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Ideas for spreading the word?


Guest philgolden

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Guest philgolden

I just noticed that there are no caches in Louisiana. BUMMER! That is about to change. My question is how can I attract folks in to Louisiana for some treasure hunting? (thought about setting a cach at a local mountain bike trailhead or end) and How can I get the word out to fellow Louisianians to increase the presence of the sport? Any ideas would be appreciated... I am still trying to decide which GPS to purchase so it will be a couple of weeks before I can start. That will give me some time to get the word out... Thanks in advance!!!

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Well, I was at the local Best Buy today, and I checked out their displays. It seems to me that if they want to sell more GPS units, they'd probably appreciate hearing about the game. The GPS displays always seem a bit lame and out of the way. It's in automotive, for crying out loud!

 

Anyway, I'd love to see someone help out and create a digital flyer we could print out at Kinkos and perhaps pass out at the places that sell GPS units.

 

One thing I thought about doing here in the PNW is to create business cards with the little logo and a short description, put the cards in a nice display and ask the guys at REI and such if they wouldn't mind displaying it. I've already had two REI folks who teach GPS usage and love the game - might as well spread the love. Business cards are pretty cheap too, considering.

 

What else? The press has been pretty good for the game but some areas are lacking in caches. I just found a new one in Seattle and would love to see more.

 

The T-shirts would help a bunch too. I should be getting them in this coming week or next. If they go well we'll probably get some hats next (not the cheezy kind).

 

Jeremy

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Guest philgolden

Thanks Jeremy for the quick post... I already thought of business cards -- real cheap advertising, but I would like to get an idea of how many folks down here would be interested in the game.

 

Thanks for the ideas. Maybe I can help launch more of a following down here for you.

 

------------------

Phil

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Guest Ultralight

How about printing up some bumper stickers and make them available to everyone on this site? people can then put them on their cars, bikes, backpacks or whatever they like.

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a few ideas

first off, alot of camping/hiking/biking outdoors stores etc have bulletin boards etc, i highly recommend making a little poster, who wouldn't read something that says "worldwide gps treasure hunt" on top?

 

similarly, maybe you can find some local tech type stuff w/bulletin boards, how about internet cafes? or local LA hiking groups on the net? there must be lots of hiking/outdoors url in LA. contact them. i've seen some organizations concerning local parks near me mention geocaching on their urls.

 

second, yeah, the press has been great in terms of getting people going in certain areas, MA and the Boston Globe are one example. I suggest you make some small, cheap caches with little interesting stuff, and place them all over, maybe 5? perhaps you should have a different pseudonyom for each. this way, you can try contacting the local press about geocaching and it'll seem like there are already alot of people playing in the area. similarly there's no use in posting on bulletin boards etc unless there are a few caches out there already, people might not be motivated unless they see there are already places to find. once they find one, and are hooked, they'll make their own.

 

its a pretty interesting subjct in general, so it should't be hard to get local papers in LA to write a story, especially if there are some caches in big parks int he state etc..

 

good luck!

 

lionel

 

[This message has been edited by lionel (edited 01-13-2001).]

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Guest tgriggs

I'm a features writer at The Advocate in BR. Do you know any cachers from this area? Thanks

 

quote:
Originally posted by philgolden:

I just noticed that there are no caches in Louisiana. BUMMER! That is about to change. My question is how can I attract folks in to Louisiana for some treasure hunting? (thought about setting a cach at a local mountain bike trailhead or end) and How can I get the word out to fellow Louisianians to increase the presence of the sport? Any ideas would be appreciated... I am still trying to decide which GPS to purchase so it will be a couple of weeks before I can start. That will give me some time to get the word out... Thanks in advance!!!


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Do you know of any friends who won GPSr's? Hide a cache or two, then have them find them. Expecially if you can have the newspaper tag along on the hunt, or hide them, then, have the reporter find them.

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Guest Cape Cod Cache

Marine stores. Not Semper Fi, boat stuff. I sold a few hundred in Hyannis MA. Boaters. I got my 48 there. A nice letter that tells of Caching would be cool to hand out to retailers. Perhaps we can work on that.

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Guest Ranger Rick

To pass the word around, I went to the local WalMart Store and talked to the electronics dept. manager about geocaching. She asked for a business card (which I printed from a downloaded file at the Geocaching.com site) and she placed it on the glass case above the GPS units. She thinks she will sell more of these units if people knew what fun they could have with them. Another way is to invite some friends to come along and find a cache site even if it is one that you placed. Let them try the GPS unit. Good Luck

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Guest MAMASMAUG

quote:
Originally posted by philgolden:

I just noticed that there are no caches in Louisiana. BUMMER! That is about to change. My question is how can I attract folks in to Louisiana for some treasure hunting? ... Thanks in advance!!!


 

Hi, I am waiting to get my GPS and get started here in Portland, ORegon. I never heard of this sport until Saturday. I was watching the news and we have special part where each week a guy tells us places to go outdoors and he went with a family who does geocaching and that is how I heard of it. It sounded great and I have been checking it out and I am excited about it. Maybe you can get ahold of someone at the local tv station and have them talk about it somehow. Just a thought, it worked to get me interested.

Good Luck

Mamasmaug

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Guest MissJenn

quote:
Originally posted by Ranger Rick:

She asked for a business card (which I printed from a downloaded file at the Geocaching.com site) and she placed it on the glass case above the GPS units.


 

Does this download file still exist? I haven't found it yet and I've been poking around in there quite a bit over the last few days. Someone point me in the right direction, please.

 

------------------

All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power. - Ashleigh Brilliant ©

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Just a thought on this matter. Maybe it would be helpful if someone came up with a Geocaching brochure that could be given, not only to prospective players, but people in charge of prospective cache locations. I think if they saw something in writing that looked fairly professional, that might add some legitimacy to our lil' hobby.

 

Maybe these could be done up in Adobe PDF format and made available for downloading and printing.

 

Sure beats walking up to a park ranger and saying, "Dude, can I hide something here?!?" icon_wink.gif

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Just a thought on this matter. Maybe it would be helpful if someone came up with a Geocaching brochure that could be given, not only to prospective players, but people in charge of prospective cache locations. I think if they saw something in writing that looked fairly professional, that might add some legitimacy to our lil' hobby.

 

Maybe these could be done up in Adobe PDF format and made available for downloading and printing.

 

Sure beats walking up to a park ranger and saying, "Dude, can I hide something here?!?" icon_wink.gif

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While we are on the subject of promoting/business cards, etc. I emailed Jeremy a couple of months ago & asked if he could come up with some kind of 'official' geocacher membership card. EMS for one offers special discounts (20% off) for anyone that belongs to an outdoor club a couple of times a year but you have to show some kind of membership. I never got a reply so maybe we could come up with something as a group that we could print on business cards.

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I'd be interested in some kind of letter/info pack we could provide to local retailers to interest others in Geocaching. I think if we made it simple (The geocaching site explanation is great but too complex/long to grab an outsiders attention)& appealed to the retailers desire to sell more units we might get alot of new cachers. We may have to do a little educating of the reatailer & show them that the effort would result in sales for them. We should be prepared with information to represent geocaching in a positive light. Can we work up some kind of package? I'm a manager @ a Discovery Channel store & mention it to likely prospects but it would be nice to have something printed.

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Guest gnbrotz

I use this card to hand out to interested parties.

 

cachecard.jpg

 

A template file for Avery business card blanks is available here in Word 97 format. Just right click the link and choose "Save as" to dowload it. The template uses the new logo, I just didn't have an image of my most recent version. Also, the tan color is the stock, not a background pattern. The text is identical.

 

------------------

Greg

N39°54.705'

W077°33.137'

My geocaching page

 

[This message has been edited by gnbrotz (edited 13 February 2002).]

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Run a small add in your local paper.

 

**** "What to do with your GPS-,Geocaching.com" ****

Should do the trick for some people.

 

------------------

Beter to Zig then Zag

 

[This message has been edited by Zig (edited 17 February 2002).]

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gnbrotz, icon_smile.gif

Thanks for posting that GeoCard. I downloaded it and then made my own in Publisher. I have been leaving them in Caches that I find. There was an article in our local paper. Since then there have been a increase in participation in the sport. There have been people E-Mailing me about the cards and the sport as well.( I placed my e-mail on the back of card). I know I am still new at this GeoCaching, But my family an I are having a blast.

Thanks Again "gnbrotz",

 

Frank M. Lopez

IdahoMan

IdahoMan@cableone.net

 

www.cableone.net/fmlopez icon_cool.gif

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gnbrotz, icon_smile.gif

Thanks for posting that GeoCard. I downloaded it and then made my own in Publisher. I have been leaving them in Caches that I find. There was an article in our local paper. Since then there have been a increase in participation in the sport. There have been people E-Mailing me about the cards and the sport as well.( I placed my e-mail on the back of card). I know I am still new at this GeoCaching, But my family an I are having a blast.

Thanks Again "gnbrotz",

 

Frank M. Lopez

IdahoMan

IdahoMan@cableone.net

 

www.cableone.net/fmlopez icon_cool.gif

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