Just in time for the ski season, vacation rentals have surpassed hotel in search popularity.

Hitwise numbers shows for the past 6 months, vacation rentals have consistently remained behind hotel searches. In mid-October vacation rentals passed the hotel demand.

This seems to be an obvious connection with ski season starting. For families on a ski vacation, vacation rentals seem to be a no-brainer. However, even in past years, ski season or not, vacation rentals were not as popular with consumers.

A recent USA Today article expressed what many vacationers are finding:

• “In resort areas such as the Florida Panhandle, some hotels are being torn down and replaced with condo rental units”.
• “Travelers are benefiting from more choices and better websites….”
• “Condos and houses have more space, including fully equipped kitchens. Condos and houses also have more amenities, such as stereo equipment, barbecue grills and laundry facilities.”

The complete article on vacation rentals can be found here.

Family vacationers want more than hotels can provide and the Hitwise numbers indicate that the word is getting out to consumers on the value of vacation rentals.

The article I wrote this past summer for DMNews’ Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing, was published on their website today.

Here is the link.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking at SMX Travel @ PhoCusWright in Orlando.

My session, “How ya doing?” Critiques, Appraisals and Kudos from Travel SEM Experts,” went very well.

I was joined by Elisabeth Osmeloski, Director of Online Media at Zonder.com and Christine Churchill, President at KeyRelevance. I was honored to share the stage and I managed to get some microphone time in as well, which is always nice.

This was an informal session that included reviewing sites for best practices on search engine optimization. Some of the common issues I noticed are below.

Page Title – For me, it’s still the most important step to take for search engine rankings. Developing a site title with a few targeted keywords makes a huge difference in search rankings. Surprisingly, as simple as this is, it’s still one of the most common mistakes.

Missing keyword-rich content – Many sites we reviewed at SMX Travel were missing quality content. In this session and throughout the conference, this is usually the first thing that site owners realize on their own after a few quick questions.

• Why should you be ranked higher in search rankings?
• What is the purpose of your site?

Now, express that answer on your website. Tell your consumers and tell the search engines who you are.

Targeting the wrong keywords – By reviewing analytics, pay-per-click campaigns and various other tools marketers can discover which keywords convert better. There are also many tools available that will discover missing opportunities. Many keywords may convert well, but the competition is to strong and not worth competing in. Marketers need to find their niche.

Site Maps – Search Engines love links, especially internal links. A site map is useful for indexing spiders to find all content of a site. The text you use to link to a page should be keyword rich and related to the URL that it’s pointing to.

Although I review all of our sites on a daily basis, it’s nice to get a fresh look at new sites. Some of the things that I can consider common knowledge are not always that common. This was a very enjoyable session for me because I enjoy helping people, plus it’s good to learn from Elisabeth Osmeloski and Christine Churchill.

I am probably late to the bandwagon on this, but I am very happy to know about it now.

Dr. Randy Pausch, is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the married father of three and he is dying from pancreatic cancer. According to him “there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good
health left.” That was in August, 2007 and as he says, “you can do the math.”

In September 2007, Randy gave a final lecture to his students at Carnegie Mellon. Please take a moment to watch the video:

I will spend the first part of next week speaking at SMX Travel @ PhoCusWright in Orlando. This will be my first SMX conference and I am looking forward to it.

If you are coming to the conference or in the Orlando area, post a note here. I would love to meet anyone and everyone. Catch me early, because I will only be in Orlando Monday and Tuesday.

I will am participating in: “How ya doing?” Critiques, Appraisals and Kudos from Travel SEM Experts. This session will by Monday, November 12 at 1pm.

Below are links for more details:
www.phocuswright.com/the_phocuswright_conference_2007_information

searchmarketingexpo.com/travel/2007/full_agenda.shtml

See you in Orlando.

It is official. PodCamp Nashville will be February 9th, 2008.

Because of the success of BarCamp Nashville, PodCamp Nashville is born. If the name does not give it away, PodCamp Nashville will focus on podcasting, audio and video web events, and other forms of media on the web.

More details PodCamp Nashville to come later, but in the meantime “save the date”. Just like BarCamp Nashville, PodCamp Nashville will be a free event, but space is limited. You can RSVP and find more details at www.podcampnashville.com/blog