ScubaTravelGuide.com Announces Free Listings for Scuba Resorts

San Francisco, CA: February 2, 2007 (DNW)

Dive Resorts now have free access to the most comprehensive online scuba travel guide Scuba Travel Guide http://www.ScubaTravelGuide.com

ScubaTravelGuide.com is for ANY dive resort looking for additional exposure and high search engine placement. All listings include a picture, overview, and amenities list of your resort. In addition, a gallery of pictures can be added as well as user generated reviews.

Every Monday we will accept submissions for the home page profiles of “Featured Destinations” and “Deals of the Month”. For a limited time, the first 5 resorts to send us their requests for a home page listing in one of these categories will be posted (subject to editorial oversight). Make sure not to miss out on this great opportunity!

Many resorts have already been added by our team. Resort owners are requested to review their information, and “take ownership” of their listing in the system. They will then be able to add, edit, and update information at their leisure. Owners should contact us if they have any questions.

If your resort has not been added, instructions on how to add your resort can be found in our FAQ or by clicking on this link.

Dive resorts are encouraged to have their customers report on their experience at the resort, or add photos of their trip at ScubaTravelGuide.com.

In the near future, additional features will be added by region, including information on specific dive sites, local attractions, and other interesting dive related news. For additional information, contact Mark at mark@ScubaTravelGuide.com.

If you want a feature you don’t see, let us know! We want your feedback.

Google Earth publicity

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

• Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you’ll zoom right in.
• Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
• Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
• Save and share your searches and favorites.

More than this for tourism operators, it allows us to pinpoint our resorts and activity areas anywhere in the world. Prospective guests can now 'fly' in a virtual world to see where you are.

Combining it with other online programs you can even post photographs of your resort and area to appear.

Give it a go, download Google Earth here... And play to see how powerful this is can be for showing customers what you offer 'live' online.

More later about kmz files that can provide a full fetaured download on your website to fly around your islands and properties. They auto run into Google Earth, and are easy to setup once you get the hang of the online program.

Stay tuned for that tutorial with an example I did for a past client.

Free Download Manager

Okay, with all the downloads and programs that are getting bigger by the day, here is my solution to the drop-out problem. This FDM program is tiny to download by itself and manages downloads wonderfully. Works with my Firefox and my partner's IE7 flawlessly.

Free Download Manager is social software as well so you get an inkling about what you're downloading before you do anything stupid!

This program is invaluable in the small islands as our telephonelines drop out ALL the time and always after you' got 95% thru a download. This way you don't have to start again!

Check it out, and download it here.

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Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured download accelerator and manager. It is absolutely free! Using this software product you can easily download a list of files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With FDM the downloading process will be as easy as never before!

FDM is a light-weight, powerful and easy-to-use application. Also this software product is well-known for its intuitive and user-friendly interface. FDM can function as a site manager, accelerator, site explorer and scheduler.

FDM can resume broken downloads. So you needn't start the downloading process from the very beginning after casual interruption. You can resume unfinished download from the moment when it was interrupted. Also this program warns you if resuming isn't supported by the servers. It allows you to make a decision about the downloading. So with FDM you save your time and money.

FDM is an indispensable tool for download acceleration. It splits files into several sections and then downloads them simultaneously allowing you to increase your download speed up to 600%.

This software application can be used in automatic mode. You can schedule the following operations: set or hang up the Internet connection, exit from the program and shutdown the computer. All the operations mentioned above can be set at the specified time.

FDM allows adjusting traffic usage. So it provides you with an opportunity to browse web pages much faster if you use a low connection speed.

NEW! Free Download Manager is not only the perfect downloader, but also social software designed to make surfing and downloading a safer and more rewarding experience. FDM users can now request the opinion of other community members on the file they are going to download right from the download window, and also leave their own opinion about the downloaded file. In this way FDM users will always be warned against useless or malicious files.

Read more about this opportunity on our Community Features page.

Establishing a Web Presence from a Small Island

Even if you choose not to sell online by taking credit cards, a business Web site can be a virtual marketing brochure that you can update on demand with little or no cost. Your presence on the Internet can be a useful marketing tool by providing richer pre-sale information or post-visit contact. This might temporarily differentiate your resort or operation from your competitors'. Emarketing has lessened the disadvantage that small businesses in the outer islands have faced for years when competing with larger businesses with broadband and communications galore.

Ecommerce has redefined the marketplace, altered business strategies, and allowed global competition between local businesses. The term "electronic commerce" has evolved from meaning simply electronic shopping to representing all aspects of business and market processes enabled by the Internet and other digital technologies.

Today's tourism business emphasis is on ecommerce — rapid electronic interactions enabled by the Internet and other connected computer and telephone networks. Rapid business transactions in taking booking deposits and unparallelled access to information is changing consumer behavior and expectations. The ability to "BOOK NOW" is driving more sales.

Many small tourism businesses assume that the Internet has little value to them because they feel that their service cannot be easily sold online due to all sorts of old traditional ideas. But inexpensive information processing and electronic media can help most small tourism businesses provide better, faster customer service and communication.

Manager Tools - Tools for Leaders and Managers

Manager Tools - Tools for Leaders and Managers

Love these guys. Give us the kick in the pants we all need to pull our heads out and live up to our own expectations.


Manager Tools - Tools for Leaders and Managers

Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog

For those of us who actually do read online amazing amounts of info can be found on Dion's blog.

Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog

The best Email Marketing Solution !

Okay so maybe I am overstating a bit, but I love it and so do my clients.




We have tried the software to run from the office, and the big ones online (who drop out with our broadband connection!), and these guys & girls have aced it every time. I recommend them 100%

Get ready for Social Media Marketing

The year 2006 saw the emergence of social media. If you are engaged in operating a website, you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased traffíc.

You should also introduce social media components to your site because web users are experiencing these new forms of interactions on more and more sites and they may have an expectation of the same from your site also.

If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay longer, your focus this year should be on the social aspects of your site....

Read more at Deepak Dutta's website

Great Book: The Long Tail

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will "re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch" (or read, etc.). While Anderson presents a fascinating idea backed by thoughtful (if repetitive) analysis, many critics questioned just how greatly the niche market will rework our common popular culture. Anderson convinced most reviewers in his discussion of Internet media sales, but his KitchenAid and Lego examples fell flat. A few pointed out that online markets constitute just 10 percent of U.S. retail, and brick-and-mortar stores will never disappear.






Anderson's thesis came under a separate attack by Lee Gomes in his Wall Street Journal column. Anderson had defined the "98 Percent Rule" in his book to mean that no matter how much inventory is made available online, 98 percent of the items will sell at least once. Yet Gomes cited statistics that could indicate that, as the Web and Web services become more mainstream, the 98 Percent Rule may no longer apply: "Ecast [a music-streaming company] told me that now, with a much bigger inventory than when Mr. Anderson spoke to them two years ago, the quarterly no-play rate has risen from 2% to 12%. March data for the 1.1 million songs of Rhapsody, another streamer, shows a 22% no-play rate; another 19% got just one or two plays." If Anderson overreaches in his thesis, he has nonetheless written "one of those business books that, ironically, deserves more than a niche readership"

Meaningful Marketing

The impressively collaborative effort of Dough Hall (CEO of the Ohio-based invention think tank Eureka! Ranch) and Jeffrey Stamp (Vice President of Research & Development, Eureka! Ranch), Meaningful Marketing is a practical, "user friendly", resource book which offers the reader 100 truths and 402 useful ideas to improve marketing, and move more product with less expenditure.





A one hour audio CD complements and enhances the presentation of insightful and useful ideas, as well as caveats to guard against common mistakes and misconceptions. Meaningful Marketing is a superb resource for anyone considering, studying, or employed in the complex business of commercial marketing regardless of the products or services involved.