The Pro versus NPC Coverage disconnect

[Musclepapa John]

...

Good points, but I think you are being a bit cynical Mike.

[Musclepapa John]

My pitch is working well where there is an audience that makes purchases. Freebie content to a half dozen regular posters is of questionable worth. Just saying. I put the most effort into where I get a return on investment. The return won't improve here regardless. This like all forums and message boards are antiquated and behind the times with the advent of social media.

They should have taught more on the use of paragraphing and how it may help you sell your 'pitch' better, regardless of the format/media dispensing the message.

I got lost on that reply in regards to my comment of using a simple return key to better delineate your mumble-jumble.

[Musclepapa John]

My motivations for this thread: They are many, but a few include;
-Thumbing my nose at numerous sites including this one that came to Florida in years past and took marketshare from me that I adapted to and now these same sites have disappeared from the market.
-Encourage you site operators to come back and compete providing some competition as we all hone our skills and strive to innovate when facing competition.
-Spur others with actual good ideas and interest to learn from all of us involved to find a better path to coverage and promotion of the sport and athletes.

[Mac]

My pitch is working well where there is an audience that makes purchases. Freebie content to a half dozen regular posters is of questionable worth. Just saying. I put the most effort into where I get a return on investment. The return won't improve here regardless. This like all forums and message boards are antiquated and behind the times with the advent of social media.

OK. Got it. Since nobody purchases your services here at RX, you don't care.

Who would have guessed that message boards are a dying form of social interaction. So why are you here then wasting your time trying to 'pitch' yourself?

[Mac]

My motivations for this thread: They are many, but a few include;
-Thumbing my nose at numerous sites including this one that came to Florida in years past and took marketshare from me that I adapted to and now these same sites have disappeared from the market.
-Encourage you site operators to come back and compete providing some competition as we all hone our skills and strive to innovate when facing competition.
-Spur others with actual good ideas and interest to learn from all of us involved to find a better path to coverage and promotion of the sport and athletes.

Who would have fucking guessed this.

[Musclepapa John]

Analogy: Walmart in decades past was a threat to small local businesses and now is the third largest employer in the world behind the US & Chinese militaries. Now they are going after the market of name brand grocery suppliers raising prices on the name brands while promoting their own non-brand.
The Heinz and Del Monte's are faced with the dilemma of their biggest likely purchaser being Walmart competing with them. There is no dealer/distributor sort of non-compete arrangement. So it isn't as if the name brands can throw down the gauntlet and refuse to supply Walmart as they let the camels money into their tent already and have to sit wringing their hands knowing Walmart will eventually run many of them out of business.

With bodybuilding the big print mags had more press rights than websites, which weren't considered legit. Not any more. While the big sites like a Walmart can throw around more money they don't have the same connection to the local ROI that us smaller companies do as they are still teathered to the old advertising sales income revenue stream whereas guys like myself can throw out the images for free to garner photoshoot clientele that at $100 an hour far exceeds the daily rate I was making working for the big sites.
Thus, even with attempts being made to block my delivery of content for free the big sites don't have much of a contest coverage business model that makes dollars and sense to me unless the ad sales are really that much better than they would appear to be

[Musclepapa John]

For the most part the competitors 20-30% newbies at every show no indeed are not visiting here as you don't have a presence in this marketplace and where you do I put out the images they want weeks before this site does.
My pitch here is to the handful of big site operators and so-called legacy decision makers that will indeed have some knowledge of this place.
No need to sugar coat that I care if this message is heeded or deleted really as its immaterial. I'm thumbing my nose at the lot of the big sites that are increasingly immaterial.

OK. Got it. Since nobody purchases your services here at RX, you don't care.

Who would have guessed that message boards are a dying form of social interaction. So why are you here then wasting your time trying to 'pitch' yourself?

[Musclepapa John]

I like some of those ideas mostly because its trying different things and utilizing your heart and desire to get worthwhile info out there on a shoestring.
I did terrestrial radio myself from '89 off and on through about 2009 where I bought air time and sold advertising. When podcasting became an option I added that as a recorded version of the live show with an rss feed and no longer had to mail a cd of the program to my national sponsors that couldn't hear the local terrestrial show. Its an easy model to make a buck if you hustle. I could find terrestrial stations to purchase time from for as little as $15/hr in one market Pensacola, Florida. I was selling ads for typically $50-75 per 30 second spot and had national sponsors some of whom would pay for a full year in advance.

Apples and oranges. When bodybuilding's alleged "top publication" trots out people with zero experience running their website and show coverage, you get what is expected. The only way that this sport will ever climb out of the stone age is to put people in a position that deserve to be there and utilize their strengths. When they have none, you see the bag of shit that it continues to be.

I'll give you an example of how you can promote events on a shoestring budget and have it done professionally: one of my first sportswriting gigs was for a minor league pro basketball team in 2005. This was before social media was king and pre-My Space even. So the options were limited.

What we did was use the website to be the hub and I wrote a shitload of press releases, game previews, game recaps and player profiles. We hired a real photographer and used his photos on the site in these articles.

We had a two-man radio team and the play-by-play guy was young, but had great chops at what he did. The color commentator seat was not always a steady one, and I even jumped in there for a game. So for the most part, the broadcast came across sounding very professional and we had prerecorded bumpers and commercials for the sponsors and did post-game interviews with the home and road players and coaches. We even traveled with the team to do this.

We also made DVDs of the games and had another young but talented guy create short highlight reels for the site and YouTube. We also had a dance team and some local rap group recorded a song entitled the team's name and was about it. Add a mascot running around throwing free T-shirts to the "crowd" (we didn't draw very well) and we did our best to put on a good show.

Always bringing in new ideas (trivia contests with fans in attendance in between quarters, challenges for kids, etc.) and hire people that know what the fuck they are doing.

I know that streaming video is not allowed without permission from the promoter, but how about audio? Wouldn't a real play-by-play sound better than reading WisconsinBB and Shawn Ray double post?

[Mac]

For the most part the competitors 20-30% newbies at every show no indeed are not visiting here as you don't have a presence in this marketplace and where you do I put out the images they want weeks before this site does.
My pitch here is to the handful of big site operators and so-called legacy decision makers that will indeed have some knowledge of this place.
No need to sugar coat that I care if this message is heeded or deleted really as its immaterial. I'm thumbing my nose at the lot of the big sites that are increasingly immaterial.

I don't think that any one of them gives a rat's ass, but good luck in your crusade.

[Joe Pietaro]

I like some of those ideas mostly because its trying different things and utilizing your heart and desire to get worthwhile info out there on a shoestring.
I did terrestrial radio myself from '89 off and on through about 2009 where I bought air time and sold advertising. When podcasting became an option I added that as a recorded version of the live show with an rss feed and no longer had to mail a cd of the program to my national sponsors that couldn't hear the local terrestrial show. Its an easy model to make a buck if you hustle. I could find terrestrial stations to purchase time from for as little as $15/hr in one market Pensacola, Florida. I was selling ads for typically $50-75 per 30 second spot and had national sponsors some of whom would pay for a full year in advance.

But at least you were and still are thinking ahead and trying to be progressive with your product. And Palumbo is doing the same by providing a different outlet with his TV shows, something that is unique and really cool with the studio setting.

When I was doing the GEAR TV shows, it was a cool setting and was fun to do. We were going to begin getting pro sports athletes either in studio or on via Skype when they stopped doing the show altogether.

It's not always thinking out of the box, but rather doing something within the box that the others are not seeing the value in doing. And then when you succeed, it's even sweeter.

[bigmikecox]

I will say that Dave's shows are great! When Joe and Greg were on that was classic!! You guys should do a weekly show IMO.

[sassy69]

It would be cool if NPC mandated a summary of each of the shows - small to large - and the promoter holding the NPC endorsement for each show is responsible to deliver it as part of their contract. Imagine if there was actually enthusiasm about delivering that piece and competition amongs said promoters to produce a good writeup and photos of highlights.

There's no way large forums or internet outlets are going to cover every show, particularly the smaller local shows. There may be some local coverage in those communities but that's about it. Even at a state level of there was some summary of shows it would be cool. The NPC magazine does some that I've liked in the past, but despite having held an NPC card for about 2/3 of the last 15 years, I've probably only received 3 of their publications.

[bigmikecox]

^^^NPC News mag NEVER comes! LOL

In Florida, its nice to see so many shows being covered. Not sure how it is in bigger states like NY, TX or Ca, but you can look online and see tons of pics and results!

[sassy69]

^^^NPC News mag NEVER comes! LOL

In Florida, its nice to see so many shows being covered. Not sure how it is in bigger states like NY, TX or Ca, but you can look online and see tons of pics and results!

When I think of the things the NPC could do if it puts it's mind to it ... could make the sport so much better, better coverage, more consistency in judging criteria, etc. But ... oh well.

[bigmikecox]

When I think of the things the NPC could do if it puts it's mind to it ... could make the sport so much better, better coverage, more consistency in judging criteria, etc. But ... oh well.

I agree but its almost like you cant rock the boat for fear that it may affect your contest placing.