• by Mark Naples , August 5, 2005

Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico -- For the past 10 years or so, some friends and I have come here regularly - three quarters down the Baja peninsula in Mexico - for some of the best sport fishing in the world.

On our last few trips, one outfitting company has handled all of our boat and guide charters, The Baja Big Fish Company. Over the years, we've become pretty familiar with its proprietor, a young woman named Pam Bolles, and her family. Just prior to this year's trip, I noticed that she had added more regular updates to her Web site, but that she had not been purchasing any keywords - despite her competition here having been doing so for some time.

When she started Baja Big Fish in 1996, Bolles had to dial into an ISP nearly 200 kilometers south of here, in La Paz, just to get dial-up access to the Web. Today, DSL service is available throughout Loreto and its environs for $60 a month - hardly a pittance. But, this obviously helps her Web strategy, since she can check her e-mails more quickly and add updates to the site on the fly, relatively speaking. Imagine having to depend on a long-distance, dial-up connection to maintain your store front.

Back in '96, there were two major charter services in this fishing village, each with more than 30 boats and guides. Starting then from scratch as she was, somewhat disadvantaged in terms of local mores, and in some choppy waters, I asked Bolles how her Web strategy has helped sustain her business.

"Today, we get almost 100 percent of our leads from the Web site," she said. Back when we started, I had been buying ads in a California-based publication called 'Western Outdoor News.' But, buying ads became expensive." (Think $800 for a quarter page in a newsletter versus $200 for a day's charter, and the math becomes pretty illustrative). "This was just when the Web was beginning to take off, so I got a site together and began feeding magazines like that one with weekly fishing reports via e-mail."

How simple - and smart - is this? Well-written, photo-illustrated, regular reports from such an exotic, world-famous, and difficult-to-reach location are like gold to such journals. So, while one of the two larger charter companies went out of business and the other began its own Web development, Baja Big Fish Company went about its business of growing through its very organic, PR-driven Web strategy.

I asked Bolles about SEO and how she had managed to keep her site relevant against the big spenders she competed with, and I was surprised by her response. "We've never bought keywords and I don't even know how to do it. I have no idea how to optimize either." So, what's her secret? How has she managed to maintain a stable No. 2 business with 15 boats regularly chartered against the 30 of her remaining competitor?

It's all about relevance, isn't it? I imagine that only a small portion of you are fishers. But those who are will understand how many times you'll go to a site like this one as you prepare your trip, or just when you think about it during bad weather (or long conference calls). Seeing photos of huge sailfish and marlin taken on flies or live bait with regular reports from around the local islands becomes glue. Connecting with her target, Bolles hasn't needed to do much more than keep the good reports - and photos - moving to keep her pipeline fairly full. Do a search on any terms having to do with this story, and you'll see what I mean. The sponsored listings have plenty about fishing charters. But, there's too much other stuff too.

On June 28, David Berkowitz wrote his Search Insider about an exchange he'd had with a reader who was frustrated with how the rich get richer via SEM. Throughout that column, I found myself agreeing with Berkowitz and others who see search - and the Web - as primarily an equalizer. Learning how much Baja Big Fish Company has been depending on its Web strategy really drives this point home.

Earlier this season, one of Bolles' clients brought a friend who writes for Men's Journal, resulting in a story in that magazine. Note to self: Better make our charters earlier than ever for next year.