outdoors International), maybe you could help add to this idea? I’m not sure what outfitters would think of it.

For execution, this would take some programming and some design for the drawings. The outfitters would have to be willing to share their information.

Some benefits I see include a greater connection with potential outfitting customers as well as a chance for the outfitter to get an outside perspective on their property.

For the potential clients I think it would be a great way to develop a trust with a potential outfitter. Hunters would get a chance to see where deer are harvested on a particularly piece of property as well as get a chance to plot out a strategy they believe could be successful on the land.

Thoughts?

Web Communities

2) Purple Deer

There are so many new hunting communities online that the Web is saturated.

Paraphrasing Seth Godin, hunting communities now resemble a herd of cows in a field. It’s difficult to stand out. Each community (cow) looks alike. People (hunters) don’t give much of a glance at any of them.

This is why your hunting community needs to become (against, Seth’s term) the purple cow (or purple deer/elk/turkey, etc.).

What will make you stand out from the crowd?

Off the top of my head I think a hunting community on the Web could become a remarkable purple cow by offering a service like “Weekly Hunting Strategies for Your Property”. (I’m on a property sharing kick today – my imagination is not at full functionality).

Offer to give free advice to hunters on the property they hunt. Have users send in photos and descriptions of their hunting property and give them advice on how they may better find success.

Open up the topic to forum discussion. Use the resources of your site to help others out. Just give them some direction. People like to help other people. Hunters like helping other hunters.

If you don’t know how to hunt a certain property yourself, go out and find someone who will and interview them. Get some advice and help out hunters on the Web. Help them harvest trophy game.

This would be a remarkable service.

Hunting communities need something remarkable (service, feature, quality, product, etc.) that makes them stand out as the purple cow on the Web.

Any thoughts on this idea?

Do you have a better idea? Tom, any thoughts?

Web Hunting Stores

3) Connect With Photography Bloggers

As I’ve said before, bloggers are a hunting business’s most valuable resource on the Web.

Something all stores use in their displays, catalogs, Websites, etc. are photos. Stores needs photos for majestic background images, email images, products being used by hunters captured in photography, etc.

Why not use the resource of the thousands of photography bloggers available?

For this blog I use photos licensed under Creative Commons from Flickr in every post. I’ve even had posts that include 50 inspirational photos from this source.

I’m thinking that someone like Schnee’s (@Schnees, @josalisbury, @schnees_curt) could use images of blogging photographers on their Home page, in emails, etc. (under a CC-type license) to generate quality relationships on the Web, which would expand their Web presence.

Create a blog-like Web page that gives proper attribution (attribution may be necessary in emails, home pages, etc.) and highlights how you used the photographer’s image in your promotional material.

Make it easy for users to link back to their featured spot on your site as well. It will give the photographers social proof that their work is of high enough quality to be used by major businesses.

This would take some programming as well as a dedicated effort to form quality relationships with outdoor photographers.

Any thoughts on this idea?

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Purple Cow Redux

50 Stunning Images From Flickr Under Creative Commons

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