The Making of ScubaBiz.Help

By Jean-Marc Claes

 

A look behind the scenes at ScubaBiz.Help

As you already saw/noticed, we at ScubaBiz.Help are celebrating our one-year anniversary.

Bill Doran, our Editor in Chief, wrote a nice statement about the where, why, what, and so much more.

 

Let me, Jean-Marc Claes, give you a little more insight into what is going on behind the scenes when creating a new ScubaBiz.Help magazine every month.

 

A magazine doesn’t just write itself, so how does it start?

 

Every month we issue a new edition of ScubaBiz.Help magazine, and to do so, we need content, preferably interesting content. So, Bill, Karen, Ryan, and I get in contact with each other (not that easy always as we are a geographically challenged team) and talk about what we know, what is going on in the scuba world and what needs our attention. Our network of thousands of dive professionals worldwide is an important resource of information and channels a lot of information all the way to us.

 

However, we can not all write an article about the same subjects! So we make a plan about who is writing what, making sure that all different aspects of the scuba business are being covered; after all, we are still creating a magazine for scuba professionals worldwide. Subjects like marketing, international business, professional networking, sales, after-sales, building your community, and local dive shop support always have a priority.

 

Next are articles related to dive travel, new destinations, and new opportunities, many of these to be connected to SY Blowing Bubbles, our scuba flagship that travels around the world, for you to join if you want to experience your ScubaBiz.Help Team in action.

 

Writing an article is easier said than done, and we always make space for guest writers. During the last year, we were proud to publish, not once but twice, an article from 13-year-old Norwegian Kristiane Lochert and her look into the diving world from a surprisingly different point of view.

 

If you send us an article, do not be shy; no matter what language, we will make sure it will be translated and published. Give it a try!

 

Just writing plain text is already challenging, but nothing goes without a visual and so articles need to be matched with pictures or even video. The advantage of an online magazine is the part where video comes in, bringing the articles more alive. Karen Erens is taking up a lorry load of this work, which is very time-consuming. Making a 30-second video can easily take up 2hrs of her work time, but it is worth it!

We live more and more in a digital world full of moving images, so ScubaBiz.Help can stay current and meaningful!

 

Ryan is writing articles related to media, movies and so on. His specialty is media. We try to focus so that each team member can use their background to write interesting articles for ScubaBiz.Help magazine.

Movies and shows are an important influence on the general audience, and we, the scuba professionals, need to be aware of what is out there, good or bad. In this case, Ryan’s experiences in television, movies, and game shows really pay off. Not everyone has seen the movie Jaws or knows about Cousteau (not being a French cook but rather being the godfather of the dive industry).

 

Joining all the articles together creates a mess of content, and this is where Bill comes in. Our Editor gets to work and starts creating an outline, a readable magazine. Adapting shapes and sizes, correcting typos for the first time, and making sure our well-needed sponsors get their space in the magazine.

 

Why the sponsors?

Maybe you did not realize but ScubaBiz.Help is a free-of-charge magazine; everybody can download and share it for free. Sponsors rely on the income generated by the ScubaBiz.Help team. Our sponsors pay for the work of our magazine team and save their staff from having to create another magazine. That is how it works, as simple as that. One more way that we help the scuba business.

 

Donations? Yes, when looking at the first page of our magazine, you will find a donation button. These donations are used by our team for several causes:

 

– Making a difference in the scuba world

– Helping dive projects that need funding to achieve conservation

– Being of assistance for dive businesses in need/in trouble by unexpected cause

 

A few days before the release of the next ScubaBiz.Help magazine, the whole team gets a first draft of the magazine, always an exciting moment.

 

The next step proofreading…

The magazine gets thoroughly checked by all team members, reading, correcting and adjusting wherever it is needed. After a second and sometimes even third draft and final approval of the complete ScubaBiz.Help team; the magazine is ready to be sent out by email to our readers and to be placed online on ScubaBiz.Help website to be downloaded for those who did not leave their email address.

 

ScubaBiz.Help is a team of people creating a monthly magazine, but besides this, they are all active in the different scuba business fields of expertise:

 

– Running dive shops

– Running dive schools

– Organizing international travel

– Running a liveaboard

– Teaching and training divers and dive professionals to all levels you can imagine

– Dive equipment development, testing and consulting

– Supporting manufacturers in the dive industry

– International dive business marketing

– Dive show support and assistance in participation

– Job placement and career building

– Legal expertise and dive accident follow up

– Professional in-house training of scuba staff

– Coaching dive businesses to become more successful

 

I think that you are getting the idea that there is more behind the scenes than just writing the next edition of ScubaBiz.Help magazine.

 

Enjoy the read for now, and if you like what you read, go to our homepage and hit the DONATE button…even a One-dollar donation is much appreciated and makes a world of difference to the scuba world.