I’m a big fan of self-hosted blogs, but I include free blogging in my marketing mix.

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Experts Weigh In

Remarkablogger points out several pro’s and con’s in the post “Moving from WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress in Plain English“, such as

• Customizing your theme
• Adding Script and Ads
• Using powerful Worpress Plugins

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I would argue about the negative effects on your search engine ranking by having your blog separate from your main site: if organized correctly, free blogging sites are a clear benefit to your overall search engine ranking and exposure.

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However, you negetively effect your branding by sending your visitors to two different locations and two different looking sites.

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Is It Time To Step Up?

If you are just considering a blog for your business or hobby group, this is a good time to think long-term.

Take into consideration the frustrations and limitations that caused simplesahm to make the “inevitable switch” to a self hosted blog

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Step-By-Step

Here are 2 beginner-friendly PDF’s to help you learn more about using WordPress.com to create your own website from scratch.

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WordPress How-To Videos

Learn more about WordPress with these quick, 5 minute tutorial videos on WordPress:

• 5 Minute Video Introduction To WordPress
• How to Configure Your WordPress Settings
• Using the WordPress Manage Tab
• How to Change your WordPress Theme
• How to Write a Post on WordPress

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Best of Both Worlds

I completely love the WordPress Stats you get on a Free Hosted Blog.  And, while I also include Google Analytics on my self-hosted blogs for in-depth analysis, the Automattic Stats plugin gives me the same WordPress Stats on my Self-Hosted Blog!

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Additional Resources:

• Ultralite Hosting – ideal for a single wordpress blog with static website.
• Free Starter Power-Wordpress – Fishi.ca: created for Tourism Business owners who are new to blogging, who need instruction, help and education about managing wordpress.
• WordPress Support Forums – search these forums to find the answer to almost any question ever asked about wordpress.

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Check out these new tutorials about online marketing for tourism operators.

The e-kit is a complete suite of tutorials that covers everything from the basics of developing a good web site to the more complex issues of Google ad words, search engine marketing and online product distribution.

As a tourism operator you can access a wealth of knowledge about how to maximise your online marketing opportunities.

Check out the Tourism e-kit – brought to you by the Australian State and Territory tourism offices.

http://www.atdw.com.au/tourism_e_kit.asp

Cheers!

Here it is – right from www.websitegrader.com

A website grade of 78/100 for www.douglampi.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 78% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

Grade Your Website

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Try your website – Try a few of your competitors….

I ran the Website Grader on a few of my clients’ sites – some were pretty darn good, but the reports from Website Grader quickly showed me things I had overlooked in a few places! Yikes!

Glad I found www.websitegrader.com!

The 78% initial score for douglampi.com is pretty great, but I’m much more excited about the amazing and, well, mind-boggling report that shows me a huge list of things I can do to improve my score.

The list looks long, but on second read – it’s not that bad.

• it’s about 2 hours worth of registering my site here and there,
• bookmarking all my pages with www.Digg.com
• and also a matter of updating and adding some meta tags…

I know what I’ll be busy with tomorrow morning…

Many of the suggestions in my WebSiteGrader Report require activities that the average web user can do one evening on their own to improve the marketing of their own website – without the need to hire your webmaster.

Many of the factors I need to improve are a simple matter of ensuring that my website is registered with the biggest marketing players online. Now that WebsiteGrader has graciously listed them all for me… it’s a breeze to improve the marketing for my own site!

What was your website Grade?

I’m always following the online updates of the best internet marketers I know.

Today, the Tourism Keys Blog “Internet Marketing for Tourism”, featured a post on

How to get deeper insights into google search results

In this article, Todd Lucier points out the power of the detailed location information on where the volume of searches originate from – so you can plan your next advertising campaign based on a focused keyword set.

Here’s an example:
I start with the most general search term, then I copy and paste the list of related search terms to a note pad file, and work my way down the related search terms by clicking on each one and saving notes. (Limiting my search to the USA)

• Walleye
• Quetico Park

Try phrases that seem similar:

• Fishing Lodge
• Fishing Cabin

Take An Evening (2 hours)
It will only take 30 mintues to an hour to collect a list of related keyword phrases that are used within the geographic region where your prime Tourism Guests live and work, then you’ll be armed with some great specific keyword phrases to help optimize your marketing to match how your guest are searching.

I have keyword phrases, now what?
Now the fun part! (1 hour)
Put those phrases on a sticky note beside your computer so you have them for easy referance when you are creating new content.

1. Login to your website and touch up the wording of your webpages slightly to include these keyword phrases within the paragraphs you already have on your page. Note: generally, there’s no need to create whole new pages for the new phrases you’ve uncovered.
2. Finally – update your Meta Tags for your website to include the new phrases. (like you can with Dynamic Site Builder)

That’s it!!
In one evening, thanks to the new tool, Google Insites, you can make your marketing message better suited to the geographic location of your best Tourism Guest!

Now that you have this new set of keyword phrases on a sticky note beside your computer, remember, you can continue to refer to your list for all your future marketing plans, including:

• when you re-name images
• when you write descriptions for your images
• when you create a business profile on a new site
• when you post videos you YouTube
• when you write new blog posts
• when you create your newsletter and brochures
• when you layout your Sport Show Booth

Cheers all!

July is hardly finished, but I’m already planning for the January Boat & Sport Show Season!

My personal mission is to connect Tourism services in Northwestern Ontario with people who are planning a fishing vacation.

Get Started Today!

Here’s Some History:

While I’ve been building websites as a business since 2001, I’m always researching the latest developments in the industry. In December 2007 I experimented with some new Internet Marketing strategies I was learning.

As a means of helping my clients gain a better response to their Trade Show Marketing, I started writing articles about popular boat an sport shows that my tourism clients were attending.

I quickly took over many of the top search rankings in Google, and my websites gained a strong surge of traffic from people who were searching for Sport and Boat Show information.

Frankly, the instant success of this new marketing strategy was a big surprise to me.

In fact, one event organizer contacted me because I had taken over eight of the top twenty placements on Google for searches on his event!

Back then, I thought this fast success would be a flash-in-the-pan.

However, seven months later, I’m very excited to see that I still hold many top rankings in Google for searches on many different popular Boat and Sport Shows in the USA.

This success has given me a very exciting Goal for Tourism Marketing!

What’s my Goal?

If someone is even THINKING of attending a Sport Show… If they are searching the internet for details about a Show in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan or Missouri…

I want them to find information about that Event on our Directory that promotes Canadian Tourism Services.

If this is your audience, don’t miss out!

http://canadianfishingbook.com/compare.php

Doug

Where does your website get most of it’s traffic from?

Most of us still focus on getting search traffic, and most of us focus on Google, because, frankly, that’s where everyone gets the most search traffic from.

It will always be important to have a search-engine-friendly website – but if you are relying on search as your biggest traffic source, then you are missing out on the activities within massive online communities.

The internet is much bigger than it used to be, and as it’s grown, people have started to “group” together in communities like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube, WordPress, Blogcatalog and many others.

In fact, there are so many places where you can create a profile and link up to friends, that a new breed of websites offer the service of collecting together, or aggregating all of your profiles.

Currently, I’m using a new network to promote the CanadianFishingBook.com Series of websites, blogs, ebooks and Lodge Listings.

The increase in traffic from various communities has encouraged further research and development, in fact, the results, in terms of

• downloads,
• subscribers,
• group members and
• participants,

are *much* more effective than search engine marketing.

Learn more about Working the Social Networks

Cheers – Doug

Today I’m attending the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA) Annual General Meeting in Nestor Falls. The image above shows where the Nestor Falls Community Centre is located.

If you are in the area – drop in! I always love the chance to meet up with camp owners and answer internet marketing questions!

We will hear the Border Committee Progress Report and receive a presentation by Canada Border Service Agency – Kevin Begin, Superintendent FF, Elmer Mainville, Immigration FF, Jim Spina, Regional Client Services Rep.

Jim Grayston from the OTMPC will present an update and Darren Envall from the National Marine Manufacturers Association has a presentation.

Jerry Fisher will close the day with an update report from NWOTA and the Kenora District Camp Owners Association.

Douglas Lampi of Quetico Internet Marketing hosting an Open House for my office location, downstairs Voyageur Mall, Main Street, Atikokan Ontario on Tuesday April 29th.

I’m giving a free presentation
- a live demonstration of:

– Ten Steps To Online Profit -
- Without Spending A Dime –

from 2-4pm and from 7-9 pm,
Tuesday April 29th.

During each demonstration, I will ask the audience for a topic – then I will follow the Ten Steps in a live demonstration!

Spending just 12 minutes per step, and without spending a dime,

• I create a place to make money,
• set up a product offer,
• and get traffic to the offer,

…within 2 hours! It is also very possible to get top 10 placements in Google within the two hours as well!

After each presentation, participants will receive a small booklet that outlines the Ten Steps – and they can enter the Contest! Each demonstration will be recorded and posted online to help the contest participants follow along the process!

It’s a simple contest – the person who follows the Ten Steps and makes the most money, wins the grand prize – valued at $1240!

Contest Closes Friday May 30th, 12:00.00 Noon, Atikokan Time.

I will hand-deliver post-card sized invitations to all the businesses in Atikokan through the week of April 21st, and I want to invite any unemployed or under-employed people who may be interested as well – I’ll post invitations in public, but tell your friends to get the word out!

Barry Siskind of www.siskindtraining.com offers invaluable marketing advice. While he aims to help people master the art of making a success of your Trade Show Marketing, his timeless advice can be applied to any marketing format.

I was delighted by the clear, and easy-to-follow format. And I took 19 pages of notes.

You should add siskindtraining.com to YOUR best kept secrets.

I’ll paraphrase Barry Siskind as he shared

• “How to select the best trade shows to attend”,
• “How to pre-market a trade show”,
• “How to make your booth do it’s job”,
• “A Seven Step Process for Making Trade Shows Work”.

Cheers.