I’m waiting for brainstorming from you all, but here are some more ideas from me:

An area for beginners with easy-to-use poles, how-to articles, etc.

Post fishing clubs, information on upcoming meetings, how to join, contact information, location, etc. Divide it by state, province, etc.

Pictures of different types of fish, where they live, information about them, salt or fresh water, average size, etc.

Form partnerships with hunting sites and cross promote with article syndication, etc.

Weather predictions for various areas across the country

Fishing predictions for various areas (is that possible?)

Personalize the site — can be extremely effective

Enough from me — what about ideas from YOU???

Robin

What about simple ideas like adding a blog to a site??? Adding a forum??

I’m stopping here. I want you to brainstorm with me.

Someone pointed out that I shouldn’t have given 25 ideas in the beginning. That kept everyone else from having their own ideas. I apologize. I won’t do that again.

Next time I’ll get the ball rolling, and I’ll let YOU come up with your own ideas.

Robin

Break it down into components…..
FISHING sea/deep sea/beach
FISHING coarse/lakes/rivers/ponds
FISHING game/fly/lures
FISHING carp/tench/roach/perch/barbel/rudd/ and so on

so you would end up with fishing as the main heading,then break it down into types of fishing and then narrow it again to different species and then yet again into different ways of catching said species…..float/ledger/spinning etc this can be ‘niched’ even further as all the methods of fishing have different styles and equipment.
For example

Fishing
Coarse (fresh water)
barbel
float
large/small float
hook size
bait
presentation

the fishing niche is inexhaustable as everyone has there own methods and tricks,interaction would be a good feature on a fishing site,anglers could record there catches and methods at different venues for everyone to compare.

Paul,

Wow! Phenomenal brainstorming! Thank you. That would make great information on a Web site.

You’re right — interaction on a site like this would be a great idea.

Paul is obviously a fisherman. He knows what he would want to see on a fishing Web site. Listen to this guy.

More brainstorming:

We’ve covered national fishing areas, but what about international fishing areas? Are there fabulous fishing areas in other countries?

What about further monetizing your site with affiliate marketing or AdSense ads? Not really content, but this is an additional way to make money.

Podcasts where you interview experts in the fishing industries, or an expert from each major area.

Other ideas?

Robin

A page listing local bait and outdoor goods stores

Start an online fishing contest. A measuring tape along side the fish for a total length wins.

A page of fishing knots and how to tie them.

A lake listing with resorts and lodges. Also mentioning public access.

These are a few ideas I have.

Roger

Roger,

YES! Wonderful ideas! Thank you so much. Fishing knots–now that’s cool!

Fishing lodges–all excellent ideas.

Now we’re really brainstorming together.

If we created a site with these ideas, we’d have The Meca Fishing Site, and we wouldn’t have to work on building link popularity at all. People would naturally link to it.

Our potential customers would visit due to the content. Our site would open so many different keyword windows of visibility. Customers would come back again and again because we’d be adding new content on a regular basis.

While they’re viewing the different content, we would link to our various products from our blog, articles, etc. That’s a very important part that you can’t forget. Point your visitors to YOUR products to increase your sales.

Another idea of mine:

Let’s say you’re fishing on a lake and catch a fish, but you don’t know what kind of fish it is. What if we had a program on our site where you could type in the type of water (salt vs. fresh), where you were fishing (lake, river, deep sea), colors of fish, size, and so forth. The database would spit out pictures of possible fish for you.

Would that be helpful on a fishing site?

Robin

One thought to add: talk to your customers. What do THEY want to see on your site? Roger and Paul gave some amazing insights into what a fisherman would want to see on a fishing Web site. Their insights were invaluable.

We could come up with 100 ideas of our own, but if we fail to listen to our customers, we’ve fallen short.

That’s a very important lesson to learn:

Listen to your customers!

Robin

Fly fishing has been a passion of mine for many years. Like everybody else I started by just “going fishing” and then I came across a magazine about fishing that inpspired me and from the occasional buying of the magazine I became a subscriber and from there on I bought a book, and later another book and today I have over a hundred books abot flyfishing.
And they have taught me so much. One of the very best I ever read was called “What The Trout Said” by Datus Proper.
Datus Proper wrote his book based upon “conversations” he had with trout. Of course it is a book about how to catch fish but from a different angle as you can infer from the title. He tried to get into the “mind” of the trout.
I have recently become inspired by my re-reading of many of my books (some 40 years old) to help people understand the thinking and theory behind successful fishing rather than the the simple mechanics. My site http://www.floatinglines.com was started quite recently with this objective in mind.
It’s attempting to answer the Why questions instead of the What or Which type of questions that most fishing sites talk about.

Tony,

You’re also personalizing your site, which is an excellent way to handle your Web site. Your site is very personalized. You’re telling stories–and people can get wrapped up in your stories. It’s one way to differentiate you from all of the other fishing sites out there.

Plus, the entire site is a blog. When you get comments, you can answer the comments in a personal way. This also adds the “personal” touch.

Thanks so much for this very enlightening post. Good luck with your fishing site!

Robin

funnilly enough im working on one now if anyone has any free content, zen templates that would suit etc please feel free to contact me.

I think an accurate postage module for light weight items with mass quantities, plus fieldtester section that enables web based feedback, with map function, e.g. I caught this….here…. but only viewable by the people who have signed up and paid to be field testers for particular products.

and a module, that allows customizing of the packaging, e.g. made for…..or locally made for orders on particular groups. e.g. insert shop name who purchased etc.(this would be in an admin section.)

send us samples section, to enable B2b access with other suppliers for fieldtesting and marketing and internal testing.

trophy rooms

kids - automatic selection of a largest size and random spot prize per month to signed up with photos of fish caught on lures within the site.

oldtimer methods - rigging, general fishing.

my tacklebox - area to show what you use, and have a sell my gear section connected to it.

downloadable virtual fish, but freshwater species, maybe even a vitual yabby, maybe some virtual crustaceons as well.

a virtual casting pond.

custom lure section. (WYSIWYG)

weather forecast based on IP locality.

flash fish species presentations.

fishing mpegs.