I am speaking at the VRMA (Vacation Rental Managers Association) Western Seminar in Las Vegas.

This is the 21st year of this annual event. VRMA Western Seminar will take place at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas on Wednesday, April 30 and Thursday, May 1.

This VRMA event will feature educational sessions on Owner Relations, Employee Development and Retention, Marketing and Best Practices. My specific topic will include Search Engine Optimization.

If you plan on attending please drop me a note. I would love to meet up with anyone and everyone.

Bill Seaver with MicroExplosion.com, recently “pitched” a new concept: Social Media Batting Practice. Will You Play?

First up: How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business?

Here are 3 quick tips for this small business:

1. ‘Fly Fishing Tips’ Blog
   Creating an instructional blog is a great way to target specific customers. Don’t worry about revealing too much. You want to do just the opposite. This is a great opportunity to show your expertise in fly fishing.

   As an instructional blog, it has a clear focus. Many blogs are all over the place and have no consistency. Creating a clear, precise blog is a great way to target customers. Remember it’s not the quantity of visitors you want, it’s the quality. Five strong customers are better then 100 5-second visits.

2. Start the conversation on Twitter
   Start following friends, colleagues and competitors. Now of course, tweeting with friends will not expand the bank account. However, it does start the conversation. By discussing “fly fishing” the conversation expands beyond friends.

   After friends, begin following local lodging companies, restaurants, and local organizations. Don’t just follow. Join the conversation. Make friends. Make partnerships.

   Twitter creates followers, it creates buzz, and it eventually creates customers. It all begins with one sentence: “What are you doing?”

3. Flickr Photo Contest

   Ask for photographs of favorite fly-fishing spots. Then, give away free instructions to the best entries.
   
   After it’s over, be sure to give something to all entries. Even if it’s small, everyone loves winning.

   Flickr requires minimal time and investment. Plus, it has great photo sharing tools that allow you to integrate those photos into your blog and more importantly it allows “customers” to share those photos.

Other tips, outside of Social Media:

• Create packages with local lodging companies
• Place brochures in state border Welcome Centers
• Find ways to give away lessons. A small gesture will lead to great word of mouth
• Email is a great way to talk with customers. Look for ways to collect email addresses.

With the value of the dollar decreasing and a decline in consumer confidence, it might seem counter-productive to keep spending. However, that is exactly what needs to be done.

History shows that marketers that maintained or even increased spending benefited from the silence of others. In fact, a recent study on warc.com (World Advertising Research Center) showed “that brands with sustained advertising expenditure through recessions have a competitive advantage”.

Below are several online marketing strategies to keep in mind during trying economic times.

Do not cut pay-per-click funds
When done correctly pay-per-click is the best return on advertising available. Paid Search should be the last place you look for budget cuts. Remember, if paid search is not working, then you are doing something wrong.

Put your analytics to work
Now is the time to put the “analyze” into web analytics. Without analyzing data, it’s just data. Study your numbers and look for trends. Look for ways to trim the fact. For example, if customers are coming from a general geographic area then target online efforts toward that direction.

Beware of discounting
The first instinct online marketers have in rough times is to start giving deals to customers.

However, this can start a chain reaction that is hard to shake. Not only is there a risk that customers may expect deals, they may also begin associating that brand with low value.

Discounting is not a marketing strategy.

Shoppers become addictive to discounts and so do marketers. Beware of the long-term value of your brand, especially online.

Introduce a new product or put a new face on an old one
Many new products were introduced during troubled times. For example, the iPod was released during the dot-com burst. The frequent flyer concept was born out of a marketing tactic use to stimulate interest in the recession of the early 80’s.

If you don’t have a new product to introduce, use this time to put a new front face on an existing product. Follow that up with an online press releases. Get the word out and start a social networking campaign to push the product hard.

Companies are still failing to see the benefit of online marketing, especially paid search marketing. Pay-per-click works for any budget and any product. Use these times to take advantage of your competitors’ lack of funding and knowledge. Don’t follow their lead on decrease spending, take advantage of their lack of presence.

Universal Search is the blended results Google announced last year. The official announcement was May 16, 2007. The new search results blend listings from news, video, images, maps, and the traditional “blue links”.

Google’s Universal Search has still not exploded on to the travel segment as I expected it would 6 months ago, but that doesn’t mean it is not inevitable. It is similar to living on the banks of a river. You do not know when the flood is coming. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t build your house to sustain the water when it does arrive.

Universal, or blended, search is becoming crucial to the travel industry. Users searching for a vacation will be provided maps, videos, images, and anything else Google can find related to that vacation. It’s becoming extremely important that travel marketers keep content fresh and explore all avenues of the web.

Below are some quick ways to prepare your travel site for Universal Search.

1. Image File Names - Use one or two words, separating with dashes, to describe the image. That is all that is needed. It is important not to abuse these file names with repetitive keywords. Those “black-hat” tactics no longer work, and may even have a negative impact on rankings. Travel Site Tip: Be sure to include your destination in the image description.
2. Alt Tags – Be sure to use the “alt” tags on all images. Similar to the other points, do not abuse this feature. Not only are alt tags important to search engines, they are essential to visitors with disabilities that utilize screen readers. This is another reason why descriptive image alt tags are essential.
3. Use Video Tagging – When posting a video to any host, be sure to take advantage of tags that the service offers. Use tags for keywords that convert to revenue for you. Remember it’s not always the popular keywords you want. You want to focus on the ones that convert.
4. Optimize the content around the media – It is important to never let a video or image stand alone on your site. Surround the media with good content. All pages should be able to stand alone without media.
5. Include your address on your website – This makes it easier for Google’s Local Search to find your address and update its mapping system. This is essential and yet tricky in the travel industry. Your accommodations may not match the address of your office.
6. Submit your site to Google Maps - Getting listed in Google Local/Maps is essential, and yet tricky, in the travel Industry. Often times the address of the office may not match the address of the accommodations. To make sure your address is correct in Google, it’s best to do it yourself. The guide to adding a business listing is here. It’s important to include as much information as possible, including images, video and good content. Travel Site Tip: If you have multiple locations create a listing for each location.

Now is the time to prepare your Universal Search presence.

One day that river will flow over the banks. Is your house ready? Have you done everything you can to prepare for blended search?

Let’s take a minute to remember some of the great Google Products that did not make it over the years. Below are some of my favorites.

Google TiSP

This was to be the ultimate cure for not having an available internet connection. Google TiSP allowed customers to utilize the mechanisms of local municipal sewage system in order to gain high speed internet access. The “icky” feeling that users received, ultimately proved to be the downfall of Google Tisp.

Google Romance

In 2006, Google took a stab at the dating pool. Using Soulmate Search potential partners could go on a Contextual Date. Ultimately, Google Romance did not make it pass the day it was released.

Google Gulp
These line of “smart drinks” by Google, were designed to maximize surfing efficiency by making uses more intelligent. Google Gulp was initially available in 4 flavors: Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, Beta Carroty, and Sero-Tonic Water.

Google Gulp’s failure possibly stemmed from its lack of privacy issue. According to Google, “Google Gulp will send packets of data related to your usage of this product from a wireless transmitter embedded in the base of your Google Gulp bottle to the GulpPlex™”

Gmail Paper

Gmail Paper allowed users to instantly have a paper version of all of their emails. This was a salute to traditional communication that was sure to be a nostalgic winner.

However, the 2-4 business day turn-around for printed messaged, proved to be a problem for some folks. Plus, the technology that Google required to reproduce emails was way too costly.

I am anxious to see what today brings us.