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Casual Articles - Should Your Resort Have a Website?
To create professional websites is not an easy task by any means. There are many things that you got to take into consideration like easy navigation, strategic links, clean coding, professional layout, easy downloading, scanability, usability and so on. These are the elements that differentiate a professional website from a mediocre one. So in a way it’s not designing the website that counts but how the website is designed. The only option that most of us have in order to design a good website is to hire a web- designer. Web-designers can help you come up with a great website that looks professional and is coded to perfection, but what about the time factor, leave alone the costs. Here’s where web templates come to the rescue. What are web templates? Wondering what web templates are? Well, to put it in simple terms, web templates are semi-finished,
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business clim
If you are marketing your site on the search engines, the keywords you choose for your site are crucial. Choosing the right keywords for your site should be the first step in search engine marketing.The key to choosing the best keywords is to choose keywords that are properly targeted, high volume, and low competition.TargetingWhen choosing your keywords, choose keywords that will give you prospects that are likely to buy your product. For example, if you are selling Oriental Rugs, the keyword “rugs” would be an okay keyword. The keyword “oriental rugs” would be better, and the keyword “buy oriental rugs” would be ideal.Search volumeWhen choosing a keyword, you'll want to know how many people are searching for that particular keyword. The easiest way to do this is to use the Yahoo Search Marketing keyword suggestion tool. This tool will tell you how ma
Tourist information and vacation planning is one area that many people research on the Internet. Chambers throughout Minnesota get thousands of visitors to their sites each year. The Brainerd Chamber, www.explorebrainerdlakes.com, reports they receive an average of 30,000 visitors per month to their website. The Grand Rapids Chamber, www.grandmn.com, indicated that in 2003 they had approximately 196,000 page views, with many of those clicking onto their site then continuing on to visit individual resort websites. Linda Gettelman, Director of the Nissaw Chamber, reports that their chamber’s web site, www.nisswa.com, generates about 10,800 plus visits per month and that the entire number of site hits or visits per month averages over 280,000.
Naturally, web designers encourage all businesses that they need to be on the World Wide Web. And, indeed, there are valid reasons that a resort, either large or small, should have a website. These reasons include: 1) You have the ability to tap into a vast market; 2) Information is provided to your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; 3) In today’s competitive marketplace, your business should use all the marketing tools that are available; 4) You can provide a virtual tour of your cabins, facilities, lakeshore, and other amenities you have to offer; 5) Save money on postage and printing costs by referring prospective customers to your site rather than mailing out brochures or flyers. 6) You can include maps to easily direct your customers to your resort and to highlight other activities in the area; 7) Providing your e-mail address or an on-line form makes it easy for your customers to contact you; 8) You can put more information on a website than you can put into a brochure or flyer.
Kathy Schroeder, Tourism Marketing Director, indicated that some resorts in the area no longer mail out printed information, preferring to direct prospective vacationers to their resort’s website. The manager at Lake Edward Resort, just north of Merrifield, indicated that once they receive e-mails from the Brainerd Chamber with potential customers they contact that individual by e-mail and direct them to their website, which saves the resort both time and money.
After a decision has been made to have a website how should you proceed? Should you hire your brother-in-law or the high school kid down the street to put your website on line? Probably not. If you think you can get professional results by using an amateur you will more than likely be unhappy with the results. A professional web site designer will understand the important aspects of web design and will be able to design a cohesive, focused site that your potential customers can easily navigate. And, an experienced site designer will incorporate optimization techniques so that the search engines (www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, etc.) will pick up your site as your potential clients are doing searches for vacation lodging.
A search on the internet will bring up thousands of designers with development prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. A site can be designed by someone who is across town or across the country. Questions to ask your designer: previous sites they’ve designed, what exactly does the cost cover, who is responsible for proofing the site, what is the charge to make corrections or additions to the site, do you work with the designer or a salesperson, and how quickly can changes be made to the site.
One important tip for anyone who is thinking of a website, buy your own domain name! (Your domain name is that www.yoursite.com, that people type into their computer to bring up a specific website.) This way you will have control over the name and can easily move your site to a new designer or web hosting firm, which can be a problem if you do not own the domain name. Domain names can be purchased through many different sources on the Internet, with one popular source being, www.godaddy.com. Whether you want to develop now or later just purchasing your name will assure that you have the right to use that particular name. And don’t worry if you are not planning on developing your site right away, once you own your name it is yours as long as you make your yearly renewal payments.
What are a few other tips to assure that you have a successful website? Plan your site or work closely with your web designer in planning your site. Remember, a web designer is not a mind reader – he or she needs to be supplied with information about your resort. Be careful with your color combinations and stay away from light colored type on dark backgrounds, such as white lettering with a black background. Photographs of your resort are important to include, but large photos slow down the loading time of your site. People browsing the web are impatient. Studies have shown that if your website doesn’t load in 10-15 seconds, some of your potential customers will leave!
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business clima
"Hello, is (pause) puh-TREE-shuh home?"So started my weekend lesson in marketing. It was Saturday afternoon, and started like a typical telemarketing call. Heavy accent, reading a script. I told him Patty wasn't home, I'm her husband, he could talk to me.At this point, one of two things happens. Either they hang up and try again later, or they read me their script. This guy launched into his script...As part of a new promotion, he wanted to give me $500 in free merchandise certificates. All I had to do was cover $4.95 in shipping, and I didn't need to give him a credit card number to pay it.Radar on, full scam alert!I told him I wasn't interested in participating, and that I wanted off of his calling list.Legitimate telemarketers know that the magic words in the USA are 'take me off your calling list'; they usually rattle off a toll-free number
Naturally, web designers encourage all businesses that they need to be on the World Wide Web. And, indeed, there are valid reasons that a resort, either large or small, should have a website. These reasons include: 1) You have the ability to tap into a vast market; 2) Information is provided to your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; 3) In today’s competitive marketplace, your business should use all the marketing tools that are available; 4) You can provide a virtual tour of your cabins, facilities, lakeshore, and other amenities you have to offer; 5) Save money on postage and printing costs by referring prospective customers to your site rather than mailing out brochures or flyers. 6) You can include maps to easily direct your customers to your resort and to highlight other activities in the area; 7) Providing your e-mail address or an on-line form makes it easy for your customers to contact you; 8) You can put more information on a website than you can put into a brochure or flyer.
Kathy Schroeder, Tourism Marketing Director, indicated that some resorts in the area no longer mail out printed information, preferring to direct prospective vacationers to their resort’s website. The manager at Lake Edward Resort, just north of Merrifield, indicated that once they receive e-mails from the Brainerd Chamber with potential customers they contact that individual by e-mail and direct them to their website, which saves the resort both time and money.
After a decision has been made to have a website how should you proceed? Should you hire your brother-in-law or the high school kid down the street to put your website on line? Probably not. If you think you can get professional results by using an amateur you will more than likely be unhappy with the results. A professional web site designer will understand the important aspects of web design and will be able to design a cohesive, focused site that your potential customers can easily navigate. And, an experienced site designer will incorporate optimization techniques so that the search engines (www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, etc.) will pick up your site as your potential clients are doing searches for vacation lodging.
A search on the internet will bring up thousands of designers with development prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. A site can be designed by someone who is across town or across the country. Questions to ask your designer: previous sites they’ve designed, what exactly does the cost cover, who is responsible for proofing the site, what is the charge to make corrections or additions to the site, do you work with the designer or a salesperson, and how quickly can changes be made to the site.
One important tip for anyone who is thinking of a website, buy your own domain name! (Your domain name is that www.yoursite.com, that people type into their computer to bring up a specific website.) This way you will have control over the name and can easily move your site to a new designer or web hosting firm, which can be a problem if you do not own the domain name. Domain names can be purchased through many different sources on the Internet, with one popular source being, www.godaddy.com. Whether you want to develop now or later just purchasing your name will assure that you have the right to use that particular name. And don’t worry if you are not planning on developing your site right away, once you own your name it is yours as long as you make your yearly renewal payments.
What are a few other tips to assure that you have a successful website? Plan your site or work closely with your web designer in planning your site. Remember, a web designer is not a mind reader – he or she needs to be supplied with information about your resort. Be careful with your color combinations and stay away from light colored type on dark backgrounds, such as white lettering with a black background. Photographs of your resort are important to include, but large photos slow down the loading time of your site. People browsing the web are impatient. Studies have shown that if your website doesn’t load in 10-15 seconds, some of your potential customers will leave!
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business clim
If you have invented something, the chances are that you don’t have the resources to mass-produce the product yourself. You will need to send the plans and designs off to someone else to make in their factory. When you do this, how can you protect your idea against the people that might see it? The answer is patent registration. This tactic will give you the exclusive right to profit from your invention.A patent gives you the exclusive right to profit from an invention for a set number of years. If anyone else tries to sell something that is covered by your patent, you will have the legal right to make them either pay you a license fee or stop. Each patent has a number. You have probably seen this on any number of products. Patent pending means that a patent has been applied for but not yet granted. Your invention must qualify before you get a patent. Not all Brainerd Chamber with potential customers they contact that individual by e-mail and direct them to their website, which saves the resort both time and money.
After a decision has been made to have a website how should you proceed? Should you hire your brother-in-law or the high school kid down the street to put your website on line? Probably not. If you think you can get professional results by using an amateur you will more than likely be unhappy with the results. A professional web site designer will understand the important aspects of web design and will be able to design a cohesive, focused site that your potential customers can easily navigate. And, an experienced site designer will incorporate optimization techniques so that the search engines (www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, etc.) will pick up your site as your potential clients are doing searches for vacation lodging.
A search on the internet will bring up thousands of designers with development prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. A site can be designed by someone who is across town or across the country. Questions to ask your designer: previous sites they’ve designed, what exactly does the cost cover, who is responsible for proofing the site, what is the charge to make corrections or additions to the site, do you work with the designer or a salesperson, and how quickly can changes be made to the site.
One important tip for anyone who is thinking of a website, buy your own domain name! (Your domain name is that www.yoursite.com, that people type into their computer to bring up a specific website.) This way you will have control over the name and can easily move your site to a new designer or web hosting firm, which can be a problem if you do not own the domain name. Domain names can be purchased through many different sources on the Internet, with one popular source being, www.godaddy.com. Whether you want to develop now or later just purchasing your name will assure that you have the right to use that particular name. And don’t worry if you are not planning on developing your site right away, once you own your name it is yours as long as you make your yearly renewal payments.
What are a few other tips to assure that you have a successful website? Plan your site or work closely with your web designer in planning your site. Remember, a web designer is not a mind reader – he or she needs to be supplied with information about your resort. Be careful with your color combinations and stay away from light colored type on dark backgrounds, such as white lettering with a black background. Photographs of your resort are important to include, but large photos slow down the loading time of your site. People browsing the web are impatient. Studies have shown that if your website doesn’t load in 10-15 seconds, some of your potential customers will leave!
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business clim
Building Customer Loyalty is always difficult if you find that your clients come one and you never seen them again – you are sadly losing money. It costs far more to obtain a new customer than it does to sell more to your existing customers. The way you do this is to keep in touch and make them feel valued. Some ways of doing this are: Newsletter: Start up a small newsletter and send this to your current and past clients. This can be done my mail or preferably email. Please give your clients the option to opt out of this service. Your newsletter should include information, chat and articles that people will find interesting and are relevant to your own business. 2 – 3 pages are all that you need. If you find the cost a little prohibitive – then pair up with a complimentary local business and share the costs and efforts as well as the mailing l
One important tip for anyone who is thinking of a website, buy your own domain name! (Your domain name is that www.yoursite.com, that people type into their computer to bring up a specific website.) This way you will have control over the name and can easily move your site to a new designer or web hosting firm, which can be a problem if you do not own the domain name. Domain names can be purchased through many different sources on the Internet, with one popular source being, www.godaddy.com. Whether you want to develop now or later just purchasing your name will assure that you have the right to use that particular name. And don’t worry if you are not planning on developing your site right away, once you own your name it is yours as long as you make your yearly renewal payments.
What are a few other tips to assure that you have a successful website? Plan your site or work closely with your web designer in planning your site. Remember, a web designer is not a mind reader – he or she needs to be supplied with information about your resort. Be careful with your color combinations and stay away from light colored type on dark backgrounds, such as white lettering with a black background. Photographs of your resort are important to include, but large photos slow down the loading time of your site. People browsing the web are impatient. Studies have shown that if your website doesn’t load in 10-15 seconds, some of your potential customers will leave!
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business clim
Inventors, Predators, And Land minesWebster describes invention as a new, useful process, machine, improvement, etc., that did not exist previously and that is recognized as the product of some unique intuition or genius, as distinguished from ordinary mechanical skill or craftsmanship.But it describes inventor as a person who invents, esp. one who devises some new process, appliance, machine, or article; one who makes inventions.The reason I mention both terms and meanings is that the inventor often mistakes him or herself from the actual invention. The ego gets caught up in the idea and process. That can not only be a dangerous thing, but one in which the person (and notice “person” is a key word in the definition that does not appear in the definition of invention) loses interest in the excitement of the process of bringing an idea into manifestation and into th
Have a design that reflects the personality and style of your resort. Remember to make sure that people can easily maneuver around your site. If someone has to hunt for your rates page or your home page link, they might just leave your site altogether. Make sure your name, address, phone number and e-mail address are on every page of your site and are easy to find. There needs to be relevant content on every page. Keep your wording between 300 and 600 words per page, break up longer pages into small sections.
Once your website is up and running, promote it everywhere! Put your site address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, on the e-mails you send out, and any other advertising you do to promote your resort. Boast your search engine rankings by exchanging links with other businesses that are relevant, golf courses, restaurants, nearby shops, etc. Be sure to submit your site to the search engines. It can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before your site shows up on a search engine. So submitting as soon as possible is important.
Having a website is one component of a comprehensive marketing package that can bring the features of your resort right into your customers’ living room, anytime of the day or night. In today’s competitive business climate, not having a website presence is tantamount to giving your competitors a bigger piece of the marketing pie.
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