Why doesn't GolfInvestors do any marketing?

GolfInvestors does not spend any money on marketing at this time. The reason is that we are working hard to build a solid platform to operate from in case the concept takes off. We will eventually move up in the number of users that trade on an active basis. But GolfInvestors will not promote something that is not completely or is not its main focus.

Microsoft, as do many corporations, thinks it is okay to market something it does not have ready for its customers. They sell customers on their software based upon concept, not actual features that are in its software at the time they initially market the product or service. They eventually build the features in the software. However, the marketing comes first for them. Many times it is way ahead in marketing to its customers than the development team is with the final release of the product. In some ways Microsoft is promoting falsely as they do not tell their customers the full truth.

I believe in doing minimal marketing and letting the customers decide for themselves who GolfInvestors is and if they should work with us. I do not believe in pressuring them to use GolfInvestors.

I get critized about this type of marketing strategy for GolfInvestors. Many people believe I should be spending more effort on marketing the GolfInvestors concept and stock markets. They feel doing so will help attract a larger number of investor users in the simulation and the real markets.

I want to make it clear that I do not believe that a larger number of any type of user is a good thing. We need quality investor users, not just a mass number of users that don't know what they are doing when buying and selling shares of golfers.

To date, I have spent just $1,000 on marketing GolfInvestors. It was during the summer of 1999 that I spent that $1,000. 1999 was our first full year of operation. That money was spent on a small email campaign with GolfServ (http://golfserv.com). It was not much money to spend, but enough to get feedback on wether or not money spent on marketing GolfInvestors would be of any value to us. We hardly received any additional visitors from that campaign. Thus, I resigned myself to spending our efforts and resources on building out the concept, infrastructure, and technology. I felt at that time, as well as today, that doing so is still a better investment than the results of putting money into marketing and advertising GolfInvestors.

The GolfInvestors concept is a new one to many, as is industry-specific stock markets. So to explain to users how it works is still an ordeal. I have not found a quick and dirty way to do that as of yet. I am continually trying to refine the message GolfInvestors so I can explain it to users easily and quickly.

The easy explanation to users is to tell users that GolfInvestors is a stock market. However, that would not do GolfInvestors justice. So I find myself going into additional aspects GolfInvestors like the internal accounting system that golfers use to report earnings, how direct earnings and expenses of golfers get put into that system, and how golfers raise money and investors make money.

I can not just stop at saying GolfInvestors is simply a stock market like the NYSE and NASDAQ stock markets. Once I can get myself to explain GolfInvestors in simple terms such that the light bulb in the listener's head goes on, then I might feel more comfortable in marketing GolfInvestors more.

As well, I do not spend money on marketing at this juncture as I continue to refine the concept to make it clearer, stronger, and overall less complex from the user's perspective --- such that the enjoyment is in using the system, not being overburdened by it. We have a long way to go in this area of development before I am satisfied that we have accomplished that.

With limited resources I can not just go around spending money on everything that floats everyone's boat. So marketing gets the ax at this juncture of GolfInvestors' evolution.

By the way, this does not mean we are against spending money and our effort on marketing. For example, we are starting to market the Golf CLi (http://golfcli.com) to get some users using the GolfInvestors' generated CLi (confidence level indicator) as a tool for their golf fantasy picks each week.