I was new to all this. This was the first year I had ever shot a bow, with only with a month until the opening of early black-tail season, and I had little time to learn the art of bow hunting.

I was also careless. As I was stepping out of my Jeep onto the logging road I dropped my bow hard and did not even think twice about it. And I did not heed the wise counsel to always be alert and watching for those elusive but curious creatures that could be around any corner or behind any tree.

Yet I had some luck on my side. The wind was in my face and was sloughing through the trees with enough noise to cover the quiet clanging of the aluminum stand. Dawn had arrived but she had yet to unveil the full light of the sun. I also had the optimism of beginners luck in my head. Surely there was a massive record setting buck out there with my name on it standing broadside so I could execute a perfect twenty yard shot.

But now I was caught, like a child with his hand in the cookie jar, and I had no clue what to do. There was no clear shot and I had a mass of noisy metal hanging off my back. Had I already blown it with my nonchalant stroll up the gravel road? Or was this my moment of victory? Do I keep moving or stand still?

The adrenaline in my body began pumping as I considered my options. I slowly loosened the tree stand off of my back and lowered it to the ground, cringing as the metal stand pieces clinked together. I grasped my bow and crept slowly back to an opening that would give me a clean line of sight. However, as I became fully visible, one of the bucks sprang into the nearby thicket and crashed out of sight. The other hawg however continued to pierce my muted movements with his staring eyes.

Finally a clear shot; about twenty yards away the buck took a couple of stiff steps and offered a beautiful broadside shot! The advice of my father-in-law was screaming in my mind’s ear. “Don’t look at his rack; focus on all the essential elements of gripping your bow, pulling back, sighting in, and executing the shot.” In a couple of seconds I knew my shot would be gone. Desperately trying to keep my nerves in check I pulled back into full draw and sighted in on the kill zone.

“Zing!” With smug victory already resounding in my heart I gently pulled the trigger and sent the arrow flying. “Thud!” The buck jumped and sprinted into the thick Western Washington undergrowth crashing out of view and I was left there stunned. I was stricken with grief as I saw my arrow firmly set in a tree trunk that was a full twelve inches to the left of the target. The anguish built as the full weight of what had just happened rested on my shoulders: the dream opportunity of all bow hunters. What now? Did I try and pursue the deer? Did I wait for them to become curious and circle back around? Or were they gone forever?

For the next hour I stalked as silently as possible through the brambles looking for another glimpse of the ghosts. But they were gone and I was crushed. I headed back to retrieve my arrow from the tree. As I was digging my arrow out of the tree trunk I slipped and sliced open my finger on the corner of my broadhead. Since I could not stop the bleeding with my small medical kit I had to abandon the rest of my hunting day and head in.
The next couple of hours were painful as every second of that experience replayed in my mind. Frustrated at myself for rushing the shot I took out my bow to practice the essentials. To my astonishment, every shot I took was hitting twelve inches to left of the bulls eye. I suddenly realized that I had not rushed the shot but my sights were off most likely because I had dropped my bow that morning on the logging road. I was relieved that I had made a good shot but angry at myself for being so careless with my bow.

As troubling as my inexperience was at the time, I have learned to heed the sage advice from those who mentor me. I am now cautious with how I treat my hunting equipment and I stay alert at all times on the hunt.
So I have learned that every experience is an opportunity for positive growth. Every time I am in the woods I seek to learn more about the animals I hunt, the location I am in, and about the God who created them all. Hunting is, after all, more than a kill. It is one experience building upon another making me a better hunter. Hunters, we must not let one moment of inexperience ruin our lifetime of hunting experience.

This post was written by James Ruble, avid bow hunter.

How it works

The wireless IP camera has a laser pointer attached to the side for quick setup.

It’s called the Bullseye Camera System and the basic idea is simple. You start with an image of the target, fire your shot, then refresh the image. The new image will show where you hit the target. The software that runs the Bullseye System will flash between the first and second image so you can easily see where you hit the target.

The parts

The components that come with the Bullseye system are a camera, router and battery pack. You have to have your own laptop to view the video feed but Gary tells me they are working on iOS and Android apps for the system so you can use your tablet or smartphone. That would be a big plus in my book. I would pick up a cheap netbook if you don’t want to bring your full sized laptop out in the field. The entire package fits in a standard tool or tackle box size tote with each item nestled into it’s own spot in the foam so it’s portable enough for most people.

The Setup

We positioned the camera about 8′ away from the target at a 45 degree angle.

Putting the system together took less than a minute. We set the camera on the tripod about 8’ away from the target at a 45 degree angle. There is no zoom on the camera so to make the image of the target bigger, you have to physically move the camera. There is a laser pointer attached to the side of the camera so all you have to do is point the red dot on the target and you are good to go.

With the tripod in place, Gary connected the router and camera to a small battery pack and powered them up. Once the router was online we were ready to head back to the shooting bench about 100 yards away. If everything is is positioned properly, you don’t have to return to the target until you are done shooting or the battery dies 5 hours later.

Back at the bench, we had Gary’s “Coyote Killer” on the rest with his laptop situated so he could easily see it. The camera system sends out a wireless signal that you connect to like any other WiFi connection on your laptop. Once you are on that network, open up the software and you are ready to go.  As long as you are connected to the wireless network, the image should show on your screen so there is virtually no setup involved.

We were ready to shoot.

Note: If you hook everything up and the Bullseye Camera System is not connecting to your laptop, first make sure you are connected to the Bullseye wireless network then close down the program and start it up again. That should get your image on the screen. 

Using It

At the shooting bench

So everything was set up and ready to rock. Gary took a shot then tapped the space bar on his computer.  This flashed the new image over the old one a few times so we could clearly see where he hit the target.  We were shooting a hanging steel target which moved slightly when it was hit. That meant we had to wait for the steel to come to rest before refreshing the image. If we hit the space bar too soon it would show the entire steel target in a different position which makes it harder to see where you hit. See a demo of this here.  The system still worked fine and we could tell where he hit, but it was clearer image when we waited for the steel to stop swinging. If you are not shooting a swinging target, this is a non issue all together.

Bullseye Software in Action

The software is definitely designed for someone interested in improving their accuracy. The instant feedback you get after each shot will undoubtedly help you hone your skills. You can also set up different shooter profiles that allow you to keep track of how you shot with different weapons in different locations with different ammo. For someone doing custom loads for specific guns or if you are trying to find the right factory load, this is a huge feature and a massive time saver. You have the ability to test out multiple load recipes without walking back to the target each time. The images are all logged on the computer so you can compare and analyze results easily.

Conclusion

The system is very versatile. You can use it with almost any weapon on any range at distances up to 1000 yards. You don’t need any special targets either. You can staple a paper plate to a piece of plywood and you are good to go.  Since the software uses an IP camera you could conceivably  have multiple cameras trained on multiple targets. You could take any kind of shooting competition to the next level by adding this system. How much fun would that be?

I’m sure many of the more tech savvy out there are saying things like ‘couldn’t you just use a camcorder with a fold out screen?’ or ‘what about a GoPro with wifi?’. Granted, there are other ways to review your shots and a few might even be cheaper. The thing that sets Bullseye apart is the software. The way it compares images and highlights your last shot makes it much more useful than a zoomed in camcorder. Like I mentioned before, the profiles feature lets you save all of that data so you can analyze each shot much more efficiently. A GoPro can’t do that and a camcorder is useless at 1000 yards.

The “introductory price” of the system is $399 for 500 yard range and $499 for the 1000 yard range.  The difference between the two is an extra WiFi range booster. The laptop doesn’t come with the package.

Check it out at their website www.bullseyecamera.com.

Like I said before, I love guns and technology. In my opinion the guys at Bullseye have brought the two together to make a very useful product that will not only save you time out on the range but it will help you become a better shot.

What do you think about this product?

Footage of big fish helps too.

The Old Post Fly Fishing Experience

The Old Post Fly Fishing Experience from Vantage Point Media House on Vimeo.

Red Like Winter: the Trailer

Red Like Winter: the Trailer from Waterline Media on Vimeo.

Home For Salmon – Big Salmon

Home For Salmon – Big Salmon from Danica Film AS / Kristian Topp on Vimeo.

“The Kodiak Project” trailer

“The Kodiak Project” trailer – by LDR Media | Fly Fishing Movie from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo.

Trembleur Fishing Adventures

Trembleur Fishing Adventures from MAMMOTH on Vimeo.

Sure, you can submit your site to directories or buy links on shady websites, and there is some benefit to those links, but the juicy links come from legitimate and authoritative websites run by people who don’t know you exist. So, your task is to make them notice you.

How to get noticed

Be the best

The first step in your link building efforts actually has nothing to do with the Internet. First and foremost, your business has to be top-notch. You have to be the best in your area of expertise. If you are a guide, make your clients love you. If you own a lodge, make your guests want to visit you again. If you are a gunsmith, make great guns.

Word of mouth is still the best advertising and that will carry over to the Internet. A lot of people have websites or blogs and if you give them a great experience, they will tell other people. That could be face to face or it could be on their site. It’s organic link building at the grassroots level.

Be Helpful

If you make your living in the outdoors as a guide or a writer or a photographer or whatever, odds are you are an expert. You know what you are doing. You know more than the average Joe because you do it every day.

Help people out. There are millions of people asking billions of questions every day online and you probably have the answers to a lot of them. Question and answer sites are all over and forums have been around forever. Register on a few of these sites and start sharing your knowledge.

I would pick sites that are specific to your expertise and allow you to link back to your website or other social media account like twitter or Facebook.

• All Experts
• Quora
• Answerbag
• Bass Pro Shop Q and A
• Yahoo Answers

These sites are also great places to see what kinds of questions are out there so you can create content on your own site that will be useful to people.

That leads to the next way to get noticed…

Create Useful Content

Make your website link worthy. When someone visits your site, you want them to share it. They will share your content if they learn something or are entertained so you need to teach them something useful or make them laugh / cry / fly into a rage etc.

This is where a blog comes in.

Stick with me here because it’s not as bad as you think. Blogging is actually very easy if you know your subject and basic grammar.  If you have been hunting or fishing all of your life and have made it your career, you have all of the content you will ever need right in your head.

If you are a storyteller, write about your experiences in the field or on the water. Crazy, amazing, unbelievable, hilarious things happen in the woods so why not recount that experience. There are people who will read this kind of stuff all day.

If you have a unique way of doing things, teach someone how to do it on a blog post. Step by step instructions are easy to put in writing and people are hungry to learn. Not everyone had a Dad or Grandpa to teach them hunting or fishing but you can help.

If you are not a writer, you can still produce quality content. Video is becoming easier and easier to produce for the web and a picture can still speak a thousand words so think outside the box a little.

If you are looking for more blogging tips, I recommend checking out Problogger.net.

Have an Attractive Website

Update your website and keep it fresh. You might have the most compelling content on the web but if your site looks old, is unorganized, uses an unreadable font, or is just plain boring, you will lose people. Trust is tied to design and people won’t link to something they don’t trust.

Spread the Word

You can set up a beautiful site with useful, life-changing content, and you will have people linking to you. They will eventually find you but it will take FOREVER. You have to prime the pump a little bit.
Whenever you write a blog post, Tweet it out a few times, post it on your Facebook page, and post it on your Google+ profile.  Let people know that you have something to share. If it’s good, they will pass it along.

Reach out to other site owners. Look for sites that would benefit from your content and email the site owner.

If you are blogging consistently, join a blog network. Outdoor Blogger Network is a great community and it is growing quickly. You can list your site in their directory and submit your posts to be featured on the site. If you are featured they will post a link to your article which should generate decent traffic on its own in addition to the great link juice it will provide.

Guest posting on other blogs is probably the best method to use for linkbuilding. Basically you write posts on other people’s websites. You get extra exposure and they get great content. It’s a win win situation.

I recommend reading this post about guest blogging over at CopyBlogger.

Promote your Site Offline

Put your web address on everything. If you have coffee cups with your business name on them, add your web address. Make decals for your cars, trucks, and boats. The back of a hat is a great place for your URL. Anywhere people see your business name, they should see your website address. It has replaced your phone number.

Think Like a Link Builder

Always keep your eyes open for opportunities to get your link on the web. If you write an article for another site, remember to link back to your own site! Remember that links within the context of the article are the most valuable.

If you start participating in a forum, add a link to your site in the signature. Place links in every one of your social media profiles. Basically put a link back to your site anywhere you find yourself on the web BUT do it without being a spammer. So don’t link back in blog comments or on forums unless it adds real value to the conversation. That is a huge turn-off to the other users and can get you kicked from forums.

How do you build links?

Websites are no different.

You may have heard that the key to getting to the first page of Google is having a lot of backlinks. Among other reasons, that is a true statement. But what is a backlink exactly? It is simply a link or path to your website.  Google and the others look at the number and type of backlinks to your site as roads leading to a city. More roads = more important.

There are a few nuances to the whole backlink game so I am going to attempt an explanation by answering some common questions about backlinks.

• Why should I care about backlinks?
• Are they all the same? Do the search engines look at them equally?
• What is PageRank?
• What is a nofollow link?
• How do I know what backlinks I already have?
• How do I get more backlinks?

Why should I care about backlinks?

Since you own a website or are about to start one up, I will assume that you want visitors. The more the better, right?  You want as many paths to your site as possible and every backlink is a path.

Backlinks are also used by search engines to determine the relevance and usefulness of a website. This is what made Google stand out when they first started using backlinks as a sign of popularity and relevance way back in the late 1900s.

Search engines use links as a kind of voting system for websites. The more votes a site has, the more popular it is and the higher it will rank.

But it’s a little more complicated than that…

Are they all the same? One link equals one vote right?

Negative. Some votes are worth more than others and context is everything.

Let me see if I can illustrate: If I want to know a good place to hunt deer, I’m going to ask Scott Haugen and not Robert de Niro. One deer hunter is more knowledgeable than the other. Scott’s advice is worth more to me than Mr. de Niro’s.

The Internet is the same. It is all about authority. The search engines are looking for THE authority on any given subject. If you are a deer hunting guide, you want other hunting sites to link to you. Those links indicate authority especially when they come from other knowledgeable people. One vote from someone who knows hunting is worth more than 100 votes from non-hunters.

The placement of those links also makes a difference. Links that are in the footer of a website or in the sidebar are not as valuable as links that are within the body of the text on the page.  And the links toward the top of the page are more valuable than the links at the end of an article.

What is PageRank?

Each website in Google’s index has a PageRank (PR) value between 1 and 10. Your pagerank is determined by your backlinks. The more links of value that are pointing to your site, the higher your PR will be.

When I link to a page, I pass value on to that site. We call it linkjuice.  A link from a site with a PR6 passes more value on than does a link from a PR2 site.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is also very important. Anchor text is the actual text of the link. For example, several paragraphs up you will see the phrase ‘deer hunting guide’ as a link to Big K Outfitters. ‘Deer hunting guide’ is the anchor text for the link. That anchor text indicates to the search engines that Big K Outfitters offers guided deer hunts and they should rank them higher for that search term.

Note: If all of your links have the exact same anchor text, red flags go up at Google and you may be penalized. It looks unnatural and spammy.

What is a nofollow link?

A nofollow link does not pass value or linkjuice on to the page it links to. There is simply a little bit of code added to a link (rel=nofollow) that tells the search engine not to follow that link and pass linkjuice on.

Why wouldn’t you want to pass linkjuice on? The main reason this was set up is to keep people from spamming the forums and blog comments with links back to their sites.

There is always speculation over how the search engines look at nofollow links and it is something we will probably never know for sure. Even if a link is coded as nofollow it doesn’t mean that it is worthless. It is still a path to your site and could generate traffic.

How do I know what backlinks I already have?

It is good to know who is linking to your site and there are several tools I use to find that out. Keep in mind that you will never know about ALL of your backlinks because the search engines simply don’t want site owners to have that information.  If we knew about every single link, we could figure out how they use them to rank us and game the system.

The first and most important tool is Google Webmaster Tools. This will give you a list of the sites that link to you, how many links on each site, what pages they link to, and a link to those sites so you can check them out.

Another tool is Google Analytics. This tool will show you a massive amount of details about visitors to your site including who is linking to you and actually sending you traffic. This is good to know if you are paying for a directory listing or if you need to decide whether or not you should guest post again on a blog. I can tell you that a listing on GamebirdHunts.com is well worth the cost because of the amount and quality of visits they send to a site.

How do I get more backlinks?

Stay tuned for the next post where we will tackle this question…

What kinds of questions do you have about backlinks?

Google is really no different. They rank websites based on signals that tell them they can trust your site and that their users will benefit from what you offer. These signals come from the quality of your site as well as other sites linking to you. When you hire an employee you look at their resume and check their references. The most relevant resume and most positive references will usually win the job.

The resume is the website. It must be optimized for your message to get across, which I wrote about last week. The references are what the rest of the Internet says about you in the form of backlinks and social media. This is your off-page SEO.

Backlinks

A backlink is simply a link between one website and another. They can be in the form of text or images. From the beginning Google has used these links between sites as an indication of the authority of a site. The theory is the more links to a site, the more authority it has. It’s the online version of word-of-mouth. Simple right? Not so fast.

Not all links are created equal. A link from a bigger or more popular site will carry more value than a link from a brand new site that gets virtually no traffic.

Links from similar websites to your own are also important. If you are a fishing guide, you want links from your buddy who owns a fly tying website over links from your buddy who owns a lawn care website. Both links are good, but the more relevant site will be better.

My next post will talk more about backlinks and how to get them.

Social shares

Since Facebook has taken over the world and Twitter is used to start revolutions, data from social media sites is being looked at more closely by Google/Bing/Yahoo and the rest. When two thousand people are talking about your website, the ears of the search engines perk up. In my opinion, the activity your site shows on social media will be more important than the old backlink system especially since Google Plus arrived. This is partly the reason behind Google’s social media platform.

So how do you boost this activity?

• Set up accounts on social media networks – Claim your space and brand name. There are a lot of social networks out there and you need to claim your brand even if you never use the site.
• Make it easy to share the content on your site – Add buttons or badges where people can share your content or follow you directly without leaving your site. Facbook Plugins – Twitter Buttons – Google Plus Badges
• Link your accounts to your website! – This is very important especially in Google Plus. Add a link to your homepage in your profile.
• Be active on Facebook, Twitter, AND Google Plus – post useful content and not just from your own site. Be a resource for your followers and your following will grow and share your stuff.
• Engage your followers – Ask and answer questions, share pictures, etc. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

These are the basics for social media and just barely scratch the surface but should be a good start.

Google Webmaster Tools

Now that you know the basics of off page optimization, we need to be able to measure progress and fix any problems that arise as well as let Google know we exist. Set up a Google Webmaster Tools account. This handy tool set will tell you who is linking to you (not a comprehensive list but still good to know), what keywords people are finding you with, and any problems your site might have.

If you have content that you update regularly like a blog or fishing report, you can (and should) add your RSS feed as a sitemap. This gets your blog posts indexed much faster.

Optimizing your site is a never-ending process and there are a million different things to do and ways to do it. Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest are constantly refining and changing the way they rank pages in an effort to produce the best results.

Having said that, the most important thing to do is produce quality content. If you listen to the best SEO experts out there, they will tell you over and over again that content is king. Great articles, beautiful pictures, and engaging video will naturally attract attention from users and the search engines and you will be rewarded for that quality.

How do you make Google love you?

There are literally hundreds of factors that influence where your website will land in the search results for any particular keyword. Here is the crazy thing about it: we don’t know exactly what they all are! The search engines’ goal is to give the user the best possible answers to their questions so they keep these factors under wraps to prevent people from taking advantage of the search results. There is a lot of money to be made with the top ranking keyword like ‘insurance’ or ‘attorney’.There is an entire industry that is dedicated to studying and testing these factors.

So with hundreds of ranking factors to worry about, how do we make Google love your site and rank it higher? The answer is search engine optimization or SEO.

On Page SEO – How your site is built

Search engines “crawl” your site and look at each line of code in an attempt to determine what each page is about. It is your job to make that as easy as possible for them. So what do they want to see?

• Don’t block them – On your site, if you have a file named robots.txt and it says Disallow: / you are blocking them from finding you. Here is what mine looks like: OutfitterMarketing.org/robots.txt . In WordPress, browse to Settings > Privacy and you will see the option to block or allow search engines.
• Set up Google Analytics – This will not only tell you vital information about your visitors and how they use your site, it tells Google the same thing.
• Use the keyword you want to rank for in the body of the page – If you are trying to rank for the term ‘bass fishing’ but you never use that phrase on your page, you are not going to rank for it. I try to use the keyword at least 4 times. Don’t over-do it though. I would say use the keyword once or twice for every 100 words of copy. Above all, make it readable for your visitors. They are still your audience, not the search engines.
• Use the keyword in your title and headline tags
• Keep the titles and headlines under 60 characters
• Don’t stuff keywords – This is an old practice that some still use but is dying out. Don’t use the same keyword more than twice in a headline or title. It looks spammy and will not help you
• Use image alt tags – The ‘alt’ tag is a piece of code that describes what the picture is. The search engine can’t look at the picture and see what it is so we have to tell it by using the alt tag. When you put your mouse over an image, that description in the alt tag will appear.
• Be descriptive with image file names – Instead of leaving the photo of an elk as IMG0012.jpg , change the file name to bullelk12.jpg or whatever is most accurate.
• Use the keyword in your URL – The URL is your web address and ideally, the keyword will show up there. For example, I wanted to rank for the term ‘umpqua river fishing’ for one of my clients. So the URL looks like this: http://www.bigkoutfitters.com/umpqua-river-fishing/ .
• Make the site attractive and useful – The longer a visitor stays on your site, the better. If you have analytics set up, Google can see how long people spend looking at your content and how many pages they visit. A low bounce rate helps your rank as well.
• Make your site fast – This is becoming more and more important. The longer a page takes to load, the less useful it is and the less Google will like you. There are a lot of different things to do but the easiest are to optimize your images, use good code, and find quality host for your site. If you have less than 200 visitors a day I would recommend Hostgator. I’ve used them for years without any problems. BlueHost is another one I’ve heard good things about. Once you start seeing more traffic, move to VPS.net. Disclosure: I do earn a commission when you sign up for either Hostgator or Bluehost by following the links on this page. 
• Make it easy to share your content – Add the Facebook Like button, Tweet button, and Google +1 button. The more people are talking about you, the more Google notices you.

There are many other small tweaks to your On Page SEO but these are a good start and most other sites are not doing these things.

Next Week – Off Page SEO

One of the great things about the online community is the availability of free and useful software. Whether it is good marketing or a desire to build a better product, great tools are out there. The following is my toolbox.

1. Gmail

Email is the original social media and will always be the most important in my opinion so you need a tool to manage it. It needs to organize your email, be searchable, and you need to be able to manage multiple accounts from one place.

If you are using the email address that came with your Internet service, do yourself a favor and switch to something else.  It’s not that they are bad services (though they certainly are not as good) they are simply not permanent. When you switch your Internet provider, you will probably lose your email address. If you  Use Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or any one of the other stand-alone email providers.

I love Gmail because it is so easy to use and so versatile. I can manage as many email accounts as I want from any domain I have control over.  Sending and receiving email from my outfittermarketing.org account is just as easy as my Gmail account. The organization and search features are great in Gmail but if you like Hotmail for example, use that. Another big win for Gmail is the fact that I have access to all of the Google services by using my Gmail account info. One username and one password works for everything.

2. Google Chrome

Chrome is Google’s web browser. I was a FireFox guy for a long time but Chrome won me over with their clean design, fast browsing, stability, sweet tabs, vast library of extensions, and its incognito mode. The first four of those attributes are pretty self-explanatory and I’ll explain the last two in more depth in a future article. Do yourself another favor and get rid of Internet Explorer. I recommend Chrome or FireFox a the very least.

3. Evernote

This is an amazing little tool that I stumbled upon about two years ago and it just keeps getting better. Evernote is a note-taking service that allows you to store just about anything digital. I can ‘clip’ highlighted text from a website, an entire blog post or the page’s URL with a few clicks. Storing pictures and video is just as easy. If you have a smartphone you can also store pictures you take with the camera.

Everything stays organized in notebooks you set up. Tags can be added to notes also to help find the note later. The killer feature I just found last month is it’s integration with your Google search results. When you have the Evernote extension installed in your browser, it will search your notes and display results on the Google results page. It makes finding that site I forgot about, much easier.

There are many other tools I use but these three are my gun, knife, and dog. They make my work online fun and easy and help me work like I have a clone.

What kind of online tools do you use?