Rankings are dropping... geesh, I wonder why... I can't seem to concentrate on SEO anymore. I haven't optimized or cleaned up pages in a while. Haven't even updated some of the '06 stuff... I'm bored. The challenge of keeping the site fresh is daunting. Daunting because the site is just too big, now. I do admit that I am slowly cleaning up the code on our more important pages, but it is really, really boring. Several templates have been designed in anticipation of re-doing the entire site. But honestly, blogging just seems so much easier. The content is always fresh. The information is always timely. Some of our rankings in keywords are still high on the search engines, but, it seems that the whole search thing for me doesn't seem quite as important as it was a few years ago.
This is a good year to step back and re-evaluate where we would like the rafting website to go. There are a lot of ideas in my head. Some are "old-school" marketing techniques that can be applied to the internet and others are very contemporary and new.
There are a lot of resources on the net providing businesses with templates for their websites. But even after customizing them, they all look the same. And the designers that create fabulous looking websites don't care about SEO at all. They just care about the beauty and the bells and whistles. As a creative person, my tendencies are to look towards an artful way of presenting our information. The only problem is that the code prevents the ranking. So, W.E.T. just keeps plugging along... we're trying to balance both.
Our team bloggers have taken over the main California rafting blog, while I seem to write more about the business itself. It's what currently dominates my thoughts.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
RAFTWET's Second Life
Social networking is booming on the internet... or so they say. When we first jumped online in 1995, our first "website" was with Geocities, a social network of free websites that linked all of us together as a community. We published all of our funny river rafting stories and other commentaries about rafting trips. Most of these were about private trips, strange customers and funny stories about the guides. Never did we think that it would be a marketing tool. It was just a place to store the stories and to vent and rage on about stuff.
Most businesses left and so did we, though our site still exists and still draws quite a bit of traffic. Small businesses all started "real" websites. In other words, we paid to have it hosted. For us, there were lots of authoring programs that allowed us to create the site with minimal HTML knowledge. We just dropped and dragged text boxes and photos on to the page and then uploaded the document to the servers. Pretty simple.
Linking to other websites became a different social network of like-minded webmasters who were creating content that complimented each other. We were all "bro'in'" down with each other as we sent internet traffic to friends and each other.
And here we are, in 2007 and the buzz word is "social networking" again. Okey. So what's new? Myspace, YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, etc all provide more ways to communicate with your personal network... your friends. Of course, Myspace, YouTube are kings of them all. And Blogger is one of my favorites for journaling everything. But it still seems to be the same way of communicating, just more sophisticated.
A couple of years ago, I heard about a different type of communication tool. More buzz was coming from the gamers about this social network. At first, it sounded like the Sims, but I tried Sims and I got bored with it. The newer concept was Second Life, a virtual world from Linden Labs. They created "land" and people bought it... just like in the real world. Builders were constructionists who had 3-D knowledge and made buildings, trees, boats, cars... you name it with "prims." Prims are building blocks. A cube, a sphere, a pyramid, a cylinder... and then you manipulate it. The basic building blocks of life. Programmers created script to make things move and do something. A river flows. A carousel spins. A door closes automatically. A person can fly and become a fire-breathing dragon. I loved it. So fun. And so much time lost in a virtual world.
It didn't take a rocket science to realize the marketing potential of having a storefront or a billboard or an event hyping your product. And yes, the spammers are there as well as pornographers, gambling casinos and con artists. Just like in the real world. Even the obnoxious stereotypical dude that you hate at every party is there.
W.E.T. River Trips has land on Mauve, a popular land mass with a great sandbox (sandbox definition: a free place to practice building). We've met lots of great builders and programmers. The mind-blowing world invites awe, as beautiful properties unfold before your eyes. Oceanfront property, magical forests, free-flowing rivers and forbidden lands all entice you to explore. Those who attempt to build are surprised by their own accomplishments as an array of international members and residents are so willing to advise and help.
A recent post by Steve Rubel outlines the reasons for being there. It is the future of marketing. Even if Second Life fails, that future has been assured. Though, tech-heads are ruling that virtual world now, the execution will become simpler and simpler for the everyday business world.
For now, you have to have quite a powerful computer to operate in it. I envision Second Life to be a browser based application on Firefox so that anyone can participate. A world mirroring our own reality is waiting for any creative internet marketer. In the meantime, I'm having a blast.
Most businesses left and so did we, though our site still exists and still draws quite a bit of traffic. Small businesses all started "real" websites. In other words, we paid to have it hosted. For us, there were lots of authoring programs that allowed us to create the site with minimal HTML knowledge. We just dropped and dragged text boxes and photos on to the page and then uploaded the document to the servers. Pretty simple.
Linking to other websites became a different social network of like-minded webmasters who were creating content that complimented each other. We were all "bro'in'" down with each other as we sent internet traffic to friends and each other.
And here we are, in 2007 and the buzz word is "social networking" again. Okey. So what's new? Myspace, YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, etc all provide more ways to communicate with your personal network... your friends. Of course, Myspace, YouTube are kings of them all. And Blogger is one of my favorites for journaling everything. But it still seems to be the same way of communicating, just more sophisticated.
A couple of years ago, I heard about a different type of communication tool. More buzz was coming from the gamers about this social network. At first, it sounded like the Sims, but I tried Sims and I got bored with it. The newer concept was Second Life, a virtual world from Linden Labs. They created "land" and people bought it... just like in the real world. Builders were constructionists who had 3-D knowledge and made buildings, trees, boats, cars... you name it with "prims." Prims are building blocks. A cube, a sphere, a pyramid, a cylinder... and then you manipulate it. The basic building blocks of life. Programmers created script to make things move and do something. A river flows. A carousel spins. A door closes automatically. A person can fly and become a fire-breathing dragon. I loved it. So fun. And so much time lost in a virtual world.
It didn't take a rocket science to realize the marketing potential of having a storefront or a billboard or an event hyping your product. And yes, the spammers are there as well as pornographers, gambling casinos and con artists. Just like in the real world. Even the obnoxious stereotypical dude that you hate at every party is there.
W.E.T. River Trips has land on Mauve, a popular land mass with a great sandbox (sandbox definition: a free place to practice building). We've met lots of great builders and programmers. The mind-blowing world invites awe, as beautiful properties unfold before your eyes. Oceanfront property, magical forests, free-flowing rivers and forbidden lands all entice you to explore. Those who attempt to build are surprised by their own accomplishments as an array of international members and residents are so willing to advise and help.
A recent post by Steve Rubel outlines the reasons for being there. It is the future of marketing. Even if Second Life fails, that future has been assured. Though, tech-heads are ruling that virtual world now, the execution will become simpler and simpler for the everyday business world.
For now, you have to have quite a powerful computer to operate in it. I envision Second Life to be a browser based application on Firefox so that anyone can participate. A world mirroring our own reality is waiting for any creative internet marketer. In the meantime, I'm having a blast.
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