By DAN DURBIN - Special to GM Today

March 12, 2009

Facebook is an Internet sensation right now and more than a few bucks are flowing.

Maybe that's why Don Mullen, a 28-year-old Sussex native, thinks his side gig that allows fishermen and hunters to post their trophies, stories and beefs online might just end up being something special.

"I have a normal job selling ads for an online version of a newspaper," he said. "I do this site in my spare time, but who knows what could happen?"

Mullen has two Web sites: www.shareyourcatch.com and www.shareyourhunt.com.

"These sites combine my love of hunting and fishing with my expertise in selling ads online," he said. "Right now, though, everything about the site is free. What I wanted was something that marries my love of hunting and fishing with a business."

But what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Mullen said getting people happy with the site is far more important than attracting advertisers.

"Right now, we're not even trying to get advertisers so the entire site is free," he said. "What we want to do is get our content to where it needs to be so that some day we can get advertisers. We're at about 10,000 unique visitors a month."

Mullen said one of the ways he intends to make the site grow is by making it user friendly for people to get not just themselves on it, but their friends as well.

"You can upload an entire address book to our site from Yahoo and several other popular Internet sites," he said. "It lets people create groups of people who have like interests. Even further, people can create user groups from their own hometown. For instance, we could have a forum or string for people from Waukesha County. We are also driving people to our site through marketing and by offering free trips for people to try to win."

In a quick look at his hunting site, I saw 21 different groups of hunters, from hog hunting to bowhunting to even cougar hunting. On the fishing site, there were a forum someone created to exchange fish recipes.

"It's nice because you can share photos and concepts with people who like to do what you do," he said. "It's a great place for networking."

Joe Mullen, 27, of Milwaukee, is Don's cousin and is helping out with the venture.

"There are a lot of places this can go," Joe Mullen said. "For instance game trail cameras are huge right now and people are using them more than ever. There are lots of great photos of there that people like to share. And don't forget cell phone cameras. People have access to evolving technology that will make a site like this almost a mobile activity."

The sites also allow hunters and anglers to upload videos.

"I have some friends who have been filming their turkey hunts for years, and it's some good stuff," Don Mullen said. "But no one was able to watch it. There are a lot of people out there who have great videos and our site provides a place where they can share them, at no charge."

Don Mullen would like to see the site eventually running on its own with enough users to provide not only videos and pictures, but also content.

"Right now we drive a lot of the topics on the page," he said. "We have a lot of polls about different hunting and fishing topics and get the opinions of people using the site. We also do some fun stuff like asking members what animal would win a hypothetical fight, say between a gorilla and a cougar."

At present, the goal is to get the site running at a level where the Mullens could eventually get enough income to pay for their hunting and fishing habits, but Don Mullen also wouldn't mind if it grew into a large-enough business to supplement some of his and wife Jenny's incomes.

"Sure I'd like to see these sites get up to a million visitors per month," he said. "Right now it's just a fun place for people to go and share their memories and network. But yes, it would be nice to make some income on it some day."

(Dan Durbin writes a weekly outdoors column for The Freeman. Call Durbin at 644-7940, or e-mail him at ddurbin@bastdurbin.com if you have a story idea.)