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.

Virtual Reality crosses into Real Life

Second Life is a project that we are involved with so that our whitewater rafting industry is not forgotten in the virtual world. Our rafting avatar has been learning Linden script, building and security measures for the lands that we own. We haven't published our location yet, though it seems every avatar knows where we are. We have already set up several landmark givers and links to the river land already.

Raftwet Jewell took apart most of the old waterfalls and streams recently. The task of a second life builder is to create the best project with the least amount of prims. This way, the property owner has a reserve of prims for future projects or for current vendors on the land. Prim count is extremely important in any build.

With water scripts, the lag can be enormous. So decreasing each scripted prim is essential to the sim. I asked our avatar how she was doing in the goal. She told me that the last two nights, she was able to recover approximately 150 prims. I'm not sure exactly how she did it, but when I saw the results, I was blown away.

The water looks so real and the waterfalls are awesome. We will be publishing the location of the builder's land. It is a place where our company avatars practice building and scripting. They have essentially taken over the project completely. Those of us in the real world are having difficulty understanding exactly how they do this. All I know is that the place looks incredible and visitors have increased 10-fold.

We'll keep you posted as the land gets done. Now if we can only get the avatars to stop going to all these parties... they might get done quicker. Meanwhile, visit us in real world on the web for all your California rafting trips!

Website Updates

The new home page for W.E.T. River Trips was loaded recently using a 3-column template. It was hard to look at the new pages without missing the old one. So we put a link to the old page for people who might need the comfort of the old one.

The new format is divided into seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter. Yes, even winter. We find that many of our loyal client base loves to take a stab at winter boating. It's not for everyone definitely. It's cold and usually raining. But the river is deserted and spectacularly beautiful after a storm. Wildlife is usually roaming before the real cold sets in, so beavers and hawks and turtles roam the river corridor.

The seasons are unique in that each season specific rivers will run. Early spring, you have the incredible northern rivers running from spring melt and rainstorms. This is prime whitewater rafting season. Then in summer, dammed rivers kick in with controlled releases and great whitewater for the majority of the public. And fall, with most crowds tucked away, a time for wilderness rafting trips on multiple day excursions. Winter? Just for the whitewater paddling enthusiast... the junky of the paddling sport.

Drop us off a note if you have suggestions for the site. Trying to make this dinosaur of the oldest white water rafting site on the net has been quite a nightmare. We figured if we make changes and modifications to each of the old pages, we may be done by August 2008. Ha!

Raftwet Jewell Second Life Rafting Avatar

Hi all... as I usually say when I walk into a club to dance after building all day. The past few months have been an incredible journey of learning how to build, learning the Linden script and socializing with an international group of people, businesses and groups. I am officially a builder here. It's time to let you in the real world know a little more about W.E.T. River Trips focus here in Second Life.

Many of you who read the W.E.T. River Trips blogs, especially the California Whitewater Rafting Blog are usually reading about rivers, rafting, guides and California whitewater. The company started to write about lifestyles since extreme sports and whitewater rafting usually attracted certain types of people and markets. We in the SL world are focusing on promoting whitewater rafting.

The sims that have extreme sports are usually reflected in the groups that you might join here. There are skiing, snowboarding, sky diving, scuba diving, surfing, kite surfing, skateboarding, mountain biking, paddling, and on and on. Are they there to sell the activity? Probably not. All of us who own sims and land do this because we love the sports we love.

Second Life is just that. A secondary reality that usually reflects hopes, dreams and light and dark visions that a RL (real life) person may visualize. SL is not the answer for a lot of people. There are rites of passage while navigating this place. And some are not so nice.

I love being here. The support from this community has been unparalleled in any place I've ever been. I love my friends and especially those who love extreme sports. We thrive on living on the edge. Those who laugh and poke fun at us avis... they don't understand. And we don't expect them to understand.

My best friend here is a tech head in RL. He is also a builder and scripter in SL. Here is what he has said about the critics: "Great Spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." (quote by Albert Einstein) And I can't argue with that.

Posted by Second Life Avatar: RAFTWET Jewell
Groups: rafting, whitewater, W.E.T. River Trips - join our groups in Second Life!

2008 Website Revamps

Back to work... it's that time again for all the rafting outfitters to evaluate their websites and figure out the latest SEO for their site rankings. With social networking being derigeur, the whole SEO ballgame goes out the window (or so they say...). Page views are no longer as important as they were before. With Ajax, stickiness becomes more difficult to measure. Is it the time the consumer spends? Or is it the ROI?

I'm a nuts and bolts kind of person. I want to see numerical results. So, when I see profit margins shrinking because of PPC and other strategies, I have to re-evaluate, even when the internet marketer is telling me otherwise. It's the bottom line that has the tendency to gather all my attention... especially after speaking with the accountant... ha!

For this year, we have decided to try, once again, to ratchet back the number of paddlers we accommodate in a given season. Last year, we pulled all marketing internet traffic around the beginning of August in a half-ass attempt to slow the sales down. By the first of August, we were sold out for the entire season. But, that left us with hardly anything to offer for the rest of the season.

Our staff, for an entire month, stayed busy by invention. Each time the phone rang, the entire staff just cringed. The phone was an enemy in which we only said, "... sorry, we're sold out this weekend..." Then the consumers were hitting the store online and showing up without reservations on the day of the trip. (Yes... we have a gazillion disclaimers on the store site... people still showed up on the day of the trip anyway...)

Our biggest concern for this upcoming season is how to control the internet traffic in such a way as to not overwhelm our small staff, and to have this traffic in a more reasonable flow... yeh, right... if we can do this, we will have accomplished a miracle.

The Rescue Plan

New players coming aboard to help with the new W.E.T. River Trips site are like Neo to the rescue. Part of our group is forming a partnership with another network in order to make things flow together. (Pun intended...) Hey, finally we're excited again.

So many changes are happening on the internet that it is making our heads spin. As page view stats start to disappear, everyone is going to see a much more familiar landscape on the net. It's called plain ol' advertising... marketing with an internet twist, of course. (Madison Ave is finally listening...)

The daily grind of the seo expert is currently changing with the wind. More on that later as we welcome new strategies and ways to our revamp. Some old stuff will remain as they have proven their worth while other strategies are going out the window. YJ, are you listening, dude... Aloha, from the beach...

Server Down

My goodness! Is there anything that can't go wrong? The past 3 days was spent troubleshooting the RAFTWET site as we watched the site download to a crawl... and then to that unsavory window that states, "The site could not be found or the server may be too busy. Please try again." Or something to that effect. Blah blah as the saying goes, but essentially the IP host was having serious problems that essentially took down the entire network. Sorry, they said.

Here we are in the middle of our booking season with several number one Google positions for our rafting keywords and then boom! No site. Nothing comes up but the spinning rotating cursor. So we spent hours talking with tech people and trying to stay calm and cool. What the heck? If it's not going to get fixed within 24 hours, why stress? So, I took off for the day and spent it with friends near the river. Not a bad solution to a problem, I say.

More grist for the blog, I guess... and hey, the site is back up again! Yeh!

Rafting Directories

Just a shout out to one of our long time web relationships: RaftInfo, the rafting directory for the United States. When W.E.T. River Trips established its company domain, RAFTWET, back in 1995, we were one of a very few California outfitters with a website. RaftInfo created a directory of rafting outfitters across the country right around the same time and included W.E.T. as a featured California rafting company. Now several rafting trips and outfitters are included along with international river trips.

Their recent remake of their website now includes several blogs from different regions. And the iBetty Network is an invited guest blogger on their site along with RAFTWET. For more information on rafting trips throughout the nation, check out their website. And the California whitewater rafting website has full river descriptions about rivers in California and a listing of California rafting companies.

RAFTWET.com

W.E.T. River Trips = RAFTWET.com

You can get to our main website using either domain:

• wetrivertrips.com


• raftwet.com

If you can't figure any of the internet domains out; just call toll free!
1.888.RAFTWET (888.723.8938)

And for all those websites out there who are using elements from our website, well we say, blah! If you really want to get WET, then go to this site to get to our main website:

• getwetrafting.com

It will also take you to our main website... ribbity ribbity ribbity and that's all folks!

See you on the river in 2007!
W.E.T. River Trips since 1978 founded in Sacramento, California on Planet Earth!