So here we are at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. Three disgruntled Go Fish Guys heading to New Jersey for a Christmas concert. Why disgruntled? Because our online store has been out of business for 2 days and we were frustrated! Despite our best efforts, we were stuck until the "magical" email saying the problem had been solved arrived.
To make matters worse (so we thought) our flight was delayed an hour and a half. SO, while we were stuck waiting, Andy went online to check our account one last time before the 3 hour flight. Yee haw! The problem was fixed and Andy was able to get our store back online 3 hours early thanks to our delayed flight.
Thank you for your prayers and we thank God for helping us get this issue resolved. Want some more good news? The "Christmas With A Capital C" youtube video has been viewed another 500,000 times today! Absolutely amazing. Obviously the song is striking a chord with people. Please pray that this simple video would result in many opportunities to share the gospel this Christmas season.Things are going crazy in Go Fish world!!!!!
Remember this youtube video for "Christmas with a Capital C"? It went bonkers 2 years ago. Last year it didn't do much. This year it's going crazy again. How crazy? Well, it's still 2 weeks until Thanksgiving and in the past week it has been viewed over 1 million times putting the total number of views at 9.2 million as I write this!
As a result, the traffic to our web site has gone through the roof. This morning we had to shut down our online store because it was so busy our systems couldn't keep up. This is pretty frustrating since we are a small operation and we really depend on the income we get from our web site store. Also, we want to get our music out there!
So please pray that we can get the issue resolved quickly and be back up and running shortly.
In the midst of this, we are really excited at how God continues to use this simple video that we had nothing to do with other than recording and writing the song! Our Christmas album SNOW was up to #28 on iTunes yesterday on the "holiday" chart. (Ironic...too bad they don't have a "Christmas" chart. I guess that's the point of the song!)
Please pray that the attention this video is getting will result in more opportunities to boldly share the gospel this Christmas. Like our Christmas song says...It's About The Cross!
After ordering from our online store, that's what a customer emailed us!
"The fact that I just got 7 CDs with free shipping for $45...I almost feel guilty!"
I love that! It also reminded me that it's been a while since I explained why we sell our products at such a great price at www.gofishguys.com.
Our deal is this: Buy your first CD or DVD at the regular price of $15 and every one after that is only $5! That includes shipping. AND you will usually get your order in the mail in just a couple of days.
We do this because we KNOW our music works. Kids love it and it doesn't drive parents bonkers. However, we want as many people as possible to hear it. Also, we know that the more people hear about our current products the more excited they'll be when we come out with something new. That's why we offer this amazing deal. Will we always make this available? I'm not sure. But for now it's working out great for everyone. Our music is spreading like wildfire and our customers are helping us because we make it so affordable and easy for them to do so! (Especially with Christmas coming up. Seriously, what else can you get for $5 that kids will love this much?!?)
Here is a perfect example of how well this is working. A few weeks ago a woman from North Carolina put in the following order:
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7 x Snooze = $105.00
1 x Showtime DVD = $15.00
16 x Snazzy = $240.00
10 x Party Like A Preschooler = $150.00
10 x "Let's Sing" DVD = $150.00
22 x Snow = $330.00
13 x Splash = $195.00
28 x Superstar = $420.00
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Sub-Total: $1,605.00
FREE SHIPPING! (Free Shipping Only): $0.00
Quantity Discount: -$1,060.00
Total: $545.00
Now that, my friends, is why we offer this deal. This was her comment she attached to her order: "We love you guys and appreciate your ministry! The goal was to get you into as many homes as possible!"
Is the authentic, word of mouth advertising we are blessed to get in North Carolina worth a $1,060.00 discount? Definitely. Thank you to all of you who continue to partner with the Go Fish Guys to reach kids for Christ. It is working!
Tomorrow is the first official day in the studio for our next kids CD! I have been working on ideas for this next project for 2 years already and I am excited to start recording.
My goal for this album is for people to hear it and go "Holy cow...I can't believe this is a kids CD!" This CD also has huge significance as it will not only be our next Go Fish project, but it will be the cornerstone of the next VBS curriculum. No pressure or anything!
Please pray that from day 1 God will have His hand on this next record. It is not lost on us that countless little mouths will be singing these lyrics with us in the coming years! Please pray that we would be faithful to the huge task of teaching kids about Jesus and His Word.
Stay tuned as I will be blogging often on our progress. The new album is scheduled to be released in August or September of 2010. We will be announcing the title and overall concept of the new album soon!
As many of you know, when a "fan-made" youtube video was released a few years ago for our song "Christmas With A Capital C" it went bonkers! It is currently at just under 8 million views! Needless to say, a lot of people were exposed to our music for the first time through this.
One thing we get asked about a lot from radio stations is if we could do a version of this song without all the talking bits. So, last year I wrote a new bridge for the middle of the song and we put together a new version that gets the point across without the speaking parts. Today this new version was officially released on iTunes and you can download it for $.99 by CLICKING HERE!
If you'd like to check out the youtube video or download performance tracks for this song for FREE just go to www.gofishguys.com and click on the SNOW button. Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
Our publicist just sent out this press release to media outlets nationwide about our Vacation Bible School curriculum. This is just one of the many ways in which we hope to spread the word about "Backstage With The Bible". It's our prayer that we will have twice as many churches use this curriculum next summer!
Anyone who has been paying attention to the journey of the Go Fish Guys knows that we have significantly changed the way we market our music. We have stopped putting any marketing money into things like radio, magazine ads, etc. and have decided to instead focus on making our music easy for people to give away. That is why we continue to have our amazing $5 deal online (with free shipping)! We would rather have other people spread our music rather than have us try to sell it the traditional way.
The risk in this is that if people aren't REALLY impressed with something...they won't spread it! That's why every time I see a mom blog with a positive Go Fish post, I say a prayer of thanks. Again, this kind of advertising can't be bought which is what makes it so valuable.CLICK HERE to see what I'm talking about. And thanks again to all of you who continue to support us by telling others about our music for kids!
I've been sharing a lot about how amazing the response has been from the 350 churches that used our Go Fish VBS curriculum last summer. To me, one of the most remarkable things about it is that we didn't do one single ad to promote it. The only way churches could find out about it was if they saw our web site, had someone from our audience tell them about it, or if they were at one of the two INCM Children's Pastors Conferences last year. In essence, it was almost all word of mouth.
This year, now that we know that the curriculum is proven to work, we are stepping up our efforts to promote the VBS program we are so passionate about. Here are a few ways we are doing that.
We've been getting BOMBARDED with emails from MOPS moms wondering why we're not at the MOPS Convention this year. Well, I need to clarify since I've seen some comments online about how we think we're "too cool to come to the MOPS Convention". That could not be farther from the truth!
1. We love MOPS! They're a great organization and when they invited us to perform at their convention, it truly changed things for us forever! We will always be grateful to them and are thankful for the great relationship we continue to enjoy with MOPS International.
2. There's a simple explanation for why we're not there this year...we weren't invited! It's very common for events like this to alternate performances by certain artists each year so that the event always has something new to offer. You don't want to get stuck in a rut and we certainly understand the decision by MOPS to change things up a bit.
So to all our MOPS friends out there: we will miss you this year and will be praying that you have a GREAT convention! Also, if you'd like to see GO FISH back next year just let MOPS know. The best way to insure an invitation for us next year is if enough of you ask!