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Geocaching and Business - What does the future hold?


JeepFreak81

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Hey everyone, I have a question regarding the sustainability and future of Geocaching as it pertains to business opportunity. Now, a little background about me so you can get a feel for what I mean. I have dabbled in Internet marketing, website building, and even drop shipping. I also have a A.S. in Business management. I have never been and never will be happy working full time for somebody else. There are various reasons for that, some of which are medical, and some of which are just personal preference. Some would say it's just the way I'm wired, but the bottom line is I've been making myself miserable for the past 5 years or so trying to figure this out.

 

In any case, the reason for this post is because I've been kicking around the idea of going after Geocaching as a niche business. Essentially, I am considering a website with resources, reviews, products, videos, and more. I know there are other sites doing similar things but that doesn't mean I should shy away from it. I think one thing I've been lacking when building websites in the past is any sort of passion for what I'm doing. I really enjoy geocaching and so does the whole family. I think this could provide me a fun way to help people out and perhaps build a small business in the meantime.

 

The big question is, after 15 years where do you see Geocaching going? Is it here to stay for the foreseeable future, or is it a trend that is going out of style.

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Hey everyone, I have a question regarding the sustainability and future of Geocaching as it pertains to business opportunity. Now, a little background about me so you can get a feel for what I mean. I have dabbled in Internet marketing, website building, and even drop shipping. I also have a A.S. in Business management. I have never been and never will be happy working full time for somebody else. There are various reasons for that, some of which are medical, and some of which are just personal preference. Some would say it's just the way I'm wired, but the bottom line is I've been making myself miserable for the past 5 years or so trying to figure this out.

 

In any case, the reason for this post is because I've been kicking around the idea of going after Geocaching as a niche business. Essentially, I am considering a website with resources, reviews, products, videos, and more. I know there are other sites doing similar things but that doesn't mean I should shy away from it. I think one thing I've been lacking when building websites in the past is any sort of passion for what I'm doing. I really enjoy geocaching and so does the whole family. I think this could provide me a fun way to help people out and perhaps build a small business in the meantime.

 

The big question is, after 15 years where do you see Geocaching going? Is it here to stay for the foreseeable future, or is it a trend that is going out of style.

 

I see it as a trend going out of style. I think that Munzee made a good move when it did. Really, what is Groundspeak giving it's customers?

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As a niche, I think geocaching is too small of a market to be sustainable. As a piece of a wider market, in terms of wellness and health as a focus, I think that's where the trend is heading.

 

One department at my work offers health screenings for area businesses. What started out as a once a month gig, has turned into several health fairs a month. Theirs increasing focus on the healthcare dollar, and geocaching could certainly fit into that equation.

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I was wondering if maybe this sport is peaking or even has peaked. I like the idea of including it as part of a larger idea but small niches actually perform surprisingly well on the internet, you just have to have more of them. However, I could incorporate other outdoor activities. Something to chew on for sure. I'm not losing anything to try other than my time invested and the cost of a domain name/hosting.

 

I do wonder if Geocaching can make it another 15 years or if it's only got 5 solid years left. I hope it sticks around because me and my family enjoy it for a number of reasons, many of those Munzee can't or doesn't provide. (not that I've really tried it either)

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This is a good question. There are some parallels between CB radio in the 1970s and Geocaching.

CB: Started as a small niche market (truckers) which then exploded into widespread mass usage which eventually peaked and then went back into the hands of the few people who actually need it.

 

Geocaching: Started as a small niche market (outdoor enthusiasts) which then exploded into widespread mass usage (power trails, etc.). Are we seeing the peak of its mass popularity and will it eventually decline and go back into the hands of those original outdoor enthusiasts?

 

I think there are a couple of factors working against the current mass popularity of Geocaching.

 

Externally, I think the political climate of fear which has taught everyday ordinary citizens to be suspicious of any activity or object that is deemed out of the ordinary. This hobby is based on hiding and finding containers hidden in public places and, by its very nature, raises suspicion. Not so much an issue when the hobby was played out in the woods, but as it became (and continues to become) more urban and more visible, it will only get worse.

 

Internally, I think we will see a major fatigue factor grow in the hobby as the outdoor enthusiasts are turned off by having to wade through the ever increasing number of "just for another smiley" hides and the "numbers crowd" will grow bored when they realize there really is no reward for sitting atop some leaderboard in terms of caches found. Also, the numbers crowd can be better served by scanning barcodes and not having to bother with that whole annoying container. (The fact that the barcode scanning game doesn't need containers hidden also gives it a leg-up in the external climate I mentioned above.)

 

I love Geocaching as a hobby and I think Groundspeak is a really great success story so I hope they are able to stick around without having to alter the game to fit into a new world order. If it goes back to being a niche player, I'd certainly continue to enjoy the opportunities it provides.

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Also, the numbers crowd can be better served by scanning barcodes and not having to bother with that whole annoying container. (The fact that the barcode scanning game doesn't need containers hidden also gives it a leg-up in the external climate I mentioned above.

 

For me, the hidden container is the most interesting part. I've tried the QR-based game, but there was literally no sport in it whatsoever. Kind of hard to miss a QR code when you are looking for it. So I guess the biggest part of the lure for me is the challenge and "danger" or "risk" involved in searching, grabbing, opening and replacing.

 

Same goes for Waymarking...nothing particularly challenging about it. Rarely even interesting information provided.

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Also, the numbers crowd can be better served by scanning barcodes and not having to bother with that whole annoying container. (The fact that the barcode scanning game doesn't need containers hidden also gives it a leg-up in the external climate I mentioned above.

 

For me, the hidden container is the most interesting part. I've tried the QR-based game, but there was literally no sport in it whatsoever. Kind of hard to miss a QR code when you are looking for it. So I guess the biggest part of the lure for me is the challenge and "danger" or "risk" involved in searching, grabbing, opening and replacing.

 

Same goes for Waymarking...nothing particularly challenging about it. Rarely even interesting information provided.

 

I agree about the interesting part being finding the physical container. Not only that but the fact that having the proper coordinates doesn't automatically mean you're going to find the cache. I actually enjoy a DNF every once in a while so I can go back and look again and maybe find it. The barcode game doesn't seem that great. I actually went and signed up the other day to check it out and immediatly lost interest. Partially because there are only 4 of them in my town. They only have a bit over 200k registered members and that includes people like me that tried it and didn't like it. I don't know what the numbers are for registered users of geocaching.com but I know they are MUCH higher than that.

 

Also, it's funny to see somebody mention CB's as an analogy. I was into CB's as a teenager, even had a base station at my home and talked some cloud skip to other states and once to england. I feel that they fell out of popularity when cell phones started getting more and more common.

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Also, it's funny to see somebody mention CB's as an analogy. I was into CB's as a teenager, even had a base station at my home and talked some cloud skip to other states and once to england. I feel that they fell out of popularity when cell phones started getting more and more common.

 

And others moved on... to more serious stuff. B)

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Yep, I was into CB radios and then moved up to amateur radio. I gave up both after about 10 years and took up geocaching, then Waymarking. Both are getting pretty boring to me now.

 

I'll still hang on to my GPS unit for hunting and hiking, which never gets boring to me. I love the outdoors. :anibad:

 

Geocaching is becoming just more of a numbers game played on a smartphone, in my opinion. My smartphone already made CB and HAM radio obselete. :anibad:

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Also, it's funny to see somebody mention CB's as an analogy. I was into CB's as a teenager, even had a base station at my home and talked some cloud skip to other states and once to england. I feel that they fell out of popularity when cell phones started getting more and more common.

 

So did I. I even built several quad antennas, modified a radio, and shot skip (the signals "skip" of the ionsphere, not clouds) and got QSL cards from all 50 states, quite a few from Australia, and once with Japan.

 

I also see some similarities, especially the way how different users played the game. A lot of people that just talked on the AM bands I see as somewhat similar to numbers cachers verses those that had SSB radios and talked on the higher frequencies playing more like those that place quality over quantity.

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Even if the boom in geocaching dies down, the concept of outdoor enthusiasts hiding things for people to navigate to won't entirely disappear. Look at how long letterboxing has existed for.

 

There are certainly people making money from the hobby at the moment but wether they make a living and for how long I don't know. I'd guess you'd have to sell an awful lot of a product/service to a small slice of the population in an already flooded market to make a decent living.

 

If you have an interest in outdoor activities in general perhaps a business aimed at a wider market but with a geocaching section would be a safer bet, however you may have to think about dropping caching and marketing towards a more profitable hobby if interest in it wanes.

 

Whatever you decide to do good luck finding a job in which you feel happy, I know how hard that can be.

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Externally, I think the political climate of fear which has taught everyday ordinary citizens to be suspicious of any activity or object that is deemed out of the ordinary. This hobby is based on hiding and finding containers hidden in public places and, by its very nature, raises suspicion. Not so much an issue when the hobby was played out in the woods, but as it became (and continues to become) more urban and more visible, it will only get worse.

The other side of this is that the hobby grew up in the same era, yet the new emerging fear of all strangers hasn't dampened interest in geocaching so far. While you might be right that some kind of backlash against people poking around behind the odd bush, I think it could also work the other way: geocaching giving its participants comfort in knowing that they don't have to fear every act they don't understand because they themselves perform incomprehensible acts all the time.

 

To get back to the topic, though, I'm not seeing much of a business model for geocaching. And I'm fine with that.

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Hey everyone, I have a question regarding the sustainability and future of Geocaching as it pertains to business opportunity. Now, a little background about me so you can get a feel for what I mean. I have dabbled in Internet marketing, website building, and even drop shipping. I also have a A.S. in Business management. I have never been and never will be happy working full time for somebody else. There are various reasons for that, some of which are medical, and some of which are just personal preference. Some would say it's just the way I'm wired, but the bottom line is I've been making myself miserable for the past 5 years or so trying to figure this out.

 

In any case, the reason for this post is because I've been kicking around the idea of going after Geocaching as a niche business. Essentially, I am considering a website with resources, reviews, products, videos, and more. I know there are other sites doing similar things but that doesn't mean I should shy away from it. I think one thing I've been lacking when building websites in the past is any sort of passion for what I'm doing. I really enjoy geocaching and so does the whole family. I think this could provide me a fun way to help people out and perhaps build a small business in the meantime.

 

The big question is, after 15 years where do you see Geocaching going? Is it here to stay for the foreseeable future, or is it a trend that is going out of style.

 

What is your website going to do to draw people away from Geocaching.com, which offers resources, products, and videos? How will it differ from the other "review" attempts that are already out there?

 

Geocaching isn't going anywhere, but it's been around for 15 years and I don't see much appetite for more websites.

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To answer your question, I see geocaching as something that will be continue. I also think that there will be three major kinds of geocachers. The numbers crowd, the outdoor enthusiast, and the flash-in-the-pan crowd. Of those, two are in it for the long haul, and the flash-in-the-pan crowd will come and go so quickly, the only thing they do is inflate the number of geocachers. If I were you, I would consider focusing on one of these groups, rather than trying to be all things to all geocachers.

 

The numbers crowd has lots of geocaching statistics sites. I think you would have trouble penetrating this area for two reasons. The first is that the other sites are already well known, and the second is that a lot of these sites tie directly into the API. If memory serves, I don't think Groundspeak is expanding its list of who can use the API. So, you would have to use more cumbersome methods to get the data, and you wouldn't be able to get all the same data the other sites get. To summarize, you would start with two handicaps, the first is getting the data easily, and the second is getting people to move away the current de facto leaders.

 

There may be a weakness in challenge checkers, there might be an opportunity there. However, there is currently a moratorium on new challenge caches, so that may be a diminishing market.

 

Trip planning could be an area to explore. Lack of access to the API may be a handicap, but something that allows a user to upload a PQ, and plan a least distance path. Or, consider a tool that adds new search categories, such as caches in parks, libraries, cemeteries, churches, etc. This would require a LOT of digging around and trying to get a lot of GIS data so that you know the locations of these things. Not too many central repositories for this kind of data. But it could help the outdoor enthusiast.

 

Other resources could be a comprehensive list of links to 'location' type web sites (geocaching, Waymarking, orienteering, munzee, etc.), or links to sites that offer geocaching specific items (coins, containers, travel bugs, etc.), or a list of all of the geocaching pod casts.

 

You could design log books, but I see so few 'official' looking log books used, I don't think that this would be a viable market. You may also have trademark/copyright issues.

 

There may be a market for gadget cache designs. A place where gadget cache designers could sell their plans, and other could post reviews. I don't think that would be a large market, gadget caches are few and far between. And some of the creators may want to keep the uniqueness of their cache, and not want to sell plans. There are lots of YouTube videos on gadget caches.

 

Looking at what Groundspeak has changed in the last couple of years, they have added GeoTours, and put a moratorium on challenge caches. Could there be something with GeoTours (and other reward trails)? A place for GeoTour (and potential GeoTour) creators to meet and discuss techniques? A statistics site that lists people that have successfully completed GeoTours? There might be something here.

 

As for products, IMO you would just be another in a list of people offering me geocaching related products.

 

I'm not sure how you would distinguish yourself with videos. If you are creating videos, YouTube is probably the place to post them, because a Google search will probably place YouTube videos at the top of the list. As for host them, again how would you differ from YouTube.

 

Anyhow, this is just a bunch of random thoughts about your question. I hope it helps.

 

Skye.

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