Today we find ourselves standing squarely atop the Trout Underground’s Five Year Anniversary (to the day).

Which is why – when I stumbled across a WordPress word-counting utility – I foolishly used it.

The number of words published on the Trout Underground? 690,000+ (and still counting).

That’s about 4.15 million keystrokes – not counting my comments, the stuff I never finished, didn’t publish, or backspaced into the aether.

Suddenly, it’s not just my butt that hurts.

For those who still read books, that’s between five and ten full-length novels. (I was tempted to put “five and ten full-length novels” in italics, but realized them emphasis wasn’t really necessary).

With all the above churning in my head – and with today being the Trout Underground’s Five Year Anniversary – this is as good a time as any to invest fifteen minutes leaning back in a chair, sucking on a beer and pondering the following:

What The Hell Do I Think I’m Doing?

While the Underground has changed its hair color a few times, the constant over the last five years has been a desire to write about the odd bits of the fly fishing life you won’t find in a magazine.

The personal moments, the beautiful moments, the frustrating moments, the new dad moments (like standing over a stinky changing table instead of a small stream) – you get the picture.

In that sense, I’m still batting a thousand.

I keep writing about my tiny, unglamorous corner of the fly fishing world (and my trips to other tiny, unglamorous corners of the fly fishing world), and a surprising number of you keep coming along for the ride.

Which astonishes me.

The Upper Sacramento River – and the small streams and alpine lakes I photograph and write about – lie far from the exotic destinations currently occupying the center of fly fishing’s media universe.

It’s rare to find an issue of anything lacking a story about Patagonia or a distant part of the former Soviet Union, and if you don’t have a hero shot or confrontation with some marginally frightening foreign bandit, you don’t really have a story.

Whether this represents the ongoing “extremification” of the sport depends on your perspective, though it’s pretty clearly the result of (to steal from Vonnegut) certain economic realities.

In simple terms, if you want to make money, you go where money’s being spent.

In fly fishing, the trail of dollar bills leads squarely to How-to/Where-to articles (which appeal to new anglers, who are buying gear); gear reviews (which sell more gear than ads); and “adventure destination” articles (which sell trips for travel agents and lodges, who buy ads).

And while it’s easy to read the above as condemnation, I’m just recognizing reality.

Fly fishing’s a hobby for most, but for a few it’s a business, and it’s clear fly fishing’s online world is increasingly occupied with the business of business.

It’s normal and expected, though I still get fired up after some fool pitches me an “opportunity” that mostly allows them to profit from my work (for the last time, “exposure” doesn’t feed my kid).

Despite steadfastly ignoring every major fly fishing trend (at least as it relates to gear, travel and fermented beverages), the Underground continues to draw approximately 22,000 unique visitors every month – the equivalent of a small magazine.

That suggests one of two things. Either fly fishermen are still plenty interested in essays about everyday fly fishing, or Wally the Wonderdog is way more popular than I guessed.

Frankly, I’m willing to go either way on that one.

What’s Next?

When I launched the Underground, fly fishing’s online universe was a shiny new place; a big experiment run by people wearing waders instead of lab coats, and for a while, most of us were happy enough dabbling in the science instead of focusing on the results.

Like any movement, it couldn’t last forever.

Almost overnight, bloggers seemingly stopped linking to other blogs, cliques formed, commercial interests crept into the equation, and one day, someone suggested an advertiser wouldn’t receive coverage on their site as long as the advertiser was paying for space on mine.

Which is when I realized things had fundamentally changed.

Today, blogs aren’t the hot media channel they used to be, and the herds are leaving “long form” content behind for “hot” technologies like Facebook and Twitter (you don’t need a Mensa card to know 140 character-long tweets are a lot easier to create than 1000-word posts).

Flipbook-based ezines are also hot properties, yet I can’t help but think they’re something of a throwback; no conversations take place between their virtual covers, and in fact, they exist largely apart from the “social” web.

Given the low rates paid for online advertising (which reflects its often abysmal clickthrough rates), it’s hard to see more than one or two ezines achieving profitability (needed to pay those providing the content).

In other words, I believe we’re just at the start of the new media revolution. There’s plenty more to come.

What is clear is this: given the public’s reluctance to pay for anything appearing in a web browser (that’s why traditional media outlets are embracing the iPad and its easy-to-monetize apps), blogs only make commercial sense when you’ve got something to sell.

You’ll want to keep that in mind for the future.

Five Years Later

Today, I’m a fly fishing dad of a two year-old daughter who fishes less than he used to, and while I miss yesterday’s largely obligation-free existence, I’m unable to stop staring into the light generated by my bright, shiny little girl.

Sadly, it turns out that money still matters, and lacking a trust fund (wealthy couples looking to adopt an older child should contact me immediately), I’m transforming my 25 year copywriting business into a marketing consultancy – a time-consuming affair.

I still fish more than some, though even when I do, I don’t always find the time to write about it. The last year has been wildly hectic, and the last three months have been off the charts.

At times, the Underground’s felt like a bit of burden, and when I’m feeling that pressure, the trolls, nasty emails, alpha-dog wannabees and wholly clueless commenters seem a little bigger than they are.

It’s hard to imagine life without the Underground, but it’s equally hard to ignore the imminent signing of a time-consuming-but-very-interesting new client and the half-dozen (sizable) online projects featuring February deadlines.

In other words, the last three months are about to repeat themselves, and while I’m not making any decisions on the Trout Underground’s Fifth Anniversary, I’m also not ruling out changes.

They might include everything from turning TU into a multi-author blog (this lightens the load) to simply burning it down and walking away.

Wherever the journey leads, it’s safe to say the last five years wouldn’t have been half as much fun if the Undergrounders hadn’t shared the ride. For the most part, you played along when I was having fun, but Threw Down Big when our fishing access was threatened, my father died, Little M arrived, and the dozens of other times it was needed.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

Comments added in the next 24 hours could disappear, but you should just consider that a potential feature.

After all, a comment that appears and then disappears into the aether creates serendipity – and a rarity – all its own.

Compounding things is the simple fact that I don’t really know what I’m doing – a reality which generates a dramatic tension all its own.

What I wish would disappear is my cold, which got worse over the weekend. Being sick makes me cranky, which wasn’t helped by Dave Robert’s phone call.

Dave broke his ankle a while ago, and just got cut out of his cast late yesterday afternoon, and I thought he showed a lot of restraint by waiting until today to go fishing.

He invited me along, dangling the Rouge’s wholly fishable flows, but I had to say “no” – and in favor of day spent essentially pushing buttons.

Now I’m saying “no” to a reasonable bedtime so I can push even more buttons, a fate I’d only wish on a Nestle employee (well, some Nestle employees).

See you pushing buttons, Tom Chandler.

The new wood-stove insert is keeping the family room warm, but since we’re on a well, water’s scarce, and with Little M’s cold turning into a fever last night, the L&T grabbed the World’s Cutest Undergrounder and lit out for relatives in the Bay Area – where heat, water, food and medical care are available.

I won’t suggest I – as a new parent – freaked out or anything. Let’s just say I was “hysterically concerned.”

And while the Underground’s spacious grounds are littered with dead trees, dead tree limbs and other carnage, the real Pain In The Ass barrier involves the failure of Satan’s Snowblower on day one.

(me: “Well played, demon spawn”)

(satan’s snowblower: “And the winter is still young, my young victim.”)

I’m writing this from Raine’s house in Dunsmuir (that smug bastard with his power and heat and hot food…), and the lights are flickering, so I’d better get this posted and go.

That’s not to say I can get it done quickly; with the snowblower dead and snow falling like it was freakin’ Siberia, I’ve invested upwards of 4.5 hours/day shoveling snow the last three days.

In other words, the Underground tiny little Tyrannosaurus Rex writer’s arms are in fact little rubber bands.

See you when the power’s back on, Tom Chandler.

(On Day 51 of the Trout Underground Home Hostage Crisis)

We’re pretty sure we saw a few BWOs hatching out in one of the video’s evening sequences, but that’s not important now.

What’s important is the conclusion any reasonable person would have to draw from this video:

The Trout Underground is – on a global basis – making trout cool.

See you in all the hippest places, Tom Chandler.

(found via AdFreak)

Recently, I said the Underground wasn’t going to finish 2009 the same way it began it. That’s about to become true.

The Original Trout Underground Manifestor header, circa 2005

Interest in advertising on the Trout Underground is growing (slowly), and suddenly, we’re important enough that a couple manufacturers want to shower me with gear to review (one of them offered to let me keep the swag).

It seems the Undergrounders love gear reviews, but here’s the rub: if a reviewer knows in advance he’s keeping the gear he’s reviewing, then a cynic might suggest he’s receiving a form of payment for the review.

The advertising angle is pretty much the same; advertisers have dollars-and-cents leverage when they’re not happy with editorial content, and some are notoriously willing to use it.

My journalism training suggests compensated reviews represent a sizable conflict of interest, and it’s one reason why you might question the unbiased nature of those high-end destination reviews when a lodge paid the writer to be there.

Can you trust me to honestly review a piece of gear when the gear itself becomes a payoff – a form of blogola? Can you trust me to say what I think knowing an advertiser might object?

I think you can, but it’s a question my readers have the right to ask.

I will say this: perceived conflict of interest has long been one of journalism’s slipperier slopes, and without the trust I’ve built among my readers, the Underground is little more than 1700+ posts of search engine content.

Why is all this an issue?

The Underground Gets Real

Because while the Trout Underground’s big fun – and yes, I believe it fills a niche mainstream fly fishing media doesn’t – it’s also the following: A hell of a lot of work.

Writing is my day job, and investing vast expanses of time here absent any real return isn’t fiscally sane – especially when the economy is face planting and hordes of part time amateur writers are turning the professional writing world into a race to the low bid.

An Early Trout Underground Header Image

The L&T’s totally cool about the amount of time I waste spend here, but we both know I’d generate a lot better return if I invested it in my business, or [gasp] wrote articles for print magazines.

Which – in the case of the Underground – seemingly leaves me with two choices.

1. Let the Underground float downstream, belly up in the current
2. Find a way to make a few guilt-free dollars off the site – but do so transparently

What’s going to happen? I’m not sure, but Singlebarbed and I are in the process of creating our Advertising/Gear Whore policy, the genesis of which you’ll find after I’ve made some long-winded observations about…

The Underground’s Take on the Future of Fly Fishing Media

Keith at Singlebarbed and I have always been clear with each other why we write our blogs; we’re happy writing and publishing the stuff the magazines aren’t publishing.

That’s not necessarily a shot at the print folks; the Internet is a different animal, though fly fishing’s media would do well to heed the lessons of newspapers, which are in a free fall (The Rocky Mountains News ceased publishing today, and even the SF Chronicle is threatening to close)

Recently, Phil Monahan lost his job at the helm of American Angler because the magazine owner’s newspaper operations sucked the life out of the organization.

Monahan and I had our disagreements online, but he’s a talented editor who somehow grew American Angler’s reader base in a stagnant market. Simply put, he deserved better than he seemingly got.

More Underground Header goodness

It also seems Underground Fave fly fishing writer Dave Hughes recently left Amato Publishing due to budget issues, and you don’t have to look to closely to see the cracks widening at a few other publications.

And yes, because I write a blog, you’re expecting me to tell you that blogs are the the future of fly fishing online, and no others need apply?

Not so much.

Blogs as Traffic Magnets?

In truth, I believe the standalone, original-content blog format is something of a dead end – at least in terms of viable fly fishing media properties.

More than a year ago, I predicted blogs – at least those with hopes of generating enough revenue to make them worth writing – might have to serve a larger master.

One obvious niche is the role of traffic magnet to a larger entity. In this context, you could consider bloggers the online equivalent to columnists at a newspaper, whose job it is to keep readers coming back.

This one came a little later; I'm not clear on the date.

And yes, you might notice the new, high-profile online magazines have sprouted blogs. That seems like a necessary survival tactic when you’re releasing an online magazine every couple months (an eternity in Internet time).

Without something to keep readers engaged, online magazines are forced to re-acquire a sizable chunk of their readership every issue. That’s not good.

Still, the blogs mentioned really have yet to fill the “columnist” role, and the online sites associated with fly fishing’s magazines are similarly devoid of “anchor” blogs (with Field & Stream being a surprising exception).

One thing is clear; fly fishing blogs are finally gaining ground in the fly fishing industry: MidCurrent’s Marshal Cutchin and I found ourselves on the cover of Orvis’ fly fishing catalog.

The Trout Underground’s stand on the McCloud & Nestle led to an appearance on TU’s On the Rise show, and more media folks have been popping their heads into my virtual online window.

And yes, the number of commercial enterprises looking for free access to my readership has grown by an order of magnitude over the last few months (and illustrated why many of fly fishing’s small businesses could stand to read a book on pitching story ideas).

Simply put, the online revolution is happening even in the quiet backwater that is fly fishing.

The Underground’s Ad/Gear Whore Policy

Barring the sudden appearance of a wealthy patron (hear me, trustfunders?), advertising is now a reality for the Underground. Problem is, standard online banner ads aren’t always effective – especially over long ad runs.

Rather than trap advertisers within the confines of a 160 x 600 pixel banner ad, I’m adding “ad pages” to the Underground’s mix. To reach the growing number of folks who read my content via RSS and email feeds (they may never physically visit the site), I’ll be creating dedicated ad posts, essentially mimicking the pages in magazines that are dedicated to ads.

Clearly marked ‘Advertising’ (in multiple ways), these ad posts offer an advertiser a little more elbow room – and a chance to deliver “content” they couldn’t otherwise deliver.

Frankly, it makes a hell of a lot of sense for everyone involved, and rest assured, the advertising posts will remain separate from the editorial posts you’re (presumably) here to read and comment on.

If online advertising can’t be made to to work for everyone involved (not just in fly fishing, but across the Internet), then it’s entirely possible – as some have predicted – the Internet will have presided over the death of intellectual property.

With a series of unpretty options as my alternative, I believe this is one way to make viable online advertising a reality.

As for gear reviews, I promise to be entirely transparent about the disposition of the stuff I receive. Singlebarbed and I have agreed to do something good and useful with the first pile of gear coming to us (like raffle it and donate the proceeds to a worthy cause).

If we keep something, we’ll “pay” for it somehow (donating the media price equivalent somewhere). More on this come.

Finally, The Underground e-Newsletter

Also, the Underground’s firing up an e-newsletter service. It’s yet to be named, but the e-newsletter should offer:

1. Photos, shorter works, snark and other information not available on the blog
2. A chance for me to fire off news alerts about breaking stories/legislation/actionable items
3. Access to some of the older Underground pieces that deserve a second showing

If you’re a regular Undergrounder, then by all means, sign up (I’ll have a signup button in the sidebar soon).

I see this is yet another step in the big experiment that began when I began writing the Trout Underground in November, 2005.

The world is shifting beneath our feet – and some days it feels like it’s spinning faster than it did ten years ago – and like everyone, I’m trying to make sense of it.

As always, thanks for visiting, reading, and commenting on the Underground.

It’s been a hoot, and it’s about to get even more interesting.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

Some of the industry’s Nattering Nabobs of Negativism have said advertising on the Trout Underground won’t work – that my cynical, drunken readers find it too easy to ignore conventional banner ads.

Thanks to Alert Underground Twitter Reader CastingOutLoud (no, we don’t really want to ask his real name, which would only encourage him), we’ve uncovered proof the right advertising would have the Undergrounders absolutely salivating at the chance to buy.

It’s not a failure on the part of the Underground – it’s a creative failure on the part of advertisers.

See you on Madison Avenue, Tom Chandler.

Dear Sir:

I’m sure you’re busy these days what with you handing out $350 Billion of the taxpayer’s money and all, but with the auto companies, cities and (yes) credit card companies bellying up to the bailout trough, I’d like this letter to serve as the Trout Underground’s Formal Application of Consideration for Bailout Funding.

It turns out things aren’t all that good for anyone, Mr. Paulsen – even fly fishing’s top blogs are feeling the strain.

Tight markets have reduced the Underground’s fly reserves to the brink of insolvency; the Trout Underground is only weeks away (or a half-dozen BWO hatches) from total emerger bankruptcy, and debentured midge pupae reserves are hardly any better.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but while the Underground’s upper management was joyriding in the corporate jet and practicing adding zeros to the CEO’s bonus check, employees heavily leveraged our stock of fly tying materials by shorting subprime West Coast Salmon bellies and investing heavily in California Trout Stocking Futures.

We couldn’t possibly have anticipated the perfect storm of legal and environmental events that would decimate West Coast salmon and end CA trout stocking programs, and with our investments going bad faster than a dead trout on a summer day (did you notice the creativity there, Mr. Paulson?), the Underground will soon lack the ability to buy 6x or charge the digital camera’s batteries, and will have to cease posting.

The effect on the economy will be immediate and disastrous; the Trout Underground’s legions of readers – lacking the distraction which consumes most of their working day – will suddenly turn back to their jobs, and frankly, sir, I don’t think that’s good.

If it’s one thing we’ve learned the last year, it’s this: what’s happening beneath the glossy PR exteriors of most corporations is better left hidden. And with upwards of 16,000 former Underground readers suddenly doing their jobs every month, more shit will inevitably be discovered (can I say “shit” sir?), and the economy will plunge even deeper into the sewer.

Not to embrace cliche, but sir, a quick glance at Alexa’s traffic ratings and Technorati’s blog rankings should convince you of one thing: the Trout Underground’s simply Too Big to Fail.

Naturally, I’d accept my bailout check with the same oversight terms that were heaped on the financial industry (it’s good times again, sir, good times), and yes, I stand ready to road trip it back to DC in the Underground’s rapidly decaying 1990 Ford Bronco (no jets here), which looks and smells exactly like you’d think a fishing vehicle should (there will be no charges of elitism to muddy the waters, though you might warn the Secret Service their bomb sniffing dogs won’t enjoy the search much).

I look forward to your reply, and since you’re considering bailing out the auto and credit industries (would it seem too forward to point out the Underground’s never tried to sell you a Hummer or booted your interest rate to 33% because you paid a day late?), I look forward to receiving a check soon.

See you on the river, sir.

Tom Chandler

p.s. – Sir, you are to be commended for streamlining the process – it turns out the application for the program is only two pages long, which is scarcely any more paperwork than it takes to get a fishing license. I think even a fly fisherman could do this.

(Go ahead, I’ll wait here while you do it.)

You’re looking at the Trout Underground’s latest attempt to recycle the past make your lives better.

It’s the “One Year Ago” widget that lists posts made one year ago on this date, so you can enjoy the Trout Underground over and over and over again.

After all, sheer fly fishing brilliance is still sheer fly fishing brilliance – even twelve months later.

See you a year ago, Tom Chandler.

In fact, while congress wrangles, I was working my nimble writer fingers to the bone building a new visual theme for the Trout Underground.

Why abandon the look that’s taken me from humble fly fishing writer to groupie-mobbed online superstar?

Simple.

Space (it’s not just the final frontier for geeks).

Bigger. Better. Wider. (It's almost as if we're selling you a car.)

The old theme was a little crowded, and the pictures I posted were limited in size (that’s bad). The new theme gives me an extra 120 pixels in width. So yes, you’ll see bigger pictures, and perhaps longer stories. (And yes, a few more advertising opportunities too.)

Yet despite the width, I wanted something that still loaded relatively quickly. And yes, I wanted something with a little white space – something that had a little room to breathe.

Expect plenty more changes over the next month.

In the meantime, sit back. Relax. Send us $10s and $20s. And enjoy the view.