Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Algonquin Outfitters - Workshop Feedback

Well it's been a long time coming but I finally have to drop by and say thank you to Todd for all the great work with the Tourism Keys Workshops. I attended the North Bay workshop back in 2004. At that time it was quite a learning step to take in all that the workshop covered, but over the months and then years, we worked at our list of things that we learned at the Tourism Keys Workshops.

Several years later the workshops came to our town, Huntsville and I took this opportunity to have a refresher. Nothing stands still with online marketing and the same holds true for the Tourism Keys Workshop. I walked away this time with even more action plans. We've totally changed the way we handle emails and we've solved not only some of our online advertising issues but Todd even suggested how we could post videos to our blogs. Something that I just couldn't figure out no matter how hard I try.

Thanks Todd for all the great ideas presented in the Tourism Keys Workshop. It truly is the most usefull seminar I've ever attended. I walked away this time with literally thousands of dollars worth of advice and knowledge.

--
Randy Mitson
Marketing Director
Paddle Sports Manager

Algonquin Outfitters

: x36



http://www.algonquinoutfitters.com
http://www.aobikeboard.com
http://ao-sales.blogger.com

Proud member of Paddling Ontario
http://www.paddlingontario.com

__________

Randy,
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate the value you attribute to the workshop. Hopefully the links in this post help boost your Web traffic and ranking with Search Engines. Regards, todd.

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posted by Toddles @ 9:56 PM   0 comments

Monday, February 26, 2007

WordTracker - New Free Keyword Tool provides 100 Searches at a Time

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 5:25 PM   0 comments

Friday, February 23, 2007

Huntsville Newspaper Highlights Tourism Keys


see Huntsville Forester Article....
Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

posted by Toddles @ 2:44 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Online Calendar Options for your Tourism Business - free

An excellent article featuring the best in online calendars.
Google Calendar, featured in the article is a great place to create events and generate links by linking to your Web site!
Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 7:56 AM   0 comments

Your sign up email offer may be too good

As I've previously mentioned, a relevant email address is valuable. Likewise an irrelevant email address is not. The recipient of an email by someone not really interested in your offerings increases the likelihood of your offerings being labelled as spam and lowers your open and click through rates.

Although many will get excited at how quickly their email address database grows with a compelling offer, let's reconsider your opt-in offer. Ask yourself: "Is my offer something that almost anyone would desire, regardless of their interest in purchasing my travel experience?"

It may be time to rethink things.

Offers like free stays will net you lots of email addresses that are only interested in winning. However, a coupon towards a future stay, will still have enough value for the interested potential ideal guest to leverage that small "Yes" and add relevant Web site visitors to your database.

Most of all, consider your newsletter offerings. Describe the value and frequency of the content that will land in your subscribers inbox. Newsletter content that rocks is the best ticket to generating relevant email addresses for your newsletter database.

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 7:35 AM   0 comments

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Creative Commons - Get great images from others


One of the things I love about the Tourism Keys workshops is the wisdom that walks in the door. The other day in Bracebridge, then again in Huntsville, discussion centred on how to get great images for your Web site.

Ideas included:
  • hiring a photographer
  • giving the camera to someone on staff who loves to take pictures
  • asking for help at the local high school or college graphic arts programs
  • holding a contest for your guests
  • and, going online and getting images from Flickr and other online image storage sites.
The issue of creative rights came up. Legally, any creator of content holds copyright over their creative project, even when they choose to post it online. Creative Commons licensing permits the creator of any work the opportunity to give rights to the community. Hence the right to use, modify, and/or use for commercial purposes can be granted by using a free creative commons license.

Licenses can be posted on your Web site to alert people to the rights you grant for the use of your creative material. At CreativeCommons.org you can create a license to post on your site as well as search the Internet for readily available images for use on your tourism Web site!

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 12:38 PM   1 comments

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Cool Keyword Research Tools

This post is for those folks at today's Tourism Keys workshop in Gravenhurst who provided this modest presenter with a wonderful thank you at the end of the day.

Here are a couple of more free keyword research tools.
- offers a visual display of the frequency of keyword use as well as a display showing how competitive the keyword advertising is for a given keyword combination..... I recommend using this to find some diamonds in the rough - keywords that would be relatively cheap to bid on to get Web visits. As well, how can you go wrong with a tool that gives actual google search results that are current - about 50% of searches are done using this search engine.

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 6:44 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, February 13, 2007


It's been a big week at Google, with many enhancements to the Web giant's offerings. Google Maps (aka ) now offers a significant enhancement with trip routing that can include multiple stops!
At a recent workshop, farm festival attendees were wondering how to provide a mapping solution that can help travelers plan their farm tour through the county.

How could you use a google map solution with multiple stop routing to enhance your Web site?

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @   1 comments

Monday, February 12, 2007

Format web pages for Printing

If you must format a Web page for printing keep the width of the page below 740 pixels to ensure it will print on most printers. Best practice is to design your site so that Web pages that are designed to be printed are in fact formated for 8.5 by 11 inch standard paper. Design the document using a word processer and upload it to your Web site. Link to the document (formatted as a pdf - portable document format). Remember to use your keywords.

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

posted by Toddles @ 4:44 PM   1 comments

Personalized Search Results on Google produce unpredictable results.
"One page fits all" is a thing of the past. Personalized search is now always on, while users are logged into their google account. This means that every search result you click, every link you bookmark, every note you make, every RSS feed you subscribe to using Google services can be used to improve your personal search results.

is using your RSS feeds, personal search history (yes, Google is tracking every search you make! - see your search history in your google account settings), news results, and Google Bookmarks to personalize your search results.

For most, this should be very welcome, as it promises a far better search experience that will adapt to your interests and evolve over time. For search marketers, it means new skills and techniques are needed to achieve search visibility.

Here are Todd's recommended steps in search engine optimization to ensure your visibility in a personalized search world.

1. Add a subscribe to RSS (XML) button to your Web site and link it to your blog feed. Encourage Web visitors who use services like and other RSS services to subscribe. Use your email tag line to request subscriptions to your blog feed.
2. Encourage bookmarking of your site on social bookmarking and tagging sites like: Google Bookmarks, and Google Personalized Homepage have a helpful page explaining how to create buttons for those services. Put these on your site and encourage those subscriptions.
3. Grow your presence in social spaces by establishing a profile on sites like: , MSN Spaces, , Google's Orkut. Join interest groups, post links and drop cookie crumbs linking back to your site throughout social networking sites.

Happy Getting Found more often with Google's new personalized search.

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @   0 comments

and offer help for tourism businesses and others with relevent content do what it takes to rise to the top of the search results!

Remember, great content is always the most important aspect of Web Design.

 Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

posted by Toddles @   0 comments

What Should you put in your Tourism E-Newsletter

Your value proposition to garner a small yes - email newsletter subscription is something to spend time considering before jumping in and generating sign ups. Consider what you can produce regularly and with ease. Consider who can help you create content.... think about any and all staff who have the creative capacity to contribute to your email offerings.
and....
sign up for newsletters that are for businesses similar to yours and keep an eye on the kind of creative content that powers their email newsletter. Strategic intelligence can help you get your newsletter off on the right foot.

Todd Lucier - TourismClicks.com

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posted by Toddles @ 9:23 AM   0 comments

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Free Conference: Learn about Podcasting in Toronto

PodCamp Toronto (www.podcamptoronto.org) bills itself as "a 2-day 'unconference' that will teach people how to plan, produce and publish a podcast." If you want to consider podcasting for your tourism business check out the free event!

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posted by Toddles @ 11:11 AM   0 comments

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Free online news releases, images, links!

Connected Traveler (http://www.connectedtraveler.com) is introducing a free online news service where hotels, resorts, spas, destinations, and attractions can post their news releases, announcements, pictures and video links.

Remember, links are key to optimized search engine listings!

todd.
http://www.tourismclicks.com

posted by Toddles @ 10:36 AM   0 comments