• A Word from Andy
• Ready to Nail Online Marketing?
• Latest TOP Articles
• Required Reading: Dealing with Tripadvisor
• Parting Thoughts

Welcome to the November 2009 edition of In the Lounge. There’s tons of big news in store and lots of great things to think about. First of all I want to thank everyone for the tremendous amount of positive feedback about the launch of our official brand and supporting website. It seems everyone is is wildly excited about what myself and the team are up to, and we’re so glad to help out the industry with what appears to be a hot topic.

The DIY guide we released last month, Write Right Online, is flying off the virtual shelves. One of our readers, travel bloggers Dave and Deb, said:

I have been writing online for a couple of years now. During my first year of writing I had never even thought about writing for the Internet and how to attract people to my blog. He discusses many points that I had not thought about and I have already started implementing his advice into my latest posts…What I love about this book is how Andy gets straight to the point. It is direct and talks about all of the things that you need to do to tweak your content to stand out and gain visitors.

We also had another blogger, Sharon Hurley Hall, write a review and Sharon’s favourite part was the checklist:

For me, the best feature is the checklist, which goes with the book. Each point on the checklist relates to a tip in the book, so you can easily refer to it if you need a refresher. Even experienced writers will benefit from pinning this checklist up on a notice board in their office, as we all need a reminder some time.

So if you haven’t yet, be sure to get your copy. We’ve also got a great new DIY guide out this month – more below.

Thanks again for all your great support and feedback. Myself and the team really appreciate it.

Andy
Managing Director, Travel Online Partners

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In this guide, we lay out all the options and help you navigate through them to find the things that will make your online presence soar. With do’s and don’t's, screenshots walking you though setup, and the low-down on what’s good and what’s bad, this guide is all you need to make your business a TOP online brand.

One of our reviewers, Tina McAllister, said it best:

Tons of information without coming across as a potential “my head is gonna explode” kind of product…For tons of folks out there – your guide will be a real eye-opener. Good stuff!!

The guide also comes with a 15 minute audio, called Making Sense of It All, and a DIY Online Marketing Strategy worksheet. A couple of our reviewers of the guide said this was the highlight and would have paid for the worksheet alone!

Head over to the website to find out more. If you’re interested, we’re offering newsletter subscribers a VIP discount. For subscribers, you can get the guide with a guided tour – offering you four-five hours of email-based coaching on your DIY online marketing strategy – for only $380USD/£229USD. That’s about 15% off the public price, which was already amazing value for money.

This discount has expired.

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• Pictures Still Say a Thousand Words at Flickr – tips and suggestions for maximising the use of Flickr. It’s easy, it’s simple, so check it out.
• Get Social with Social Bookmarking – Want to drive more traffic to your site? You can do so with social bookmarking. Here’s the low-down.
• Steal this Travel Marketing Idea: California Fives – check out this great travel marketing idea. How can it work for you?
• The Most Important Part of your Online Strategy – read the article to find out the answer.
• Discussing the Issues Raised at Adventure Travel World Summit ’09 – lots of interesting discussions about social media were discussed at ATWS ’09. Here’s the TOP view on the situation.

Did you know that if you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to article updates? It’s a great way to get timely updates on articles when they come out.

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It’s an informative read, the only thing I would add to the conversation is that ‘your mileage might vary.’ I’ve heard some real horror stories from folk who get no feedback or support from Tripadvisor (just do a search on Google and you’ll see what I mean). I don’t think Tripadvisor is the end-all-be-all of reviews, so it’s not the end of the world if you’re stuck with some poor feedback on there, but it is definitely a site you should keep an eye on.

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Takeaway Lesson: So…have you found your right 10,000?

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• whitelist emails from “www.travelonlinepartners.com” so that they don’t end up in your Spam folder!
• forward a copy to a friend who might enjoy these tips and tricks – there’s always a seat for a new friendly face.
• click reply and let us know if there is anything we can do to help or if there is a topic you’d like to hear more about.