SportsShooter.com Launches

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2002-06-21

SportsShooter.com Launches
Long Rumored Website Makes Big League Debut on June 21, 2002

By Robert Hanashiro, Sports Shooter

Photo by Jason Burfield/SportsShooter.com

SportsShooter.com Executive Producer Grover Sanschagrin in the New York City office with the entire website behind him.

ALL:

I've had to keep quiet about something since mid-February and it has been tough. And it wasn't easy.

But, with this announcement I can finally break my silence and brag a little bit about what we've just accomplished.

Ladies and gentlemen, approximately 35,835 lines of code later, I can finally say...

http://www.SportsShooter.com is officially launched!

The old Sports Shooter archive has been transformed into an amazing tool for photographers. Seriously folks, I don't know too many sites on the web that have this level of functionality --- take one look and you'll see why.

Grover Sanschagrin, Jason Burfield and Brad Mangin have created this wonderfully elegant and functional site that has something for everyone. Whether you shoot sports, portraits, documentary or commercial; have a staff job or freelancing or just have an interest in photography ... SportShooter.com is the place to be!

Here are some of the highlights:

- The Sports Shooter Newsletter Archive - searchable! All the content from the newsletters (past and present), is there, and it is (finally) searchable! In the past few months I've learned just how wonderful databases can be.

- Member Portfolios. How they managed to pull this off, I don't know. But hey, it works! Being a member of the site means you can upload up to 10 images of whatever you want! Wait - did I just say that? OK, well, ALMOST whatever you want. (Check out the really fun stuff that Trent Nelson just uploaded!) This is a great feature, especially for freelance photographers and others looking for assignment work. Go check out the galleries that have been posted already. Great stuff!

- Classified ads! The classified area on the site contains job listings and merchandise (for sale and wanted) from our members. Anyone can search through the list of items that are for sale by our members. (Want to buy Bob Deutsch's Contax G2?)

- "The Guide" --- This area of the site is a powerful resource tool, without a doubt. Our members have access to this huge database of stadiums, arenas, college and professional teams, restaurants, hotels, etc., for each major city in the USA and Canada. But this is only a starting point, since members have the ability to add their own information to the database. The usefulness of this tool, and the depth and richness of the information within it, will grow dramatically when our members start adding small colleges and high schools to it, along with their personal favorite restaurants and hotels. And let's not forget the fun stories and photographer-trivia items that are included. (Where does Jack Gruber go to drink and disco in Memphis? It's in there.)

- Equipment Q&A --- Members helping members - that's a huge reason the current newsletter has done so well, so they have designed a product to make this even easier. Here's how it works: Our members tell us what kind of equipment they use and have familiarity with, and then elect to (or not to) participate in the Q & A process. This means they would entertain questions from other members - but in a way that is not intrusive, does not give up their names or email addresses, only pertains to items they know something about, and doesn't make anyone feel that they NEED to respond. (I know I am going to be using this regularly.)

- The SportsShooter.com Store --- That's right, we're selling SportsShooter.com gear! These items are on sale inside the Sports Shooter Store. Not only that, but the store contains special deals from our sponsors for SportsShooter.com users.

- Equipment Profiles --- We thought it would be really useful to have an area of the site where photographers can talk about the things that they use to do their jobs - their equipment. Members are able to post their comments (and ratings) about various items, which makes this a great resource for people looking to get a real, very credible viewpoint from actual working sports photographers.

- my.SportsShooter --- This area is the customized version of the site that anyone can use. In other words, your free personalized-according-to-your-tastes version of the site. Choose your favorite photographers, keep watch on the equipment that interests you most, conduct automatic keyword searches of newly posted stories and topics of interest, etc. You really must see this area to believe it!

As we like to say at Sports Shooter Central ... "there's much, much more!" So we have many things on the way, including a member's only monthly "clip" contest.

So, you're probably asking "OK, Bert, I get it. How do I become a member?"

Glad you asked. For $25 you can be a part of this new and exciting community with a one-year membership. To do so, come to the site and click the "Join" link and the process is simple.

I will continue to produce the monthly Sports Shooter Newsletter. And it will continue to be free ... and distributed via the mailing list.

I have been putting out the Sports Shooter Newsletter for four years and want to thank all of you for your support and help. This next step we have taken will benefit all of us.

All of the newsletter content is still available and accessible for free. Those people who decide to become full members of the site will have access to more information and features.

So come to Grover, Jason and Brad's wonderful new site. Look around and tell us what you think.

http://www.sportsshooter.com

Bert.

Bert@SportsShooter.com

Related Email Addresses:

Robert Hanashiro: Bert@SportsShooter.com