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.

Why do golf pros give to charity?

Do not be caught up in the glossy image of the US PGA Tour's charity act. Professional golfers are not giving to charity because they soley want to. They are giving to charity because it makes them look good to the public and offers them a tax break. Given a choice, professional golfers would rather give to charity rather than give their money to the United States government.

Ask yourself, would professional golfers and the US PGA Tour give as much to charity if their tournament purses continued to drop year over year? I do not think so. I think they do it to benefit themselves not solely for the charities they are giving their "hard-earned" money to.

Let us look where the money goes to. In a $6 million purse tournament, $6 million goes to the 144 players (size of field for a regular tournament) playing in the tournament. Only $500,000 to $750,000 goes to a charity selected by the tournament. The lion share goes to the professional golfers, not the charities. So it is false marketing to say "giving to charities" is at the heart of the US PGA Tour. Earning money is at the heart of the US PGA Tour.

Giving to charity is just a side bar. The US PGA Tour and professional golfers are out to earn more and more moeny -- not less and less money. They are not playing golf just to make themselves feel good. Earning money for themselves is at the hear of the US PGA Tour and its members. There is nothing wrong with that attitude for the most part. However, do not makret falsely.

Plus the "Drive to a Billion" marketing campaign is not talking about money the US PGA Tour has given to charity. It is talking about tournaments which the US PGA Tour sanctioned. Those tournaments provided the money to the charities, not the US PGA Tour itself. The US PGA Tour actually charges the tournament a $1 million fee to be sanctioned by them. This fee goes to pay the salaries of the men and women working at the US PGA Tour.

Goals for the Golf CLi

Last month I posted a blog entry to explain what the Golf CLi is and how users could use it (entry posted on September 9th, 2005, The Golf CLi). Something I did not include in that posting was what goals we have for the Golf CLi.

Here are the bullet pointed goals for the Golf CLi at this time:

• At least 2 players in the CLi top 5 rankings are ranked in the top 10 of the tournament results at the conclusion of the tournament


• No player in the CLi top 5 rankings miss the cut


• No more than 1 player in the CLi top 15 rankings miss the cut


• The CLi top 15 earning at least 45% of the tournament's purse (Note: the top 15 in a tournament usually get around 65-70% of the tournament's purse)

These goals are what we use to determine if the Golf CLi is worth it for users and worth it for us to spend our time compiling it each week for golf tournaments.

As mentioned in the September 9th posting, the Golf CLi formula continues to be a work in progress. Thus we put a 65% valuation on its accuracy at this time.

The Golf CLi can be viewed on the GolfInvestors web site or on the dedicated Golf CLi web site.

http://golfinvestors.com/tournaments/tournament_field_analysis.php

http://golfcli.com

ProTrade, and industry specific stock markets

About a month ago a company called ProTrade officially launched. That is, they officially told the media who they are and what they are doing. Then in turn the media relayed the information told to them by ProTrade's management and public relations company, albeit it in different words, to the public, persons like you and me. The company was able to get a good amount of print, including an Associated Press written article.

Contragulations to ProTrade as a company, and its employees, on a successful launch.

Now you ask, what is ProTrade and why am I writing about them in the Gi Blog. Well, ProTrade is a company trying to implement a concept similar to the GolfInvestors concept focusing on football and baseball.

In one sense ProTrade is initially a competitor to Gi as they could enter the golf realm of things with their operations. In another sense, however, they compliment and fortify the Gi concept via the football and baseball segments of the sports and recreation industry.

As well, if ProTrade is successful with their concept in football and baseball, it would support my idea regarding industry specific stock markets.

One of my thoughts about stock markets and raising money is that with today's and tomorrow's technology industry specific stock markets could be setup. It is doable to setup industry specific stock markets. So now the question becomes more related to if industry specific stock markets make sense logically.

One of the big benefits of industry stock markets is that they would be customized to their industry. Each industry stock market woudl have accounting standards that would be customized based upon each industry's key formulas and operational results rather than be generalized.

Let us look at the folllowing example dealing with the sports industry. Segmenting the sports industry into different sports: football, baseball, and golf.

Each one of these sports have different rules they are played by. Football and baseball are played with multiple players on two teams playing each other each game during one day. Golf is an individual sport played over multiple days to find a winner for each tournament.

Football looks at the total points each team has at the end of the game based upon touchdowns, extra points, and field goals. The team with the highest point total wins the game. Baseball looks at the number of runs each team scores after the 9th inning to see which team wins the game. Golf looks at the lowest number of strokes hit to determine which individual wins the tournament.

Football has statistics such as rushing yards, receiving yards, penalities, completions, inerceptions, and sacks. Baseball has statistics such as home runs, RBIs, earned run average (ERA), innings pitched, number of at bats, games won or lost as a pitcher, hitting average, and errors. Golf has statistics such as wins, majors won, top tens, cuts made and missed, scoring average, earnings, greens hit in regulation, putting average, and sand saves.

In football, the team strives to make the playoffs and win the NFL Superbowl. In baseball, the team strives to make the playoffs and win the MLB World Series. In golf, golfers try to win tournaments, win majors, make cuts, and earn enough money to stay on their respective santioned tour so they can play tournaments the following year.

In football and baseball, players are paid on a regular basis (for example, monthly or weekly) based upon their agreed upon salary. Golfers get paid after each tournament based upon their performance in the tournament.

Basically the figures are all formulated differently between the three different sports. And thus each sport should have its own stock marke which can be customized for it. You do not see one organization running the professional football, baseball, and golf operations. Rather you have the National Football League (NFL) governing the sport of professional football in the USA, the Major League Baseball (MLB) governing the sport of professional baseball, and the Professional Golf Association Tour (PGA Tour) governing the sport of professional golf. The same can be said for industry specific stock markets.