I'm an Old Avatar Now

A busy year in Second Life has brought some very exciting news. We have been successful in exposing the international needs of river and rafting sports and the need for river preservation. Many countries are creating river parks in their cities, environmentalists in foreign lands are flexing their muscle trying to save the rivers and waterways within their own communities and more people than ever are paddling or rafting California whitewater rivers with commercial outfitters.

But, I am now a full-fledged citizen of SL and there is a responsibility there being a landowner and a builder. Do we make 10 story malls next to beautiful oceanfront homes or do we raise them above 500 meters to lessen blight? Mainland properties have increased throughout the grid with residency rentals, vendor spaces and waterfalls and river parks. Water is a theme everywhere now. WET River Trips has two regions where I am building another project for them.

The best part is the social atmosphere of friends, partys, and events that seem to occur daily. I have joined forces with several groups and interests in creating a unified marketing strategy for traffic in world and out world internationally. We are having an awful lot of fun doing this!

Big changes are in the virtual landscape itself. More virtual worlds are being introduced though none have the economic base or sophistication of SL. I think soon, the entire virtual grid will be a standardized platform so that business can participate easily jumping from one landscape to another... business meetings, presentations, etc are already being utilized by several companies now.

The buzz is gone... it's not trendy anymore... just another business platform to help us promote our interests. And, that is the way it should be.

RAFTWET Jewell : Rafting Avatar Second Life

February came and went. A very exciting month for the Second Life avatar. RAFTWET Jewell celebrated her one year anniversary. In world, they call it the rezz day, a reference to resurrecting the avatar into life. Here is her report on happenings in Second Life.

My name is RAFTWET Jewell and I am the Second Life avatar for W.E.T. River Trips. Last month I celebrated my one year anniversary; the day I was born into this world. We celebrate the rezz day as if it was a full blown birthday. I didn't plan any parties, but my friends sure did. And I celebrated an entire week of fun.

This month, I have purchased additional lands on the mainland. Mainland property is very expensive. Mainland protected Linden land is even more expensive. Mainland protected ocean front Linden land is the most expensive. This last category is the focus of our land holdings. All of the WET Builder's land is currently in this category except for the practice lands which are in the second category.

The decision to buy was not done through analysis. It was completely serendipity. I ended up in the Mauve sandbox very early in this game. I met the best builders here. Surrounded by sims, these builders had purchased several properties that either held objects or were being used just for the prim count. The area is surrounded by the creative builders for Second Life and W.E.T. 's practice land is here, too.

The new property is approximately 16,000 meters squared and is completely surrounded by Linden protected lands and water. I am considering building luxury condos and my ultimate home here. Last night, I met with a builder friend who gave me great advice on maximizing the land. He is an awesome builder, and I love his work.

The property in Archan is being rented. This property is oceanfront and is approximately 4,400 meters squared. Five decks for entertaining and a huge oceanfront for surfing and swimming lay in front of the home. I am never at this house, so I have decided to become a landlord here in Second Life.

This week Second Life has invited all concierge level landowners and estate owners to a special gathering and party on Saturday. It will be a very fun party and many of my friends will be there. As a large property owner, W.E.T. River Trips feels a responsibility to the Second Life grid in creating beautiful landscapes featuring rivers and waterfalls. We hope to promote and encourage conservation and environmental concerns for rivers, streams and oceans in-world and in the real world.

The properties in Bisque remain. I live there mostly in a beautiful home on the ocean near the practice lands. I am not sure if I will remain living at this location as I am in love with the new property. As always, I will add water features throughout with rivers, waterfalls and other watery delights. I love building in Second Life... it is an addiction.

RAFTWET Jewell is now writing her own blogs:::

myspace.com/raftwetjewell

raftwetjewell.blogspot.com

flickr.com/photos/raftwetjewell

SEO Strategies

I'm looking out the window at another storm passing through California. The worrying about water, reservoirs and flows for rafting is disappearing as quickly as the dry grounds of the foothills. Looks like an awesome river rafting season for 2008.

I just got off the phone with a colleague that I have worked with for the last 5 years. We were discussing internet marketing strategies and the new landscape on the net. We both agreed that links are still important, but not the same linking strategy as before. No more, "Give me a link, and I'll link you" stuff. It's dead. I think we both agreed on that.

We also agreed that old strategies are out the window, too. Both of us had attended a conference discussing internet marketing. We both laughed at one presenter, not because of mis-information, but because of how old the strategies were. Marketing on the net changes extremely quickly. So quickly, that by the time a public speaker is addressing it, it's already old.

We optimize using alogorithms, logs, analysis and intuitive reasoning. We both belong to many SEO forums and groups. We both read everything and subscribe to all the heavy hitters including Matt Cutts' blog. It's almost my bible.

But it's the intuitive reasoning that is the most difficult. It's the art in SEO. Our team struggles everyday with this issue. Each RSS feed alert that comes into the desktop provides another method of SEO or internet marketing technique. Most we dismiss, and others we bookmark and send to each other.

Blogs are big. We know that. But when we started, we didn't know anything. We just journaled and blogged because it felt right. So we guessed, and we were right. Now, we are guessing again. And we are taking major gambles in doing so. If we succeed, it will be great for all of us; our white water rafting industry, our network partners and the consumer. If not, we go back to square one and try something else.

Meanwhile, I am forming a business relationship/partnership with a long-time colleague. He is one that I respect in this awful landscape of black hats, grey hats and every color in between. We both work to death and he is probably one of the few people that I can even discuss these issues without a blank face staring back at me.

The future is here and we at this domain RAFTWET.com are riding a wave like we've never rode before. We are psyched over here and crossing our fingers.

New Year Website Hangover

It's a plot. A diabolical plot designed to create havoc here with our seo team. We are "fixin'" the website... and the blue screen appears. ARRGH! Yeh, the blue screen of death. Hmm, did we upload those changes? Did the blue screen appear before or after the lastest changes? WTF!!!

Anyway, we have a dead computer. And the IT dude is gone on vacation, so none of us have the password to the external drives. And there lies our dilemma. Do we just do a download of the entire site from the host side? or do we wile away the hours by taking off again to go snowboarding. Hehehehe...

Ok. We are back again. Clean install and some more new computers... love it when we can start over again. Fresh. Clean. Ready to roll. But, the slopes are beckoning again. Can we get away with not working this week? I mean, it's almost the weekend anyway... (what? it's only Tues) the W.E.T. crew got to go river rafting today... we didn't get invited... I suppose it's because none of us woke up today until after 2:00 pm.

The partying last night did give me a bit of a headache... oh, yeh... Happy New Year.