What started as an effort to help fly clubs promote their events online turned into a project that could save affiliated clubs hundreds of dollars each year.

Last year, Washington Council webmaster Sam Matalone began sharing website content about upcoming events with affiliated fly clubs around the state. As he worked with club leaders, he discovered a common frustration. Many clubs struggled to update their websites, navigate increasingly complex hosting services, and keep up with rising costs.

Sam expected conversations about website content and communications. Instead, he kept hearing the same thing.

“The best thing you could do for us is get the price down.”

The problem wasn’t limited to local clubs. The Washington Council was facing many of the same challenges.

The Council’s website, www.wscffi.org, serves as a critical communications hub. It hosts Council email accounts, supports delivery of the quarterly newsletter, and provides information to members and visitors throughout the year. Yet the cost of maintaining the site continued to climb.

“They changed their pricing structure and were nickel-and-diming us to death,” Sam said.

Services that had once been included, such as email accounts, suddenly carried additional fees. In total, the Council was spending more than $600 annually for website hosting, email services, and security.

One of the clubs facing a similar situation was Alpine Fly Fishers of Puyallup. The club had relied on GoDaddy for more than a decade and was paying approximately $500 each year for hosting and related services.

“Last year we were having problems and they were upping their charges,” said Alpine President Larry Gibbs. “They wanted us to make changes and adopt new formats that we didn’t really need.”

Recognizing that many clubs were facing the same issue, Sam began researching alternatives. A domain name, such as WWW.ALPINEFLYFISHERS.ORG is like a home address on the Internet. The web hosting service is like the land where the home is built. Every address needs a host on which to stand. Of the 18 FFI affiliated clubs in Washington, 16 have websites.

After evaluating numerous hosting providers, Sam selected Bluehost, a Florida-based company that offered the same speed, capacity, and security features the Council needed at roughly half the cost. More importantly, the hosting package included the ability to support up to 50 separate websites under a single annual contract.

That opened the door to a new opportunity.

Rather than each club negotiating and paying for its own hosting arrangement, the Council could host affiliate club websites under its larger contract while allowing each club to retain complete control of its own site and content.

For Alpine Fly Fishers, the savings were substantial.

Sam estimated that the club’s annual hosting costs would drop by roughly 60 percent while maintaining the same website address, functionality, and security protections.

“We’re a small club with a small checking account, and that GoDaddy cost represented nearly eight percent of our annual budget,” Larry said. “These savings will allow us to use that money for programs and speakers instead.”

The transition began early this year. In April, Sam and Larry started the process of moving Alpine’s website to the new hosting platform. By late May, the transfer was complete.

Visitors never noticed the change.

The website remained available throughout nearly the entire process and experienced less than two hours of downtime during the final transition.

“It was inaccessible for less than two hours,” Sam said.

The migration itself was straightforward. After Alpine notified its existing hosting provider of its intent to move, the provider unlocked the domain name and supplied the authorization code required for transfer. Bluehost then copied the entire website—including all pages, content, history, and formatting—to the new platform. Once testing confirmed everything was functioning properly, the domain settings were updated and the site went live on Bluehost.

Importantly, the Washington Council does not manage club websites after the transfer. Each club retains full ownership and control of its site, including content updates, calendars, officer information, and other website functions. The Council simply provides the hosting platform.

With Alpine’s successful migration complete, Sam has begun discussions with other affiliated clubs, including the Washington Fly Fishing Club in Seattle, which currently spends nearly $1,000 annually on website hosting and security.

For club leaders concerned that moving a website may be difficult or risky, Sam offers reassurance.

“The process is straightforward,” he said. “It just requires everyone to do their part of the job correctly.”

For clubs looking to reduce expenses without sacrificing service, the Alpine experience demonstrates that significant savings may be only a website transfer away.