- Jared Zissu began an Instagram account about fly fishing in 2012 that now has over 293,000 followers.
- He also leverages his fly-fishing site and digital marketing agency to sell brands ad bundles.
- Zissu is on track to make over $1 million in 2022, based on documentation provided to Insider.
Jared Zissu first picked up a fly-fishing rod in 2012 during his freshman year at Sewanee: The University of the South. Zissu had recently joined the local fire department, and several members introduced him to the sport.
“Fly fishing became a tool to disconnect from the stresses of schoolwork and the stresses of everyday life,” said Zissu, who would go fly fishing several days a week during college.
While Zissu initially posted some pictures on his personal Instagram account during his freshman year, he started a dedicated Instagram account (@Flylords) that July.
That first year, 2012 to 2013, was largely dedicated to posting content curated from other creators in the fishing space, but soon, Zissu doubled-down and posted more original content to the account. Flylords slowly began to take off with the fly-fishing community and now has more than 293,000 Instagram followers.
It wasn’t until 2017 that Flylords landed its first sponsor, a fishing line company called Scientific Anglers that paid roughly $500 a month.
“It was a grind,” said Zissu of landing sponsors, describing fly fishing as a very “old school” industry that still relies heavily on trade publications for advertising.
“It was going to trade shows every single year and explaining myself passionately — about why they should be working with us and why digital is the future and why social media is the future,” he said. “Every year, it was like, dead end, dead end, dead end.”
Zissu launched Flylords Mag that same year. Financed initially by capital from sponsorships for the Flylords Instagram account, Flylords Mag is a news site with original videos, photos, and articles.
Zissu has also been quietly building a small digital creative agency that enables him to create high-quality photo and video content for brands. While the agency doesn’t officially launch until later this year, it has already worked with Limavady, a whiskey brand, as well as a fly-fishing case and gun case maker called Negrini.
One of the benefits of building a digital marketing agency is that the company can leverage its resources to sell advertising bundles to brands that include high-quality video and photo assets, as well as social media placement on Flylords’ Instagram and ads on the website.
Here’s what an advertising bundle starting at $30,000 may fetch a brand:
- High-quality commercial video content
- High-quality photo content
- 2 Instagram reels on Flylords’ Instagram account
- 1 Instagram story on Flylords’ Instagram account
- 1 TikTok post on Flylords’ TikTok account
- 2 sponsored articles on the Flylords website
- 100,000 ad impressions on the website
- Placement in the Flylords newsletter
Zissu’s cross-platform approach has proven compelling to brands that previously weren’t attracted to sponsoring content solely on Flylords’ Instagram account. The results speak for themselves: Zissu is currently on track to make over $1 million in 2022, based on financial documentation Zissu provided to Insider. As of mid-October, the company has brought in about $900,000.
The entrepreneur would eventually like to expand beyond the fly-fishing space by launching a Flylords-like property in another niche industry and catering to brands in the outdoor or alcohol industries with his digital marketing agency.
“We love telling stories about people in places we love and driving emotion through our content,” Zissu said. “I want to make sure we continue to expand on being creators and being storytellers.”
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