Waitaminute. It’s July? Already?! Yeah, that’s how we’re feeling right about now. We’re officially on the backside of the year, both domestic racing series are more than halfway complete (Pro Watercross National Tour and P1 AquaX – both of which, The Watercraft Journal continues as the only source of complete written recaps and full image galleries), summer vacation has about a month and a half left for most of the kids, and riding season for most of you working stiffs has just started to really pick up. Of course, we’re of the whole “glass half full” mentality around here, and we’ve got a lot to show for it:
Starting just a few months back, The Watercraft Journal radically increased its monthly video production, providing you not one, but two monthly videos – completely free to you. And after more demand than we can recall, we finally launched our first official T-shirts and decals in our all-new store. Oh, and we partnered with PWCTrader to bring you the world’s largest, most accessible search engine of used and pre-owned personal watercraft anywhere. Seriously, we’ve stepped up our game and are bringing you more ways to enjoy the most out of your experience on the water. What other magazine can say the same?
For today’s episode of The Watercraft Journal By The Numbers, we wanted to do something slightly different. Because we’re in our fourth year of publishing, we wanted to illustrate that we are continually growing in readership unlike any other publication in our industry, year-after-year, month-after-month. Equally, as our audience continues to expand, so does our appeal to so many manufacturers in our industry. We average two new advertisers a month, companies who recognize the need to get their products and services in front of the broadest, most active audience in the world, and not just in social media activity – but actual adults who do their due diligence prior to buying. And that is what we offer.
January – June 2017
January – June 2016
What Does Half a Million Visits in a Year Mean?
Back in our paper publishing days at Personal Watercraft Illustrated, there was a mysterous metric that the publisher liked to throw around. The idea was that for every issue sold, two-to-three different people would see that copy – be it sitting on a coffee table or on the back of a toilet tank – and take a look. While it sounds preposterous to equate, the sales staff tried to convince potential advertisers to bank on this number. Unlike the inequatable projection used before, we know for certain how many people are coming to The Watercraft Journal in 2017: half a million. And as you can see, we’re up nearly 30-percent in visits since last year. That ain’t too shabby either.
January – June 2016
Total number readers: 210,413*
Total number of articles read: 343,359
Percentage of new readers: 64.5%
January – June 2017
Total number readers: 250,047*
Total number of articles read: 343,201
Percentage of new readers: 63.9%
*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.
Judge Them By Their Fruits
When it comes to other PWC outlets, it’s easy to get distracted by social media posts, Instagram shares and a whole lot of retweets, but when you look at what is served on the plate, you’ll see there’s not a lot of meat on the bone, as it were. While some are little more than glorified online stores, The Watercraft Journal is the only personal watercraft magazine truly laboring to provide useful product reviews, in-depth interviews, cutting-edge technology, and useful information to help you, the consumer, make the best, most educated decision with your hard-earned dollar. That’s why we don’t charge you. We’d rather have you spend that money with the companies who we accept as advertising sponsors.
News articles published in May 2017: 24
Feature articles published in May 2017: 13
Total feature word count: 12,889 words
News articles published in June 2017: 25
Feature articles published in June 2017: 12
Total feature word count: 9,106 words*
*When this number is translated to print publication standards equals a 102-page magazine. Please note that this number does not include an average of two uniquely-written news articles published daily.
More Content Than Ever Before
The Watercraft Journal is striving to offer the personal watercraft enthusiast a diverse variety of content – sure, we offer the same industry leading event coverage, product evaluations, hands-on watercraft reviews, and more – but now we’re dishing out double doses of uniquely-created YouTube videos, as well as providing you with access to PWCTrader’s search engine of used and pre-owned personal watercraft as well as our own T-shirts and decals in our all-new store. If that’s not enough, we’re constantly flooding your Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram feeds, and your inbox with our weekly newsletters. If you’re not already following us, subscribed to our channels, or otherwise, you’re purposely ignoring us.
June Facebook likes: 23,054
Top Five countries: United States, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Canada
Time To Greet What You’ve Been Missing
So why do we even write these articles month after month? It’s purpose is truly two-fold: first, to introduce those companies to the radical rate of growth and current levels of success that The Watercraft Journal is experiencing; and second, to reaffirm to our current advertisers that we are not going anyway anytime soon. Websites pop up and vanish often, paper magazines find their funds lacking and overhead simply too burdensome and fold. For the past four years, we have done nothing but grow; both in readership and in advertiser support. The companies who partner with The Watercraft Journal and actively engage in an aggressive media campaign, find almost instantaneous results. Those who join but do little to nothing might see some marginal success, but nothing like the former. To help you reach a broader audience of would-be customers and spread the word about your brand, product and services, The Watercraft Journal must be a resource, a tool in building your brand. If you’re ready for that, email kevin.shaw@shawgroupmedia.com about advertising your company in the single-most popular PWC magazine today.
