THE Cub Report – Poetic Justice

Hey there everyone, thanks for making the click over to Big Squid. This is THE Cub Report, a weekly column about the rc industry.

First off I would like to thank Pro-Line’s Matt Wallace for the title of this week’s Cub Report. Over on Matt’s social media he was using the #poeticjustic hashtag to express the feelings of the PL crew after clean sweeping the ROAR nats last weekend. You see, PL’s shipping company decided to make things reallllyyyy interesting for them at the nats this year by hiding three pallets worth of race tires. In the end, Ty Tessmann laid down the laps and took home the titles, once again putting even more ROAR national championships on his, and Pro-Line’s, mantel.

Now, while I am sure the shipping debacle put some gray hairs on the crew over at P-L last week, it did turn into a huge social media campaign. P-L got an incredible amount of marketing from people sharing social media posts about the lost tires, probably more so than they they will get from actually winning both the nitro buggy and truggy classes.

Now, on to the main course…

So…

Am I really going to post financials? Ummmm… yes, LOL, but I feel like I need to to make my point. Of course financials at BSRC are pretty easy to figure out, we are a small company still growing like a weed, so we run pretty much break even. When we sign new advertisers, that money goes to new writers, attending more trade shows, etc. Nobody around BSRC is cutting the check for a new NSX (sat in one yesterday, very nice), that much is for sure, and like many companies in rc, we do it first and foremost for our love of the hobby, not to stack up Brinks trucks.

A couple of weeks ago we did one of our “Thursday Night Dinners”, which if you work in the industry, you’ve either attended one, or heard the rumors, LOL. Sometimes it is just the BSRC Bash Crew members, sometimes it is with various industry people, sometimes it may entail driving full sized cars, sometimes we hit a gun range, sometimes we just bash, but most times we simply go out for food. On this particular occasion we met up with a small rc website owner to catch up on things and shoot the rc bull. The website owner has a good site, meaning it has solid content. He regularly updates (several times a week), plus he has a lot of really cool original content on his site. Before we met for dinner, I pulled up the number on his site to see how his site was coming along and his Alexa rank was deep into the millions. Solid website, great content, but an Alexa in the millions? WTF? If I would sit down and make the exact same website tonight, it would have an Alexa rank higher than that by tomorrow morning.

Currently rc is in a war against video games, skateboarding, guns, motocross, smart phones, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. I mean, that is just how this boils down. So, it is their industry’s media sites, against ours. Now, rc has a LOT of cool websites. We have lots of sites with outstanding content that are constantly being updated (RedRC for news anyone? the Traxxas YouTube for vids, etc), but we also have a lot of sites that could absolutely make a couple changes and really start getting some views. In the previous paragraph I talk about a guy with a great site, but not enough readers to show for his hard work. IMO, he really needs to look at his SEO rankings, and he doesn’t currently do any marketing for his site, so he could gain a lot of readers with minimal advertising cash, or via trading with other sites that are around his size. That particular site could be fixed on the cheap, just like many other websites. BigSquidRC has more than its own share of issues, so we are actively making changes to help search results, to have the site load faster, etc, (there are a bunch), plus, we are trying to put out even more posts and original content.

This Cub Report is about getting all you rc media people pumped up. With the state that rc is in right now, we have one heck of a fight on our hands against all the other hobbies, sports, and electronic gadgets. However, we have one seriously cool hobby, one that has some giant upsides, to sell to the masses, especially in these ultra-PC times.

1. Safe
2. Kid & family friendly
3. Tech based
4. Affordable

So… fellow members of the rc media, let’s get it going. Let’s up our game. Let’s post more, while we increase the quality of our content. Let all of us start getting more readers, which will in turn help all the other websites, hobby shops, and manufacturers.

Oh ya, and I am serious about working along with all the other rc websites. For example, I would love to sit down and talk in person with any media site this year in Denver. There are a bunch of things we can do to help the hobby, along with ourselves, and now is the time to progressively work together, definitely not against each other.

If you are another rc site and have some ideas on a collaboration, hit the contact us link at the bottom of the page, or hit up my email that can be found in ASK Cubby. Until next week, get out and support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can!

YOUR Cub Reporter