How Your Saltwater Guide Built a Vibrant Fishing Membership Community

Dave Hansen, a seasoned fisherman, had spent his entire life mastering the art of fishing in Southern California. As he approached his sixties, Dave’s passion for teaching others led him to start a unique venture. He shared, “Out of nowhere, I started a company called Your Saltwater Guide, where I would go with you on your boat and teach you how to fish on your boat."

This one-on-one approach quickly gained popularity, and soon, Dave found himself overwhelmed by demand. "I had 102 people that were asking me to come with them on their boat, and I just physically could not do that," he recalled.

Realizing the need for a scalable solution, Dave built Your Saltwater Guide, a membership platform for people to learn the ins and outs of fishing.

Today, Your Saltwater Guide has a thriving membership community, 108K followers on Instagram, 75K subscribers on YouTube, and has launched two mobile apps (iOS and Android) with an average of 4.8 stars with Uscreen.

Before migrating to Uscreen, Dave was hosting his content on a different platform. The problem was that not only was the platform expensive, but it lacked essential features he needed to scale Your Saltwater Guide. 

"The other platform decided that they needed way more of my money than I was willing to give them. And so I had to reset. I'll be perfectly honest, I'm just a fisherman. I don't know anything about how that worked, how the Internet and how social media and all that work at the time."

-Captain Dave Hansen, Founder of Your Saltwater Guide

The limitations of the previous platform became increasingly apparent. Elliot, his digital marketing strategist, explains, "The previous platform wasn’t giving Dave the ability to sell bundles. It was only giving him the option to charge monthly. The storage wasn’t very good, the video resolution wasn’t good on playback, and it just wasn’t a secure, well-respected platform for Dave to run his business on."

Dave and Elliot needed a platform that could support their growing business and provide a better member experience. "We had to move away from a platform that was limiting us," Elliot says. "You know, Dave was mainly using YouTube and little bits and pieces of social media. He even had another website at one point. But those solutions were not meeting our needs."

Soon, the duo decided to migrate Your Saltwater Guide to Uscreen, a video hosting and monetization platform that provides an out-of-the-box solution to create a premium service on any devices, without breaking the bank. 

The shift to Uscreen not only resolved the issues they faced but also set the stage for the continued growth and success of Your Saltwater Guide.

"To be perfectly honest, none of our members know that we switched platforms. They have no idea. It was just smooth.”

-Captain Dave Hansen, Founder of Your Saltwater Guide

Eliott shares, “Uscreen was the better choice. It allowed us to sell bundles, which was crucial for our business model. The storage and video resolution were significantly improved, and it offered a more secure and respected platform for us to operate on."

With Uscreen, Dave and Elliot were also able to create a connected culture within their membership, launch a built-in community page, and significantly improve member retention and engagement. 

The community forum quickly became a defining part of their platform. It’s accessible on both their iOS and Android apps, meaning members can use it on the go, while they’re actually fishing. 

This easy-to-use feature was exactly what their audience wanted, and it turned their business into a true membership community that’s generating recurring revenue and helping them grow at the same time. Now, they’re using it to scale.

Dave and Elliot use every opportunity, from conventions to fishing shows, to highlight the community’s value. "I emphasize so much that the community is a great way for people to actually continue their success," Dave said. 

The community also plays a critical role in converting trial users to paid memberships and improving retention rates. "Right now on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, we get about 30 million views a month," Dave shared.

The duo also takes pride in the fact that they’ve created a completely safe space for their members, where everyone can share their stories and ask for help when they need it.

And it shows. The forum is filled with tons of posts from members describing what they’re catching, where they’re catching it, and even posting pictures of their latest family fishing trips with the kids.

Your Saltwater Guide has seen the community help convert people from free trials to paid memberships.

During Saltwater Guide’s 2 week trial period, people get to experience the value of the community. For members who are new to fishing, the ability to get expert personal advice from other experienced members is a game-changer. “Why would they want to cancel that trial when they’ve just joined this new community?” he said.

The community is a hugely effective way for the founders to engage with and support them, or help them bond with other people who want to celebrate their successes. Dave has noticed that when members feel like they’re being cared for and looked after, they stay on longer, and he’s seen increased retention rates after launching the community hub.

The community helps grow and market the business by generating its own glowing testimonials.

Creating the testimonials channel was just a way to remind people that they can leave one if they want. But Dave’s community is so special that just encouraging people to be part of the community means the testimonials naturally create themselves. They don’t need to incentivize people to leave reviews – members post their own because they love the experience so much.

“They want to share their success with the other members so that our members know the website works, which is just a big, giant good thing for us, and it works really well.”

-Captain Dave Hansen, Founder of Your Saltwater Guide

And these glowing reviews reflect the feeling of togetherness and the value people get from the YSG community. They leave tons of feedback about the friendships they’ve built and how much the community has benefited their lives.

Your Saltwater Guide’s community helps not only sell the membership, but builds recurring revenue by building loyalty from within.