Today's Guests: Bill Connell and Ryan Esler of Corvette Blog in Redford, Michigan
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Corvette Blog Radio with Bill Connell and Ryan Esler Transcript Page
ANNOUNCER: Corvette Blog Radio is powered by the internet's top resource for Corvette enthusiasts, www.corvetteblog.com. Visit us today for everything related to Corvettes.
JOHN: Welcome to Corvette Blog Radio. I am your host, John Bentley. Today we have in the studio Bill Connell and Ryan Esler of Corvette Blog Radio. Welcome to the program today, gentlemen.
BILL: Thank you it's good to be here.
RYAN: Great to be here.
JOHN: So tell us a little bit about the blogging that's going on on your corvette site.
BILL: The CorvetteBlog is dedicated to becoming the Corvette enthusiast's best one stop resource for everything about the Corvette and we have a lot of fun trying to be first with all the breaking news; any kind of information that might be received from Chevrolet itself and certainly from the Corvette enthusiasts. What they're doing, what their clubs are doing, what's going on in terms of large activities across the country. We try to be informed about all that and pass it on to our readers.
JOHN: Let's give the Corvette Blog website, gentlemen.
BILL: Well, that's simple. It's www.corvetteblog.com.
JOHN: I've been surfing your website and there is just tons of information about Corvettes on the site. You've got videos. You've got news. You've got catalog information. You've got museums. You've got tons of pictures. This site is loaded! If you're a Corvette enthusiast, this is definitely the place to be.
RYAN: This is definitely what we're trying to go for. To be that one stop shop like Bill said. And it's not just about the presence on the blog, but it's also about our presence in the community, and at different Corvette events. We've been lucky to travel the country this summer going to different Corvette outings, different Corvette sponsored activities. Being a presence there and getting first hand with the Corvette lovers that really comprise our readership. That's what's been important and developing our blog, as well.
JOHN: I understand you guys have a fund raiser going on right now. I believe it's coming up this weekend.
BILL: There is a fundraiser in Ontario that we blogged about some months ago and then again this morning. That's just one of probably hundreds of events that go on every month and in this case, the folks in charge of that... the club that was involved, notified me that it was to come up this Sunday, and so I just put another word out there so that anyone who might be in the Eastern Ontario area would look to be a part of that.
JOHN: What is the charity this is going for?
BILL: There is a camp. They call it Camp Ooch for short in Ontario that caters to children with disabilities, and what we've discovered is that virtually every Corvette club at least in America and probably throughout the world usually has a charity of some sort that they are interested in. They devote their resources too. And we, of course, think this is absolutely awesome, and so we're trying to encourage people to support whatever those charities are that the clubs are involved with.
JOHN: Now when did the Corvette first be introduced in this country?
BILL: 1953. The 2008 Corvettes represent the 55th Anniversary.
JOHN: Wow, am I not mistaken, that is about the 7th generation Corvette that's coming out this year.
BILL: We're still with the C-6. We call it the 6th Generation Corvette. The 7th generation isn't due til about 2011.
JOHN: And what's special about this new Corvette that's coming out? What's different from the previous Corvettes?
BILL: The 2008?
JOHN: Yeah.
BILL: The 2008 is greatly improved in terms of performance capability. The horsepower has been increased to 430 for 2008 and there is an option with the exhaust system that can increase that even to 436. We're finding that brand new Corvette buyers are very enthused about the 2008 product.
JOHN: When do we expect to see that product out?
BILL: We've already delivered some.
JOHN: All right.
BILL: We can certainly order as our customers require them. That's one of the beautiful things. We write about it and then someone says, "Well that's exactly what I want." They can contact us and we can place an order.
JOHN: So people can come to the blog and ask you guys questions about anything Corvette. And I see you have different links to autoparts, different Chevy companies. Certainly this is a valuable resource for anybody who is a Corvette fan. You could spend hours, literally hours, on this website if you were a Corvette enthusiast.
BILL: You definitely could and what we've discovered is that there is literally more information out there in the known universe than we would have time in a lifetime to access. So basically what we would like to do is present ourselves as individuals who have great passion for the Corvette and information about it and we would like to root our readers to the ultimate source of information. So if they've got a technical question on how to repair windshield wipers in a 1974 Corvette, I don't intend to ever need to know that information myself, but I'd certainly like to be able to point them in the right direction as to who can help answer the questions they have.
JOHN: We are speaking with Bill Connell and Ryan Esler of www.corvetteblog.com and you are listening to Corvette Blog Radio. We are gonna step aside for these important messages. We'll be right back.
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ANNOUNCER: Corvette Blog Radio! Corvette Blog Radio is sponsored by Detroit's Corvette leader, George Matick Chevrolet. Proud to sell Corvettes to readers and listeners across the United States.
JOHN: Welcome back to Corvette Blog Radio. Today we are in the studio with Ryan Esler and Bill Connell. Let's talk about some of the resources you gentlemen use to get information onto your blog site.
BILL: Well I have a lot of fun obtaining information for our readers because I've been able to go to a number of the key locations and events over the months and meet with Corvette owners personally. Meet with folks that are considered leaders in the Corvette community and its been tremendous fun for us. Most recently the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix was right here in our back yard. So I had the opportunity to go down to the Detroit river front and meet some of the Corvette Racing Team drivers like Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell, and take my own first hand photographs of them crossing the finish line. It added some real dimension to be there and be a part of things, and not just read it on a static website posted by someone else. Observing the Corvette Racing Team, other events like Bloomington Gold in Illinois, Corvettes at Carlisle in Pennsylvania, and some of the local club activities are great opportunities for me to go out and meet people from the rest of the country. See what motivates them and interests them.
JOHN: Now I understand, Bill, you actually write the blog yourself, and Ryan, this was your idea?
RYAN: Right. Yeah, it was an idea we've come up with as an organization here and I've kind of spearheaded the effort over the past year and a half or so to grow the blog. We added on Bill's writing expertise full time. Devoted to going to these events to and to provide content for the blog, and that has increased our readership dramatically. Being committed to it is something that is important to us and between him and myself, we always try to get multiple posts out every day for all our Corvette readers.
JOHN: Now, I understand that I could actually order the new Corvette through your blog. What connections do you gentlemen have with dealerships? How does that work?
RYAN: It's an interesting relationship. We're really in the forefront amongst dealers in the United States embracing blogging as a whole. We're located in the Detroit-Metro area, home of the Motor City, and certainly the foundation for General Motors; and we also have an extremely large Corvette allocation. We realized we wanted to continue to grow our Corvette business nationally, and through the use of the blog, we've done that. It's nice because you're not just dealing with two or three year. Ten people out there are just blogging and regurgitating information that other people have written, but you're dealing with a reputable dealer who has been in business over 40 years. This isn't a hard sell type blog. We're not pushing the ability that we sell vehicles, but we do offer it for all of our readers and there are many advantages to purchasing your vehicle through us nationally, we can deliver it to you. We can deliver it to the Museum for a special (National) Corvette Museum delivery, or we can even fly you into Detroit, take you out to dinner and you can drive away in your new vehicle too. So it's a nice relationship because we're getting a lot of that first hand information from General Motors about the production of Corvette, about the ability to obtain them, about special news and breaking news that other blog sources are not getting and other internet sources because we have the direct relationship with the factory, which is really nice.
JOHN: Can you share a success story you've been able to achieve through blogging for any of your customers?
RYAN: Well we've had a number of customers now who have purchased their vehicles through us and are taking delivery very soon at the Corvette Museum. We're also doing drop shipments throughout the United States right now and they're realizing they can get a better price through us and they're able to get the vehicle they want, when they want it. Five percent of all the Chevrolet dealers in the United States comprise of the most Corvette sales. So the rest of the 95% aren't really selling Corvettes and if you don't sell Corvettes, you don't get Corvettes. That's the relationship that GM and Chevrolet have made. So the more you sell, the more you get and the more you get, the more likely you are to get what are called constraints or special options, or items, or colors that not everyone may be able to order at one given time. So what we have is: we have the ability to order a lot of those vehicles whenever we want them which is what smaller dealers throughout the United states aren't allowed to do. It's just another reason people are turning to us to purchase their vehicles as opposed to just waiting and waiting for that one dealer in their town to be able to order that Corvette which may not happen in the near future.
JOHN: Now, gentlemen, what dealership is behind the Corvette Blog Radio?
RYAN: Corvette Blog is fueled by George Matick Chevrolet. We're located in Detroit, Michigan. We have Michigan's largest indoor showroom, and like I said before, we do have an amazing selection and allocation of new and pre-owned Corvettes for purchase.
JOHN: How long has George Matick Chevrolet been in business?
RYAN: We've been in business over 40 years now. We're proud of that. We've been in locations directly next to Detroit here and in the future we're looking at continuing and growing bigger and better and adding franchises. It's a good thing.
JOHN: And, about the blog itself. How long have you guys been blogging?
BILL: About a year and a half now.
JOHN: About a year and a half, and you've had a lot of success with this Corvette Blog. Why do you think that is?
BILL: I think people appreciate the variety, the timeliness, and the usefulness of the information that we share.
RYAN: I think it's also about the professionalism too in the way in which we present it. There's a lot of different blogs out there that blog on auto related matters or even Corvettes in general, but I think that the way that way that we do it and the stories we chose to present out there really take hold with our Corvette readers.
JOHN: I think a couple of things I really liked about the blog itself was lots of stuff on there like legal information, news and the history. I certainly went through and looked at a lot of photos of, especially the '53 - the original model. Lots of great photos on it. There's a lot of really good information on this blog. One other thing I wanted to ask you guys about. Seeing that I can order a Corvette through you guys, what's the turn around time on something like that?
RYAN: Well, that's gonna depend on when the vehicle's ordered and how many vehicles are in line at that specific time, but you're usually looking probably at between 6 - 8 weeks, and your new Corvette will be in your driveway or wherever you so chose it to be.
JOHN: Now, also the original Corvette there were only 300 of them produced. How many will they be producing of the current Corvette? Do you have an idea?
BILL: We're in the range of about 35,000 vehicles, or something like.
JOHN: Wow, great! We've been speaking with Bill Connell and Ryan Esler of www.corvetteblog.com. I want to thank you, gentlemen, for joining us today.
BILL: Thank you.
RYAN: It was our pleasure, thank you for having us.
JOHN: You've been listening to Corvette Blog Radio. I'm your host, John Bentley. Thanks for joining us today; we'll see you next time. Have a great afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: Corvette Blog Radio is powered by the Internet's top resource for Corvette enthusiasts, www.corvetteblog.com. Visit us today for everything related to Corvettes.
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