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.

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?

I will be speaking at the VRMA Eastern Seminar in Myrtle Beach next week.

The 17th Annual Vacation Rental Management Association Eastern Seminar focuses on providing information to improve the operation of a vacation rental management company.

My session will be a SEO Site Clinic. I am joined by Trent Blizzard, Blizzard Internet Marketing. We will be evaluating sites web sites and making suggestions to enhance search engine optimization.

If you are attending the conference, please stop by and say “hi”.

See you in Myrtle Beach!

VRMA Eastern Seminar will be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Wednesday, April 2 and Thursday, April 3. The VRMA announcement came last week. Although many other details are still pending, this VRMA conference is sure to be a great gathering.

VRMA, Vacation Rental Managers Association, represents over 125,000 vacation rentals.

This VRMA conference, like the previous VRMA conference in New Orleans, will feature educational sessions on improving the vacation rental business. From marketing to management, there are many sessions for everyone.

Just like the October VRMA conference, I am also attending this one. If you are planning to attend, drop me a note here.

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.