Two Percent…
If you expect to sell even 50 rods this year, reaching a couple hundred fishermen isn’t going to cut the mustard – you’ll have to reach at least 2500, and that’s a best case scenario. Read on… If I told you that I’ve been getting a 5% response to my advertising and marketing efforts, you’d…
Read MoreNew RodMaker Issue
The new issue of RodMaker will mail on Thursday, October 7th, 2010. Most subscribers will receive it during the 3rd or 4th week of October. This issue, Volume 13 Issue #5, is the largest in our near 14 year history. In addition to the articles and features listed on the cover, another half dozen are…
Read MoreMethods and Techniques
In the nearly 14 years that RodMaker has been publishing, over 100 authors have penned the most cutting edge and thought provoking articles ever put into a rod building publication. Occasionally, however, I get a letter or an email from someone wanting to know why an author advocates doing something that seems to contradict a…
Read MoreRodMaker Home part 3
The old RodMaker location had a casting lane consisting of a narrow alley about 60 feet long. If you were willing to take the chance of successfully retrieving your plug over a set of power lines, you could push out to about 90 feet. Several casting plugs still dangle from those lines. When I moved…
Read MoreNew Thread Coatings
*I had planned to finish up the series on the RodMaker facility here in North Carolina, but today’s rain precluded taking any good outdoor photos. So we’ll take a break and talk about thread coatings for the time being. I’ll return to the previous series, tomorrow, weather permitting. 10 months back a heavy package showed…
Read MoreRodMaker Home part 2
Among other things, my dad was a woodworker. I grew up in a home that had a workshop and to this day can’t imagine any adult male not having some sort of workshop to knock around in. I had acquired several hundred square feet of my own shop space by 1988. The current RodMaker building…
Read MoreRodMaker Home part 1
The original RodMaker Magazine offices comprised all of 900 square feet. In just a few years the place got more than a little cramped. Taking photos for the magazine required moving shop equipment out of the way. Doing any shop work required putting away assorted administrative fixtures and paperwork. I decided that when I moved…
Read MoreThe Expo Crew
The International Custom Rod Building Exposition is a lot of work. I start on it each year around the middle of May and finish up 10 months later, just a few hours before the doors open for the event. However, for all I’m able to do during the many months preceding the Expo, there is…
Read MoreChange of Address
Dear RodMaker Magazine: I have not been getting my issues. I moved a few months ago and filed a change of address with the U.S. Postal Service. Why haven’t my magazines been forwarded to me? I’m getting other magazines that have been forwarded? A Subscriber I get several such letters each week. It’s an ongoing…
Read MoreVolume 13 Issue Number 5
Volume 13 Number 5, our largest ever, is scheduled to mail on October 7th. It includes more articles than any single RodMaker issue has ever featured along with more authors than ever before (including new columnists Billy Vivona and C. Boyd Pheiffer). Here’s a peek at what to expect… Hidden In Plain Sight – Unique…
Read More