Online Marketing Workshop for Tourism Operators
A fantastic part of my job is being able to spread my passion for search engine marketing and optimisation. Don’t you just love it when you can make a positive difference in someone’s life or business and give people just that little bit of extra something to help them make that extra step forward?
I conducted a 0ne-day workshop in Beaudesert, QLD yesterday for about 30 tourism operators from the Scenic Rim Region (Beaudesert, Boonah and Ipswich). The Scenic Rim is located about 1.5 hours from Brisbane and the Gold Coast and has got some amazing stuff to see. If the cities are not for you and you have already seen more beaches than you can remember, get in the car and head inland. There is wine tours, luxury bed and breakfast accommodation, water skiing, hot air ballooning and you can even treat your love handles to some delicious fudge.
The 9 to 3 workshop was one full-on day with a fair bit of information overload but I believe it went very well as there was a lot of notes-taking, questions and ah-ha moments happening! You can download Introduction Scenic Rim, the PPC and Analytics and the Keyword and Link Building. I have uploaded the presentation with the Notes pages - so make sure you print all the notes as well! Each powerpoint is about 1 MB in size.
During the presentation I also mentioned:
www.whirlpool.net.au - a wealth of information on Internet connection and any other IT related query in Australia.
Firefox is the browser I was using yesterday. Well worth dowloading - and its free of course!
Untanglemyweb.com is my company - the website has a lot of info on SEO, SEM and PPC for tourism and all my contact details. Don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you would like me to assess your online strategy!
I might have mentioned a few other forums but cannot remember right now! Make sure you post a comment and I will update the post!
If you enjoyed the workshop yesterday, if you hated it or if you have recommendations, please let me know via the comments so I can improve it for the next operators.
I look forward to checking out your sites in a few weeks to see how you have implemented what you learnt yesterday! I am sure there will be a few Google analytics scripts in your HTML!
All the best and Merry Xmas!
fabie
December 12th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Hello Fabie
Thank you so much for the workshop yesterday. I feel that you had a harder task than us as all of us who attended were in so many different levels of ability when it comes to the internet, websites, internet marketing and web site optimising.
For me you clarified a few points and now I have google analytics on all my pages, I have subscribed to tripadvisvor and also to adsense which you did not get to touch on but I think is a bonus to my retail sites.
I have bookmarked your link and will be contacting you again soon. I found it all very worthwhile as everyone can have a great website but conversion rate for dollars is the bottom line. Thank you again and Merry Christmas!
Judi from Cork n Fork Winery Tours.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:26 am
Hi Fabie,
Your workshop yesterday was extremely informative, and I came away with many ideas on how we can best promote our members through the Ipswich Tourism website. We will certainly book your services to present a similar workshop to our Ipswich Tourism members early in the new year.
I hope you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Regards
Clive M Fox
President
Ipswich Tourism Association
December 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Dear Fabie
Thanks for an informative training day. You had a lot of information to cover and did it exceptionally well AND stuck to time!
It is a hard topic and yet you expressed it very well - keeping it fast paced and interesting.
Being part of a national company, I don’t manage our company website but will be sure to pass on some of your feedback and new ideas.
I am currently in the process of building two new independant sites so it was timely to attend. I look forward to having your involvement
on recommending improvements to our new sites as they eventuate.
Congratulations on a great presentation. Pip
December 16th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Hi Fabie,
I too enjoyed the day and have already implemented some of the changes suggested including Google analytics. I will be using it as a tool to test new key words. Have left the site as it is for a couple of weeks and then will compare with responses after I change the keywords.
The content was excellent, and as I have been very involved in designing our web site I found a great deal to help me to improve it. My only negative comment would be that for people who have not been involved in working on their own website some of the terminology may have been a bit daunting, perhaps a glossary added to your blog would be of assistance. The ability to download the notes is also great as I can go back to them as required.
Thanks for a very informative and entertaining day.
Jennie
Lavender Hill Farm
December 16th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Hi Jennie, Pip, Clive and Judi
Thank you for your kind words! I had an awesome time training you all.
Jennie: I have now added a glossary post on my blog: http://blog.untanglemyweb.com/e-tourism/web-and-search-engine-glossary/
Judi: re: Adsense, thats true, I did not touch upon this. Maybe I could include it in a more advanced course.
Thanks again,
fabie