{"id":81,"date":"2017-07-18T03:20:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T03:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walterationsmedia.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2026-07-03T20:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T20:06:33","slug":"fish-az-blog-wins-national-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walteroutdoors.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/18\/fish-az-blog-wins-national-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish AZ blog wins National Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

What started as a once-a-week blog turned into a content marketing machine. In 4 years of WordPress hustling, the Fish AZ blog, created and maintained by Walter Outdoors sole proprietor Nick Walter from 2014-2017 while working at a premiere state wildlife agency, had reached a half-million pageviews.<\/p>\n

Walter was humbled July 9-12, 2017 for honors from the Association for Conservation Information Inc’s, which presented a National Award, third place,\u00a0in the Online Community Engagement category for “Fish AZ.”<\/p>\n

The blog was the featured platform for engagement and was promoted by social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and the weekly fishing report newsletter. The blog turned into a microsite that was finally fazed out in 2022 in lieu of new fishing report options.<\/p>\n

Blog content strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The blog utilized polls and surveys and simple questions to help guide a content strategy for the target audience — beginning anglers to Arizona.<\/p>\n

Using Google Analytics to create and measure goals, the blog was constantly optimized and content was re-targeted. The eventual result was a blog that hit the target audience (primarily 25-45 year olds and new-ish anglers) with content that spoke that audience’s language.<\/p>\n

Online community engagement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Engaging topics were formed through the ideation process. A good idea for a blog or other piece of content is like setting the coordinates of a space shuttle. If you want to land on the moon, you better have taken time to set a precise course of action.<\/p>\n

The blog featured a “Join the discussions” call to action on the left sidebar.<\/p>\n

And the “Got questions?” widget encourages more problem-solving opportunities.<\/p>\n

Comments were answered promptly and cheerfully (and drive a customer through the sales cycle — in this case to the purchase of a fishing license).<\/p>\n

This the the cocktail party that a blog can feature!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started as a once-a-week blog turned into a content marketing machine. In 4 years of WordPress hustling, the Fish AZ blog, created and maintained by Walter Outdoors sole proprietor Nick Walter from 2014-2017 while working at a premiere state wildlife agency, had reached a half-million pageviews. Walter was humbled July 9-12, 2017 for honors…<\/p>\n

Read More “Fish AZ blog wins National Award”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,10,11,13,14],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arizona-online-marketing","tag-arizona-outdoors-marketing","tag-arizona-public-relations","tag-health-and-wellness-marketing","tag-need-a-blog-for-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8mOwp-1j","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1718,"url":"https:\/\/walteroutdoors.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/01\/june-fishing-report-central-region-bartlett-a-hot-spot-roosevelt-now-a-trophy-hole-for-bass\/","url_meta":{"origin":81,"position":0},"title":"June Arizona fishing report: Central region – Bartlett a hot spot, Roosevelt now a trophy hole for bass","author":"nickwalter","date":"June 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The spot spots to hit right now, and perhaps through June, are: 1) Bartlett Lake, where the water temperature tops out at about 76 degrees, triggering a great top-water bite, and 2) Roosevelt Lake. 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