Hobby Club Membership

[felgall]

I have a membership site designed for hobby type clubs to keep track of who their members are and to allow the club membership officer to process renewals. I am offering it to clubs as a hosted solution so that they will get all of the updates installed for them automatically along with regular backups of their membership info.

 

What is the best way to advertise this so that other clubs that might benefit from this can find out that it exists?

[chrystalia]

You MIGHT try this website--

 

http://www.connect2clubs.com/directory/ClubIndex/HobbyClubs.aspx

 

It's one of the larger established clearinghouse sites for clubs. Other possibilities would include looking for the "national" organization in  given hobby field and going there. for instance, this one: http://www.goldprospectors.org/

 

That is the Gold Prospectors Association of America, and they have several hundred smaller gold prospecting clubs that belong to their organization at state and regional levels. Most popular hobbies have an "umbrella" organization of some type.

 

If you do a general search along the lines of "national association of hobby clubs", you'll find "national associations" of everything from railroading to rocketry, dollmaking to woodworking.

 

The most time consuming way would be to hunt down forums for different types of popular hobbies, get known, and use the link to your site selling this as a sig. file.

 

 

 

Perhaps the fastest way to get this off the ground is the old fashioned offline approach:

 

Go through your local paper, phone book, or Craigslist.

 

Choose 5 popular hobbies--the ones that look the most active. Here in Tucson, we are up to our eyeballs in Gun clubs and rockhounding/prospecting clubs, but only have 1 dollmaking club. I'd want a good cross section--some BIG clubs, with lots of different activities, some small clubs. A boy scout or girl scout troop or two, some religious organizations-- it isn't just hobby clubs that could use something like this, I'm sure.

 

Contact the admins/leaders directly, and offer them the service free for 3 months, with the proviso that they a) tell you how to make it "better", and AFTER the trial period, they actively introduce their "higher" group to your service.

 

Our local gold prospecting clubs all also belong to a statewide club--which belongs to the national one linked above. Were I marketing an idea like this, I would approach the club I belong to and ask them to try it out. I would also choose clubs of widely varying types--for instance, some clubs hold only private events, others host public events and charitable events. Some clubs have multiple membership types and levels, others only one. Each club will, in theory, have different needs they would like met, and having different clubs test the product out would identify the most popular add ons, and the weaknesses.

 

I'll do some more digging and asking around, and see if I can dig up any more possibilities for you.

 

If I find any other links of interest--people you can contact or places that might be amenable to you advertising, may I private message you? 

[felgall]

Thanks - there are a few things you mentioned that I'd never have thought of.

[chrystalia]

Thanks - there are a few things you mentioned that I'd never have thought of.

 

I am a researcher and an information collector, so I'm well versed in finding out of the ordinary answers :-).....