January 22nd, 2008
By Arthur

Rex over at the Deer Camp Blog was nice enough to award us, along with a few other blogs, the prestigous Excellent Blog Award.

I have to say that I am flattered and completely shocked by this award.  I’m not giving it back though so nobody try and take it either:)  We are completely grateful that Rex thinks this much of our blog and I truly appreciate his thoughts and praise.

I think I’m suppose to send this on to 10 people, but I’m not sure exactly how it works.  I think if you check my blogroll you will find that every one of them on the list deserves this award and I would hate to single certain ones out anyway.

So again thank you Rex and I look forward to meeting you and everyone else next year in St. Louis.  It should be a great time 

Popularity: 17% [?]

January 11th, 2008
By Arthur

This post is going to be a kind of informative one for me I hope.  Usually I don’t really do posts on what people think needs to be done to the blog, or what people think would be a good topic to put on the blog, but I am going to go down that road today…kind of.

The first thing I want to cover is advertising.  I have been contemplating putting advertising on our blog for quite some time, and every time I have thought about it; I decided it wasn’t the route I wanted to go.  I’m mainly scared of my site looking like some sites I come across where there are so many ads on the site it is hard to decipher what is actually part of the post, and what is in fact an advertisement.

The other side to that is I would love to at least generate enough money to cover my hosting fees every month.  I never intended the site to be a big money maker, but to earn enough to at least cover the expense of keeping it up would be very nice.   I have looked into Google Adsense and a few others, but I am still hesitant to put ads on the site at this very moment.  I’m not sure the monetary gain would outweigh the clutter on the site that I just simply wouldn’t be able to handle.  I will keep pondering that one.

The other thing I wanted to cover is this.  I am thinking about taking the forum off the site.  I simply haven’t been motivated enough to promote it and my friend just started a very nice forum that I frequent all the time .  I apologize to Rick over at Tails and Trails, but it just is taking up space and causing some potentially harmful traffic just because I have the word forum in my site.

I think I will leave the forum up for now and contemplate what exactly I want to do with it.  The problem right now is that their are posts and information already in the forum that I would like to leave up for people to access.  It’s a toss-up and one I will keep fussing over for a bit.

So now is the point where all of you come in.  My main question is what do you think about advertising on the site? Even if you would share your personal experiences with advertising on your site I would greatly appreciate it.  Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated.  I can use all the help I can get:)

Popularity: 15% [?]

December 14th, 2007
By Arthur

After Jeff’s smarta**ed card that he sent me in an email this morning, he has been removed from the Simplyoutdoors site and staff roster.

We here are SimplyOutdoors do realize that Jeff tends to shoot more deer than Arthur does, but everyone knows that without Arthur, Jeff would be a nobody. This site wouldn’t even exist. It’s a plain an simple fact. I’m only the occasional deer killer, but I’m definitely the site logistics guru! So for now, as you may have already noticed, Jeff’s bio and the photo page has been removed from the site. hehehe!

So until Jeff is nice again and decides to send friendly cards. He’s been removed:) We will see how temporary it is!

With that now said I would like for all of you to welcome our newest staff member who will be replacing Jeff until further notice. Everyone go check his bio and welcome Elmer Fud to the SimplyOutdoors staff. We think he will fit in nicely.

Author’s note: Jeff has officially been re-instated.  Lucky him!

Popularity: 45% [?]

October 16th, 2007
By Arthur

One of my good friends, who shall remain anonymous, after reading some forums decided that there was not a decent location or tool to find all things outdoor related that pertain to Michigan. So here it is in all its glory.

The MichiganOutdoorGuide.com.

He is currently adding more places and things to the database each and every day. What an excellent idea. I know not everyone who reads this is from Michigan, but I just had to share. I think it is awesome.

Make sure you keep checking the site from time to time because with each and every day more things are being added. There is also a link on the site where you can submit places that are not currently in the database. An excellent, excellent idea.

Popularity: 46% [?]

October 06th, 2007
By Arthur

I was sitting in my stand this morning and I noticed some movement coming through the weeds in front of me. I figured it was a chipmunk, or something of the sort, moving through the loose grass and deer trails around my stand. The grass is so hard to see through, and it was very foggy this morning, so I sat peering at the ground trying to figure out what little critter was the source of the sound.

Finally this little guy peaked his head out from under the grass and actually started to hiss at me. I honestly have no idea how he even knew I was there. The only thing I can figure is that he caught me moving to grab my binoculars to check him out. The only thing I had ever saw before, that even resembled him, was a weasle. I had never saw his kind before. I finally sat there after he ran away and instantly it came to me what I had finally saw. I had had my first encounter with a mink.

I have to say he was a cool looking little guy with a big attitude. I hunt near a big swamp and he must make his home in there somewhere. I did some investigation online and found that they tend to be near water sources and will be even use old muskrat dens for homes. They also only have a lifespan of 3-4 years in the wild. After reading that I figured out why he had such a big attitude.

Not a bad week this week so far. I have had a close encounter with a hawk (my first) and also my first encounter with a mink. Very cool!

Note — I did not take these pictures.  I found them online from a search.  There is no way I could have ever had a chance to even come close to getting a picture of him.  I wish.  Just wanted everyone to know that! 

Popularity: 18% [?]